And the second week of safoof (classes) has dawned! So far my experiences in Amman have been incredible, enabling me to gain the experience of living in an Arab country.
My classes run four hours a day starting at 8 AM (masha allah!) and are broken up into a “skills” session and a “media” session. After class has ended I can usually expect another three hours of homework. My teachers have been challenging me through intense listening and reading exercises from authentic sources, and I can already discern an improvement in my Arabic skills.
On a typical school day, I usually do not have much time to do anything outside of school aside from grocery store runs, the occasional gym trip, or (if it’s a special day) a walk to the local outlet of Habibeh Sweets, home of Amman’s finest kanafe (كنافة) – a pastry of cheese with shredded filo dough and a sweet syrup poured over the top.
While at my apartment, I like to take advantage of the few television stations we have. One of these is a station playing Arabic Pop music videos on loop – a perfect station to have on while cooking dinner. The other is Majan TV, on which there seems to be only one show called Hal Halaalek? (هل هلالك؟). The show is produced in a mall in Oman, and if you look closely you can see shopping carts and people walking by while they film. Despite poor the production work, the show – which focuses on Muslim lifestyles across the Middle East – presents interviews in fusha or Modern Standard Arabic. This enables me to test my listening skills and gain additional cultural points outside of class.
While in class and on Majan TV fusha is the language of choice, on the streets people speak Jordanian amiyya– a spoken dialect of Arabic. My knowledge of amiyya is very limited, although I have picked up enough to be able to communicate basic phrases with the waiters at the local mu‘ahwe (مقوه) – a Jordanian style coffeehouse where men (and if it is conservative like our neighborhood, only men) go to drink tea and coffee, use waterpipes known as shisha or arguilleh (أرجيلة), and play cards or watch whatever soccer match may be on. My friends and I have been frequenting these establishments every few nights to watch the World Cup games like a local while sipping tea with fresh mint leaves.
In addition to the local coffeeshops, I have been able to use my ammiya with taxi drivers and Careem drivers – the Arab world’s (far superior) version of Uber. By speaking shway araby w shway ingleezy (a little Arabic and a little English) we have gotten to where we wanted and met some great people! One night when we were coming back from a trendy part of Amman centered around Rainbow Street, we had an awesome Careem driver named Yahya. Yahya played some awesome jams on the way back to our flat and introduced us to an Egyptian song called Al Dekhlaweyat (الدخلاويات) which we have been listening to nonstop!
Additionally, we met a Careem driver named Loay with whom I was able to negotiate a fare to Madaba for the day – a Christian city located about 40 minutes south of Amman. Madaba is famed for their millenia-old mosaics – both at ruins of churches and in present churches. The most famous of these churches is Saint George Church, a small Orthodox church home to the oldest map of the Holy Lands. The image from around 500 AD, centered around a detailed depiction of Jerusalem, is awe-inspiring. Everywhere in Madaba you go, you can find Roman, Byzantine, or Abassid Mosaics that adorn the floors – or former floors – of the many churches.
Our favorite church was a Catholic one (of course!!). The Church of John the Baptist features a maze of tunnels underneath the church. Among the nooks include a millennia old Moabite well from which you can still drink (and we did!), a series of Byzantine ruins, and doorways about the size of a five year old
child that require a lot of crawling. But the best part is after you climb up – a number of stairs, dodging low lying beams holding bells, and two rickety ladders late – to the top of the bell tower. From the top, the highest point in Madaba, you can see everything in the city!
To cap off the day, we stopped by Mount Nebo – a Franciscan shrine on the spot where Moses was believed to have first viewed the land of Canaan. From the top, you can visit a church that combines an archeological dig with a typical modern parish church in the United States and take in breathtaking views of the surrounding land – including
the Dead Sea and the West Bank (and even Jerusalem on a good day). Seeing the landscape and having a peak over the border filled me with memories of my past trip to Palestine; maybe I will make it back soon!
On the way back to Amman, Loay handed me the phone to talk with his nephew – a young Jordanian student looking for an English speaking partner. My roommates and I were quick to jump on his offer, and we are looking forward to meeting up, talking some Arabic (and English), and watching some soccer at a local mu’ahwe.
The next week should bring on new opportunities here in Jordan, and I am excited to continue my studies!