Amman: Done and Done

May 11, 2007 9:40pm, Canary Hotel, Amman
Now what? I arrived to Amman this afternoon, and it was relatively simple. I never found my wallet with dinars (Jordanian currency) and SIM card. Perhaps I left it in London for safekeeping. I got to the hotel around 1, after leaving my friend’s house in Jerusalem at 9:30 this morning. Hopefully one day I will be able to make it over in less than 4 hours…I was awake and excited upon arrival, and decided that my first actions should be using internet and buying a SIM card. Easier said than done, on a Friday afternoon. EVER YTHING is closed. Granted today was not as bad as my attempts to go out when I first arrived last year during Ramadan, but it took me about 30 mins of walking to find an open phone store. I got an oomniah this time – I like that you can transfer credit between users, and I thought it was time to try something new. I had wanted to go internet-ing and have coffee at the Parisian café here in jebel weibda (name of neighborhood), but it was very closed when I arrived. So I continued walking (as I am apt to do, without stopping to ask for directions) to the balad (downtown) so I got get a serveece (shared taxi on a set route) to my old neighborhood, jebel amman. I went to books@café, where the free internet almost made the ridiculously expensive lemonade worthwhile. I wrote many text messages and a couple of emails, and just chilled for a bit. Unfortunately the connection was slow and I kept getting kicked off of gmail and msn, so I posted an add on the apartment board and am keeping my fingers crossed. Around 4 I decided I had to start getting serious about the apartment searching. I wandered up the hill and stopped by JARA (a weekly arts & crafts market put on by the Jebel Amman Residents Association in the summer and Ramadan – conveniently reopened last weekend), but didn’t have time to seriously shop cause I wanted to get to my old neighborhood before the dukan (little market) closed. Not much had changed as I walked. The sidewalk was still a mess in the usual places. I saw a new pizza place and some new food store (perhaps the specialty food store D mentioned he wanted to open? I wish I had his number). By the time I got to my area the dukan had closed, so I went to my building to talk to the bwab (building super), and check on the possibility of a vacancy where I used to live. As it turns out he is in Sudan for a few weeks, but I spent some time sitting and talking and having tea with his wife, mom, and kids. Doesn’t look like any possibilities in the building, but I promised I’d come back and visit. I think they will keep an eye out for me. I wandered to Haboob (fancier, chain mini-mart) to get some water and snacks, and then got a Reem Shwarma for a late lunch. I brought it back with me to the hotel, thinking I would have a snack and get some work done, which of course didn’t happen. There was some kind of ceremony with bagpipes and loud drums going on at the school across the street, so concentration was out of the question. Instead I took a nap, something I haven’t done in ages. I was awoken by a phone call from an old friend, who informed me her brother is getting married in a month and I should come to the wedding. While getting ready to go to dinner I managed to knock a bottle of nail polish on the tile floor, which broke and splashed all over my sneakers (thanks, primark). Of course all pharmacies are closed, so my shoes, the floor, and the sink look like they are covered in blood, which won’t come off. I will have to get some remover in the morning first thing. I had a leisurely walk downtown and had a lovely dinner by myself at Al-Quds. I feasted on grilled chicken with special rice, salad, olives, bread, and a bottle of water for about $5. I missed this country…I walked through town a bit before coming back, checking out habiba, eco-tourism/balat al-rashid, and the newspaper stand before the whistling started to get to me and I took a taxi back. I got in right as the evening call to prayer was starting. The radio was about half a second faster than the mosques we drove by, which created an amazing sound.
Now I need to buck-up and get to work. Tomorrow I need to submit, and then look for an apartment, study Arabic, and start to email people here and set up interviews. Why did I leave England without finishing my essays? Oy….