Hello all,
Today at SIT we were divided into groups of four and told a part of the city that we needed to explore. My group got Rainbow Street, which was super cute. I was really scared when I found out that I was the member of the group who knew Arabic. The other girls had very basic knowledge, at most a semester. We got in the taxi and I told the driver where to go in Arabic. HE TOOK US EXACTLY WHERE WE NEEDED TO BE! He understood me! When we reached Rainbow Street we went to one of the shops listed on our scavenger hunt. I asked the lady for a brochure in Arabic...and she understood me! I even learned brochure is the same word in both languages.
After the shop, we visited the Royal Film Commission. Here, we spoke in English. I don't know any words for film related things, so I just went for English. Here we learned that this commission was started by the Jordanian Government to help Jordanian film makers as well as foreign film makers working in Amman. Turns out, Zero Dark Thirty was filmed in Amman and we talked to a lady who was one of the extras. She sat behind the lead actress in the scene where the cafe blows up. I told her that I would rewatch the movie and look for her. We also visited the Jordan River Foundation's showroom. They sold crafts that woman made and uses the procedes to fight abuse of women and children.
We ate lunch at a touristy place on Rainbow Street, Bravo's restaurant. We walked in and the waiter handed us a menu with Arabic food. When we went to order Arabic food, the waiter said we couldn't. I asked him in Arabic what we could eat if we couldn't eat any of the food on the menu. He came back with another menu with burgers and hot dogs. Then the music in the resturant was suddenly changed to American music. We were the only people in the place, so this was definitely for our benefit. He changed the music back once we started laughing about how the song playing had Adele singing with children. So odd! The waiter and I had some conversation and it was fun. I was proud of both the waiter and I, because we both had to work hard to talk to each other.
Well, after asking four people why Rainbow Street was call Rainbow Street, no one knew. What I gathered from their Arabic is that it is a very old street name and it has been called Rainbow for a long time.
Today at SIT we were divided into groups of four and told a part of the city that we needed to explore. My group got Rainbow Street, which was super cute. I was really scared when I found out that I was the member of the group who knew Arabic. The other girls had very basic knowledge, at most a semester. We got in the taxi and I told the driver where to go in Arabic. HE TOOK US EXACTLY WHERE WE NEEDED TO BE! He understood me! When we reached Rainbow Street we went to one of the shops listed on our scavenger hunt. I asked the lady for a brochure in Arabic...and she understood me! I even learned brochure is the same word in both languages.
After the shop, we visited the Royal Film Commission. Here, we spoke in English. I don't know any words for film related things, so I just went for English. Here we learned that this commission was started by the Jordanian Government to help Jordanian film makers as well as foreign film makers working in Amman. Turns out, Zero Dark Thirty was filmed in Amman and we talked to a lady who was one of the extras. She sat behind the lead actress in the scene where the cafe blows up. I told her that I would rewatch the movie and look for her. We also visited the Jordan River Foundation's showroom. They sold crafts that woman made and uses the procedes to fight abuse of women and children.
We ate lunch at a touristy place on Rainbow Street, Bravo's restaurant. We walked in and the waiter handed us a menu with Arabic food. When we went to order Arabic food, the waiter said we couldn't. I asked him in Arabic what we could eat if we couldn't eat any of the food on the menu. He came back with another menu with burgers and hot dogs. Then the music in the resturant was suddenly changed to American music. We were the only people in the place, so this was definitely for our benefit. He changed the music back once we started laughing about how the song playing had Adele singing with children. So odd! The waiter and I had some conversation and it was fun. I was proud of both the waiter and I, because we both had to work hard to talk to each other.
Well, after asking four people why Rainbow Street was call Rainbow Street, no one knew. What I gathered from their Arabic is that it is a very old street name and it has been called Rainbow for a long time.
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