Bidan Ziman

Jenni Boyle, Tom Nance, Sami Al-Jammal, David Ferguson, Jordan Haddock

Ah, seeing as how it is the weekend finally, and my brain has melted from studying Arabic a group of us decided to go out shopping tonight and then to go out to eat. Well the shopping was fairly lame, it was just a bunch of cheap knock-offs of the real thing, and I didn't see anything that really interested me. However, the food we had was amazing.

The ride to the restaurant was very interesting. It started off with us trying to get a cab which is considerably more difficult during peak times and on the weekend. So after we finally waved down a taxi that was free, we got in and told him where we wanted to go. Well, he decided that he was going to rip us off, so first he started driving in the wrong direction. Then after he was going the wrong way he decided he was going to stop for gas and let the meter continue to run. Then after we were going in the right direction, he decided he was going to stop for some coffee real "quick" while the meter continued to run. Following the coffee, and about half way through to our destination, the driver decided that he would light up a cigarette, which is somewhat normal here in Jordan since everyone smokes like a chimney here. However, in our case he decided to blow all the smoke into the car, which was super annoying. Anyways by the time we finally got to the restaurant the meter had reached about 2.20 JD. The ride should have only cost like 1.30 JD to 1.60 JD. This is where the story really gets exciting. When we got to the restaurant, one of the other students, who was sitting in the front seat told the driver that he wasn't going to pay him the whole price, since he had wasted so much time running his personal errands. As a result he told the driver he was going to pay him only 1.50. So we got out of the taxi at the restaurant, while the other student got progressively more annoyed at this driver and continued to inform him that he was only going to pay 1.50 for the ride, and that was being generous.

By about this time, one of the valet drivers at the restaurant came over to see what the problem was. At first word he was siding with the driver telling the other student, Jordan, who I feel I should mention is in the army and about as broad as a bus, that he needed to pay the 2 JD. For about a minute there I was pretty sure that things were going to turn south super fast, especially since the taxi driver decided to get out of the car and continue to insist that Jordan pay him 2 JD, while being right in his face. I thought for a second I was going to see an Arab die. Anyways, after explaining how the taxi driver had ripped us off, the valet driver/usher at the restaurant sided with us, and took us into the restaurant to be seated, while the taxi driver was ushered away. Once we arrived inside the restaurant, which from the outside looked like a freakin' desert palace, we realized just how fancy and hi-class this restaurant was. We walked into a 100% legitimate Arab restaurant which was all located outside, which fountains, brick oven, tent covering, Arab musicians, and so on.

The food in the restaurant was hands down, the best Arab food that I have had since I got here. We started off by ordering 2 sides of hummus, baba ganoosh, arab salad, and then a couple of other things that I don't remember the names of. All of this came with baked bread which was heavenly, similar to naan (the bread at Bombay House). So we ate heartily from these sides, and then our main dishes came out. For a main dish we ate an authentic Jordanian dish of munzaf, which is essentially rice and lamb, with a cream sauce over it. As with most foods in Jordan, all of this was eaten by taking the bread and breaking/tearing it apart and using it as a utensil to eat the rest of the food. Just one of the ways that the culture here resembles the latin culture, and is making it really easy to adjust to being here.

After the meal was finished, we all realized that we had eaten too fast, and purely as Americans eat. What we should have done was sat there, and eaten a little, and then talked some. Then we should have eaten a little bit more, and then talked some more. And then after several hours of sitting there and eating, and after we had finished our meal and were finished visiting, then and only then would we have asked for our bill. That is one of the small things that Arabs have got down. An evening out at a restaurant, cafe, club, etc. doesn't end quickly. Rather it will continue all night with the servers continuing to bring you more of whatever you would like, until you are good and ready to leave. Truly the way that eating out should be experienced. (As a side note, it should be mentioned that when at a restaurant, and more of anything is asked for, the person who asks is always the last person to receive item requested. This is a cultural thing and revolves around the idea that the first will be last and the last will be first. So, if you are really thirsty and want some water, just make sure that the person with water is the one who asks.) The best part of the whole meal, and really any eating out experience in Jordan is that you can get amazingly large amounts of food for an incredibly good price. Our meal tonight which fed and filled 5 men and 1 woman cost each person only 6 JD (about $8.47 USD).

After our meal was over, it was time to find a taxi back home. This turned out to be a bit more difficult, considering that taxis don't really stop at this restaurant because it is off a smaller road that is essentially an exit from the main road. So, in the spirit of all good things, we began walking home. After walking down what would be the equivalent to I-15 in Utah, we were finally able to get to a spot with enough traffic to catch a taxi. Over all the experience was fun, hilarious, delicious and rather exhilarating.

From Lawrence of Arabia to John al-Khalaila

This last week, while in Jordan I've been trying really hard to follow the program and speak 2 hours everyday with a native in Arabic. Surprisingly that is more difficult than you would expect, primarily because everyone here speaks English. However, once you have made a few friends or rather once you have talked with someone more than once, or for more than an hour, you are automatically inaugurated into their group of friends and their family, gaining all sorts of benefits. For example, the other week my roommate Matt and I met a group of Shabaab (young men) who were all native Jordanians, which is a somewhat rare since about 75% of Jordan is Palestinians. So after talking with this group of Shabaab they decided that they would give us new names. So I have now became John al-Khalaila and am part of the Beni Hassan Tribe. Which is one of the largest and most powerful tribes in Jordan. The al-Khalaila part of my name signifies that I am part of smaller part of the larger tribe of Beni Hassan. My roommate Matt became Mathew al-Abadi which is also a large tribe in Jordan, the Prime Minister of Jordan is from this tribe.

Another example of Arab hospitality can be found in another set of friends that my roommates and I have made. One of my roommates Garret, found a group on Facebook called Jordan Volunteers, and expressed interest in being a part of the group, as a way to meet people as well as serve. As a result a girl by the name of Woroud al-Jammal messaged him and set up a time for us to go and meet with her, her older sister Bitul, and her older brother Adel at a hookah bar (I may have written about this last week). After several hours of talking with them and getting to know them we had to leave to get home and do some homework, and on the way out they expressed that anytime we needed anything we could call them and that they would be our family while we were here in Jordan. As a result of this relationship with this family my roommates and I were able to go to an Elderly Home (Markaaz Musaniin) to chat and visit with some of the people whose families have abandoned them (very literally abandoned them). In Arab culture, you just don't drop you're old people off at a home, you take care of them and they live with you until they die. So we went with this group of young people and chatted and sang and danced with the elderly people. It was really very very fun, and fulfilling.

After going to the old people home, we had to go to the store and so we asked where the best place was to get food, and we were told that C-town was the best place. After we got back into Amman, one of the people from the group decided that we needed help in getting around and so he walked with us until we found a taxi, which was about 30 mins later. Then he got into the taxi with us and told the driver where to go. Then he paid for the taxi. Then only after much persuasion were we able to persuade him that we would be ok buying food on our own at the store and getting a taxi to take us home. It was somewhat silly/funny, and also somewhat annoying, but that's just the way that Arab hospitality is.

Life in Provo

Let's just say it is not the same without John, but I have been so busy that it hasn't hit me yet. What was I doing before he left?  Here is a list:

• trying to get vendor applications 
• packing and moving out
• shopping with John for baby stuff (yes, shopping)
• trying to keep up with work stuff, like the HIV program and anti-tobacco
• ZUMBA, teaching, finding subs, taking equipment to classes, etc
• cleaning the apt 
• feeding my baby and john
• trying to do church stuff

Try doing this at the same time is not easy.  I easily worked 12 hour shifts (more so after John left) but it was exhausting.  I am grateful for a very understanding and supporting husband that put up with this.

Then August 29th came when I had to drop off John at the airport. It was hard to see him go and not be able to go with him but I knew it had to be done.  So instead of feeling sad for myself I decided I would work and take care of my baby.
(Our baby is such a great little guy already, hopefully he continues to be a good after he is born.  He is very active at night when he knows mommy is at home.  During work he usually is really easy going and he doesn't give me any problems during ZUMBA.)
So now that John has been away for about 2 weeks I have been:

• finishing up vendor application
• finishing unpacking, and moving things to Springville
• trying to catch up on all my work 
• teaching ZUMBA classes, finding subs
• FESTIVAL LATINOAMERICANO 
• talking to John on skype, facebook, gchat etc
• fixing a flat tire
• trying to shop for baby stuff (it is super hard without John)
• trying to SLEEP & REST

So my list didn't get any shorter, which I find to be a good transition.  Luckily I have been surrounded by amazing friends and family who are very attentive and are taking care of me.  Norma, Alex and the girls have been great, letting me stay with them and feeding me. I think things might start to slow down a bit, but who knows. I have a health fair coming up in a month or so, that will keep me busy.  If that doesn't keep me busy, trying to read and research pregnancy info, baby strollers, pumps, labor & delivery books will.

A special thanks to everyone who has reached out to me and offered their love, help, and support.  I really appreciate it. You know who you are.  

اهلان وساهلا - Welcome to Amman

As all those who read this know, primarily since you are friends and family, I have left America to study Arabic in Jordan. After being gone for about a week and a half, here is what has happened so far.

I left Monday morning, the 29th of August, and arrived at the airport where, I sat around for a while until my plane left. Thereafter I arrived in Chicago where I again sat at the airport for about 10 hours waiting for my flight to leave. Lets just say that after a nap in an airport bench, walking back and forth across that airport many many times, some food, and a couple hours of reading, I would advise anyone who is flying internationally to just pay the extra money and go direct. That said, at 10:30 pm or so I got on a flight to Frankfurt Germany, where I met up with several other students. With another 8 hour wait at the airport and not willing to shoot myself in the face quite yet, we hopped on a train and went into the city and walked around for bit. I have to say that for a large city, Frankfurt was probably one of the cleanest cities I have ever been too. Even the shanty town was nice, with green lawns, lots of flowers, and cutely painted shacks, which to the untrained eye just looked like a cute little park for children. While there I saw several cathedrals, some river (not really sure which one it is) and got blisters on the bottom of both my feet from walking too much in my new shoes, which I had never worn. Following my short excursion into Frankfurt, I returned to the airport and enjoyed hearing the stories of some of the other people from my program, about how they got a 40 euro fine for ridding in the wrong car on the train. Lesson from this story, don't wear new shoes to go walking for hours and make sure you ride in the right car.

I have no idea what cathedral this is.

At around 10 pm I got onto another plane which flew myself and 9 other students into Amman, where we exchanged money, paid to get into the country, got our passports stamped, and then watched as our T.A. Randall had all of his luggage lost. After waiting for him we met our rides, and headed to our apartments. Around 3:30 in the morning, I finally made it to my apartment, where unfortunately I couldn't sleep at all. At around 4:30 I heard the call to prayer blasted throughout the city, at which thought I screamed in my mind about how horrible it was that the sun was going to be coming up in an hour or so.

My first day in Jordan was full or orientation and disorientation. The city is extremely difficult to navigate at first until you understand the layout of the city. In Utah for example everything is based on a grid, which runs North to South and East to West and is based off of Temple Square. However, in Jordan, and especially in Amman, everything is based off of landmarks. So for example to get to the church you would say that you want to go between the 3rd and 4th circle (roundabout). Anyways, my first day here, I was coming back from the store with a bunch of food and 2 of my roommates and we decided to hop on a mini-bus which essentially takes you from point "a" to point "b" and you can get off whenever you want. However, they are really interesting to use because you don't always know where they are going, and the final destination is. After riding around for a short distance we decided to get off and walk the rest of the way home. Needless to say we got lost. We started walking in the wrong direction with all of our groceries, and all of our water and wandered around a random neighborhood trying to find our apartment. After about 45 mins of wandering around we finally tried to get a taxi and when a taxi finally pulled up another guy come up and offered to give us a ride for free. The conversation went something like this:

This is looking out from half way down Mt. Nebo

-Hamiid "Hey you guys need a ride"
-Us "How much?"
-Hamiid "Its free, don't worry I don't have any dead bodies in my trunk. You can look if you want."
-Taxi "You can't do that, it's illegal. The police are going to come and get you."
-Hamiid "Shut Up."
- Us "Its ok, he's our friend."

So we got a ride from this guy Hamiid, and he was super nice, and spoke perfect English. So that was Wednesday.

Thursday we went to Madaba, the Dead Sea, the Baptismal site, and Mount Nebo. It was cool, but at the same time, it wasn't all the exciting since there were 67 of us all traveling on two large buses and we only had a limited amount of time at each space. But I did take some interesting pictures, but also didn't take very many because I felt too touristy.

Looking out from Mt. Nebo

Friday was church and that was fun because it meant we got to go and find church, and listen to the Friday sermon over the loudspeakers. The branch here had bout 30 people in it, so we more than double it when we go. In addition, there is a little suq that is only open on Friday nights, which is off of a street called Rainbow Street. So I went to that and walked around for a little bit. It was pretty cool to see, but most of the stuff there was pretty cheep stuff.

Looking out towards the dead sea (its off to the left)

Sunday was the first day of school for us here, and that commenced the hectic crazy life that will be for the next four months. At some point during the week we celebrated someones birthday, and I went to that, and the only people where were there were married couples. It was weird, because it was all of the people who I "should" be hanging out with with Angelica, had she still come, but who we still wouldn't have really hung out with because we find them weird. So it was weird to see them all, and be all like, "Hi, how's it going? I see your wife is here with you. Clearly mine isn't here, but that's ok, because I still find you a little weird."

This is from the roof of my apartment

This last Wednesday night was probably the best, because I went to a Hookah bar (not a hooker bar, don't get those confused) and met some people there to talk with them. It was super fun. We were there for about three hours talking with them in both Arabic and English, about their families and our families and just getting to know them. What is funny, for those who don't know about the Middle East, alcohol is basically not sold anywhere in the Middle East. So, at bars, what you get are fruit drinks, milk shakes, smoothies, coffee or tea while you sit and enjoy talking with the people you're with. Additionally, if you go to a Hookah bar, like the one I was at, you typically will order a water pipe along with some flavored wood of sorts (like apple, grape, cranberry, etc), and you will sit and smoke it. However, since I or anyone else in my program don't smoke, we just sat there and enjoyed smelling the smoke, which smells wonderful by the way.  By the time that we finished talking with these people, who were all siblings, they showed us the true Arab hospitality and informed us that they were our family while we are here, and that if we need anything at all that we should call them and let them know.

One thing we have become accustomed to while living in Utah has been the long drives to get to Salt Lake, or to Mama and Papa Nash's home for Sunday dinners and laundry.  It seems like to get anywhere from Provo you will drive at least 45 mins and with all the construction on I-15 that 45 min drive takes twice as long.  For my birthday week, John planned a road trip within a road trip!!!  I love going on drives with him, we just have a great time driving and talking about our future.  We started off in Madera and before we knew it we were in Dublin!!!  In Dublin we stopped by Aunt Claudia's house After which we went through Big Basin which I have to admit was a really nice drive. (One of the reason why I love him so much is because he is so easy to talk to and I think our conversations are pretty interestin,. )
He took me to his elementary school, which was being remodeled, to his High School, and to Juicy Burger.  We were able to find Juicy Burger thanks to my iphone, since they had moved to a different location.  The burgers were pretty good, I enjoyed making my own burger.  I heard kids talk about "taco bravo" which apparently is the place to be.
We headed to Big Basin on our way to Carmel.  It was a amazing going through the big trees, I had to keep my hands inside the car since we were so close to all the vegetation.  We finally got to Carmel and walked around the stores and went to the beach.  It was a nice going down, but to come up it was a little more difficult for me.  Carrying a baby makes normal hikes a bit more harder...  There were a lot of nice shops, with all kinds of stuff.  I couldn't bring myself to let John buy me stuff there.  I think it was way over priced!!!  We found some cool jewelry, but we figured since he was going to Jordan he could find more authentic stuff.
We drove back to Madera, and I gotta say California has a lot of lovely scenery.  We passed a lot of fruit and vegetable fields which reminded me of how spoiled I was growing up having fresh produce.
Baby was being really good too, since I was pretty comfortable for the most part.  I am so happy that I have been able to continue with my normal routine.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, John has them all on his computer.  I loved my road trip and having one on one time with John.  Our schedules don't line up very well so we don't get to see each other a lot.

What we did over our Summer Break 2

As we last left off on our summer adventures we were just returning from our trip to Goshen...

On June 12th we celebrated our 1 year anniversary by cutting open the top tier of our 1 year old frozen cake and finally getting to eat a piece of our wedding cake, since we didn't get any on our wedding. At first glance the cake looked just as fresh as it did on the first day we cut it; however, we quickly learned that it was not as soft as it had once been. After some good efforts of trying to cut the cake we were finally able to cut it into and divide it up between us and my parents. Contrary to what everyone said about year old cake, it was actually rather good. I can only imagine what it would have tasted like fresh. The time it took to cut the cake may have made it taste that much better.

Within about a week of our anniversary, we headed out on our next big adventure to California. We left late Thursday evening and drove 14 hours, driving all night long, to arrive at Huntington Lake at 4 in the morning. It was a really fun drive, particularly the part cutting through the foot hills seeing as how it was pitch black and super windy, fun but a scary drive. Up at the lake we spent two days lounging around in the hot tub, at the pool, playing horseshoes, and kayaking out on the lake. On Sunday we drove down to Madera where we spent the whole week with Angelica's family.

On Tuesday Angelica's sister put on a surprise baby shower for us. She was really very sneaky about the whole thing. She had spent the day with Mom out at the flea market, and then took our niece out to go shopping. Later that day Angelica's mom disappeared out at some event for the day while Dad was at work. I spent most of the day sleeping since we weren't doing anything else. Come around 5:30pm or so Dad came home and ordered Angelica to tell me to get up and get showered, needless to say I thought I was in trouble, but Dad said that he and Mom were taking us out for dinner. About 7:00pm we were in the car heading to go get Mom, but every time we asked Dad where she was he would just say, "Oh we are almost there." I though nothing of it. Eventually we drove into a subdivision of Madera, and I being completely oblivious to what was going on thought, "Oh, Mom must be at some event here at this house, and we are picking her up."  Well, she was at the house at an event and it turned out it was the baby shower. After a week full of Angelica accusing her Sister of always ditching the family when she visited, she was nicely surprised by the baby shower.

Following the Baby Shower we had a few gift certificates for stores that are only found in California or the Internet such as Buy Buy Baby, so we had to go and buy more baby stuff. After wandering around through the different sections of the store I finally found the perfect baby toy. It had everything a baby could ever want including, crinkle feet, chew antlers, plush and cuddly moose body, rattle feet, teething tail loop, and it wasn't in the least bit annoying to hear after about 20 minutes of me playing with it. As a result I decided that my child was going to have to have this extremely perfect moose baby toy. Moreover, along with the moose toy I also found several great articles of Star Wars clothing and toys that in my mind would be perfect for my son. The best however, was a plush toy of Yoda that will more than likely be bigger than our baby when he is born and for the first year or two of his life, but which will make the perfect toy to ingrain the importance of Star Wars into his life.

Keep watching for future posts concerning what we did over our summer break...

What we did over our Summer Break

Seeing as how Summer is fast coming to a close, I decided that it was about time that I updated a few things, seeing as how Angelica won't do it. So, in the spirit of back to school, here's what we did over our Summer Break.

Our summer break was the best summer break ever! Since I had more time due to not having to spend every waking moment studying my brains out learning Arabic, Angelica and I were able to do quite a bit more than normal. We spent many weekends hanging out with friends, family, and by ourselves. It was awesome!

Here's the break down of things that we did: Arches, Goshen, 1st year Anniversary, Road Trip to California, Road Trip through California, Angelica's Birthday, Road Trip to Wyoming, Family Reunion in Mona, Road Trip to Ophir, Packing up our Apartment.

At the beginning of the break Angelica and I decided that we would go to Arches as a day trip, primarily since I had never been and because I was tired of never doing anything fun. So one Saturday morning we woke up early, grabbed our stuff, and headed out for Arches. The drive there was great and within only three hours we had reached our most fabulously hot destination. Seeing as how I had never been, I was determined to hike every arch, despite the fact that Angelica was pregnant and we only had 2 water bottles. Needless to say by about 3pm I was tired, hot, dehydrated, hungry, and beginning to see mirages of not only water, but hamburgers, milk shakes and fries. Angelica on the other hand was perfectly fine other than that her hands had swelled twice as large. So we decided to take a break from Arches and headed down in to Moab to grab some food. We found this great little hamburger place off of the main road that was called, Milts Stop and Eat. It was a great little Hamburger place that was away from all of the crowds of main street Moab. After our meal break, we took a small nap waiting for things to cool down and decided around 6pm to head back up to finish hiking the rest of the Arches. Finally around 9pm or so we decided to head home. It was a great day trip.

Our next trip took us down south to the Goshen Ponds with Mel and John to do some sight seeing at the old plant there. It was a load of fun seeing as how neither Angelica or I had been there before. John and Mel gave us a great history of the location informing us of how the water there is toxic and that if we were to fall into or drink it we would be mutated into some sort of freakish animal thing, something like a half man half pig or part fish part man; unfortunately however, not the type of mutation that brings super powers along with it. Otherwise I'm sure there would be a longer line and more security at the ponds. Following our history tour of the ponds, we went and explored the ruins of the factory that polluted the water there. After an hour or so of climbing around the ruins of the silver refining factory my stomach decided that it should act up and make me sick. After about 30 minutes of trying to calm my stomach down I decided that it would be best to go find a bathroom, so we left from exploring and headed back home.

In order to keep this post short, I'm gonna break it into a couple of posts watch out for the next posting.