Walking in Amman

Spring at last...

The last time I wrote, it was snowing in Amman. At least for now, it seems that was Winter's final hurrah.  In the days since, the weather has left the cold and rain behind and committed fully to Spring.  The past week or so has been absolutely gorgeous here in Jordan.  This past friday, I took advantage of the weather and, after a hearty brunch and a few hours of work at Books@Cafe, I decided to walk back to my apartment, taking care to explore every nook and cranny of Jabal Amman that I came across along the way.

Look! A Bookstore!

Before I continue, let me explain a little more about Friday, or يوم الجمعة. I touched briefly on the topic in my post about adventures in the souk, but learning is fun!  Friday is a Holy day, as I've mentioned before, somewhat similar to Sunday in the States. If by similar you mean completely different.  Friday here is what Sunday used to be.  Friday is a family day; most shops outside of cafes and restaurants close for the day.  Families spend the day together; watching TV, inviting extended relatives over, maybe going as a group to the souk or to a restaurant, and perhaps to the mosque to pray.  With the exception of the downtown area (which always seems to be busy) Amman is a quiet city on Friday.  Most locals don't venture out by themselves.

This is important because as I walked back from Rainbow Street to my apartment, for the first time I truly felt like a foreigner.  In the middle of the afternoon on a Friday, if there are people on the streets, they are most likely men - and I felt watched. I could feel the questioning glances on me - not hostile, certainly alien.  The eyes that fell on me as I traversed uneven sidewalks and winding, ancient stairways were different from the glances I receive in DC.  These were - for better or for worse - invasive somehow.  And do not take this as "bad" or "scary" because that's not what it is.  The culture is different here.  We are all humans, but we do grow up in different societies that lead to differences in the way we look at the world.  There are also similarities.  In this case, the culture in Jordan is very much reactive.  I don't mean this in terms of the Arab Spring or anything like that - but everyone watches everyone else. Who you talk to, who you walk with, where you go and what you do matter here.  Not so much for me, because I am a foreigner, but within the culture, it is perfectly normal to watch someone what we might consider blatantly in the States.  I pass no judgments here; all I can say is that I felt the sense of 'other' as I explored late Friday afternoon.

I also saw vignettes of daily life I hadn't seen before; kids playing soccer in 2nd Circle, young boys and girls chasing each other around their backyard, their laughter filling the bright sky with lightheartedness, a brother and sister watching me pass from their balcony.  And as I walked, between apartment buildings slices of the city skyline stunned me with their beauty; city and vegetation spreading down over rolling, rocky hills for an instant before being covered by the beige sandstone of Amman.

2nd Circle soccer games; the hotel in the background was actually my orientation hotel

I love how the city skyline is always present 

The Le Royal, guiding me home

A surprising patch of green right by my apartment! Are those cherry blossoms in the back?

This city is beautiful.  This country is beautiful.  The people are as varied as those of the United States in viewpoint if not necessarily appearance.  There are things I will miss about Jordan, there are things I miss now about the United States.  But on days like last Friday, with a gentle breeze wisking away the heat of the sun under a cloudless, clear blue sky, as I glance out at the city and see the houses like bricks upon one another, as if grown out of the sides of the mountains Amman was built on, I can't not love this country, and I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world right now.