There’s no place like home ..

How am I already back in Amman? That was easily the fastest 10 days of my life.
(Though included in those days was also the slowest day of my life..
amman–>tel aviv–>massive security–>layover–>new york .. a story for another day)

Thank you everyone for an amazing Christmas and New Year :)

Some life updates:
– Our cat, Tigger, is alive.
[Though I still need to send the next “kitty support” payment to our cat sitter]
– We moved into a new house! Its a townhouse on a golf course and its lovely!
– All the cousins are OLD! Maria is taller than me (I knew this day would come) – Brendan is more mature than me – and Nia is walking around like an independent woman .. though still succumbs to tickling ..

 
There were plenty of more antics and adventures..
never a dull moment during Christmas at Nana’s!

– ALSO! There was snow! and a lot of it. Luckily, it didn’t (really) ruin our plans… the Whittaker/Clausen/Bremser family prevailed and managed to take over a restaurant for brunch :)

– In the biggest update of all, my home friends are famous! Yes, that’s right, our brief 10 minutes of fame [from that time Ted something or other interviewed us about the shark sighting in Chatham] has NOT ended.. now we have muscians in our group!

To remind you all of the holidays… here is an introduction ..
the Anna and Hayley Christmas Spectacular!

Anna and Hayley’s Christmas Spectacular: Part One from Julie Whittaker on Vimeo.

Anna and Hayley’s Christmas Spectacular: Part Two from Julie Whittaker on Vimeo.

Gets me every time .. I can’t wait to show this to my Petra U students and make them sing along .. Hayley and Anna, prestige worldwide ?

Anyway, there are so many more updates and fun memories I want to post.. but yet its making me miss home and its late here before my first “back to work” day tomorrow! So some last things I guess..

– I didn’t forget arabic during my stay! #win
– but I never found an engagement dress for Nisreen… #fail
– I saw Chris Hearne, TWICE!
– Jackie helped me buy nearly 100 books for basic/little kid English classes.. AND i managed to keep my suitcase underweight
– Melissa turned 23 !
– I visited the Fairfield girls’ apartment BEFORE greg, Mr. NYC, did

and..
– I had an AMAZING TIME!!

Learning Arabic culture from a pick up line…

First I was like, “ma’sha’allah…”

Then I was like, “in’sha’allah…”

Thawab told us that pick up line today and we all died laughing. For anyone whose lived/travelled/studied the Arab world, its a pretty funny pick up line. For someone who has not… let me walk you through the cultural context needed in order to understand — juuuuust in case you one day find yourself surrounded by shabab trying to woo you in such a tacky way..

First I was like, “ma’sha’allah…”

Ma’sha’allah is a phrase someone uses when they are complimenting you.

Its literal translation: “It is as God wills”

It ties into the both the idea of the evil eye and the idea of jealousy — as well as, in contrast, the idea of generosity. For example, if I compliment you on your new dress (“your dress is beautiful!”) without adding “mash’allah” at the end, then perhaps I am jealous of your dress. I am coveting it. I am wishing it was mine and it was not yours. In short, I am figuratively casting the evil eye on it — and maybe something bad will happen because of this evil jealously (the dress rips, you spill on it, etc). Therefore to avoid all these bad things and show that I am just complimenting you, not coveting the dress, I say: “your dress is beautiful, ma’sha’allah.”

This is also important because, as I’ve mentioned before, Arabs are so gosh darn nice! So if I tell you your dress is beautiful, often your first response might be to offer it to me – because I like it and I am your friend. Which, of course, is not the point of my compliment! So again I say “ma’sha’allah” and it signals that you having the dress is “as God willed.”

Then I was like, “in’sha’allah”

In’sha’allah is one of the most commonly used words here – and most of the Arab world.

Its literal translation: “if God wills.”

Its really used for just about anything.

With a friend, “Let’s meet tomorrow for lunch” – in’sha’allah

As a student, “In’sha’allah you will do well on your test”

In a taxi, “I want to go to Mecca Mall” – in’sha’allah

The whole idea behind this being that things happen according to God’s will. Which on the one hand brings up ideas of God controlling things or extreme religiosity — but on the other hand is also common to Christian faith (“god willing” I will pass my test) — or even for an atheist, just the idea of fate, or everything happens for a reason (#TinaProulx). Here, the form that takes is: something willl happen “if God wills it.”

Which brings us back to the pick up line in full. Do you get it yet?

At the risk of sounding silly if you’ve already put two and two together.. here’s the spelled out explanation.

At first I was like, “ma’sha’allah”
(complimenting something beautiful)

Then I was like, “in’sha’allah”
(God willing, something will happen)

Hilarious, right? …we thought so too.

Mama and Baba Reunion: “we (still) love you toooo much”

Today is my second full day here in Amman, but I’ll skip right to a hilarious and heartwarming story about my reunion with Mama and Baba. As a preface, Mama and Baba are the older couple I lived with (along with my roommate, Hannah) during my study abroad semester in Jordan. They were wonderful and loved us “toooo much” but they were hard to keep in touch with over the last 2 years. Save some postcards, I never spoke directly with them at all — though I did relay my Fulbright news to them through their nephew, via facebook.

Anyway, this story has two parts….

PART ONE
Scene: On Rainbow Street with some Fulbrighters, exchanging phone numbers now that we finally have local mobiles.

I decided would be a good day to try to see Mama and Baba. My orientation starts tomorrow, which should be busy, plus Friday/Saturday is the weekend in Jordan – so today is their free time too. Thus as soon as I set up my phone, I grabbed the number I had saved as “Baba Mobile” and gave it a ring.

To my surprise, someone picked up right away! And also to my surprise, I realized I did not know my host father’s real name… just Baba, the Arabic term for Dad… which left me saying: “Ahalan! Hello! Is this… Baba??”

The conversation was hard to hear and didn’t make much sense to me.. and the man on the line didn’t sound like Baba. Yet, he responded to that name and seemed to know me. The only thing I could make out was “saa’a wahada” – one hour. So I decided I would just go to Mama and Baba’s house in one hour…. As seemed to be the plan.

PART TWO
Scene: In the cab to Mama and Baba’s House in Khalda

I loved how readily I remembered Khalda. In Jordan, you direct cabs by landmarks — so for me, I was ecstatic to remember “Top and Top” supermarket and “Huubs Paradise” Bakery then remember exactly the turn down M&B’s side street.

But something weird kept happening… “Baba” kept calling me in the cab. And didn’t seem to understand why I was on my way to Khalda…

No matter — I continued on route undeterred. I recognized the house right away, and saw the door open. “Mama…? Baba….?”

And there, of course, was Mama – cooking up a storm in the kitchen. When she saw me, she lit up – called for Baba – then embraced me.. “ah julie!! we miss you tooooo much!”

From there, it was just like being back in my homestay — we sat and exchanged stories over one of Mama’s delicious dinners.

Yet for some reason, my phone kept ringing! And FINALLY I put it together when Baba said,  “Julie, this is such a wonderful surprise! We are lucky to be here when you visited! You must take our phone number so you can call if you need anything.” ………….because, as it turns out, I had COMPLETLEY called the wrong number and never spoken to my Baba.

Who knows who this random Arab man I called is, and how perplexed he must be that he has a long lost American daughter…

CONCLUSION

But really, this is what I love about Jordan – and Jordanians/Palestinians/Arabs in general. Here I was worrying that Mama and Baba wouldn’t remember me… but then when I show up COMPLETELY unexpected and uninvited, they not only remember me but also welcomed me in as if I was still part of their family.

Which, by the way, they made sure to remind me I still was a part of. Mama asked me all about my family and giggled when I gave her a photo of me and Greg (“aahh habibatik!”) — Baba wanted to know everything about the Fulbright and when I would be the next ambassador to Jordan — they both wanted to know all about what Hannah and Dan were up to, as well as “that nice girl who stayed with us” (Julia!) — not to mention Mama still had a photo of Grandma Re and my cousins (the triplets) that I gave her hung up on the fridge.

When we left Jordan, we all joked about how maybe our families would forget us…..but Mama and Baba proved us wrong entirely. It only took one night in Amman and already I was thrown back into their family. The evening moved from dinner at their home to a family gathering at their son’s home , with Mama and Baba proudly introducing me to their friends & catching me up on the family matters I missed in my absence.

Before learning about my Fulbright, I would have never guessed that I’d see Mama and Baba again — and even after I knew I was coming back, I never would have guessed I’d still slip in so seamlessly as part of the family. Anyway, I’m happy I did. Nice to have my عائلة الأردنية  (Jordanian family) back again!

تصبح على خير

Good night!

The ones you love are always in your heart..

This gallery contains 19 photos.

This summer has been a whirlwind… full of great memories with people I love. People who make it hard to leave. As excited as I am for this next adventure, there are so many memories I will carry with me.  … Continue reading →