Another Snow Day...

We had more snow overnight so we have another snowday, which means that we effectively have three days off in a row (thanks to juma'a). It is too cold to get out of bed...

I'm adding pics of yesty's snow to yesty's entry...

SNOW DAY!!! *yay*

So this evening we are bracing ourselves for the worst snow storms that Jordan has seen in 20 years – or so our teachers and the meteorologists keep saying. It’s been really, really, really cold (or in Arabic: barid jidan, jidan, jidan!). Last night was so windy that I slept in my flatmate’s room – tonight is no different, so I think I’ll sleep there again. We have taken to heating only one room, which we will all then study in because all you want to do elsewhere in the place is sleep – no amount of heating devices can keep the cold out because the windows aren’t properly sealed, you can always feel a draught, even with the external shutters closed as well… In case you didn’t guess, the room that I have taken to sleeping in is the one we are heating (sneaky I know)… Al-hamdoulillah my flatmate doesn’t mind. Actually we have turned her room into a kind of mini-lounge. We have moved all the cushions off the couches in the lounge room and strategically placed them around her room – it’s quite nice al-hamdoulillah.

We are expecting so much snow tomorrow that we have been given advanced warning of a possible “snow day” – so classes may be cancelled, which means I need to learn two A4 pages of form I verbs *shudders at the thought*. To think, only a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you what a verb/adjective/preposition etc was (but then that’s “whole language” for you – “whole language” is a teaching philosophy that I was (un)fortunate enough to experience throughout school – google it). So anyway (educational rant over), classes are going well Al-hamdoulillah. We got our mid-term exams back (still without a mark) and the teacher said that everyone got over 90% - I think that may be a half truth, but I can’t be bothered to add up the tick on my page because I have found that a tick here does not necessarily equate to a mark. We have started more detailed grammatical work (which for once I am getting al-hamdoulillah) and are doing a lot more speaking (most of the class is now done in Arabic), which unfortunately results in the need to memorise a whole heap more stuff, which is a bit of a struggle.

Courtesy of the expected bad weather, supplies of gas and diesel are being affected. Apparently as of Thursday the prices of both will be jumping substantially – gas will go from 4JD a canister to 7JD a canister! Apparently the prices will not be coming down anytime soon either. We have been warned to expect another price hike at the end of Feb/early March and told that the prices will not come down even if the expected bad weather doesn’t materialize! As a result, I convinced my flatmates to purchase a 50JD unit of diesel now (should get us through March) and a spare gas canister (which means that we will have two spare, which should at least get us to late Feb insha’allah).

I got my care package from Mum al-hamdoulillah (although still my contact lenses haven’t materialized) which included a new supply of vegemite and tetley, so all is right with the world for now (thanks mum *hug*). Still living on mostly Paki food – dhal, rice some vege thing and kafta (not so Pakistani) – and I’ve started to force my flatmate (not the one who’s room I’ve invaded) to make me Paki-rice pudding (kheer?)– which I have just finished a warm bowl of *mmm*…

So, I have done no study as yet tonight – the “snow day” has not yet been declared, but everyone is acting as if it is definitely going to happen, even the teachers… Which means that there is a lot of homework to do al-hamdoulillah.

Snow Pics:



These were taken at midday, it continued to snow all day and all night. Apparently there was even snow in the Saudi desert!

Drought... and speaking to soon...

Sat my exam – 13 pages! Subhan’allah! I think I did ok. I left a few questions blank. Had a nice celebratory meal at a Yemini restaurant where we worked out our Arabic much to the delight of the waiter (he had a laugh). We walked home through the mall later and it was packed out. Hardly anything is open at 11am on any given day, but at 8pm on a Saturday night everything is open and there are people everywhere – all dressed up – looks quite odd. At least we found ourselves a skipping rope. Al-hamdoulillah.

Went shopping after the exam to try and find a replacement abaya for my black-melted one. No such luck – everything here is so over-the-top decorated it’s scary… There was one nice black one that was like 50JD (so overpriced) but that was about it. So one of the girls and I have decided to just buy fabric and get them made – easier, cheaper. Also got a jacket finally, no more freezing… and a couple more jumpers.

Anyway, so like I was saying this morning about everyone running out of water and us not having any problems… I spoke to soon. Just before we left for class the taps went dry, and we just got home (8:30pm) and still no water… Very very concerned… Have tried calling all the housing contacts and no one is answering, so I guess we’ll just have to wait… Let’s all just pray it’s a building problem and not that the council forgot to deliver to us, because that could take more than a week to be fixed.

I’m off to have chai and chocolate, and then I may sleep because I’m so buggered.

Ma’a salama.

Salam All!

It’s been a little while since I made a proper entry, and I’m not sure that this will break the drought. Its just before midnight and I have my mid-term exams in the morning (although I won’t post this tonight, so it would only be possible for you to read this when I am actually sitting the exam). I’m not really looking forward to the exam – in actual fact I was given an extension because I have absolutely no clue what we have done in grammar over the last two weeks. My teacher, however, wants me to sit the exam anyway (the extension was granted by the “principal”) – he told me to pretend it is an assessment… I told him that the problem was not that it was an exam, do not get fussed over them (as most who know me will attest to) but rather the fact that I DON”T KNOW ANYTHING! So what is the problem? My class consists of seven people. All but one (me) have done everything we are doing before so the class is moving really really fast. Not only have they done the work, but all but one of those six speak, read and write Urdu, which shares the same script and many words are common. So anyway, I’ve spoken to the administration, and am thinking of “demanding” an additional class for myself if my needs cannot be met in the regular class (I am paying just as much as everyone else, why should I not be benefiting as well?).

*rant over*

So anyway, the cold snap continues – its been getting down to -4 at night, and its actually colder inside our place than out. Apparently some people have woken to find that their water pipes are frozen so they can’t use any water, and others have had their water entirely disappear for a week! Al-hamdoulillah we haven’t had any dramas, and I guess even if we did we have a well… Which is probably frozen too now that I think about it…

Speaking of the cold snap, all the water in the gutters is totally frozen in the mornings when we walk to school. One of the strangest things is that every morning about 6:30am people wash their cars, it is so cold out that the skin on your face actually feels like it is burning! What is totally scary is that by 7:30 when I walk down to class all the water they used to wash their cars has frozen in little soapy-rivulets on the road. Brrrr….

***

Went to a friend’s house for dinner last Monday evening. We left about 10pm an got to the bottom of the little laneway next to the zawiya (short cut home) when my flatmate discovered that she had left her handbag behind (not an unusual occurrence I’m afraid, she’s as absent minded as me). So we walked back to the top of the laneway and one of my flatmates and myself decided that we would wait there for her to get her bag (to lazy to have to do the hill again). So we were waiting and chatting… And waiting and chatting (quietly mind you). The next thing we know there is a little man poking his head over the wall next to us holding a rather large gun! We jumped about a metre in the air when he appeared, he really freaked us. He didn’t say anything, just stared at us. So we ignored him and continued to chat. Then three roller shutters on the same building went up simultaneously – the bloke with the gun was still watching us. We kept talking like nothing had happened. About 2mins later our other flatmate returned with bag and we left quickly. Apparently that is the building that belongs to the Jordanian secret police in our area… We see them driving around all the time. I’m not impressed with the number of men carrying weapons in this country – even if they are all in uniform. Weapons appear to be very easy to come by here. I went to the balad (downtown) on Monday morning and we happened to walk all the way to the end of the shops, and there in a row were about 8 gun shops. There was no security, no bars, no buzzer-to-get-in doors, just a large display of weaponry in the windows. Hmmm…

***

The water comes on for us on Friday nights (did I mention that we have rationing?), so I did some washing before, found that my favourite black abaya has been partially melted by something – possibly the heater (which we have incorrectly named in Arabic, but now no one can remember the real word for it) – and has a massive hole about midway down at the back… Need to buy a new one on Monday insha’allah (not happy).

***

Been listening to Sheikh Haisam Farache’s lessons in the evenings – masha’allah some good stuff – dare I say, just what the muslim community in Sydney needs??? If you haven’t listened do, and if you have the chance go to the lessons – I wish I could. If you are going, could you kindly tell the brothers to upload the rest of the lessons (only 2-8 are online)… Jazaks!

Found a Shafi’i fiqh circle on here which is just for sisters, which I hope to attend insha’allah. Not many shafi’i’s in the Hay… Most are hanafi (surprise surprise). This place is full of Paki-ma-stanis!

Anyway, need to sleep (the chai is keeping me up)…

Hope everyone is well, I’m missing y’all lots.

Ma’a salama.

*Donation Box: Dua’a for Drifter Accepted Here*

Don’t forget me!

News Flash

*insert appropriate news anthem*

This news update is bought to you by Ulker Bar - the chocolate of choice in Jordan... And Marwa - water you can actually drink!

Goodmorning, breaking news today: The Drifter will no longer be returning to Sydney in March. Her tour of duty has been extended until late-June.

More details as the story unfolds.

*insert appropriate news anthem*

*Drifter hides from Tia*

New Year, Paki-fication, Markets, Fog and Parties.

Happy Hijri NewYear! Today is the first day of Muharram which is the first day of the Islamic (Hijri) Calendar. It marks the day the Prophet Muhammed (sal Allahu alayhi wa salam – peace and blessings be upon him) migrated from Mecca to Madina to escape the persecution of his tribe, the Quraysh.

In respect of the new year, we have the day off al-hamdoulillah. Add that to Friday – the day of Juma’a and…(wait for it)… we have a two day weekend! *yay* The downside is of course that I have so much work to do/catch up on I can’t really do anything or go anywhere. We have our first “major” exam/test on Saturday – on all the vocab so far, which effectively means I have a day and a half (I got up late because I’m not feeling well…again) to learn about 5-600 words as well as relearn all the grammar rules because we need to construct sentences. I intend on starting as soon as I have finished this post insha’allah.

I am being slowly Paki-fied. Both my flatmates are of Paki-descent and they have taken it upon themselves to convert me to Pakistani-ism! I have learnt how to make dhal, this vegetable thing, sheik kababs and very, very good chai. In fact, my chai is so good that I had 5 cups yesterday between returning from class and going to sleep (which has probably resulted in my sickness feeling today). The secret… lots and lots of sugar + condensed milk! They are also trying to adjust my accent, so if I come back not with Arabic, but some strange Paki-sounding English, you know who to blame!

Went to the markets at Abdali last Friday (it was a nice sunny day – no photos sorry) to get some more winter clothes – which was a good and nasty experience all rolled into one.

The Good: For approximately $A8 I got one pair of trackie pants, three warm skivvies, one big jumper and two pairs of wool socks. Couldn’t find a beanie (but decided that I didn’t want to get one at markets…I’d rather pay a little more and get it from the mall) and couldn’t find a coat. Actually, that is not strictly true, I found the most beautiful honey coloured coat which was so warm for 10JD (appx. $A20) but I didn’t get it. The colour was so impractical. So I’m hoping to go downtown and find myself a coat somewhere (one of the girls said she knows a place).

The Bad: I stupidly decided not to wear my niqab because I was so sick (sneezing and runny nose + niqab = disgusting, messy disaster… think about it!). And despite being with two niqabed women and a child, a disgusting slug of a man (if you could call him a man) decided that he would physically assault me. Not kidding. I was standing there helping my friends daughter try on a shoe (i.e. protecting her from being swept away by the perpetual stream of people passing through the small space) when I felt someone push up against me – then grab my bum! Not a little pinch, a total, full-handed grab! So I elbowed the culprit as hard as I could in the gut and turned around to hit him, but he ran off. I was in such a state of shock that I didn’t even say anything for about 10mins (mostly because of my friend’s daughter, not really an appropriate thing for a child to hear about). So anyway, we walked away from the area down to where the fruit market was and I was standing behind one of the girls, looking behind me talking to my friend’s daughter, and I saw him following us! I turned back around and told the girl in front of me (at this point he was right next to me again) and I think he realized because he kept walking, did a circle around the table we were at and then walked up a little way and stood on this raised ledge and stared at me. We looked around for tourist police (who usually deal with these issues – don’t let the name fool you, most “tourist” police do not speak a word of English, which tells you how effective they can be) and could see none, so we quickly got what we needed and left. I was really upset for the rest of the day (so much so that I was going to blog about it but I needed a week to recover). I wish I had of knocked the scumbag out, or at least made a really big, loud deal out of it. I just felt so gross. Anyway, suffice to say if I return to the markets I’ll be wearing my niqab and if anyone touches me I might just… well we learnt the verb “to kill” in class, so you put two-and-two together…

As I expected the cold snap has arrived (I could feel it in the taps on Monday – no really! The water through our pipes has been warmer for the last week than it was when I arrived and then it got cold again). So on Tuesday morning there was such a low, heavy fog that we couldn’t even see the block of apartments across the road (about 7 metres away)! The walk to school was, not only incredibly dangerous as we need to walk on the road in part and we couldn’t see more than a metre in front of us, but it was also that incredibly cold that my hands were numb before we reached the corner – even in gloves. The last 5 minutes of our walk it began to really rain, so I ran the last bit (stop laughing Fint) and thought that my hands were warm. When I got to school I went up to the bathrooms to wash them (there is instant hot water at school, unlike at home) and it was agony. What I thought was de-numb-ification was in fact just a figment of my imagination – I was so numb I thought my hands were warm! It bought back the most horrible memories of rowing! Anyway, its cold and foggy again today so I don’t think I’ll leave the house (and quite possibly my bed, except that there is a little party on tonight in the neighbourhood (after Isha – the night prayer), and they are making CAKE! If there is one thing I have learnt about Jordan (ok ok add it to the list of things I have learnt so far) it is that Jordanians do NOT know how to make cake. They know how to decorate them – the cakes here look beautiful, but the taste is so bad!

Went to the police station yesterday to extend my visa. I never, ever want to set foot in a Jordanian police station again. It smelt so horrible I was gagging most of the time. In the end it took about an hour to have three different people do (what appeared to be) absolutely nothing, a woman fill in a card with our names on them, then take fingerprints, then a tript to an individual I shall call "the Big Man" who signed a stamp in the passport put there by the woman before. Such a long drawn out process, al-hamdoulillah the school sends us with an Arabic speaker, I would hate to have to try and work it out because the officers are really no help and speak next to no English.

Anyway, as a result of my wild partying ways, I’d better get started on my work or else tomorrow (when I least want to do anything) I’ll be in a spot of bother!

Cigarettes, Sickness, School, and Style…

Subhan’allah, there is no where you can go in Amman where you will not be assaulted by the foul stench of cigarette smoke! People smoke in cafes, restaurants, taxis (the drivers!), shops, shopping malls, in busses, elevators, you name it they smoke there. As a result my throat is sore and I’m having trouble breathing. Which leads me to my sickness. I’ve got flu. I got sick the night before classes started and have felt yuk ever since. All I want to do is sleep, my brain is contantly foggy, my muscles ache, throat hurts, ears hurt, and now I’m coughing – Brilliant. Al-hamdoulillah – I am consoling myself with the fact that my sins are being lifted insha’allah.

School is busy, al-hamdoulillah. I’m doing well in my first class insha’allah, just that my memory won’t retain all the vocab. We have to memorise a minimum of 50 words per night – but that is working on the basis that you already know some Arabic, so I have about 80 words a night, and you all know how my memory is! My second class, grammar and sciences, is not going so well al-hamdoulillah. The teacher speaks really fast, and although it is meant to be a class that begins from “the beginning” he’s working on the basis that we already have a basic knowledge of grammatical structures – which I don’t, not even in English! I often get totally lost because he uses English grammatical terms that I don’t get (never done grammar in English – yes I am a product of the pedagogical philosophy of “grammar by osmosis), and then combines them with a million new Arabic terms all in the space of 60 seconds! Masha’allah! So yeah, tomorrow is our first day off from classes because there is a public holiday for New Years Day (apparently there are some great sales starting tomorrow – if I hadn’t spent way over budget in this last week [about a months worth of $] then I’d shop).

Masha’allah one thing I cannot get over (other than the rampant smoking) is the way Jordanians dress. You will never see a Jordanian woman in the street without high heels and uber-fashionable clothing – even with hijab! It’s really quite amazing, they even dress up their little girls (one of whom was standing next to me when I was in the supermarket and pulled a mobile phone out of HER handbag – she was no more than 8/9 years old! And no it wasn’t her mother’s because that was who was calling her). There are two ways you can tell a foreign (muslim) woman from a Jordanian woman… look at her shoes, and look at her bag. Even the blokes get dressed up here. The fashion is for hair with a tonne of gel, super-tight jeans and what look like old-school adidas shoes. They all look like they are headed for clubs – even at 8am!

I get a heater today – soooooo cold. Insha’allah I’m going to go to the Abdali markets on Friday to get a warm jacket, wool socks and the like – I don’t think you could ever pack enough clothes to keep you warm through a Jordanian winter. The worst bit is that everyone keeps saying how good/unusual the weather has been so far (i.e. this winter) there’s been no rain and there’s sun everyday! Subhan’allah I don’t know how much more cold I could handle.

So yeah, if Jordan has taught me anything it is that I have no fashion-sense! *lol* Al-hamdoulillah.

So I shall sleep now so that I can manage to get in min 4/5hrs of study tomorrow (to keep my head up). Please make du’a for me, I’m really needing it. Jazakallahu kheirun.

Love y’all fi sabeelillah. Ma’a salama