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!