Daily Life

It seems though it has been forever since my last post, and I guess it has.  I seem to have been consumed by the day to day existence in Amman, though I can't exactly tell you what I have been doing!

Last week was the tour de markets.  We went to the Balad, which is the downtown, and one of the older parts of Amman.  Balad is filled with people bustling through the streets and unique smells - coffee, spices, and fruits to name a few.  There are scarves and knick knacks galore, and although we didn't spend much time there, I am looking forward to going back to do some more exploring.

Then onto Rainbow Street - one of the most famous streets in Amman.  Home to trendy coffee shops and expatriates, this street was much more low key than the Balad.  Graffiti artists were tagging the wall in front of the British Council, which was quite amazing.  There isn't much graffiti here, not like in other parts of the world I have seen, and the buildings are often the same beige color, so the lively and vibrant color scheme seen below is a nice change.

Graffiti artists "tagging" the wall in front of the British Council.

Another part of the graffiti wall.

Then of course we did the tourist thing and took pictures of Amman from the lookout.  Though I don't feel like much of a tourist anymore since I can give directions to the cabbies in Arabic - which is a feat in and of itself.  Just a word of warning if you ever plan to move or visit this part of the region, taxi drivers do not know the names of streets.  This is partly because streets have two names because they tried to change things, unifying them, but it didn't work out.  So in order to get from point A to point B, you must have landmarks.  So I live by the Ramada hotel and Wahbeh Tamari school in Shmeisani.  And if that doesn't work, thenI really have to break out my newly acquired Arabic directional vocabulary.

View of Amman from a lookout on Rainbow street.

Another view of Amman from Rainbow street.

And then we finally landed at Suuq Jara, a small artisan market with a lot of wonderful and beautiful pieces of jewelry, art, and other fun things.  When I was there last, I bought a painting, but this time I opted for accessories, because I love them.  So below is a picture of the scarf with scarf bling and matching earrings that I splurged on - though both were less than $15.  And to boot, they were giving out samples of watermelon juice....umm delicious.

After purchasing goodies at the market, we continued on Rainbow street and stopped in a little book store.  My tutor recommended getting some children's books to help with my Arabic, so low and behold, I found some children's books.  And to top it all off, the bookstore had a coffee shop, so I ordered myself a cafe Americano and was almost in heaven.  Heaven arrived at our next stop - the ice cream store.  Between jewelry, books, coffee, and ice cream, I couldn't have asked for much more.

Other than exploring markets, I have been exploring the work culture here by doing some immersion experimentation at my adoptive Jordanian family's (hope they don't mind that I adopted them) business.  I think I will leave those observations for another blog though.

Along with cultural immersion, shopping, and markets, I have found time to create and try some new recipes as well as meet and hang out with new expat friends.  They hail from around the globe  and it is truly incredible how many expats there are here.  Everywhere I go, there they are.  I suppose they are saying the same thing in their heads when they see me.  Me and my newly acquired expat friends try to see each other once a week for dinner, it is nice and a good break from the thinking in too many languages thing.  How exhausting!

Well, back to my children's book....I am reading one about a monkey now....I think his name is Fahman.

Salaam