Week One

I haven’t done too much sightseeing since I got here. People generally hang out at cafes (which is the catch-all term for restaurant, coffee shop, shisha café, tea shop etc.). The lifestyle is generally very chill here. I’m not used to it!

On the weekend, we went downtown and checked out the Roman Amphitheatre. Downtown really reminded me of downtown Mexico City, except this time I don’t speak the language. I really should start learning some Arabic. I’m not one for learning random words. When I want to learn a language, I want to learn how it ALL works!

My favourite shot taken from the Roman Amphitheatre downtown.

The malls here are also very westernized. The big mall here has many of the European brand names that we are familiar with, but they bring with them premiums on their price tags.

This past Tuesday was a holiday for the Islamic New Year. We decided to rent a car and leave Amman to a warmer place after a miserable day of rain on Monday. We found a nice spot on the side of a road next to the Dead Sea (only about 40 minutes from Amman!). Though I didn’t swim in it this time, I TOUCHED THE WATER! =D

Nature always seems to amaze me. Seeing the naturally crystallized salt was so cool. They crystallize into cubes just like the pictures in our high school science textbooks! The brine in the water changes the way it reflects light – I think it makes it more reflective as the Dead Sea seemed to be as light as the sky. I know…I am a nerd.

My favourite shot of the day: Crystallized salt on a rock.

We had a wonderful time smoking shisha, making instant coffee over a small bed of hot coals and listening to music – all while watching the sun set behind Palestine. Then we lay under the blanket of stars until the hungry grumbles were too loud to ignore. We returned to the city, getting out of a speeding ticket along the way, to have “Indian” food (the restaurant had “Chicken Tikka” in its name but we definitely were not consuming Chicken Tikka – more like Nando’s Piri Piri Chicken). It was very delicious nonetheless!!

Shisha on the Dead Sea.

Destroyed preconceived notions of the week:

- Eating salad washed by tap water is fine! The water is treated to a drinking standard (I know a North American who drinks from the tap everyday). Now I can eat more than just French fries for my vegetable intake!

- The roads are quite developed. In fact, there is traffic congestion every day! They have interesting road infrastructure, where parts of the city work on circles (roundabouts), while thru-traffic can go under the circles.

- Maps and directionality (N/E/S/W) are almost useless here. People don’t really use street names or north as a reference point to describe locations. Instead, they use landmarks and other descriptors. The main street names are known and used, but I still don’t know the name of the street where I currently live – if it even has an official name!