After waiting at the Syria-Jordan border for 9 hours, I made it to Damascus late last Saturday, and had three excellent days wandering the souqs, visiting the Ummayyad mosque and traveling to Palmyra for a day (bus trip: 6 hrs round trip, touring the ruins: 1 hr), which was awesome.
And today we headed into Lebanon, a much easier border crossing and currently I am in Beirut. Tomorrow we are headed to see a really cool cave and Baalbeck, home of awesome ancient ruins and Hezbollah.
Much love,
Happy holidays,
Kirsten
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23.12.09
17.12.09
Updates!
I'm leaving for Syria on Saturday, so it seemed like a good time to add some new posts, before I go off and have adventures that will require even more posts. I had a couple other adventures (hello, massive Dana hike) but hopefully those will come with time. Insha'allah. Who knows. Maybe sitting on a train to Istanbul for hours and hours will prove beneficial to my writing. Until then, Happy Holidays! (If you were curious, I'm hoping to spend Christmas Eve in Beirut, Christmas Day at the Cedars ski resort, and New Year's Eve in Istanbul, all with good friends.)
Love, Kirsten
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Love, Kirsten
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A few notes on language
So... Arabic is really hard. There are lots of weird letters, some of which I still struggle with pronouncing. There are two letters represented by the English "s", "d", "t" and (the one that I think is hardest to tell the difference between) "h," as well as three different "th"s. Modern Standard Arabic (fus'ha - formal Arabic used in newspapers, on TV, and in official contexts but not really spoken) also has ridiculous grammar rules and case endings. Even a lot of Jordanians don't really know how to speak fus'ha well.
A'amiyya, colloquial Arabic, is a lot easier. It has very few grammar rules, no case endings, and a lot of the words are much easier to say. In addition, because its almost exclusively a spoken language, there are no hard and fast rules for spelling, which makes it a lot easier for me since I don't have to remember which letter is being used. Plus most of the "th"s are actually pronounced "t" or "z".
What this means is that I am almost learning two separate languages, although there is some overlap between the vocabulary and very conjugations. As a result, I've gotten pretty good at speaking - my host mom and I communicate almost exclusively in Arabic now - but my spelling is not great. Reading can also be difficult, because I may know a word from hearing it but not necessarily recognize it written out.
Also, though I'm pretty good with the vocabulary from the first ten chapters of my Arabic book, it's much easier for me to speak in a'amiyya, but this limits the people I can talk to, because I struggle with accents that aren't what I'm used to. For instance, one of my office mates is Iraqi and I can only speak to him in fus'ha. And sometimes people will assume that because I'm foreign I'll only understand them if they speak fus'ha, when in fact this is pretty much the opposite of the truth.
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A'amiyya, colloquial Arabic, is a lot easier. It has very few grammar rules, no case endings, and a lot of the words are much easier to say. In addition, because its almost exclusively a spoken language, there are no hard and fast rules for spelling, which makes it a lot easier for me since I don't have to remember which letter is being used. Plus most of the "th"s are actually pronounced "t" or "z".
What this means is that I am almost learning two separate languages, although there is some overlap between the vocabulary and very conjugations. As a result, I've gotten pretty good at speaking - my host mom and I communicate almost exclusively in Arabic now - but my spelling is not great. Reading can also be difficult, because I may know a word from hearing it but not necessarily recognize it written out.
Also, though I'm pretty good with the vocabulary from the first ten chapters of my Arabic book, it's much easier for me to speak in a'amiyya, but this limits the people I can talk to, because I struggle with accents that aren't what I'm used to. For instance, one of my office mates is Iraqi and I can only speak to him in fus'ha. And sometimes people will assume that because I'm foreign I'll only understand them if they speak fus'ha, when in fact this is pretty much the opposite of the truth.
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Food!
Definitely one of the best parts of living in Amman is the food. Honestly, though occasionally I wish there were more fresh fruits and vegetables, I think I could live on Middle Eastern food for the rest of my life (and to be honest, its not that there aren't fruit and veggies, its just that I am not very good about seeking them out).
My first meal of the day, before I go to school, consists of bread and a shifting array of toppings. Generally there is honey, cream cheese, jam, olive oil and zattar, and sometimes yogurt cheese as well. After my morning classes, I get something to eat - falafel sandwiches or schwarma are common. Across the street from the university is a fast food restaurant called Lebnani Snack, and I go there a lot. In addition to delicious wrapped sandwiches, they have amazing fruit cocktails (here, the word doesn't generally have any alcoholic connotations). There are also a number of little shops around school and near my internship offering sandwiches for as little as 30 garsh (less than 50 cents). When I get home, no matter what time it is, my mother will have some "lunch" for me. Lunch, which is eating sometime in the afternoon, is the biggest meal of the day. If I stay up late enough, there will also be dinner, probably just a sandwich with cheese or yogurt.
I've learned to cook a number of Arabic dishes - most of them aren't really that hard, just some combination of rice, vegetables and meat. One of the things I was most excited to learn was mansaf, which is basically the Jordanian national dish and seems pretty hard to find in the US, since most Middle Eastern restaurants are Lebanese (although I've done some research and there is a Syrian restaurant in Portland that serves it). My host mom has been promising all semester to show me and finally last Friday she made it on a day when I wasn't in school. The way she makes it, its not that difficult, but I've heard that it's supposed to be very time consuming, so possibly there's another way.
I had another cool cooking experience two weekends ago. My Arabic professor is totally awesome and very sweet, and since there were only four girls in my class she invited us all to her house to cook with her. We made a number of really delicious dishes, including tabouli with spinach and a eggplant-pita-yogurt layered thing, but the things I was really excited to learn were stuffed grape leaves and stuffed kousa (a vaguely zucchini-like squash, but one that I actually like). I've watched my mom and her sisters rolling grape leaves, but I've never actually tried it myself. It's difficult, but I think with enough practice I could be pretty good at it. The kousa is easier, the hardest part being hollowing it out, but they have specific utensils designed for the purpose.
Other favorite foods:
Mamoule, which are date-filled cookies made for the Eids. My mother's are amazing, and she gave me her recipe...
Kenafa, another sweet, made of crunchy, sugary stuff over cheese, which sounds weird but is actually delicious.
Magloubeh, literally "upside down" because you cook rice, potatoes, meat, and vegetables all together in a giant pot and the turn it upside down onto a tray.
Kubbeh, which my host mom said is actually more Syrian/Lebanese, but she showed me how to make. Basically a bulghar wheat shell stuffed with meat.
Manaqish, Arabic pizza without sauce, generally just cheese, zattar, or both.
Spicy eggplant in a jar, which I forget the name of, but my host mom's sister made a big batch for us and it is so delicious. My professor described how to make it, so I may be able to attempt it at home.
Basically any sandwich with french fries on it. It's amazing how the most basic turkey sandwich can be improved by the addition of hobez arabi (Arabic bread) and batata (potato).
Also, I am learning to love cucumber, which has never been a food I've liked much, and even to tolerate olives - they're actually pretty good raw and plain, though I still prefer to avoid them on sandwiches and pizza and the like. The one thing I've been served that I really just couldn't deal with was the yogurt-milk-salt drink, which I'm sorry but ick. My salt tolerance has definitely increased since I've been here, but still! Fortunately, that's pretty much the only thing I've found that I don't like. Everything else is at least edible.
Basically, you should all just be prepared to eat lots of Middle Eastern food whenever I'm cooking.
More...
My first meal of the day, before I go to school, consists of bread and a shifting array of toppings. Generally there is honey, cream cheese, jam, olive oil and zattar, and sometimes yogurt cheese as well. After my morning classes, I get something to eat - falafel sandwiches or schwarma are common. Across the street from the university is a fast food restaurant called Lebnani Snack, and I go there a lot. In addition to delicious wrapped sandwiches, they have amazing fruit cocktails (here, the word doesn't generally have any alcoholic connotations). There are also a number of little shops around school and near my internship offering sandwiches for as little as 30 garsh (less than 50 cents). When I get home, no matter what time it is, my mother will have some "lunch" for me. Lunch, which is eating sometime in the afternoon, is the biggest meal of the day. If I stay up late enough, there will also be dinner, probably just a sandwich with cheese or yogurt.
I've learned to cook a number of Arabic dishes - most of them aren't really that hard, just some combination of rice, vegetables and meat. One of the things I was most excited to learn was mansaf, which is basically the Jordanian national dish and seems pretty hard to find in the US, since most Middle Eastern restaurants are Lebanese (although I've done some research and there is a Syrian restaurant in Portland that serves it). My host mom has been promising all semester to show me and finally last Friday she made it on a day when I wasn't in school. The way she makes it, its not that difficult, but I've heard that it's supposed to be very time consuming, so possibly there's another way.
I had another cool cooking experience two weekends ago. My Arabic professor is totally awesome and very sweet, and since there were only four girls in my class she invited us all to her house to cook with her. We made a number of really delicious dishes, including tabouli with spinach and a eggplant-pita-yogurt layered thing, but the things I was really excited to learn were stuffed grape leaves and stuffed kousa (a vaguely zucchini-like squash, but one that I actually like). I've watched my mom and her sisters rolling grape leaves, but I've never actually tried it myself. It's difficult, but I think with enough practice I could be pretty good at it. The kousa is easier, the hardest part being hollowing it out, but they have specific utensils designed for the purpose.
Other favorite foods:
Mamoule, which are date-filled cookies made for the Eids. My mother's are amazing, and she gave me her recipe...
Kenafa, another sweet, made of crunchy, sugary stuff over cheese, which sounds weird but is actually delicious.
Magloubeh, literally "upside down" because you cook rice, potatoes, meat, and vegetables all together in a giant pot and the turn it upside down onto a tray.
Kubbeh, which my host mom said is actually more Syrian/Lebanese, but she showed me how to make. Basically a bulghar wheat shell stuffed with meat.
Manaqish, Arabic pizza without sauce, generally just cheese, zattar, or both.
Spicy eggplant in a jar, which I forget the name of, but my host mom's sister made a big batch for us and it is so delicious. My professor described how to make it, so I may be able to attempt it at home.
Basically any sandwich with french fries on it. It's amazing how the most basic turkey sandwich can be improved by the addition of hobez arabi (Arabic bread) and batata (potato).
Also, I am learning to love cucumber, which has never been a food I've liked much, and even to tolerate olives - they're actually pretty good raw and plain, though I still prefer to avoid them on sandwiches and pizza and the like. The one thing I've been served that I really just couldn't deal with was the yogurt-milk-salt drink, which I'm sorry but ick. My salt tolerance has definitely increased since I've been here, but still! Fortunately, that's pretty much the only thing I've found that I don't like. Everything else is at least edible.
Basically, you should all just be prepared to eat lots of Middle Eastern food whenever I'm cooking.
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Internship
One of the classes offered through my program is an internship for credit. You submit a resume, they try to match you with a Jordanian NGO or company, you go to some classes and write a case study on your organization and it counts as college credit. Though I'm not actually doing this program for school credit, doing an internship sounded like a really good experience. I had some trouble finding an organization, but at the last minute I was offered a spot at the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature and I have been working there since the beginning of October.
It's been a really interesting experience, especially since I've had to keep a journal of my work and my thoughts on the organization to help me write the case study. Writing the case study (the final version is due today) has also been really interesting. It's forced me to take note of details and ask questions I might not otherwise think to, and really helped think deeply about the mission and functioning of RSCN in particular and NGOs generally.
I've actually been working in the Public Relations department, which I have to admit was not exactly my first thought when I decided I wanted to intern with an NGO, but has definitely been a good experience. I've been doing a lot of different things, ranging from as boring as entering membership data to exciting things like getting a free trip to one of the Reserves. I've probably spent more time doing data entry than anything else - RSCN has a new free membership program called Friends of RSCN that always has some new names and emails to enter - but its hardly been the majority of my time. I have also had to spend quite a while recording and trying to fix email address that come back undelivered, which is pretty similarly monotonous, but I've also gotten to write quite a few (English) press releases and articles, which has helped me learn a lot more about the organization. In addition to writing English, I also occasionally edit it, as in tourism brochures and sometimes my supervisor's emails.
Probably the most exciting part of my internship, though, was the day I got to go to Dana Biosphere Reserve in southern Jordan with a team doing evaluations, computer work, and interviewing for a new manager. That was a really great day, partly because I got the opportunity to talk to a group of employees with perspectives and tasks I don't normally really get to see (almost all the staff in Amman speak English, so communication is not a huge problem), and partly because Dana is absolutely gorgeous. I walked through the village and down to the gardens, but didn't go too far because it was hot. I got to visit both the fruit preserving and silver working workshops, where local women create products for the RSCN gift shops. One of the things RSCN really emphasizes is combining socio-economic development with environmental conservation. Dana was actually the first place they started a handicraft enterprise, and now they have workshops at all the Reserves, employing local women who have very few other opportunities for work. (Sorry if I sound a little bit like a press release; at this point I've written so many articles and brochures about the Reserve and RSCN that I can't help it.)I got to talk to some of the villagers working at the Guesthouse and workshops as well, partly in English and partly in Arabic, which was really interesting as well.
I've also gotten to attend a few RSCN events. The first week I was there, they were having a clean-up in Amman National Park, so a friend and I went. Most of the time was actually spent waiting - I helped by passing out membership brochures - and then listening to the Minister of the Environment speak. Afterward we spent about 45 minutes picking up trash, which to be honest didn't make a huge dent - litter is a big problem here, and people don't seem to think twice about just throwing garbage out of car windows and so forth.
A few weeks later, we had a jewelery launch for a line of necklaces created by a Dutch designer using rocks from the shores of the Dead Sea. That wasn't super exciting, another visit from the Minister, some of the Cafe's amazing herbal tea, and browsing through the gift shop. The stuff there is really nice, although pretty expensive for Jordan. I guess its going to a good cause, though.
One other really excellent part of my job is the office I work in. The Public Relations Department has its offices directly underneath the Cafe, and the window next to me looks out over downtown and across to the Citadel on the hill on the other side. (The neighborhood I work in is called Jabal Amman, meaning something like "mountain of Amman," with good reason.) I had an exciting moment wandering around downtown the other day when I encountered the "Quick Sandwich" sign I stare at when I get writer's block on one of my articles.
Also really enjoyable is the Arabic fondness for sharing food. There are occasional big inter-departmental breakfasts (at 1 in the afternoon - meal schedules are weird here) and sometimes smaller breakfasts with the other employees I work with. The food is basic, pita and things to dip it in, but always really good, and its nice to relax and meet the other people in the office.
Overall, its been a really rewarding experience, and despite my complaints while struggling to write it, I think being forced to write a case study was really educational as well, and I'm glad I did it. (It's pretty long and probably not of interest to everyone, so I won't post it here but if you are interested in NGOs and the environment and would like more information about my experience at RSCN, just let me know and I can send you the case study.)
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It's been a really interesting experience, especially since I've had to keep a journal of my work and my thoughts on the organization to help me write the case study. Writing the case study (the final version is due today) has also been really interesting. It's forced me to take note of details and ask questions I might not otherwise think to, and really helped think deeply about the mission and functioning of RSCN in particular and NGOs generally.
I've actually been working in the Public Relations department, which I have to admit was not exactly my first thought when I decided I wanted to intern with an NGO, but has definitely been a good experience. I've been doing a lot of different things, ranging from as boring as entering membership data to exciting things like getting a free trip to one of the Reserves. I've probably spent more time doing data entry than anything else - RSCN has a new free membership program called Friends of RSCN that always has some new names and emails to enter - but its hardly been the majority of my time. I have also had to spend quite a while recording and trying to fix email address that come back undelivered, which is pretty similarly monotonous, but I've also gotten to write quite a few (English) press releases and articles, which has helped me learn a lot more about the organization. In addition to writing English, I also occasionally edit it, as in tourism brochures and sometimes my supervisor's emails.
Probably the most exciting part of my internship, though, was the day I got to go to Dana Biosphere Reserve in southern Jordan with a team doing evaluations, computer work, and interviewing for a new manager. That was a really great day, partly because I got the opportunity to talk to a group of employees with perspectives and tasks I don't normally really get to see (almost all the staff in Amman speak English, so communication is not a huge problem), and partly because Dana is absolutely gorgeous. I walked through the village and down to the gardens, but didn't go too far because it was hot. I got to visit both the fruit preserving and silver working workshops, where local women create products for the RSCN gift shops. One of the things RSCN really emphasizes is combining socio-economic development with environmental conservation. Dana was actually the first place they started a handicraft enterprise, and now they have workshops at all the Reserves, employing local women who have very few other opportunities for work. (Sorry if I sound a little bit like a press release; at this point I've written so many articles and brochures about the Reserve and RSCN that I can't help it.)I got to talk to some of the villagers working at the Guesthouse and workshops as well, partly in English and partly in Arabic, which was really interesting as well.
I've also gotten to attend a few RSCN events. The first week I was there, they were having a clean-up in Amman National Park, so a friend and I went. Most of the time was actually spent waiting - I helped by passing out membership brochures - and then listening to the Minister of the Environment speak. Afterward we spent about 45 minutes picking up trash, which to be honest didn't make a huge dent - litter is a big problem here, and people don't seem to think twice about just throwing garbage out of car windows and so forth.
A few weeks later, we had a jewelery launch for a line of necklaces created by a Dutch designer using rocks from the shores of the Dead Sea. That wasn't super exciting, another visit from the Minister, some of the Cafe's amazing herbal tea, and browsing through the gift shop. The stuff there is really nice, although pretty expensive for Jordan. I guess its going to a good cause, though.
One other really excellent part of my job is the office I work in. The Public Relations Department has its offices directly underneath the Cafe, and the window next to me looks out over downtown and across to the Citadel on the hill on the other side. (The neighborhood I work in is called Jabal Amman, meaning something like "mountain of Amman," with good reason.) I had an exciting moment wandering around downtown the other day when I encountered the "Quick Sandwich" sign I stare at when I get writer's block on one of my articles.
Also really enjoyable is the Arabic fondness for sharing food. There are occasional big inter-departmental breakfasts (at 1 in the afternoon - meal schedules are weird here) and sometimes smaller breakfasts with the other employees I work with. The food is basic, pita and things to dip it in, but always really good, and its nice to relax and meet the other people in the office.
Overall, its been a really rewarding experience, and despite my complaints while struggling to write it, I think being forced to write a case study was really educational as well, and I'm glad I did it. (It's pretty long and probably not of interest to everyone, so I won't post it here but if you are interested in NGOs and the environment and would like more information about my experience at RSCN, just let me know and I can send you the case study.)
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Arabic Wedding
So as you may recall, the son of my host mom's aunt got married back in November and so I got to go with my family to all of the wedding festivities, which was a really interesting experience. Though the wedding itself was on Friday, the fuss surrounding it really got started on Wednesday, when Niveen's older sister Nisreen and her younger son, who is four, arrived to stay at our house. That first night, Niveen and her sister shared the bed with the three kids on mattresses on the floor and Hamada on a mattress in the living room.
On Thursday, in the evening, all of us but Hamada went to a pre-wedding party at the groom's mother's house. It was all women (except for the bride, who was probably somewhere else getting her henna done) so there was music, dancing, and de-hijabing, which is always really interesting. (I love it when we're with Niveen's sisters without any men around so they can take theirs off - it makes such a difference.) At the end of the evening, Niveen's youngest sister Naimeen howed up, with her husband, son and Nisreen's older son in tow. They had a car so we all (if you're counting, that makes a total of ten) drove back to our house together. The sisters took the bed again, with the littler kids on the floor in the bedroom and the older son by himself in the living room, while Hamada and Naimeen's husband went to stay in Niveen's brother's apartment in Jabal Amman.
Friday, the wedding day, was mostly just sitting around the house entertaining the guests. In the morning, since it was just Niveen's sisters in the house, it was pretty relaxed. Part way through the day Niveen's other sister, Suher, came with her husband and three kids, and then the other men came back, which made everything a lot more formal. There was a lot of sitting in the living room with tea, coffee, a cake that Niveen baked, plus seven little kids chasing each other around.
And then in the evening there was the wedding itself. Now there were two cars for the sixteen of us, and since that number included the seven kids this was a lot more comfortable than the night before, although as it turned out the wedding hall was just down the road from us while the aunt's house was out near the airport. When we arrived, there were a lot of men standing around outside, but the women and some of the children (some of them stayed with their fathers) were directed to a room upstairs. There were a bunch of tables scattered around the room for guests and a platform in one corner for the bride and groom, decorated nicely, with a fancy couch and low table on it. There were just women, so there was dancing again for a while. On a screen on the wall, they had a video feed of the bride's progress. She wears the hijab, so while she was outside surrounded by men she wore a cloak with a white hood.
Eventually she and the groom made in inside and upstairs to where we were all waiting for them. The first step was to take about a million pictures together. There were no vows or that kind of elaborate ceremony that Americans expect. They just exchanged rings and danced two dances together, one slow and one fast. After that the other women started dancing for a while, until the cake was brought it. It was multi-tiered, really pretty, and the bride and groom cut it together like at an American wedding - except that they used a sword. Which I thought was pretty cool. Then there was the feeding each other the first bite, which was familiar, although there was no cake smeared in anyone's face. Then they went through a few other cute little food-sharing rituals: there was a slice of pineapple that they both bit into from opposite ends at the same time so they were almost-but-not-quite-kissing (public displays of affection, even between married couples, are not really approved of here) which I actually thought was a lot more romantic than I've made it sound here, then they took sips out of each other's glasses, then out of the same cup (using straws) - I'm not sure what they were drinking, though I can say pretty confidently it wasn't champagne.
After that, they returned to their couch for the "Wearing of the Gold." There was a red heart-shaped box filled with various pieces of gold jewelery - in Islam, a man is supposed to give his wife a certain amount of money when they get married, and often this comes in the form of gold - which the groom then had to put on the bride. He actually did pretty well, though he needed a little bit of help from her sister for the earrings.
After that, it was mostly just more dancing - the bride and groom danced together again, and some other women danced, and then the bride put her cloak back on and all of the men came in. At this point a lot of the women left - probably their husbands and family left as well, but that was less noticeable for me. However, the dancing continued. In addition to just dancing to the music, they do a circle dance called the dubkeh, which is mostly pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but looks really cool when everyone is doing it. I know the most basic steps, but I'm not very good at it. At this point I think it was mostly just the closest family of the bride and groom, and everyone was really happy. They lifted the groom up onto one of his friend's shoulders, and then also his father, I think. My host mother's younger brother jumped up onto a table where a lot of his aunts and older female relatives were sitting and started dancing, which everyone found really entertaining.
In the end, everyone filed out, with a lot of people packing into two buses or their cars, and the bride and groom getting into a nice, new, well-decorated convertible. I think generally there's some sort of car procession, with everyone honking and yelling, but if there was I didn't get to see it because we were just driven back home - not without some honking, though - and all of the Irbid families set off home (hamdulliliah).
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On Thursday, in the evening, all of us but Hamada went to a pre-wedding party at the groom's mother's house. It was all women (except for the bride, who was probably somewhere else getting her henna done) so there was music, dancing, and de-hijabing, which is always really interesting. (I love it when we're with Niveen's sisters without any men around so they can take theirs off - it makes such a difference.) At the end of the evening, Niveen's youngest sister Naimeen howed up, with her husband, son and Nisreen's older son in tow. They had a car so we all (if you're counting, that makes a total of ten) drove back to our house together. The sisters took the bed again, with the littler kids on the floor in the bedroom and the older son by himself in the living room, while Hamada and Naimeen's husband went to stay in Niveen's brother's apartment in Jabal Amman.
Friday, the wedding day, was mostly just sitting around the house entertaining the guests. In the morning, since it was just Niveen's sisters in the house, it was pretty relaxed. Part way through the day Niveen's other sister, Suher, came with her husband and three kids, and then the other men came back, which made everything a lot more formal. There was a lot of sitting in the living room with tea, coffee, a cake that Niveen baked, plus seven little kids chasing each other around.
And then in the evening there was the wedding itself. Now there were two cars for the sixteen of us, and since that number included the seven kids this was a lot more comfortable than the night before, although as it turned out the wedding hall was just down the road from us while the aunt's house was out near the airport. When we arrived, there were a lot of men standing around outside, but the women and some of the children (some of them stayed with their fathers) were directed to a room upstairs. There were a bunch of tables scattered around the room for guests and a platform in one corner for the bride and groom, decorated nicely, with a fancy couch and low table on it. There were just women, so there was dancing again for a while. On a screen on the wall, they had a video feed of the bride's progress. She wears the hijab, so while she was outside surrounded by men she wore a cloak with a white hood.
Eventually she and the groom made in inside and upstairs to where we were all waiting for them. The first step was to take about a million pictures together. There were no vows or that kind of elaborate ceremony that Americans expect. They just exchanged rings and danced two dances together, one slow and one fast. After that the other women started dancing for a while, until the cake was brought it. It was multi-tiered, really pretty, and the bride and groom cut it together like at an American wedding - except that they used a sword. Which I thought was pretty cool. Then there was the feeding each other the first bite, which was familiar, although there was no cake smeared in anyone's face. Then they went through a few other cute little food-sharing rituals: there was a slice of pineapple that they both bit into from opposite ends at the same time so they were almost-but-not-quite-kissing (public displays of affection, even between married couples, are not really approved of here) which I actually thought was a lot more romantic than I've made it sound here, then they took sips out of each other's glasses, then out of the same cup (using straws) - I'm not sure what they were drinking, though I can say pretty confidently it wasn't champagne.
After that, they returned to their couch for the "Wearing of the Gold." There was a red heart-shaped box filled with various pieces of gold jewelery - in Islam, a man is supposed to give his wife a certain amount of money when they get married, and often this comes in the form of gold - which the groom then had to put on the bride. He actually did pretty well, though he needed a little bit of help from her sister for the earrings.
After that, it was mostly just more dancing - the bride and groom danced together again, and some other women danced, and then the bride put her cloak back on and all of the men came in. At this point a lot of the women left - probably their husbands and family left as well, but that was less noticeable for me. However, the dancing continued. In addition to just dancing to the music, they do a circle dance called the dubkeh, which is mostly pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but looks really cool when everyone is doing it. I know the most basic steps, but I'm not very good at it. At this point I think it was mostly just the closest family of the bride and groom, and everyone was really happy. They lifted the groom up onto one of his friend's shoulders, and then also his father, I think. My host mother's younger brother jumped up onto a table where a lot of his aunts and older female relatives were sitting and started dancing, which everyone found really entertaining.
In the end, everyone filed out, with a lot of people packing into two buses or their cars, and the bride and groom getting into a nice, new, well-decorated convertible. I think generally there's some sort of car procession, with everyone honking and yelling, but if there was I didn't get to see it because we were just driven back home - not without some honking, though - and all of the Irbid families set off home (hamdulliliah).
More...
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