February 7, 2010

The beginning of my 6th month in Jordan, and I finally received my work permit and iqama today.

Wow. That's all.

Out and about in the country

Yesterday, after my 1 PM lesson with Linda, I traveled with Ramez to his hometown of Fuheis, an entirely Christian settlement about a half-hour drive outside of Amman. Traffic was really intense (loud cars, nasty exhaust, too much pollution) on our way there, but once we arrived, I was amazed at how little noise there actually was. The only sounds were coming from neighboring kids playing and dogs barking in the distance. I wish I brought my camera with me because the view was absolutely breath-taking. The sky was cloudy, the air was heavy, and it really felt like a day in October in Ithaca. We ate lunch - oozie and boiled vegetables, fresh-squeezed orange juice, arabic coffee, tea, baklava and chocolate - outside overlooking the country-side. I couldn't get over the amount of nature! I don't think I'm meant to reside permanently in a city. During our meal, a shepherd and a herd of sheep walked down the road. It was picturesque. Ramez told me, "If you enjoy this sort of thing, you're lucky. I swear on all things holy this never happens."

After finishing our lunch, Ramez took me for a tour of Fuheis, that, for being a small town, has a tremendous amount of history and interesting places to see and talk about. From one location it's possible to see the West Bank, and it blows my mind that most of the people who see this view every single day will never have the opportunity to go there. After my tour, we attended an Arabic Mass in one of the two large Catholic Churches in Fuheis.

Kan ieome 7ilu.

I have fabulous friends

On Friday afternoon after Church, I ate mansaf for the first time with my student's family. Mansaf is the traditional Jordanian dish comprised of rice, meat, and yogurt. Check this out if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansaf

And it was really delicious. We talked in Arabic most of the time, an event I wish happened with more frequency here. I don't speak well at all, but I can get by. Afterward I had turkish coffee and cake and gave a theory lesson.

After coming home (and several hours of good conversation later), I skyped with E.j. for the first time in about 3 weeks. Ya habibi, we shouldn't go this long without talking because it seems we have to make lists of all the things we have to say. This is the downside to living 9,500 miles away from your best friend. Around 8:30 or so, Ramez came and picked me up, and we went to a restaurant in First Circle called Magana - the place with the MOST amazing shi-sha in Amman. No contest. I smoked lemon-mint, and Ramez ordered two-apples. We talked for hours about politics, religion, sex, sexuality, dating in different cultures, spiritual experiences, our previous relationships, and everything in between. It's been SO long since I've sat down and hashed out a conversation as lovely as this one was. After coming home, I talked to my Dad for about an hour. A beautiful day of relaxing.

Yesterday I had a full day of teaching - beginning at 9:00 AM. As was predicted for me, my day was good, but relatively uneventful. I practiced for about 3 hours, taught 5 lessons (about an hour a piece), drank tea, and sat through a 2-hour orchestra rehearsal. Afterward, I was really sleepy but not exactly in the mood to go home. Fadi and Munia suggested that I come with them to their house - we tried inviting others but everyone had plans - and we hung out until about 1:30 AM. Again, I partook of delicious Arabic food and good conversation. We listened to Arabic music and Classical music, and shared our favorite instrumentalists and singers with each other (via Youtube). I forgot exactly how much I love opera. I need to stop doing this to myself and just listen more regularly! It's wonderful.

Today I'm planning to teach a lesson at 1 PM. What's amazing right now is that the college-level students are on a break. This means that I don't have any college-level classes (Ear-Training, Theory, Form) to teach right now. I will have a relatively relaxing afternoon and then an epic orchestra rehearsal tonight. We're playing music - Bartered Bride Overture, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, and Tchaik 4 - that is too hard for us, but I must admit that I'm enjoying it.

I just returned home from the Friday, noon, English-speaking Mass in Jabal Al-Wehbde. The man who sat next to me - his name is Raymond - gave me typed-up prayer sheets and a Mother Mary pendant, and at the end of the Mass told me he was from Jerusalem. I had really beautiful, quality, silent time with him today. It's been a long time since I've experienced something like that. Especially with someone who only a few minutes earlier was a complete stranger.

I'm looking forward to this afternoon - lunch, turkish coffee, music theory, and practicing. I'm still trying to decide what my plans should be for the remainder of the evening, and if it should involve going somewhere or staying put. I'm happy either way.

Too much (clap clap!) time on my hands...

I've been eating so well this week it almost seems unfair.

I've been helping one of my students with her music theory homework, and her mom has been inviting me to their home for lunch as a thank you. Holy cow. On Sunday, we ate kusa adowallah (I have no idea how to actually spell this), but squash stuffed with rice. So good. Yesterday they fed me this dish that literally means "upside-down" in Arabic - chicken with rice... and the tabbouleh! So delicious. Today, Rana took me to her grandparents' home where we ate a totally different kind of rice and chicken dish - with chicken broth and vegetables over top. It was so delicious that I ate 3 helpings. For dessert we had some kind of sweet pastry - phillo dough stuffed with cheese filling. Mmmm. I think I've gained over half the weight I lost with the Ameba (oh George, I don't miss you) this week.

I'm in class giving my final analysis exam and wondering where the last four months have gone. Seriously, I can't figure it out. February 6th will mark the beginning of my 6th month here in Amman.

Next semester I'm teaching "Introduction to Form and Analysis". I'm thinking I'll probably give the same class with some baby-steps into the class. This way if I teach the course again in the fall, I can give them 20th-century form and analysis. :D

I'm singing with a choir now - It's funny to me because Allyss also sings with the group. On the list of my life expectations, singing in a choir in Jordan with my first voice teacher did not initially appear. I think it will prove to be a really fun semester with this group. We're traveling to Germany in May! Walla! I'm excited.

It's been really cold here the past few days - temperatures as low as 0 at night. It's been amazing. It makes me feel like a little kid. I think I eventually I need to live some place where cold weather and snow are a part of daily winter life. I've been missing Ithaca, not in a realistic way, but in a nostalgic way... oh I wish I could dig my car out of a snow bank right about now!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm planning to go with Haifa to cut my hair. I hope this means a little separation and break from the bad energy I've been carrying with me lately.

The end of next month will bring big changes to my place of employment - I'm REALLY hoping that they're positive ones.

It's been Ithacating all day

And I feel so alive.

Rain. Ridiculous winds. Grey skies. It's supposed to be cold enough tonight that it may snow. I really hope so. It's kind of funny to me how I never realized (until now) that I feel so alive in cold weather. The kind that makes you shiver when you walk outside. It's what I've been missing so far this winter.

Since when is it January 25?

We played a combined concert about a week ago in honor of the king's birthday with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. The program included the Overture to Rossini's La Gazza Ladra, Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1, and R-K's Scheherazade. I had so much fun preparing for this concert. It's the first time in a long time that I actually felt relaxed and excited about performing. And it was SO nice to play with harp.

Next concert includes Tchaik 4!

Yesterday some of my students played in a recital with Allyss's voice studio in the main hall of the conservatory. It was so warm in there, to the point that I would have been most upset if I were performing. I was so proud of each of my students, though - one as young as twelve - to get up and play in front of a room full of people - and play MUSICALLY! It's really encouraging for me to know that they're all working so hard.

The other night Maryellen and I had Ramez over for dinner and we watched Lilo and Stitch. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. I've realized recently is that I'm not laughing as much as I used to... a point that definitely deserves to be worked on.

I've been going to Mass again recently and it is so refreshing. What's really interesting to me is the disparity between the services. On Fridays I go to a Mass in English, and it seems that the entire Filipino population of Amman is there, while on Sundays and during the week, I go to a 7:30 AM Mass that is filled with older Arabic-speaking men and women who seem perplexed with my attendance.

It's so cold in my house right now. To the point that I'm just amused. And that I may wear my winter hat to bed. :)

Happy New Year!

It's 5:15 in the morning, Mosque prayers have nearly finished, and I feel incredibly blessed.

Chinese food

tastes better in Jordan.

My stomach seems to be getting back to some semblance of normality and I enjoyed a really fabulous Chinese dinner out with Fadi and Munia. We went out around 10, and when we returned home at 11:30 or so, we made a sweet dish for tomorrow's New Year's festivities. It involved pineapple, pistachios, and and fresh cream. I'm in!

I practiced tonight. Hallelujah!

Life is so different for me than it was just one year ago. I think about how I was spending my days during this week last year... it's bizarre. Today, I've been amazed with the continuous stream of "Wow. I'm really appreciating my time in Jordan" that I've been feeling.

Happy New Year!

December 29th

9 PM.

Today was lazy (not much of a change, I know), but really enjoyable. I woke up around 9:30, got ready, and went with Fadi, Munia, and Munia's mom to take Munia's sister Seja to a school exam. After dropping her off, we drove to Fadi's hometown of Fahaz to visit his mother. I was so tired for some reason, and the conversation was entirely in Arabic. Normally this is fine, but it's been happening with such frequency lately (Arabic conversation) that I just start to zone out and think about something totally unrelated to the current situation rather than listening for words that I'm familiar with. Today I was thinking how the house in which Fadi grew up reminded me of my Aunt Charlene's house in Owego, NY. A strange connection considering I found myself today in the middle of small-town Jordan. During our visit, a vegetable truck drove by (yalla bandora! yalla khyar! yalla batata!) and we bought tomatoes and cucumbers. Welcome to my life. :)

After returning home (yes I really feel like I've moved in here), Fadi and I played with Munia's sister Jude while Munia prepared lunch: scrambled eggs, olives, lunch meat, several kinds of cheese, this garlic/pickled eggplant dish, apricot jam, and tuna with lemon - all eaten with this delicious pita bread.

I'm playing a gig for the Swiss ambassador on January 2nd with Fadi, Taraq, Laith, and Osstaz Mohammed, and we rehearsed for about an hour tonight. It was the first time I played since I became ill on the 17th. Yuck. I feel like I've been smoking a pack a day for the past month - really I couldn't breathe. I'm hoping this improves sometime in the next few days :)

It's in the 50's outside and it feels like winter. Really winter. What a change from Ithaca.

I've been terrible about updating this thing

So Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.

I could back-track, but I think it might be best for me to go from this point forward and just give you the bullet points of the past month or so:

- American-style Thanksgiving with 2 turkeys, green bean casserole (with home-made french-fried onions!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, blueberry muffins, deviled eggs, dressing... the list goes on. Plus some really delicious wine and fantastic dessert. Maryellen made us all write down things that we were thankful for about another person in the room. We topped off the evening with American-style coffee. It was really lovely to share this with my Jordanian friends.

My plate:

- Trip to Cairo two days later. Totally insane and so much fun. Where Maryellen and I earned our "joined-at-the-hip" status. Highlights included eating stuffed pigeon, going on a Nile River cruise, seeing the Pyramids of Giza on horseback, going to the National Museum (and seeing mummies and all of the King Tut exhibition), shopping in downtown Cairo, visiting the Al-Hussein Mosque, eating, eating, and more eating, a day trip to Alexandria and seeing the fantastic library (a building that I swear is straight out of The Fountainhead - I think the most aesthetically pleasing and functional piece of architecture I've ever witnessed), a delicious fish lunch and putting my feet in the Mediterranean, traveling back to Cairo and watching terrible Egyptian films, going to a Cairo Symphony rehearsal, and finally flying back to Amman. My landing in Amman was the strangest sensation - sitting between Ostaz Mohammad and Zainab and feeling totally comfortable and like I was really coming home. This feeling was so different from the anxiety, the fear, and the uncertainty I felt the first time I landed in Amman only three months earlier. Amman is my home.

On horseback with pyramid:

- The Nutcracker and my ameba friend. Several rehearsals and many, many stomach-aches later.... The Amman production of the Nutcracker reminded me of the movie Best in Show. A mock-u-mentary of the Nutcracker. The dancers were pretty terrible. And the music was not much better. And ohh my stomach. Sometime while in Egypt I contracted an ameba friend. But no one here could figure out that it was an ameba friend... fifteen pounds, three and a half weeks later, two trips to the hospital (with really fantastic care) and finally a third visit (that included the most pain I've ever experienced) (and a partridge in a pear tree?), I was finally diagnosed with a bacterial infection. With Maryellen in Israel and Art and Allyss in Lebanon, Fadi and Munia agreed to take care of me during this time. I am so thankful because I really don't think I could have taken care of myself. Now, two days after Christmas, I'm eating and finally feeling like a human being again.

- Christmas in Amman. Mostly spent sleeping and healing. But one really wild experience was on Christmas morning here at Fadi and Munia's home in Jabal-Al-Wehbde, church bells were wildly ringing as Mass let out while simultaneously, Friday morning prayers began over the mosque's loud-speaker. What a confusing audio anomaly! This night Mohannad decided that he was just going to let me eat and see what happened. It was so painful but SO delicious! My first real meal in over a week!

-post-Christmas in Amman - a very lazy time indeed. I'm so grateful for this break from teaching so that I can actually sleep and feel better. Much-needed and well-deserved resting time.

And now I will attempt to update this blog on a more regular basis.

Analysis

I'm writing this while giving an exam in my form class. How amusing. It's weird to be a teacher. Really. I can talk intelligently about music with just about anyone, but then to give an exam on the material? How strange.

We're listening to Pur ti miro, pur ti godo from L'incoronazione di Poppea. I forgot how absolutely stunning the music from this opera really is. Truly. It's like I moved to Jordan to fall in love with opera again. For instance, yesterday in my ear training class, we listened to the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde to discuss extended tertians in Romantic music. And to watch my students who had never heard music such as this just be totally enveloped by the beautiful colors of Wagner was so inspiring.

Sectionals last night were equally fun and frustrating. We need time to work out the music on our own before meeting in a group; however, I really enjoy spending time with Maryellen and Ala'a.

Tomorrow we are having an American Thanksgiving dinner in Amman. And I'll probably eat turkey. Weird! Saturday we are leaving to Egypt for a few days. I'm really looking forward to this short vacation.

This week has been totally insane

but let me try to explain it.

Last Thursday we left for Aqaba around 10 AM. We arrived sometime in the late afternoon after a long bus ride of really amusing conversation and a short Arabic lesson. The rest-stops along the way were sort of what I expected to find in a weird way - places where you could buy quirky little souvenirs and food and drinks that cost entirely too much money.

Aqaba is so beautiful. We played for the grand opening of a new hotel, and were given three really amazing buffet-style meals that included fresh sushi and all kinds of delicious Arabic food. Our concert went reasonably well, and Joe is on his way to becoming a famous crooner of old Frank Sinatra tunes in the Middle East. After the concert we drove back to our hotel where we stayed awake until nearly 4 AM just drinking and smoking arghelia and enjoying each other's company. Sometime around 2 AM, we decided to walk down to the beach where I put my feet in the Red Sea for the first time. It was incredible. After Maryellen and I returned to our room (with the most amazing shower I think I've ever experienced), I started to realize that I was able to have so much fun because I'm actually feeling like myself. This and the company of good people made for an enjoyable trip.

The next day we woke up later than anticipated (but not before breakfast was finished), ate an amazing meal, and spent the next several hours swimming in the Red Sea and lounging the beach. The water was surprisingly warm and very salty. Coral lines the shoreline, so in order to get into the sea you have to walk out on a long floating dock. It was entertaining to watch colleagues swimming and goofing around. As I'm sure it was for them, too.

We arrived back in Amman around 9:00 that evening after another surprisingly enjoyable bus ride. Andrew and I talked about Arabic for a while and then had some practical-application time.

Our symphony concert this Wednesday went fairly well. The second movement of the Beethoven Triple Concerto is the best I think I've heard this group sound yet. It's really encouraging to know that we're definitely improving. I was pleased with my own personal performance, too, which is something that doesn't happen with much frequency. I'm working on it.

Yesterday was an overall bizarre experience. After teaching my morning lessons, Haifa took me to her hair dresser who wanted to take pictures of a blonde girl for brochures for her salon. She had to leave after a half an hour and left me in the company of several women, none of whom speak English. I realized yesterday just how limited my Arabic skills are by how little I spoke the entire day. One of the women painted my nails and washed my hair, and the other dried it, put it in curlers, and then proceeded to paint my face with the most makeup I've ever worn - including during plays in high school. In fact, when Haifa and I arrived back at my apartment, we stopped in to see Tim and Christina, neither of whom recognized me until I spoke. After the salon experience, we took a taxi to a photo studio where I had another equally bizarre experience with the photographer. The whole while everyone kept asking me if I am married - and I kept saying no - and they continually responded by saying, "today you are!" I don't think the vale pinned in my hair allowed me any room to argue. The pictures are beautiful, and I'll definitely post them if I happen to get a copy.

All of that said, it was suggested that I leave the makeup on for the rest of the evening, which included attending a beautiful Arabic music concert. Several of my students performed a little more than an hour of music with their group "Sharq". It's been a long time since I've attended a concert with the liberty of just sitting back and enjoying the music. After the concert we had a going-away party for Lisa, who is returning to America on Saturday. I would like to believe everyone had a nice time. I know that I really enjoyed myself.

Today is Friday and I'm choosing to spend it doing absolutely nothing. It's a really nice feeling. I've never been much for being unproductive on days off, but this has been a totally exhausting week.

For those of you who've been asking where you can send a letter...

Try this address:

King Hussein Foundation

National Conservatory of Music Foundation

PO Box 926687

Amman 11110

Jordan

ATT: Aimee Shorten

We're going to the Red Sea tomorrow to play a concert in Aqaba!! More to come on this later :)

Army Orchestra

This morning the Sinfonietta played a concert for the Jordanian Army Orchestra (who happen to be training at the NMC), and Jordanian Army Orchestra played a concert for us. They went first. Their program included a stunning version of "Ode to Joy" and another piece that required timpani hits on 2 and 4. It kind of blew my mind that they're getting paid for this. That this is their job - to learn to play an instrument for the first time at the age of 18 - and be employed by the Jordanian government. It was a really strange experience having come from America where good military music gigs are difficult to win. If this sounds like I'm complaining, it's not the tone I'm intending at all. It's just bizarre. Welcome to Jordan.

Post-concert, I attended a quintet rehearsal followed immediately by an Arabic lesson. During this time, one of my students, Rania, suggested that she, Fadi, and I play a trio for flute, cello, and piano. It was my favorite part of today. No questions asked. I can't remember the last time I just sat down and read chamber music just for fun. It has to be since around June when Josh and I were working on Hottetterre. Today we played Weber, and the piece was full of bizarre harmonies and mode mixtures, but it didn't matter. I really hope we continue to do this - it was so refreshing!

Tomorrow, I will write program notes on Tchaikovsky and Beethoven.

Shway Shway Arabi

But it's really showing improvement. Today was surprisingly wonderful considering the rude awakening I experienced this morning. I set my alarm for 7:40 and was planning to leave the house at 8:15. Instead, I woke up at 8:14. Awesome. After running around like a fool, Maryellen and I managed to leave the house at 8:25. Not bad. I taught a lesson at 9, and then practiced until around noon. At this point, Nadeen stopped by my studio and I started asking her Arabic questions. Holy Arabic questions. My short vocabulary list for the week was more than tripled by the time we finished our lesson an hour and a half later. Fadi joined in, and he started asking me questions and expected complete-sentence answers. As a reward for putting my brain through a blender, he took us to Reem on 2nd circle - the best Shawarma in all of Amman (or so I'm told). I have to admit, it was REALLY good.

After we finished our lunch, Nadeen and I walked to il Ballad again, this time to go to the fruit market. I was going to go myself, but I'm so glad that she decided to come with me. I don't know that I've ever been downtown at this time of day, but it was totally insane. People were everywhere, and not in the good way. On the way, we stopped at a nuts-and-seeds shop and where I bought a kilo of mixed nuts for 2 and 1/2 dinar. And they're fantastic. By the time we reached the souk, Nadeen had told me all of the words that the men were saying to us along the way including, "Oh, my eyes!" I thought this was hilarious. We ended up with really amazing deals at the souk, including 1 and 1/2 kilos apples, 1 kilo sweet potatoes, 1 kilo potatoes, 1 kilo tangerines, 8 ears of corn, 1 kilo tomatoes, 1 kilo onions, 1 kilo cucumbers... all for about 6 JD. And the quality is just phenomenal. Organic and delicious. Maryellen, Joe, Artie, and I had a vegetable feast for dinner tonight. Afterward, Artie and I went to the corner-store market where we found an Arabic bomileh? - I'm not exactly sure what this is other than some sort of citrus fruit, but it looked like this:

I'm saddened to report that I didn't actually enjoy it at all.

Tomorrow morning, Sinfonietta is playing a small concert, and then we have a quintet rehearsal. I teach in the afternoon, and then another rehearsal tomorrow night. And I should have some time in there to practice. Summer festival materials are finally starting to come together.... and the Mozart is at a respectable performance tempo. Moomtaz!

On my walk to work today

Bob Dylan healed my soul. It's not really so profound, but listening to Dylan was exactly what I needed. It was a completely centering experience amidst all of the Amman traffic.

I am happy to report that I'm finally feeling like myself again. There's really nothing I can compare with practicing, journalling, reading John Updike and ee cummings, and listening to Anner Bylsma. And I forgot about all of that for a while. Instead of focusing on the things that make me me, I was trying to blend in with my new surroundings. To acclimate myself to this new culture and job. But if you know me at all, you probably know that I lack chameleon skills.

"in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why,remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of waking is to dream
remember so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with paradise)
forgetting if,remember yes

in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend,
remember seek(forgetting find)

and in a mystery to be
(when time from time shall set us free)
forgetting me,remember me"

I just re-read the last two blog updates

And I swear, the more Arabic I learn, the more terrible my English grammar and sentence structure become.

Sadly, I don't really mind.

Nadeen told me today that she's holding an Arabic language competition for the foreigners for the prize of eating a wonderful traditional meal with her family. Clearly the idea of learning language for a fabulous dinner = a win win situation. I'm pleased with my progress so far, but I'm going to start writing myself vocabulary lists and trying to memorize some more nouns. Learning some more verbs would also be good - this way I will sound less like "I go store. Aimee hungry. Aimee want eat" (10 points to you if you catch this reference) and more like a civilized person.

Today was a fairly typical Saturday here in Amman: wake up at 8, leave by 8:30, teach SOS kids from 9 until 10, enjoy quintet rehearsal until lunch time, break for falafel and water, practice the afternoon away, teach from 3 until 4, take tea with some students, teach from 4:45 until 5:45, converse with Nadeen on my way downstairs, head home by taxi, eat a delicious dinner of left-over curried vegetables, vegetables with tuna, and a pomegranate, walk to Haboob to retrieve smoothie-making materials, walk home from Haboob, make smoothies, enjoy pleasant conversation, prepare to go to sleep.

My students are really wonderful and are inspiring me to become a better teacher. More to come on this later.

Citadel Day

After waking up late on this glorious Friday, Maryellen, Joe, and I decided to trek to the Citadel. Thinking that the taxi driver would take us through the downtown and up the hill, we took a cab to Rainbow Street to get some breakfast. It'd been SO long since I'd been to Rainbow Street - it was so nice to explore again. We ended up eating breakfast at Family Oven where I ordered a not-so-strong American-style coffee and a spinach manaesh, and Maryellen and I split a Nutella dessert. Dessert with breakfast always means it's going to be a good day.

We took a cab to the Citadel, and it appeared that we were headed in a totally wrong direction. Instead of going to the downtown, the cab driver drove us past third circle - the direction from which we came. We spent the entire cab ride thinking that we weren't going to make it there, and all of a sudden we arrived at the hill where it is located. The ruins were amazing, and I really enjoyed the museum. I love to nerd-out on outings such as this one. And I saw the Dead Sea Scrolls!

In totally unrelated news, the hot water in our apartment doesn't seem to be working, and my bathtub is not draining. But on the bright side, I got a warmer blanket for my bed and am sleeping much warmer in my totally uncomfortable bed. And I made a vegetable curry for dinner, and Joe made some cookies. Maryellen made a cake, too. We're so domestic.

Fun in il Ballad

Today felt like 10 days wrapped into 1, and is definitely worth writing about.

Early this morning, I received a text message from my 10:30 lesson student, Samer, telling me that he would be unable to attend the lesson today. Although I look forward to working with him each week, it was kind of nice to roll over and go back to sleep for a while. I made it to the conservatory to only be told by my ear training students that only 3 out of 7 would be able to attend the class today. The others are sick with the same flu that knocked me down last week. So instead of having an intensive class, we listened to a Radiolab episode about Wagner's Ring Cycle. It was SO refreshing to talk about music history with people who were actually interested in listening. Artie made a suggestion to me that I should start learning more about music history on my own to keep myself entertained. After today's class, I'm definitely inspired to do this.

After class, Joe and Nadeen and I made plans to go to il Ballad - the downtown. Tikako (with whom I was eating lunch when they arrived in the cafeteria) asked if she could drive us so that someone could wait in her car in the crowded no-space-to-park streets so that she wouldn't get a ticket while she ran into a restaurant to grab some take-away dinner. A ride to downtown? Sounds OK to me! After driving through all of the traffic and feeling REALLY car sick, we made it safely to the restaurant. Joe and I went into the restaurant (Cairo Restaurant) with Tikako, watched her order, and gawked at the delicious food behind the glass. As a reward for waiting with her she gave us some stuff grape leaves. Joe and I eventually ate these for dinner - and they were phenomenal.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEVE5GL05JFPJXSIbmXD4MH8v27vL30fSpBkq8LnO_4tvDnRZUYftqNb4CpN9TVm4I7KtfkIOIPt4bUO8cVYiIm_KXNF-vmlN9XbrquSYBlZkA4cScCTd3bgS8KEgCsZdRUUFbnXobeIQ/s400/grape_leaves.jpg

After leaving Tikako, we had a fairly typical downtown experience. Nadeen bought a ring and a necklace from an "antique" store - where the items were actually just made to look antique - and were therefore incredibly affordable. We wandered to the oldest nut/seed place in Ballad - established 1944 - where we bought bizzir and the clerk gave us nooga for free as his treat. Nooga is a kind of a gummy treat that tasted something like Arabic ice cream covered in pistachios. It was quite tasty. I looked for a picture of this, but I can't seem to find one. I'll buy another and take a picture myself. I had a really amazing time today - good company is something that absolutely can't be replaced. I learned many new Arabic words today, too. Always a plus :)

After wandering back to the conservatory, Joe and I made the trek up the hill towards the apartment. The pollution hung like fog over the city this evening and was thick enough that you could almost cut it with a knife. Breathing was interesting. On the way home, we saw this man who was selling fresh almonds from Damascus on the street. He gave us a few to eat. I literally had no cash on me, or I would have gladly traded him a dinar for these delicious nuts. Next time.

After eating our stuffed grape leaves and practicing for a short while, I went to the movies with Nadeen, Humam, and Humam's friend. We saw "The Ugly Truth," a movie that most definitely did not increase my intelligence, but it was so nice to just sit and not think for a few hours. To become engrossed in someone else's drama. Just like going to the movies in America, we stopped at a store before buying our tickets to pick up snacks - far cheaper than buying them inside the theater. Nadeen and I picked some doritos and non-alcoholic beer, while Humam and his friend had a soda and a water respectively. After the movie ended, we all went out for Shawarma in Swaifia. Nadeen and I sat in the car and listened to music while the men ordered and brought the food back to the car. As this Shawarma place has no place to sit down, we had to drive a few blocks away and park. We then proceeded to eat our spoils on the trunk of the car. Apparently this is a very Jordanian thing to do, and we talked about how there may be snow sometime this winter (it's already becoming very cold). I talked about how much snow can sometimes fall at home - and about the great Ithaca snow of Valentines Day 2007. I remember looking up at the sky and seeing stars. And feeling so comfortable. And wishing that I would know that I would have a moment like this whenever I'm feeling upset, because I'm really in good company here.

After coming home, Maryellen and I talked for a while about our respective days. We also started listening to Christmas music. It's weird; there are already trees in the windows of many of the shops at the mall and it's not yet American Thanksgiving. Listening to Christmas music is really making me miss the smell of my house at Christmas time - the wood and ashes from the fireplace and cookies in the oven. And feeling the warmth of the fire while listening to NPR's broadcast of performances of the St. Olaf choir. And going to Mass at home. And I started thinking about watching Meet me in St. Louis by myself and suddenly became very homesick. Sometimes I feel I shouldn't be allowed to think too much this late at night.

Tomorrow morning we are going to the Citadel for real - and will perhaps play a game of European football in the afternoon.