Watching Television in Amman

We have been stuck inside all weekend while Amman has been pounded by rain, hail, and high winds. Luckily, Jordanian television provides plenty of good choices in English--a constant, varied selection of American TV shows and movies.

The movies are often heavily edited, and I can't figure out any rhyme or reason to the editing.  For example, sometimes a particular word will be cut out and sometimes the same word will be left in.  Some violent scenes are cut out, and others are left in.  Sometimes a kiss is deleted, and sometimes kisses stay in the movie. Sometimes the cuts are hard to detect, but things just don't quite make sense and the dialog doesn't quite match up with the part of the story that you've seen.

The commercials seem to occur at odd moments, as if they are just randomly inserted.  In addition, there are very few commercials and the same ones run over and over again; often the same commercial runs two or three times during the same commercial break.  Here is a typical TV commercial:

Some VERY Good Advice for Writers

"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." ~Mark Twain

This reminds me of a conversation during an Intercultural Workshop I attended in Germany on the topic of Americans' overuse of superlatives.  I was the only American in the room to defend us all, and I wasn't an effective defender because I'm very damn fond of using superlatives.

I Get My Dinner From a Garbage Can

Yellow Is The New White

Nobody Walks in Amman

It's quite a coincidence that just as I was preparing this blog post about how no one walks in Amman, the New York Times posted an article--"Sidewalks, and an Identity, Sprout in Jordan's Capital"--about how Amman's urban planners are adding and improving sidewalks, benches, and parks in order to encourage more walking and outdoor recreational activity and achieve a lifestyle consistent with its motto: "A livable city is an organized city--with a soul."

My observation has been that very few people walk outside any distance farther than from their car to the building they want to enter. There are probably many reasons for the lack of walkers in Amman--ranging from cultural and habit to the absence of "walkable" sidewalks and the availability of inexpensive transportation.

The sidewalks seem to be more like obstacle courses than walkways. They are bumpy and torn up in many places. Trees adorn and sometimes fill the sidewalk (as is shown in the photo above). The roots from the trees have caused the pavement to buckle in many places. Sidewalks dip deeply for driveways, requiring a pedestrian to go up and down inclines or even actual steps frequently. Sidewalks are covered with other impediments to free travel, such as trash cans, guard houses, parked cars, and other things. Sidewalks often end, sometimes mid-block, for no apparent reason; perhaps the builders just ran out of stone bricks or concrete. People who do walk often end up walking in the street, between the traffic lanes and the parked cars.

Add to the problem of the sidewalks that don't invite pedestrian traffic this: taxis are cheap here. Really cheap. Really, really cheap. A taxi ride that might cost $20 or more in New York City might cost about the equivalent of $1.50 or less here. Really cheap. Why walk when you can ride for next to nothing?

Nevertheless, I really like to walk. I walk to and from work every day, and home and back for lunch. My walk is a series of turns and veers designed to avoid running into trees, guard houses, holes in the sidewalk, parked cars, moving cars, trash cans, wires mysteriously strung across the sidewalk at about neck level (this is the strangest of all of the obstacles I encounter on my walk to work), low hanging branches, and any other surprise that might have popped up since the last time I walked my route.

I hope that walkable sidewalks will pop up all over Amman. I imagine that it will still take a serious cultural shift to change Amman from a driving-city to a walking-city.  Los Angeles has plenty of fine sidewalks and yet no one walks there. People are, after all, creatures of habit.

Happy Hump Day!

Actually, yesterday (Tuesday) was hump-day in Jordan since the weekend is Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday.

Views From the Amman Citadel

The Amman Citadel (in Arabic, Jabal al-Qal'a), situated on one of Amman's seven jabals (hills), is the site of one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited places, and it symbolizes the birthplace of the world's three monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The photo above depicts the ruins of the Temple of Hercules. The banner photo on this blog shows the Umayyad Palace. The photos below show some of the great views from the Citadel.

Hey . . . is Daniel in there?

"Daniel in the Lion's Den" was one of my favorite stories when I was a kid; I used to make my mom tell it over and over. The story is basically that Daniel was too good--the king liked him too much--so his jealous comrades threw him in the lion's den. He emerged unscathed, leading people to think he had close connections to the Almighty.

This is exactly how I imagined the lion's den to look. This is a small alcove off the Jerash Hippodrome, which is where the Roman gladiator battles, chariot races, and other violent human competitions (some of which involved wild animals) occurred.

When water just won't do . . .

. . . have some Wine of the Holy Land.

Jerash

Yesterday, we made our first venture outside of Amman and visited the ancient Roman city ruins at Jerash. It was amazing, and, although I have selected a few pictures from the hundreds I took, none of the pictures do this place justice. Our visit to Jerash was a multi-sensory experience. Our experience was shaped not only by sight, but also by sound, smell, touch, and taste. I'll get back to that in a moment; first, some history.

People have inhabited Jerash for more than 6500 years. General Pompey conquered the area in 63 BC and it came under Roman rule. It was one of the ten great Roman Cities. While it was under Roman rule, Jerash was known as "Gerasa," and it is one of the best preserved Roman provincial towns in the world. The ancient Roman city, which has been undergoing excavation and restoration for the past 70 years, includes examples of stone-paved and colonnaded streets, hilltop temples, theatres with amazing acoustics, spacious public squares and plazas, baths, fountains, and city walls.

My son's blog explains the Biblical significance of Jerash:

In Luke 8:26, Jerash is referred to as the "region of the Garasenes." If you know your bible well, [you know that] this is where Jesus banishes the demons from the man and sends them into the swine who jump off the cliff. Later, in the same chapter (Luke 8), Jesus is touched by the sick woman wanting to be healed in the street and then Jesus is taken to the house where a daughter is claimed to be dead. Jesus simply says "Stop wailing . . . she is not dead but asleep . . . My child, get up!" and up she goes.

In addition, Byzantine Christians conducted an annual ceremony at this red marble fountain commemorating Jesus's turning water into wine.

So, back to our multi-sensory visit to Jerash. Our visit to Jerash stimulated all of our senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Sight:

Of course, there was much to see. The ruins are at the top of a high hill (though not the highest point in the area) and so the views were spectacular.

This next photo shows a portion of a mosaic floor in a bath house. The tiles are completely exposed to the sun and other weather, so they have faded a lot and many tiles from the large floor are destroyed or missing. I enhanced the color on this photograph to show my estimation of what the floor might have looked like when it was in use. (Notice the peacock!)

This photo shows part of a fountain with some Roman lettering.

This photo shows the Temple of Artemis. Artemis is the patron goddess of the city. This was supposedly the most beautiful temple in the city and was decorated with beautiful marble paneling.

Hearing:

We visited Jerash on Friday, which is the day of Salat al-Jumu'ah, the Muslim Friday congregational prayer. Salat al-Jumu'ah consists of a khutba (a sermon) followed by Raka'ah (part of the Salat ritual). The khutba is broadcast from the mosques' minarets. Consequently, we heard the sounds of the voices from all directions saying the khutba. Mostly we heard spoken voices, but occasionally, we also heard the beautiful singing.

Added to that amazing sound, there was the sound of bagpipe music. This picture shows the man who played the bagpipes in the old Roman theater. The acoustics were so good that the sound of the bagpipes could be heard all over the area of the ancient ruins (plus, bagpipes are just loud anyway).

Touch:

One of the things that makes the ruins at Jerash unique is that visitors are allowed to touch and even climb on the ruins. Here is a picture of Maggie on top of a giant wall.

Smell:

The spring wild flowers were in bloom. They were beautiful and stimulated not only our sense of smell, but also our allergies!

Taste:

After spending about two and a half hours touring the ruins, we were ready for an authentic Jordanian lunch, which we had at the Jordan House Restaurant. This was our first "local" meal. Our lunch was significantly more expensive than we expected (50 JD = $70). We should have guessed that it would be expensive since it was the only restaurant at the Jerash ruins--the second most popular tourist destination in Jordan (Petra is first). But, it was delicious! I especially liked the salad bar, from which we indulged in lots of fresh vegetable salads as well as some especially yummy hummus, labneh, and baba ghanoush.

See the rest of my photos from Jerash here.

Our Night at the Jordan Hospital

Our second night here (last Monday), we had an unexpected trip to the emergency room at Jordan Hospital. Paul (my husband) had been having some chest pain and shortness of breath, and it got much worse on Monday afternoon. So we decided to go to the ER.

They very quickly concluded that Paul hadn't had a heart attack by doing an EKG, a chest X-ray, and a complete blood work-up. I mean, they had completed all these tests and he had been seen multiple times by the doctor within 45 minutes of our walking in the door! That's quick service for an ER.

But his blood pressure was extremely high, so they ended up admitting him to the CCU for further tests and observation and to get the blood pressure down. The next morning they did a coronary catheterization, the results of which were normal. So, health crisis averted!

But, we were going to have to pay for all this!

We have insurance, but it is through a U.S. insurer, so we have to pay all the bills up front and then submit them for reimbursement. When they told me I would have to pay the entire bill, I asked "right now?" And, they said "no, tomorrow morning will be fine." (Ha! I meant "can I pay in a few weeks,"--"over time" as we say in the US--but I didn't elaborate.) So, I got a little bit worried about not having enough cash to cover a night in the CCU, including medicine, plus a coronary catheterization procedure, on top of the EKG, chest X-ray, and complete blood work-up that had already been done. But, it turned out that the bill was only 700 JD, which is about $1000. I think it costs more than that to walk into a hospital in the United States! In fact, this was cheaper than the $1400 vet bill we had to pay when our dog spent one night in the animal ER after eating chocolate.

So, I was able to "bail" Paul out of the hospital the next day with a credit card.

The hospital was well equipped. We felt very comfortable with the treatment Paul got, and we were very pleasantly surprised that the cost was so reasonable. His cardiologist was Johns-Hopkins trained in the US and American Board Certified, and all the residents were excellent in both their medical and English skills. Everyone was extremely nice to us even though we are non-Arabic speaking, "uninsured" (from the hospital's perspective) foreigners. The moral of the story is that everything was done quickly, efficiently, and at a very reasonable cost.

Moreover, my new colleagues at the ABA were a huge help to us--several of them stopped by to visit him, make sure he was being well cared for by the best doctors, and that we were not being overcharged. Although it is stressful to have to take your husband to the ER on your second day in a foreign country (and, of course, it's stressful for the husband to be taken to the ER under these circumstances), the whole experience was made much easier by the support and kindness of our new friends at the ABA.

At the Jordan House Restaurant . . .

We started with a delicious array of salads and appetizers . . .

and finished with the yummy "mixed grill."

The Tourist Police

Are they for us or against us?

Ahlan wa sahlan Amman!

I wrote this on Sunday--our second day here. My blog wasn't working so I couldn't post it until today.

Here we are in Amman, Jordan. Why are we here, you ask? I will be working with the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative program with the University of Jordan. I’ll write more about the details of my work here later. I am extremely grateful to the ABA for giving me this opportunity, and I am looking forward to our three months in the Middle East.

We arrived in Amman late on Saturday night. As we flew in over Tel Aviv, it dawned on me how far we have traveled, literally and figuratively, since we left our home in Texas last summer. I never in my wildest imagination could have anticipated what a wild and fabulous adventure this year would be.

Our apartment is wonderful and roomy (just like our apartment in Germany was). It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a large kitchen, a dining room and a living room. It is fully furnished.

Here, the weekend falls on Friday and Saturday, so Sunday is a workday. I was excited to be able to go into the office this morning and meet my new colleagues. My apartment is within walking distance of the ABA office, so—like in Germany—I will be able to walk to work.

We live in the area where the foreign embassies are located. Therefore, my walk to work takes me past several embassies, each of which has a heavily armed guard protecting its gate. I’m not sure if the big guns make me feel safer or less safe, but they most certainly make my walk to work unique. In addition to the guns, there are dozens of stray cats that greet me on my walk to work.

Last night we got in late and, although we each had one bottle of water with us, we did not have dinner before we got to our apartment. It took us a couple of hours to figure out where we could get food, and finally we found a website promising that KFC delivers until midnight. So, at about 11:30 p.m. we were eating KFC. Our first priority today was to get food, water, and other supplies.

One of my ABA colleagues took us to Safeway Supermarket—our first supermarket in six months! There, we experienced severe culture shock—but in a good way. So many choices! In Germany, the grocery stores we went to were very small, and most of the time we shopped in specialty shops, such as a bakery for bread, a butchery for meat, a farmer’s market for fruits and vegetables, etc. There were a few product choices, but nothing like what we were used to in the U.S. (Of course, there were large supermarkets in Germany, but we didn't go to them because we didn't have a car.) But, today, we went to a gigantic supermarket and were bombarded with 50 kinds of cereal, 80 kinds of shampoo, and anything else we could think of wanting—just like back home in the U.S.A. It was a two-story store with food downstairs and an entire department store upstairs. “American” products were plentiful.

We got back to our apartment and tried to figure out the stove, which we could not get turned on previously. After a near disaster with a defective gas tank, we learned there was something wrong with the stove. This led to an eventful afternoon, including our discovery that our apartment comes with a “helper,” who is a delightful guy who will do for us anything we ask—run errands, take us places, call taxis for us, pick things up for us, etc.

But here was the highlight of the day for me: as we were standing on the steps out in front of our apartment building, waiting for a taxi to pick us up, I heard the most amazing sound I have ever heard. It was the call to prayer. This was the first time I had heard it because our apartment overlooks the back of the building, away from the mosques, and so it is hard to hear the “adhan” from inside our apartment or on our balcony. Of course, I have heard audio recordings of this before, but that was nothing like standing there and hearing it in person. It was amazing and I’ll never forget it. I know I will hear it many, many more times while I’m here, but I hope I never get so used to it that I don’t stop and take it in.

So, my initial thoughts: In many ways, Amman is much more like the United States than is any city we visited in Germany. The climate reminds me of Southern California—warm days, cool nights—and even the architecture is similar. Also, there are many more English channels on TV and “American” products in the grocery store than we found in Germany. But, in other ways, of course, Amman is very different from the United States. There are sights and sounds that we could only hear on this side of the globe. There is history here far more ancient even than what we saw in Germany. There are hundreds of satellite dishes dotting the flat roofs of the houses and dominating the skyline. The Arabic subtitles on the English TV shows and Arabic logos alongside the familiar logos of the American food products are a distinct reminder that we are far, far from both Texas and Bavaria!

All New Adventure Bag

Talk about frustrating--just as I was moving to Amman, Jordan, my blog--the original Adventure Bag--crashed. Actually, the blog itself didn't crash--it's still there at www.FountaineOnline.com--but the software I use to post crashed. I have no idea what the problem is, but I couldn't wait any longer to blog about my experiences in Amman. So, I have created this new blog. Same idea; slightly different URL. I hope you will follow my adventures in Amman, Jordan and beyond here on this new blog.

I started the Adventure Bag blog just before my family and I moved to Germany for six-months were I was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Bayreuth. Our time in Germany ended last week. I already miss Bayreuth--my friends, colleagues, and students.

On Saturday, we packed up and moved to Amman, Jordan. Our first week in Jordan has been fabulous. Stay tuned for more about my visit to Jordan!