sweet corn and ice cream

two things stick out today as strange sightings: a snack cart selling sweet corn - as in, unpopped, whole kernels, like the kind you eat off the cob - and ice cream, as well as an animated betty boop dressed and dancing like a belly dancer. The mash up of American and Jordanian is everywhere, and I'm starting to just acknowledge it as part of everyday life. I should point out, it's never a melding of the two cultures; they don't seem to flow into one another, but rather squish themselves into the same space or the same object, attempting to coexist but failing. It's hard to explain, I think it's something you have to experience to fully understand.

Today was the first day I ventured out on my own, or at least without a chaperone. Brooke, Julia, and I live in the same neighborhood and decided to go looking for a supermarket to buy things like shampoo (not that we've had a chance to use it) and water. Jordanians don't drink water. No one is served drinks at a meal, unless it's shay (tea) and it's almost never juice, and never water or milk. Instead, you buy water by either the liter or the gallon. If you think water bottles are heavy to carry around now, you have never experienced lugging around SIX Jordanian water bottles. These things are monsters, but lifesaving monsters. The super market also allowed us to break our khamseen dinar (50 dinar bills) into smaller change. Jordanians get annoyed when you don't have exact change, and thus it takes a certain amount of strategic planning to break your huge bills into smaller ones.

After the supermarket, Brooke and I stayed home while the family went out for a doctor's appointment. We watched Red Eye and The Simpsons with Arabic subtitles, Arabs' Got Talent, and Grey's Anatomy in Farsi. I still enjoy watching kid's shows with Fu Fu because they're much easier to understand. They have this weird show like the teletubbies but in Arabic (obviously) and less frightening to full grown people.

Our host mom made us hamburgers for dinner, which were really good. Then we all went to the mall, which was interesting. Lots of grocery shopping and our mom turning and tsking at Brooke and I saying, "arabee, arabee" (arabic, arabic) because we've been talking almost always in English with each other and the family. Already, however, I can sense myself getting better. It helps to learn much more useful words like "wait" (stemee) and "go" (imshee) rather than "longing for one's homeland" or one of the ridiculous al-kitaab words. I've also noticed I've gotten much better at reading signs. Different fonts are MUCH harder to read when you're unfamiliar with the alphabet, but now I'm comfortable, if shwai (slow) at reading them - everything but calligraphy, that is.

Tomorrow is our first class, although it's sort of a practice class, and then a security briefing by the US embassy, and further exploration of UJ and Amman. Brooke and I are hoping to go join a gym (read: daily showers!) and maybe find ourselves a good coffee place for some lattes.

It's currently 11:00, but we've just been told we're eating dinner (although I thought we already ate...) so I guess I'm leaving. I'm going to be killed with food.

Beth