learning how to do things the 'jordanian way'

I was over my neighbors' yesterday and we were eating hummus. this term could be confusing because hummus refers to either, the plant that hummus grows on, the actual fruit (bean?) that grows on it (chick peas), the hummus still in pods and still green (also edible and delicious), and the dip that you make out of oil and crushed hummus and spices. we were eating hummus akhthar (green hummus) that had been salted and put in the fire. it tastes, and has a consistency like, roasted corn. i mentioned that i want to start buying it. the little five year old kindly explained to me how one obtains hummus:

"give a laira...

no wait...

get a son

give the boy a laira

he will come back with hummus

put it in the oven

nothing else

that is the best way"

Princess Bed

So once, when i was just a wee lass, i had a canopy bed. it made me feel like a princess. for some reason that has escaped me now (maybe at the time i thought i was 'too grown up for it' or maybe it just didn't fit in my room; logical explanations which i will ignore), i think it was out of pure cruelty on my parents' part, it was taken from me. i have now found an acceptable substitute. a mosquito net. i had to hang it yesterday because the mosquitoes are already out of control and i hear that they will only get worse. so i hung it from the piece of wire that holds up my curtains on one side and on the other side i tied it to some hangers that i then hang on the doors to my cabinet thing. in this way i have made it a collapsable princess tent so i can still walk around my room in the daytime. it's genius i know. (thanks dad for teaching me that though there may be a simple way to do things, there is always a way to get more materials involved and make it BETTER)

anyway i included a slightly awkward looking picture here for scale, and to give you a princes-eye view of what it is like to sleep in it. i found that even though the net is only made to be a twin size, i can stretch it around the mattress to encompass my whole queen (maybe one day i'll graduate from princess) bed.

basically its awesome.

(also i discovered during writing this that i cannot spell 'mosquito' without thinking moss-kwee-toe, so yeah there's that bit of info for you too)

music

i was on the bus today, on my way home from a meeting in a nearby city, and was, as usual, extremely tired, sweaty, and generally beat down from the heat. so i decided to put on my headphones and peace out for a bit. i chose the pogues and was immediately transported because it turns out that irish music is completely, utterly incompatible with the jordan. it was great because usually when i listen to music in the car it makes the outside world seem closer somehow; somehow it connects me with the scenery streaming past, who knows why. either that or i end up feeling that i am in a roadtrip movie and the music is just the soundtrack. maybe that's just me. anyway, that was not the case this time. with this particular music i felt completely insulated from the rest of the world because the music just couldn't exist out there. there was no way to imagine it blaring from one of the paneless, square, concrete windows i passed and no one could have it on their phones that they use as mini boomboxes. they just couldn't; the desert outside my window and this music just can't coexist.

i was trying to think of why. at their most basic, irish and arab music are very similar; they use many of the same instruments, and have a similar beat to them. but the way that they are played and sung absolutely couldn't be more different. the feelings behind it, the structure, the...i don't know, the -ness of them are completely at odds. i decided that the major difference was....alcohol. irish songs are designed to get better the more you drink: the music gets more fluid, the words slur together, but it sounds better because that's the way it was probably recorded and intended to be sung. you just want to sing it at parties. even sad songs make you feel better when you sing them. of course singing irish songs also calls to mind green fields as far as you can see and, just as i am usually unable to picture my backyard covered in snow when it is summer, it is impossible to conjure up that image in the face of boundless desert.

so basically i put on some reel when i am bogged down and take a mental vacation. its nice and green and breezy there. even the unreasonable amount of rain is welcome.

a note about 'tk-ing'

just realized that the title looks like i am trying to write some weird swear word. in fact i just wanted to write for a second about the sound that the king is discussing in that video.

when i first heard it it took me forever to figure out that it meant no. this is largely due to the fact that you do not necessarily have to make the noise to communicate. it's like how in america you can shake your head 'no' without saying the word 'no' and people understand what you mean. what makes it harder for a first time interpreter to understand the 'tk' to mean no is that it is accompanied by raising the eyebrows and tilting the head back. however, just tilting back your head (which looks suspiciously like nodding your head 'yes') and/or just raising your eyebrows also mean the same thing: hell no.

you see the tk doesn't just mean no. it is more like 'what a silly question to ask, that does not deserve an answer in word form.' thus the use so often with the king in objection to attempting some sweeping social change (or small social change). of course it is also used in everyday situations like: 'is there maramia in this tea?' 'tk (read: stupid american, we ran out of maramia last week and obviously that is only used in the winter anyway because it doesn't taste good in the hot weather).'

needless to say i hear this sound a lot. i never know what is going on, what is the appropriate question to ask, and i tend to have crazy ideas about how to change the way things have always been done. thankfully i at least know what their response means now.

side note: watch out all of you at home, because i have picked up the habit myself and find that it is a very satisfying way to respond to questions you don't like and don't even want to bother finding an answer to. give it a try.

the king

this is king abdullah(the king of jordan) talking about the tendancy for jordnians to think that it is useless to try anything new. and explaining the dreaded 'tk' that is such a big part of a conversation.

hey from jordan

This is M3aweya. I love him. Thought he would like to say hey to you all. (he is actually waving goodbye to the bus, which he does until we are around the corner.)