Thursday, November 22, 2012
Thoughts of Home
Hello All,
The past week has been a very jazz, blues and bluegrass music type of week. The current song suck in my head is Billie Holiday's "I'll be Seeing You", particularly these two stanzas have been stuck in my head:
"I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you."
I will not lie, with the reminder that Christmas is coming up (aka stores putting up decorations, people at school talking about their plans and watching movies with Christmas scenes in it), I have been thinking more about home, family and friends. As much as I would love to "be seeing you", at the same time I am beginning to get excited about all the wonderful opportunities and places to see with holidays and time off coming up. I also am looking forward to making my own memories in the land of the Bible (and Q'uran). Seriously how often do you get the chance to have Christmas in the land where it all started years ago? Ideas of how to decorate on the cheapest budget possible are starting to race across my mind, as well as planning trips all over... yup, I am thinking WAY ahead of myself, but I think it's a healthy way of dealing with Christmas away from home.
Another event coming up soon, within the next week and a half, is my 24th birthday. Unlike most of my 20s birthdays, I am actually looking forward to turning a year older... perhaps it's due to the fact I feel I am gaining a little more wisdom or it's the excitement having my birthday in another country, who knows? Currently we, Will and I, are planning a mixed birthday and American Thanksgiving meal next weekend as we didn't get to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in October or American Thanksgiving this weekend. I am so looking forward to having turkey and cranberry sauce... you have no idea! :)
Other than that not too much is new. Jordan has settled down and it almost feels like the protests didn't even happen. People still aren't too happy about the gas prices raising, but at the same time they are accepting it and moving on with life. In some ways I almost feel like Jordan appreciates their current stable status while being surrounded by unstable countries, and are unwilling to rock the boat too much. The people are also pretty forgiving :)! As for me, I have started writing a little poetry, which is a new foray for me, but at the same time a nice outlet for creative energy as I have knitting needles, but no yarn. Also I started to personalize my room a bit and bought candles, so it feels more like a home.
I hope you all are doing well! For those of you in Canada or places with snow, enjoy it and throw a couple snowballs for me!!
Love from Jordan,
Kate
xoxoxox
Friday, November 16, 2012
It's Chilly!!
Hello All,
So the weather has turned chilly here in Amman, it is definitely the start of winter here!! The thing is it's not like the weather is as cold as it is in Canada (aka below 0), it's more the fact that winter here is usually wet/rainy and there is no central heating in the homes, or any heating at all. People here rely on either gas or electric heaters to keep their homes warm. This does make a few more things difficult here, for instance laundry. There are very few people who have dryers here (Will and I do not) therefore things are hung to dry. When the weather is cold, the thick sweaters one needs to actually stay warm take about three days to dry this equals a very cold and not happy Kate! I am being a bit of a baby, but it's not nice to be cold, I was not prepared for this! On a positive note I am going to try and plan a shopping trip this week to the ballad to buy some cheap warm sweaters, a jacket and electric heater. It's also really cute to see all the Jordanians and their children bundled up (in 16 degrees) like Canadians in our winter (-25 degrees).
Things have been a bit tense here in Jordan the last couple of days. The government decided to raise the prices of gas, this is an important and necessary item here as it is used to power everything here; from your stove to your vehicles and the heating for your home. When the gas prices are raised, prices of food and other items are also raised. In a country that is already struggling with their economy, is surrounded on all sides by countries in conflict and still receiving streams of refugees everyday, this is a huge issue especially for the many families that are already having financial problems. As a result there have been a few violent protests over Jordan since Wednesday. I am perfectly safe as are my friends here, but it is difficult to see the toll this issue is taking on the wonderfully welcoming and friendly people here.
It's hard to switch topics and talk about the seemingly mundane happenings in my day after the previous paragraph, but I will try. Last week Friday I spent the afternoon and early evening watching the grade 8-11 boys "football" (aka soccer) team play at the King's Academy near Madabah (seriously you should look up this school on the internet... it is CRAZY). My friend, coworker and Jordanian older brother, Jamal, coaches the team so I went to support him and my boys :). It was actually really awesome to watch and get to know the boys a little better; I feel that just me going to these games has improved some of our relationships in the classroom. Unfortunately it was pretty cold that day, and I had not dressed for the weather, so I half inched (cockney rhyming slang for pinched) the kids' sweaters and jackets to stay warm. No worries they were all playing on the field and didn't need their jackets. Other than that, I have been out to a few wonderful restaurants with friends, made food, met up with a fellow Saskatchewanian Canadian (it was so nice to hear the reference "cheap like borscht" and revel in the accent of home), experienced a few more Jordanian shopping centers, learned a little more Arabic, taught an English lesson (and failed miserably when my student was asked me about a few technical terms), learnt how to not burn things in my oven, rediscovered the gloriousness and calming influence of the band "Mumford and Sons", and finally I have saved mine and my roommate's relationship with the discovery of earphones when listening to music (he likes heavy metal and hip hop while I like good music :)... sorry Will if you are reading this. ps- we do like some similar music like the blues, bluegrass and some of the 60s-80s music).
I think that is all I can talk about for now, I am going to spend the rest of the day planning an English lesson, drinking my tea and watching tv shows with my lovely roommate.
So for now,
Love from Jordan,
Kate
So the weather has turned chilly here in Amman, it is definitely the start of winter here!! The thing is it's not like the weather is as cold as it is in Canada (aka below 0), it's more the fact that winter here is usually wet/rainy and there is no central heating in the homes, or any heating at all. People here rely on either gas or electric heaters to keep their homes warm. This does make a few more things difficult here, for instance laundry. There are very few people who have dryers here (Will and I do not) therefore things are hung to dry. When the weather is cold, the thick sweaters one needs to actually stay warm take about three days to dry this equals a very cold and not happy Kate! I am being a bit of a baby, but it's not nice to be cold, I was not prepared for this! On a positive note I am going to try and plan a shopping trip this week to the ballad to buy some cheap warm sweaters, a jacket and electric heater. It's also really cute to see all the Jordanians and their children bundled up (in 16 degrees) like Canadians in our winter (-25 degrees).
Things have been a bit tense here in Jordan the last couple of days. The government decided to raise the prices of gas, this is an important and necessary item here as it is used to power everything here; from your stove to your vehicles and the heating for your home. When the gas prices are raised, prices of food and other items are also raised. In a country that is already struggling with their economy, is surrounded on all sides by countries in conflict and still receiving streams of refugees everyday, this is a huge issue especially for the many families that are already having financial problems. As a result there have been a few violent protests over Jordan since Wednesday. I am perfectly safe as are my friends here, but it is difficult to see the toll this issue is taking on the wonderfully welcoming and friendly people here.
It's hard to switch topics and talk about the seemingly mundane happenings in my day after the previous paragraph, but I will try. Last week Friday I spent the afternoon and early evening watching the grade 8-11 boys "football" (aka soccer) team play at the King's Academy near Madabah (seriously you should look up this school on the internet... it is CRAZY). My friend, coworker and Jordanian older brother, Jamal, coaches the team so I went to support him and my boys :). It was actually really awesome to watch and get to know the boys a little better; I feel that just me going to these games has improved some of our relationships in the classroom. Unfortunately it was pretty cold that day, and I had not dressed for the weather, so I half inched (cockney rhyming slang for pinched) the kids' sweaters and jackets to stay warm. No worries they were all playing on the field and didn't need their jackets. Other than that, I have been out to a few wonderful restaurants with friends, made food, met up with a fellow Saskatchewanian Canadian (it was so nice to hear the reference "cheap like borscht" and revel in the accent of home), experienced a few more Jordanian shopping centers, learned a little more Arabic, taught an English lesson (and failed miserably when my student was asked me about a few technical terms), learnt how to not burn things in my oven, rediscovered the gloriousness and calming influence of the band "Mumford and Sons", and finally I have saved mine and my roommate's relationship with the discovery of earphones when listening to music (he likes heavy metal and hip hop while I like good music :)... sorry Will if you are reading this. ps- we do like some similar music like the blues, bluegrass and some of the 60s-80s music).
I think that is all I can talk about for now, I am going to spend the rest of the day planning an English lesson, drinking my tea and watching tv shows with my lovely roommate.
So for now,
Love from Jordan,
Kate
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