Mansef

"The only thing Jordanians care about is mansef" - my teacher Mohammed

Mansef is the national dish here and it has become my favorite meal whenever we go out to eat. What is mansef you ask? Well, if you were to be served mansef at someone's home, they would bring out a small coffee table sized platter covered with a five inch layer of flavored rice and pie nuts. Then on top of the rice you'd see pieces of a lamb and possibly the lamb head sitting in the middle of the rice mound. On top of that they pour a yogurt like sauce.

Then you and your hosts would sit Indian style in a circle around this delicious feast and eat it using only your right hand. You don't talk unless you want to risk letting someone eat part of your share of rice and lamb meat while you're flapping your gums. You know someone's finished when you see them lying immobilized on their back. Unfortunately I've only eaten it like this once about five years ago in Irbid and yes it was very messy, but yummy none the less. We were invited by a random taxi driver to go eat mansef at his home not too long ago, but Melanie was not crazy about the idea of going to eat dinner at a random stranger's home. I can't say I blame her, but I must admit I was very sad to turn down an invitation to eat mansef. I took his phone number in case Melanie changed her mind, but no dice.

Luckily, Al Quds restaurant serves excellent single portion sized mansef and I try talking Melanie into going there every chance I get. I tried and failed earlier today, but I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

These are the days

I love America and appreciate it so much more after living abroad these last nine months and I cannot wait to come home and see family and friends and start the next chapter of our lives. I can't wait to eat ribs, drink beer, and watch football. At the same time, I must remind myself and my lovely wife that these are some of the best days of our lives. Being back in the states for a few days last week was great, but I felt at peace upon our return last night when we walked into Quds restaurant and I ordered and consumed two plates of delicious mansef for less than $15 and then took a service taxi back to our apartment for about seventy cents. Yes the streets here are dirty, sidewalks hazardous or non existent, and there is constant noise of some kind and there is no system and little regard for safety. These things made me crazy when we first arrived and the noise part still does, but the bottom line is that we are living a relatively stress free existence here. Sure we have no air conditioning or washing machine in our new apartment after having been promised that both would be here over a week ago and sure I have to hand wash the dishes every night and then dodge cats jumping out of the dumpster when I throw the trash into it every evening. But every day here I get to focus on studying Arabic full time, which makes me so happy and fulfilled, especially when I watch and understand Al-Jazeera or read a newspaper or book with minimal use of a dictionary. Every day here is a day away from work and meetings, phone calls, emails, and office politics. Every day here is a vacation from family pressures to start having kids. Every day here is a day away from CNN, Fox, and reality television. Every day here is a day living to do what I want to do and I must never forget that and I must cherish and soak in these last three months. When I come back I do want to find a job and work and I do want to start a family, but for now I will and must enjoy this.

Let Me Tell You About Egyptian Women!

This afternoon I was talking with my tutor, Mohammed about our trip to Egypt when our conversation veered towards the subject of Egyptian women.

Mohammed: Let me tell you about Egptian women! They are very strong. They dominate their husbands and their families and they always yell.
Me: Oh?
Mohammed: Do you know Prophet Musa?
Me: Yes, I know Moses.
Mohammed: Really? You guys have Prophet Musa?
Me: Yes, we have the Prophet Moses in the Bible. (Moses and most of the other folks in the Bible and their stories are also in the Quran)
Mohammed: So you know how Prophet Musa led the Israelites out of Egypt and then the Pharoah and his army chased after them?
Me: Yes.
Mohammed: Then what happened?
Me: Moses parted the Red Sea and the Israelites crossed, but then Pharoah and his army got stuck in the mud and then the waves came and drowned them all.
Mohammed: Exactly! So what do you think the wives of all of the Egyptian men who died in that battle did?
Me: They cried?
Mohammed: Yes, but who do you think they married after that?
Me: I don't know. Who was left?
Mohammed: They married their servants!
Me: No kidding? Really?
Mohammed: Yes, and how do you think these women treated their new husbands?
Me: Like servants?
Mohammed: Yes, exactly. And that is why Egyptian women treat their husbands badly even to this day.
Me: Gee whiz, I had no idea.

Aqaba

I love the beach! It is so nice to be here on the Red Sea, listening to new age music blaring from the hotel, while relaxing in their lounge chair on the beach, reading a book. I needed this time to space out and relax. The bus ride down was a bit long (about 4.5 hours) but totally worth it. Our hotel is very nice and the day time temperature about 80 degrees with a slight breeze. Nice to be here chilling out with my lovely wife.

Ready for a break

Another semester is done and boy am I relieved. I feel pretty exhausted, although I must admit that I just spent a half hour reviewing vocabulary words. I can't stop studying, but I definitely plan to slow down during the break. I feel I have learned a ton of Arabic in the six months we have been here, but also a lot about the culture/society here. I, by no means profess to be an expert, but I feel like I understand much more than I did before as a result of the numerous conversations I have had with folks here and from watching and reading the local/regional news. I wish more people could see and experience the things we have. I think it is difficult to comprehend how poorly informed and misinformed we are about the rest of the world, as a result of our pitiful news media, until you live outside of the U.S. for a while. I strongly recommend reading the Economist for anyone seeking an informative and balanced, English language news source.

With that said, I definitely have a greater appreciation for how good we have it in the U.S. and am looking forward to coming back in five months or so. Aside from my friends and family, there are a whole host of creature comforts that I miss and long for. In the short term, I am looking forward to getting the heck out of Amman for a while and enjoying the creature comforts of a hotel in Aqaba. I guess I am tired of Amman and the noise and pollution that go along with it and just need some quiet and fresh air to "get my mind right."

Taxis

Last night as Mel and I were waiting for a cab in our neighborhood, I greeted a random man walking past us in Arabic.

Me: Good evening
Him: Good evening. (He paused and looked at me with a puzzled expression)
Him: Do you know me?
Me: No.
Him: Are you just saying "good evening" to be friendly?
Me: Um, yes. (I looked at Melanie puzzled as I often greet random people in the street)
Him: Why don't you come to my house to have some tea if you have the time?
Me: I would like that, but we are on our way to meet some friends.

I was struck by the randomness and sincerity of his invitation and would have liked to have taken him up on it. For one thing, it would have been far cheaper than our night turned out to be, but we had fun just the same.
Next we got into a cab and the driver proceeded to drive us in circles around our neighborhood instead of directly to our destination. Just when I was about to say something to him, Melanie lost it and started yelling. He didn't understand English, but her frustration and anger was unmistakable and he knew he had been busted. We were not new, naive American tourists. We knew his little scam. I told him to stop and he started rambling about how he didn't know the way, blah, blah. We got out and didn't pay him a single piaster. Then we walked down to the main street and flagged down a new taxi. I opened the door and greeted him politely and he returned my greeting. I asked if he was honest. He was confused and asked what I meant. I could tell he was so we got in and I told him the story of the last cabbie who tried to rip us off. He took us directly to our destination and then when I tried to pay he refused my money. Most of the cabbies here are good, but some of them are criminals and will try to take you the long way home to get extra fare out of you. Luckily, this is a rare occurrence. Some of them are quite nice. Just last week, we were invited to a cabbie's home for mansef (a mountain of rice with yummy lamb meat on top that you eat with your hands). Mel wasn't comfortable going to a random person's house for dinner so I politely declined, but he gave me his phone number in case we changed our minds. I guess cabbies here are a mixed bag like anything else.

History

'Not to know what happened before you were born is to be forever a child' - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Eating out in Jordan

Listen: Going out to eat American or Western food in Jordan is just plain silly, with very few exceptions, in my humble opinion. It is usually of average to bad quality and double the price. This has at least been my experience for the most part, although I must admit that I've had a few good pizzas and Melanie has had a few good salads. Yesterday I paid about $12 for a crappy burger and fries at some hoity toity, wanna be French restaurant. I was not happy, but luckily we had a good cab ride home during which the cabby blasted a mixed tape of some of my childhood 80's favorites. That night we went to Al Quds restaurant to eat some local food that was twice as good and half as much. We both ordered mansaf with meat, which means lamb here. Mansaf is basically a dish of yummy rice with pie nuts topped with a tender piece of lamb. The lamb is so tender they don't even bother to give you a knife because you don't need it. We also ordered hummus and two waters. We walked out paying $15 for two people. The most important thing is that the food was yummy and I was stuffed. Usually after eating mansaf the only thing you can do is sleep, which is what we did shortly after getting home.

MSA Level 5

I'm four weeks into my new semester at Qasid so I suppose I should tell you how it is. It's great! There are two 75 minute sections, Sunday - Thursday. The first one is focused on Media Arabic, meaning that we read a new article every day or so and then discuss and write papers on it. In my second class, we read short stories or chapters from Arabic novels and then write about and discuss them. I like the literature class better because reading stories is a bit more exciting than reading newspaper articles in my opinion. I feel like my ability to read has reached a very high level and I am enjoying the classes a great deal. There is alot of discussion in the classes, which gives me a good amount of speaking practice. The problem is very few people speak Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) outside of a school setting. To that end I have hired a tutor to practice speaking the local dialect. She is very good and I feel like I am picking it up quickly. After studying MSA for 5 years, speaking the dialect just feels plain wrong. It's very different from the written language, almost like ebonics, but it's a necessity if you want to be able to understand and speak with most people you interact with outside of class. Luckily, I still have seven more months to practice it and hopefully get proficient.

Happy New Year

Mel and quietly celebrated the New Year last night, watching movies and reflecting on 2009. It was the year that my dream of coming to Jordan to complete my Arabic studies came true. We have had a great time so far living in Amman and exploring other parts of the country and travelling to Syria. I am looking forward to spending the bulk of 2010 continuing my studies and exploring new places in the country and region.