amman by foot...

what an interesting day it has been. planned to study at wild jordan café on rainbow street with a friend from class. we planned to meet in front of the mall. i got there before he arrived and was sitting on the front steps of the mall. while i was waiting, an elderly woman and her hired help approached my spot, so i got up to let her sit. i headed over to the other side of the entrance where there were more steps. a guy that had been sitting across from me gestured next to him to indicate that i was welcome to sit next to him. i preferred next to and sat nearby. he tried talking to me, “where you are from? china?” and when i did not respond: “hello? hello?” then later, “do you smoke?” and held out a cig to me. eventually, my friend showed up around 2:15 PM and we headed to the streets to try and hail a cab. and boy did we try. 15 minutes passed, 20 minutes passed. still no cab. we walked a ways to see if we would have better luck farther down the street. no dice. decided to return to the mall and catch a bus that would get us somewhere where we could try again to catch a cab. had an interesting encounter on the bus. a ways into the ride, i feel a tap on my shoulder. i turn around and there are two women, maybe 50 years of age, wearing hijabs and dressed fairly conservatively. the one closest to the aisle, the one that had tapped me, says to me, motioning to the seat next to her across the aisle and right behind me, “please come here. i want to tell you something.” when I asked her what it was, she continued to ask me to sit in the seat next to her and that she needed to tell me something. when i asked why I needed to move to the chair next to her in order for her to tell me, she said, “i just want to give me you this.” with that, she proceeded to produce two little coin purses and handed to them me. i was pretty shocked. it was so strange, i wasn’t sure how to respond. one of the first thoughts that ran through my head was, “is there something dangerous inside? is there a bomb in there?” when i asked her the reason for these purses, she said, “i just like you, that’s all.” and with that, it got awkward, so i turned around to talk to me friend and play it cool until we got off the bus. (note: the tag on the front of the red & white bag says: “please always know that I love you more than anything else in the world.”).



so off the bus…and things continued to be ridiculous. we had cabs stop that wanted 3-5 JD for a less than 2 JD trip to rainbow street. we turned them all away in frustration. eventually, we had made it from our starting point of sports city to the abdali. it had been an hour of walking. 2.5 miles. in 91 degrees fahrenheit weather. textbooks, laptop, and all. in adbali, we spotted king abdullah mosque and i said as a joke to my friend, “maybe we should just study in there.” to me surprise, he said, “why don’t we just take a look?” i was all for it and so we entered through the unlocked gates and slipped inside one of the open doors. my friend went in pretty quickly after slipping off his shoes but i was hesitant because i didn’t have anything to cover my head. i lingered outside until my friend came out and said, “come on in. everyone is asleep.” they were indeed. The 4 or 5 men that were inside were spread out on the edges of the mosque, taking a nap and finding relief from the heat. my friend quickly found the water and the communal tin cup, to which he loudly whispered, “mercy!” for awhile, I continued to worry about how my presence would be perceived by the people in the mosque. i even asked a guy in the mosque if it was okay that i wasn’t covered and he said it was fine. it was actually quite relaxing inside. the floor was carpeted and the blue and yellow patterning that decorated the inside of the dome was gorgeous. the lighting offered a softened to atmosphere. i felt at peace. and was really considering staying in the mosque for the rest of the day.



unfortunately, my phone rang. i stepped outside to answer it, not bothering to put on my shoes. as i stepped outside, a guard that had not been there before looked at me and was trying to get my attention. i moved away to try and find a quiet place to talk on the phone but the guard was coming towards me and getting frantic. finally, i gave up trying to split my attention between the caller and the guard and the guy comes up to me and says, “prohibited! you are not covered! this is very bad.” I was quite flustered and wasn’t sure what to do. he motioned for me to leave and i said that i needed to grab my shoes. in response to this, he said, “quickly!” quick i was. then i tell him, “but my stuff is still inside.” and he tells me to go around to the other entrance of the mosque and get something to cover my head and come back. i figured that there would be some place that i could borrow a piece of cloth for the sake of this ritual. i find myself at the front of the main gate of the mosque, speaking to a guard that said the entrance fee is 2 JD. i was kind of pissed off at this point and also annoyed that they were charging people to enter a place of worship and trying to make commodity off of it. on second thought, they may be charging, so that people like me don’t just barge in and breaking every rule in the book. still, is an entrance fee really necessary? it’s not a lot but still annoyed me. anyways, i’m trying to explain to the guard that my bag is still inside the mosque and all i wanted to do was grab it and leave. i didn’t want to pay any sort of entrance fee. any peace i had left from being inside the mosque was gone. in the midst of all this, said shows up with our stuff. thank god. a quick thank you, and we leave. we walk maybe 2 more miles and finally, finally… rainbow street!!!



eventually, wild jordan. it’s 4:45 at this point. i begin studying but eventually pass out from exhaustion. after a nice and refreshing nap, i begin work around 6 PM. stunning view of amman from the wild jordan library...



not the way i anticipated the day to go, but it was great nonetheless. after wild jordan, we grab a quick bite to eat at al-quds falafel before cabbing home. all in all, i spent 1.5 JD on the day. not bad. still can’t believe i trudged across amman for 2.5 hours. back home by 8:20.