Valentine's Day in Amman

Flowers at my home in Maryland from my Dad <3

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Honestly, mine was pretty darn good. I went to SIT for school, but instead of having Colloquial Arabic class we had a small Valentine's Day party. We voted on our most love male or female person from SIT, including faculty. At first, I was concerned this would turn into a popularity contest where people got hurt, but it was great! Ahmed, aka "the security guy", won Valentine's Day Prince and Deem, the homestay coordinator that is such a sweetheart, won Valentine's Day Princess. Both Ahmed and Deema were so pleased and surprised they won, but especially Ahmed. I think he is afraid that we are afraid of him sometimes because we joke with him alot. He is hands down everyone's favorite staff member.

As a present at the party, SIT gave us Kefiyas to wear. These are the red checkered scarves that I have previously talked about in other blog postings. We were so excited and asked them how to wear them immediately. Below are our pictures from the party.

Us wearing over Valentine's Day presents

Pretty Fly for a White Guy

Group Picture. The Ladies are holding the roses that the students bought them for Valentine's Day.

After school, we had a movie night. We watched the Jordanian film, Captain Abu Raed. I was prepared for this to be a sad movie since it discusses poverty and children in poverty. I ask know from experience that alot of Arab films are just plain sad. They tend to be realistic and show the realities people actual live in. I feel in America, we like movies where everyone's make up is perfect and their hair is just so and everyone either falls in love or everything works out. This is not the case in many of the Arab films I have seen. Last Valentine's Day, I watched Ali Zauwa in my Arab Film class. In short, this film tells the story of homeless three boys (about 10) trying to burried their dead friend (prob 6). The boys have to endure problems with childhood gangs and try to gather enough money to burry their friend i a respectful manner. They are also addicted to sniffing glue. Just a sad film. I actually remember leaving class just crying. Terribly sad. Anyway, Abu Raed is a man who works as a janitor at the national airport in Jordan. He is poor and his wife and only son are dead. Things are sad enough from the start in this movie. While at work one day, Abu Raed finds a piliot's hat and keeps it. Eventually the children in his neighborhood think that he is a pilot, but he is not. He ends up telling them stories about fictional travels that he had been to, like New York and Paris. He does this to give the boys hope that they can escape poverty and make something of their lives and he develops a strong bond with the children. Eventually one boy finds out the truth and ruins it for all the children and Abu Raed. The film also discusses issues such as domestic abuse. One of the boys is being physically abused by his father. The movie ends with Abu Raed finding a way out for the boy, his brothers and mother to avoid the abusive father. When the father finds out what happens, he kills Abu Raed. Sad Sad Story. Some of the SIT people were crying afterwards. The staff were surprised by this and didn't think we would be that upset. Personally, I now know to brace myself for the tradgety. I think the teachers felt bad. 

After the movie, we had dinner at SIT. Ahmed's neighbor made magluba and tabouleh. It was delicious and very much appriciated.

SIT at dinner

After dinner we headed Downtown for the Abdali Market. This is a market that runs all Friday Night and is a huge thrift shop. Below are pictures. 

Sweater Heaven

Roasted Nuts sold at the market

Racks and Racks of Clothes

So many shoes

View of the Souk for a while.

I bought prayer beads, Mishbaha, at the market

About Prayer Beads copied and pasted from Wikipedia, cause this person says it well. And I'm just lazy.

Islam

A Misbaha

Main articles: Misbaha and Tasbih

In Islam, prayer beads are referred to as Misbaha or Tasbih or Sibha, and contain 99 beads, corresponding to the 99 Names of Allah. Sometimes only 33 beads are used, in which case one would cycle through them three times to equal 99. The beads are traditionally used to keep count while saying the prayer known as Tasbih of Fatima, which was a form of prayer offered as a gift by the Prophet Muhammad to his daughter Fatima, which is recited as follows: 33 times "Subhan Allah" (Glory be to God), 33 times "Al-hamdu lilah" (Praise be to God), and 34 times "Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest). It is highly recommended to recite this prayer after the daily 5 ritual prayers.

Use of the misbaha to count prayers and recitations is an evolution of Muhammad's practice of using the fingers of his right hand to keep track.^{[citation needed]} While widely used today, some adherents of Wahhabism shun them as an intolerable innovation, preferring to stick to the exact method believed to have been used by Muhammad.^{[citation needed]} Their use as a religious item has somewhat diminished over the years, except among adherents of the Sufi orders, and many use them nowadays strictly as worry beads and as status symbols.^[12][13]

After the market, we went to Books@Cafe with the SIT group. We were going to get drinks for our friend Serene's Birthday. I had a Margarita and a Sex on the Beach. Next time I go back, I want to try a shot called "Osama Bin Laden", however, I do not want to try to navigate home after doing shots. Not a good plan. Books@Cafe is known as a place where Americans like to hang out. It is also known as the only gay bar in Amman. Go figure, I would love the gay bar. The most popular night for gay people to go to Books@Cafe is on Tuesdays. It is so different from a gay club in America. Noone is making out, gay or straight, and men are just sitting together enjoying and drink and smoking some hookah. Pleasant evening. I love Books@Cafe during the day and at night. Fun Place. Great Music. 

I concluded the night by going home and handing my host mother some pastries that I had bought earlier in the day. I wanted to bring home treats for Valentine's Day to make the day more festive. I brought home strawberry tarts and red velvet cakes. We had them for Breakfast this morning. I don't know why, but we eat the sweetest thing in the house on Friday morning. I'm not complaining. Its awesome. My host dad had half of each type, so I think he liked them. My host mom liked the red velvet. I don't really think the pastries were their style though. I think Jordanians like a different type of sweet treat, but I know they appriciated the gesture.

The remainder of the Treats in the Fridge.

Today, I spent time with my host family. I ate mansif for the first time. It was amazing! Mansaf is the national dish of Jordan. It is beef, lamb or chicken cooked infermented dry yogurt with rice. After lunch, I went with my host mother and sister to get our nails done. I of course picked bright pink. I felt like I had the hands of a wolf or some rustic creature, so this was a good move. 

Mansif!

Here is a link about Mansaf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansaf

Bright pink!

After relaxing at home for a bit, I went with my host mom to a cafe on Rainbow street to meet a friend. She did not know where the cafe was, but I did. It is near to Books@Cafe, a cafe I go to alot. I was able to give her directions about how to get there. SO SO Proud! Her friend was really nice and I drank a mango juice and smoked some hookah with them. The friend's son, maybe 25 years old, came too. He gave me a small pink umbrella from his drink because he could tell I liked pink. So sweet! It was shiny too. Major Win!

Reason 3,000 why Jordanians are the sweetest people ever!

I think I will go to the Citadel and the Umayyad Palace tomorrow. Maybe I'll write about that :)

See you next time!

Natalie