Because You Have to Start Somewhere

When I wrote the London blog it was hard for me to stop writing because at that point I already had so much to say about Jordan. I’ve been waiting a bit to collect my thoughts. Also I’ve been busy with class, and well, LIFE!

Walking off the plane into the airport was a euphoric experience. “I’m here!-I’m here!-I’m here!” I thought with each step. The Amman airport is about the size of a gas station and reeks of stale cigarettes. This, I would later come to discover, is pretty much the way it smells everywhere. Everyone’s a smoker and non-smoking areas are really hard to find. Seriously, you walk through a mall and people are just puffing away. A pack costs less than $2.00 and carries a detailed (but apparently ineffective) picture of a black lung. So let’s play a little “Guess Which Country Manufactures the Product” based on their government mandated labels. Product: Marlboro Lights. Choices: The UK (“Smoking Kills”, see previous post), Jordan (an illustration of cancer), the United States (“Surgeon General’s Warning: Smoking May Complicate Pregnancy”). Thanks, Mr. Surgeon General, for looking out!

My cab driver from the airport was very friendly and spoke fantastic English. He even helped me form a complete sentence: “English easy, Arabic hard.” Even though there is no verb, it’s grammatically correct because there is no to be verb in Arabic. That little rule is actually pretty helpful for me as I'm still learning how to conjugate verbs. I have class five days a week at the Language Center at the University of Jordan. I’m in the beginner level and we’ve spent this last week going over the alphabet. It’s a little frustrating for me right now because I’ve already learned this, but luckily we’re moving quickly. My teacher, Hadia, is a wonderful instructor and makes a point of telling us so multiple times a day. Her English is great but has a little bit of foreign awkwardness that I find highly entertaining. Sometimes I have to stop myself from imitating her too loudly.

On Thursday she showed us a Sesame Street style video review that was made fifteen years ago. “The next alphabet I am going to teach you is Haa. Note the difference between this alphabet and the alphabet Ha. Here is some vocabularies using these alphabets.” Of the twenty seven letters (or should I say, alphabets), eight of them have no English equivalent. Some of these are easy, like a heavy “T”, which involves placing your tongue farther back along the roof of the mouth than an English “T” (where the tongue stays at the front). Others, like “kh” require the speaker to produce a sound that is a delicate combination of coughing up a hairball and choking. Maybe that’s why everyone’s a smoker, it makes it easier to pronounce some of the letters.

For the past year I’ve spent a lot of time imagining how much fun it would be to keep a blog of my experiences in Jordan. The reality is that it’s harder than I thought to take the time to sit down and write. Putting up a post that really honors my experience is overwhelming, and I’ve been procrastinating. The more time that passes (and I keep sending e-mails saying “I’m planning on putting something up soon!”), the harder it gets. So I’m biting the bullet and just putting this up for now even though there is so much more I want to talk about. Sit tight, it’s all on the way! Shwayay, shwayay (little by little) as they say here.