Minu Jordaania - My Jordan - بلدي الأردن

World cup the Jordanian way

2010-08-06T02:08:00.000-07:00

World cup in Jordan seems to be the biggest festival/income source of the year. Everyone has an opinion, no mather if you are 8 or 80 years old. And everyone is eager to show out their preferences.

Which means the business is good! While driving with a car on a traffic light stop you can buy your favourite team flag. Every corner would sell some tricolour face paint, hair, masks, shirts scarfs. This year the sales men were extremely happy, since many of the big favourites kept on dropping out one after another. This meant that people had to change their preferences and stock them self also with new coloured goodies.

To see the game in any way you have to pay. The channel that shows the game, is a pay channel. So the cheapest option to see the games is to buy around 80JD(100 eur) access to the channel for the world cup period. The other option is to go to a bar which entrance fees start from 2 JD (3 EUR) to 20jd (25 eur). And the prices go up when the games get more important. For the finals the cheapest place was 10 JD (12 eur) and the most expensive one 35 JD (almost 40 eur!).

At first when I heard that, the thought was…well who would pay that? Surprisingly you even have to book places in advance, since they get full every night! And the most expensive ticket I managed to purchase was 20JD. Which after some thought, I figured out, was almost the price I paid for live Micheal Jackson concert!

You can just calculate the amount of money every place that broadcasts world cup earns. 4 years to set up a new business in Jordan and be a millionaire in 2 months of business.

But its not only about money. Its just general excitement around people. We were driving back from Aqaba to Amman and were stopped by the police man. He asked to see our papers…and then started asking something more in Arabic. We were confused, what’s wrong, we didn’t speed the documents are fine…so what’s the issue? Until suddenly the policeman says Argentina…Brazilia…he was just trying to share he s happiness of the game results that had just finished!

Jaanipäev

2010-06-21T12:34:00.001-07:00

Since the most important Estonian holiday is coming up, its time to educate the world about Estonian traditions :).

Here is a snap shot written by Estonian comedian Rohke Debelak, about what happens around Estonia every year on the night of 23rd of June...

We have two especially significant periods every year. One is Midsummer – St. John’s Day. This is a huge celebration. It is an ancient tradition that any Estonian

who sat at home on St. John’s Day without going anywhere and who did not bother to make a bonfire, or throw a party, had to relinquish his passport the very next day, choose another nationality and start learning another language.

On St. John’s Night, the shortest night of the year, people come together: they lug a staggering amount of firewood to one place and then set fire to it. All over the country. Thousands and thousands of bigger and smaller bonfires are in fact the reason why it never gets dark that particular night. When the fire is blazing, people start leaping over it. At the moment the flames are underneath the leaper, he or she may make a wish and it will be fulfilled. Most people in fact want to simply get across the fire alive, a wish that is mostly granted. A lot of singing goes on – once a year those who normally sing out of tune are allowed to perform in public. There is a lot of dancing too – once a year those who cannot dance are allowed to tread the dance floor. A lot of beer and stronger distillations are quaffed, and those who usually cannot drink are allowed to do so once a year.

This is a party for the entire country. Both young and old must be present, as well as the strong and the frail, and if someone happens to have a visitor from a distant land at the time, this person must certainly join in too. Animals and birds also attend: eternal friendship is sworn with them, and on many occasions man has found a common language with animals when morning is nigh. By that time, quite a few revellers have acquired some beastly aspects themselves.

...So now I just have to find a place to make a fire in Amman, to keep my citizenship still :).

2010-03-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hijab is the headscarf that women in the middle east ware. I think its time to give some induction to the head covering topic, that’s normally the first question that people have about middle east. And I am definitely not an expert, so nothing here is theoretical truth, just my observations and notes from discussion with the local girls.

Do I have to cover my head?

No covering is a religious thing. I am not a Moslem and my religion does not require me to cover, thus no one also expects me to cover.
In fact it’s the opposite. Covering your head and body is just the superficial part of the act. If you are not following the other rules of the religion, it is kind of rude to just do the superficial part. Leave an impression to be someone who you actually aren’t.
Especially in Jordan, where there is a high Christian population, religious toleration and acception is a big part of the society.

So why do girls cover?

In Islam religion you are not allowed to have any physical contact between man and woman before the marriage. But since men are built to have physical needs and fancy girls, the girls should make their life easier. If the girl covers the attractiveness of her body, then the men have easier to resist her.
So its actually the woman who has the strength, power and responsibility to keep the guys pure to the god.

Why do some cover all face (veil) and some just hear (hijab)?

don’t really have a good answer to that. Some say that there is nothing in the Koran that tells to cover the whole face! But the only reason I have hear is the following:
When you think that you have so irresistible beauty, then you should cover more. But mainly its only the old women veiling themselves. Haven’t really seen the beauty under the veil yet.

Do they always cover?

Off course you don’t need to cover in front of other women. When there are just women in the room, everyone takes off their scarf.
You are supposed to cover only from the guys who could be potentially interested in you and could marry you.
So for example if you are a 40 year old mom and you meet your 10 year old sons friends, its ok not to cover. Or when are with your relatives and family, who are close enough not to propose to you, you don’t have to cover.

Here is a party taken at girls night, when we asked our Moslem friends to cover us up:

The other side

Now the side that I haven’t figured out yet. For young girls hijabs seem to be more of a fashion item. There are different ways how you can do them. Nowadays its fashion to have your head look as big as possible. So the teenagers actually put newspaper under the hijab to make their hair look bigger.
Then some girls were thigh jeans or kind of short skirts that show more of their body shape than the scarf hides.
Most of the young girls match the style and color of the hijab with their clothes and it actually looks very stylish and cool. And some of them actually might look better with this style and without it.

To finish the story I have to go back to the best explanation I have heard from an Arab girl in AIESEC conference few year s ago. As the westerners think - poor girls they are forced to cover them selves. The Moslems think - poor western girls they are forced to wear bikini. The reality is both is a personal choice and not everyone in either society does that.

Food

2010-02-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

Big part of a cultural experience is always the food. And I have to say the food over here is pretty delicious. In fact it has been so good that I have over eaten it. Our first months we could have hummus and falafel for every meal and be so happy about it. At that point I didn’t understand the locals, how can you not want falafel for breakfast everyday??
So here is the break down of the top Jordanian/Middle- Eastern foods:
1. Falafel - chickpea bolls. They seem like easy food that everyone can make, but once you have had a good falafel, you don’t want the once that everyone can make. In Amman everyone knows the one and only place that has been around for years and sells the best falafels. In fact they are so special that you cant even by the falafels on their own.
Apart from the regular falafels, you can also find bigger once, with sesame seeds and onions.
2. Hummus - chickpea tip. Normally you eat it with bread and falafel and some hot sauce. The taste of it depends a lot on how much tahini (sesame seeds and olive oil mix)has been added.
3. Foul - favabeans tip. Not my favorite one so cant really comment on that.
4. Lebnah - something in the middle of cream cheese and yoghurt
5. Pickled everything - cucumber, cauliflower, carrots etc. every breakfast comes with pickled mix and plate of fresh tomatoes, onions and mint.
6. Mansef - Lamb meat boiled in yoghurt, eaten with rice and yoghurt sauce. Delicious meal that is made for every special occasion and also non-special ones J . And you eat it till you cant move anymore
7. Knafe - phyllo pastry with riccota cheese and peanuts. A delicious desert!
8. Zattar - Thyme, oregano, marjoram and basil mixed with sesame seeds. Spice mix that is eaten with Arabic bread and cheese.
9. Tabbouleh - Parsley, mint, tomatoes and spring onion salad, with lemon juice and olive oil.
10. Tea - a lot of black tea with mint and almost the same amount of sugar that tea.
　

Jerusalem and Bethlehem

2010-01-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

On Christmas we traveled to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Left early on the 24th to cross the border from the King Hussein bridge. Which is the only border where you have a chance to gross to Palestine without getting the Israel stamp in your passport.

Once you have this stamp in your passport, no other middle eastern country will allow you in. In middle east Israel is not accepted as a country. There is one country, Palestine.

The border grossing was long, but safe. Lot of check points and explaining to the Israel military girls (Only young girls with big guns as military) why you don’t want the stamp in your passport.

We arrived in Jerusalem during noon. The city amazed us with the greenness and level of development from the first sight. The main attraction is the old city of Jerusalem. A small area surrounded by big ancient walls and filled with different religious places. The old down is divided to 4 parts:
1. The Jewish quarter. Where is the famous Western wall:

2. Armenian quarter. Closed quarter, where no one is allowed in and there are about 2000 Armenians living behind the closed walls.

3. Christian quarter. With lot of churches and with the main church where Jesus was crucified.

4. Moslem part. With the main mosque, that is the next biggest religious spot for Moslems out of Saudi Arabia.

The whole old city just felt like a fairyland. Just like walking in a movie with full of culture and feeling like every corner or a wall would have a story to tell. It s a city where you would just want to spend weeks to explore around. Eat in the small cafeterias, walk around the narrow streets, climb the roof tops and enjoy the spirituality in the air.

The next day we went to Bethlehem. Which also meant grossing the border to West bank, the Palestinian territory. Surprisingly the border crossing was very smooth. And as we heard afterwards, the security was lowered for Christmas.
We took a long walk into the city center following the wall separating West bank from the rest of the country:

We visited the church were Jesus was born:

And we attended the mass at the Sheppard’s field. The field were the first star was seen.

So that the run down of the tourist side. Apart from that this trip did have a deeper meaning as well. Most of the people living in Amman are originally from Palestine. They have actually never been there, but where you are from depends on where your father was from. Most of the current Palestinians living in Jordan are not allowed to enter the territory. So when ever you would tell your workmates or friends that you are going to Jerusalem, they would get excited, that you are going to their home land and then sad that they cant go them selves.
It makes you appreciate your privilege and also feel a bit awkward of why you have it. Feels like you are like an ambassador to see as much as possible to bring back as much as possible.

Also interestingly, two days after our visit, Israel attacked the west bank, killing 3 people. Which is the biggest attack after the Gaza war last year. Makes you wonder, if there are any links between the two decisions: Low security during Christmas, when the most western tourists visit the country. So it actually seems like everything is very peaceful. And a planned attack 2 days after Christmas, when the air is clean from the tourists?

INSHALLAH

2010-01-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

There is a phrase in Arabic that is used very often here – Inshallah – If Allah wishes so. But the more important thing is that the ways of using this phrase is a perfect example of the culture. There are different occasions when this phrase is used:
1. The most logical one: It promised to be sunny tomorrow - Answer: Inshallah!
2. The bit annoying one: AT work: Can we have a meeting today about our project? – Inshallah!
Can you send me the information today? – Answer: Inshallah!

3. The most annoying and a bit scaring one: In the Taxi: Can you please take me from point A to point B? – Answer: Inshallah!

Well Allah is great, but there are some things in life that depend ONLY on you and not on Allah! Only you can do your work and meet the deadlines! Only you can be on time for the meetings! Only you can ensure that you know the directions to a place! But somehow in this culture time is not important. Structure is an un-known word.

In a way its kind of cool. I learn how to operate without structure. So when meeting jumps from one topic to another after every 5 minutes, at first it was hard to focus or understand anything. Now I am learning ways how to capture my thoughts and direct the conversations back to the objective. Or when meetings have no agenda or objectives, but they just happen, cause maybe something good will come out of it.
How to be more flexible with the time. Don’t stress out when people say that they will be 5 min late and actually mean 45 minutes. Its all good until I still live according to my standards but also respect the standards of this culture – Inshallah!

Praying

2009-12-06T14:24:00.001-08:00

Something interesting I have seen around here and have been thinking of writing about. Just before I say anything…its nothing that disturbs me, I actually find it kind of nice…just different enough to write about.

In the religion I have grown up in, praying has always seemed to be as one of the most personal and private things. Something you d rather do alone where no one can see you or in the church. In Moslem culture it doesn’t seem to be like that.

People pray where ever they feel like. You just role down your small carpet and do it.

Some of the examples:

1. You walk into the cafeteria to buy a sandwich and the place just seems empty. So you are looking around to see where’s someone who you could order or give money too…and suddenly you realize the person is just behind the counter, down on his knees praying. Ups sorry…didn’t mean to disturb you. …No, no I can wait just finish your staff…. And it takes few minutes and the guy would stand up and say: what can I get for you?

2. You walk on the street to your lunch break and suddenly you feel the need to change your walk way not to disturbed (walk over) a business man in full expensive suit, who has just put down his carpet on the middle of the street and is kneeing for praying.

3. In the office, you get up to walk to the kitchen to make yourself some coffee and on your way you see that one of your work mates is down on his knees, praying rug rolled down in the corner just beside someone else’s desk.

But I guess if you pray 5 times in a day it must just become part of your human life and needs so you just get used to finding whatever place to satisfy your need.

I am sorry I cant illustrate this post with some interesting photos, but I figured its not nice to take pictures of people praying, even if its such a public thing for them to do.

Birthday in the middle eastern style

2009-12-01T11:52:00.000-08:00

So finally a delayed blog post. But since the living here is just becoming more and more normal, theres less and less outstanding things to share. Now all the outstanding things are just part of my everyday life.

So almost a month ago I had a birthday. Birthdays here are long and special celebration, especially for the girls. Girls seemed to celebrate birthdays much more and make it a bigger thing. The celebrations normally last for the whole week. And so did mine.

I ended up organizing 2 birthday paries. One middle estern style and one western style. Middle easter style party for the friends that don’t drink alcohol and who don’t really appreciate or feel comfortable to be around people who drink. It was a great night at our flat. Inviting mainly Jordaninan people who have been special and nice to hang out with. We ended up having so many cakes and soft drinks that we could eat them for the rest of the week. But the winner cake was definitely this one:

A big yellow smiley face with my name written on it. And on top of that, it actually tasted as sweet black bread back home J.

The other party was with drinks and clubbing and mainly with all the interns over here.

It also turned out to be my first time to be turned down by the night club. Since it is low season, some night clubs are closed for renovations and some just closed. Which pretty much leaves Amman with just about 3 night clubs. And out of the 3 only 2 are for “decent girls” . and I was warned before that you should reserve places before to get in since they will be crowded. But my western mind couldn’t believe the fact that a club would just not accept peoples money and turn them down. But so it happened. No reservation, no place. Anyway the night ended up to be a great one, with a house party at other interns place.

The birthday week and month is over now. For the first time after 17 I actually feel like I am loving and living the age I am exactly now. It might also be because people here are “youngster” for a longer period of time than in the western world. So being 26 and not married with kids and still living at home is more normal here. Most of the 26 and older people still live with their families and are very close to them. You normally move out only once you get married. While in Estonia, you probably couldn’t really find people older than 25 still living with the family. You might not be married with kids, but at least your moved out of home and connection and communication with friends is definitely more intense than with your family.

17 kilometers of hot springs

2009-11-11T01:42:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a trip with our work.
On Thursday everyone was told very seriously, be at the headquarters 6.45 sharp! We have a long day and a lot to go through. 6.55 we arrive to the place, worried that everyone is waiting for us already. But, we were one of the first ones to arrive :). 1 hour later, the buss arrives and 5 minutes after that, the last person arrives. Around 8, we start our journey – Jordanian timing :).
Our first stop was Madaba. City with the oldest churches in the world:

The second stop, Mount Nibu, part of the holy land and bible stories:

The third stop Wadi Zarka Maen:

We were warned to leave all valuable things in the buss, couse we will get wet. And when they meant wet – it actually was basically hiking in the water . It was a lot of fun. The whole journey was following a river with hot spring up the hill. The water was clean and about 30 degrees. After every once in a while we reached some small waterfalls or hot spring baths to swim in. after 6 hours and 17 km, we were all exhausted, but the nature was something I have never seen before and the experience was wonderful.

Night in the desert, morning in Red sea

2009-10-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

On the weekend we had a trip to wadi rum – a valley in the desert in southern Jordan.
After starting our trip 3 hours later from the planed time within few hours drive from Amman an amazing scenery road started. We were curving around the rocks in the desert. Each of the rocks looking like sculptures having their own face and looks:

Also have to acknowledge the infrastructure fact again. Even in the middle of desert and rocks the roads in this country are perfect. There is always a two way highway with 4 lines and excellent roads.
By the evening we arrived to our camp:

We spent one night living with Bedouins and hawing a view like that:

The Bedouins cooked us a dinner under the sand. The sunlight is so strong that it heats up the ground to so high temperature that you can dig your food under the sand and it will be cooked by the heath there. So we ate under the ground cooked, rice, vegetables and chicken. And yes, I did make an excuse and ate the chicken cause it was traditional and special and it would have been more rude to not try the costumes here to stick with my principles.
The nature gave us a special treat as well. After midnight, we started seeing lightning in the sky and after few hours the thunder followed, and then the rain for the rest of the night. So now I can say that I have seen rain in the desert and even slept in the rain in desert (yes the camps and tents there are obviously not built for rain).
In the morning we went back to the village and had a camel ride.

And then drove 30 minutes and reached Aqaba and the red sea. Aqaba was amazing – green, warm and the most blue water I have ever seen. It is a government initiative to make the city green and environment sustainable. Also Aqaba is a tax free zone. So everything there is 20% cheaper than anywhere else. And thirdly, you can see Israel, Egypt and Saudi-Arabia from the beach!

We visited the public beach, cause that’s for free. But it wasn’t that clean and we were the only females swimming, rest of them were covered and just looking at the sea. But the water was amazing. Clear as a drinking water. And already 5 meters from the beach, you can see the corals and colorful fish. This time we didn’t go diving yet, but next time for sure!
So what a weekend – night in the desert, camel ride in the morning, swimming with corals in the red sea in the afternoon!

Hiking

2009-10-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

ON Friday we went hiking. Actually I understood that we will just go to someone’s place to watch a movie and then since she lives bit out of the city, we can also take a walk in the nature.
After about 15 minutes drive we reached to a fantastic look out place, where all you can see is mountains and a small valley with pomegranate farm between them. And the person who lives there actually has this view from here house:

Then it turns out that the nice walk is an actual hike (well coming from a country with no hills, I would even call it a mountain climbing) what we are going to do. After few minutes I find myself in the middle of the mountain, which seems to be almost 90 degrees.

And then I remember that I am afraid of heights. Cant move any more. Adrenaline is high and the sun is burning my head. So I put my hands down and try to crawl down, but the hill is covered with thorns, but suddenly you just don’t care - it is a fight for life. Thank god Julie saved me and took me hand on hand, teached me how to move and where to move. Then it almost felt like my first snowboarding lesson - which wasn’t very successful as well. At the end I can say it was a lot of fun - but next time I just stay down and watch the view J.

But back to the house. It was like a dream place to live:

View from the balcony, where people set up a movie with projector afterwards:

Living room:

Home made olives:

Do I smell?

2009-10-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

On my first day at work I was through personal experience introduced to one of the cultural differences.
Since the begging I have felt that getting to know new people has been a bit awkward. Normally people just say their name, smile and that’s it. No hugging, shaking hands or etc. But since I am not a big hugger myself, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to that.
And due to not paying too much attention to that, I had to find out the real reasons the hard way.

So my first day at work, I was introduced to one of the top people in the company and finance department. He was male. And as a girl with good manners from my society, always the youngest and female should offer the hand first, and that’s what I did. And then something happened that keeps on playing in my head in slow motion until today. The guy just stood there, his hands tightly to his body and gave me a look like I just did something really wrong.

It was just few seconds, then we just moved on with the conversation, of which I don’t remember anything. I was just trying to figure out what I did wrong. Did I smell? Is he afraid of the flue?

Later I was explained by my supervisor, that according to Islam costumes a male and female never shake hands or have any physical connection. And this guy was one of the 10% of very religious people in the company who still follow all the rules very strictly.

Now I am already smarter. I never offer my hand unless the other person does it before. And when I see a guy with beard, then I know that most probably they are more strictly religious.

So this is the reason why people normally don’t make any physical contact, just to avoid incidence like mine. Even if someone has birthday, people don’t go up and hug or shake hands. You just say happy birthday and that’s all.

So much about my first embarrassing moment as a foreign in my company.

With our company bran in top and compettors below:

Some random pics from Amman:

Everyday life

2009-10-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Life in Jordan has been wonderful adventure so far. Every step is a bit of a cultural shock and all is new and exciting.
There are many interesting things and costumes that I have found out. I will try to cathegorize them and will start with the everyday living here:
There are no addresses here. So when you call a taxi, you have to tell the nearest shop and then direct him from there. Or when you want to receive letters, you should get a PO BOX. Even my big corporate office doesn’t have an address.
Public transport system is almost missing, so taxi is a public transport. Taxi ride costs normally between 0,5 to 3 eur. Our taxi ride to work is 1,5 eur for about 20 min ride.
The water doesn’t come from pipes. There is a tank on the roof of our house and the government fills the tank every Thursday and Friday.
The hot water comes through diesel tank. To heat the water you have to buy diesel and before taking a shower you have to turn the engine on.
Ground floor apartment with almost no view and sunshine is considered higher prize property than second floor. Its more comfortable and it protects you from sunshine. So it’s nice and dark inside all the time.
In next post I will write about the manners and a rather embarising way I found out about one.

Our home street

the hood

The Bello, MC cat from up-stairs

View of Amman

The Journey

2009-09-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

Checked-in my luggage evening the day before, to make the 5 am departure less painful. This resulted to a movie like departure. When I was in security control I heard from the speakers: Kristina Toms, please proceeded to your gate immediately, you are delaying the flight. And so I was the last person to get on the plane.
Still feels like I am just going to another trip. As it starts exactly as most of my business trips last year. Flight from Tallinn to Riga. In last 12 months I have been to Riga airport 6 times and even spent a night there. So it is kind of like home already.
Next destination: Riga to Stockholm. 5 hours of waiting in Arlanda airport (which is definitely not my favorite one) whit ridiculously expensive coffee and internet. But on a positive note I was amazed, that although I haven’t practiced for 4 years already, I still understand a bit of Swedish and could even read the airport magazine.
First panic also accrued. While checking in in Stockholm, the lady says to me: the system requires that you have a return ticket as well for boarding. What? But, I don’t know when I am coming back? I was told I don’t need a return ticket for visa! After few calls, the lady takes my promise that I will not accuse the Turkish airways or demand them to fly me home, when I don’t get a visa in Jordan airport. And I get my boarding passes to Istanbul and Amman.

Around 4 pm I arrived in Istanbul. Turkish airways is way better than I thought. Good food and nice service. After 2 hours of flight delays I arrive in Amman. Visa takes forever, couse just in front of me there is a family: Arabic man, Asian looking Moslem woman and 7 children who speak finnish :).

I am picked up by 3 AIESEC guys here. I get my first cultural difference feeling. We went out to eat and suddenly I realized that the guys in the restaurant are looking at me. Then I realized that I am the only female in the whole restaurant. So I asked my guys - where are all the women? The women eat upstairs!
But I was sad I had been fed to well by Turkish airways so I could only try a little of the best humus and falafel I have ever had - food paradise!

2009-09-24T13:25:00.000-07:00