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Life is good!
And for some, life is God. Religion is very visible here, Islam, that is. We have spent the last two Intercultural Communication lessons discussing more or less heatedly muslim way of life versus western way of life. It has been an eye-opening experience and made me better understand the culture here and the way people (especially how women) dress and behave. Still there is so much that I don't approve even though I now better understand. But as with all this kind of things, there are few right or wrong or black and white but lots of shades of grey that can be discussed but most often never really agreed upon due to us all seeing same things differently depending on our own context.
Enough about that, more about our life here. So I share an apartment of 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, kitchen and a deck with 4 Swedish girls: Boel, Sabina, Karin and Evelina (luckily we are all brunets, cause we're getting way enough attention as it is..). It is good to have lots of space at home because when we are at school or anywhere else we are never alone. Our normal day is like this:
Sunday to wednesday:
7.00 wake up, breakfast, getting ready to school, walking up the hill to school
8.15 Intercultural Communications lecture
9.30 break: studying, homework, internet or home to sleep or fixing stuff like going to bank or fruit store down the street
12.00 Multimedia lecture
14.00 Multimedia lab
17.00 off
food/groceries/hanging out/visiting some place
Thursday only the first lecture and Friday and Saturday off
Today we went to a hamaam, a Turkish spa to get our skin peeled and massaged. First we got into a very humid Turkish steam room for 15 mins to open all the pores. I was thrilled because it was the closest to sauna I had been in ages. We were served drinks of Hibiscus juice, it like nothing i had tasted before, but really delicious. The it was time for jacuzzi to really soften the skin some more. Next it was time for the scrub: I laid down on a stone table and this lady scrubbed all the dead skin cells off me with a peeling glove. It hurt slightly when she was working through my legs but it was easy to endure while thinking of the baby-bum-soft skin it would result in. It was really nice to be washed, felt almost like back to childhood when mom would wash me in sauna. Next I got to lay down on another table for a massage. The masseur took warm oil/liquid in her hands went through my whole body. When she got to my shoulders she asked me if i was stressed... Wonder how she noticed that from my muscles that are on knots! Afterwards we drank tea at the beautiful entrance hall and felt like we've been to some heaven!
If you come to Amman and want to go to hamaam, I can warmly recommend Hamaam Al-Pasha near the old town. It's off Rainbow street, and I think they have their own internet site, google it...
On the way home we were super hungry and shared a large pizza with Sabina and Evelina. Yeah it's not really Jordanian food and as much as i try to stick to the local stuff, sometimes you just got to get something fast. Anyway, the toppings were Jordanian! We've been home tonight just hanging out enjoying the relaxed state we are in after the hamaam.
Tomorrow we are going to a bazaar and probably downtown with some other students, looking forwards to a fun friday night!
I promise to write more about the traffic, taxis and Amman soon... Now my head hurts I need more water and then sleep.
Life is good in Jordan, over and out...
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