Snow to Sunburnt

Soul Food

When we last chatted, the weather was miserable and I was stuck inside with nothing to do.  Yesterday, I had to buy aloe vera for a sunburn I got.  To say the weather has improved would be a drastic understatement.

I'm sure someone had a pool going for how long it would take me to find a soccer game, so if you had money on last Tuesday, you'd be correct.  First off, after class some friends and I found a Waffle House, and had breakfast for lunch.  That was absolutely a great decision.  God it was amazing.  Nutella and banana pancakes... out of this world.  Great way to spend the first part of an afternoon.  Then we went to the game!

Pretty darn close to the field,
which was cool.

I found out about the game because it was at Amman International Stadium, which is in the Sports City where I go to the gym.  As I walked in on Monday night, the floodlights in the stadium were on so I of course asked the guy at the gate what the lights were about, and he said there was a game the next day.  Obviously I had to go, especially when he further informed me that it was between Syria and Jordan.  I got that last part wrong (as well as the time of the game, but I'm still happy I found out there was a game). It was between a Syrian team, al-Ittihad, and a Jordanian team, al-Faysali.  Not the national teams, but still cool because it was an Asian Federations Cup game (best teams from the leagues all across Asia).  

Notice the security guard between
us and the crazy fans

There are two big Jordanian teams here, and you should know that Arabs care deeply about their heritage.  There is a significant Palestinian-Jordanian population here.  As you may have guessed, one team is supported by the Jordanian Jordanians (al-Faysali, the team we saw), and the other by the Palestinian Jordanians.  Jordanian Jordanians also wear read headdresses, whereas Palestinian Jordanians wear white ones.  Small things, but important nonetheless.  Overall, I was not impressed by the level of play.  If I had more time I'd try to write a full match report, but that wouldn't be of much interest to too many people, I would think.  Basically, the game ended in a 1-1 tie.  Faysali dominated much of the game and scored in the first half on a corner kick, and the Syrian team mostly bunkered in and counterattacked, scoring their goal on a dubious penalty kick given at the beginning of the second half.  

Looking down from the Castle

The group was about 20-25 American kids, including many girls.  Not sure what to expect, we were seated in front of the limited number of Faysali supporters (in a completely different section) with basically a wall of security forces between us and the crazy fans.  The security forces also politely suggested we leave about five minutes before the game ended, as we had a bunch of girls with us, which we did.  No need to get caught up in anything we didn't need to be caught up in.  

Wednesday night has become Guys Night (Plus Kelsey and Lily), which is super fun.  For me it's a way to kick back at the end of the school week and get my American fix for the week.  Basically, we get a bunch of Domino's pizzas and watch Game of Thrones, which is an awesome HBO series that someone bought here bootleg for 3 JD (Arabic subtitles, of course).  Foreign Policy says that watching it is a great way to understand international politics (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/18/realpolitik_in_a_fantasy_world), so it's educational too!

Looking up at the Castle

Soap Everywhere

Thursday I played some soccer with a bunch of Jordanians, first at the University with our program and then later with a Jordanian friend and his friends at a futsal place about a half hour away from JU.  Quite fun!

Friday, we took a trip to Ajloun, which is in northern Jordan.  This is where I got my sunburn.  We went to an old castle from the 1100s, when Saladin ruled the area and the Crusades were in full swing.  Needless to say, it was pretty cool.  It was at the top of a pretty big hill, which made it a great spot to keep watch of and seemingly hard (or at least tiring) to attack.  Then we went to a soap house where they make soap out of olive oil, and then a calligraphy studio.  All pretty cool locations.  I'll put up more pictures on Facebook in addition to the ones here.

Lunch for Class

Then today, for my Amiyya class, we went to a restaurant for lunch.  Very cool.  My kind of class.

Also, I've been seeing things about Joseph Kony all over Facebook.  After reading this FP editorial I'm pretty disenchanted with Invisible Children.  Oh well, just a thought.  http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things 

Until next time, Inshallah.

P.S. Stay tuned, we may have a guest blogger coming soon to stores near you.