Today I officially start my functions here in Jordan. Believe is part of my promise, what I'll look for. But it is only the first step for amazing things to happen.
See you at infinity!
See you at infinity!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
a film with a view
Tonight there was a film festival on refugees at one of the busiest spot in Amman, near Rainbow street (Jabal Amman). "God grew tired of us" was the name of the documentary, talking about the Lost Boys from Sudan, erratically moving from place to place until they fly to the US... restart their lives, readapt to a society that is so close to us that at some point it was funny and poetic to see how they actually didn't know a thing about "whether i'll be able to use electricity" or that "chips are ready, cooked!"
So the film was great but more even so the place where we were, coz it was in this backyard garden with the most beautiful view over downtown Amman, slight scent of flowers from the trees around us and for some unexplained reason fireworks kept emerging from different points of the landscape.
This is definitely one of my first addictions here, that from a higher hill you can get a magnificient view of an immense bunch of houses, mosks, streets and mountains at the distance, with their overall earthly colours at different lights, whether it's the break of the day, the sun's up or about to set. I'm very much a colour-person but still it seems beautiful, peaceful and relaxing to look at.
Quoting from the film: "If I was born tall then there's a reason for it, I have a purpose to fulfill." Right?
So the film was great but more even so the place where we were, coz it was in this backyard garden with the most beautiful view over downtown Amman, slight scent of flowers from the trees around us and for some unexplained reason fireworks kept emerging from different points of the landscape.
This is definitely one of my first addictions here, that from a higher hill you can get a magnificient view of an immense bunch of houses, mosks, streets and mountains at the distance, with their overall earthly colours at different lights, whether it's the break of the day, the sun's up or about to set. I'm very much a colour-person but still it seems beautiful, peaceful and relaxing to look at.
Quoting from the film: "If I was born tall then there's a reason for it, I have a purpose to fulfill." Right?
Friday, June 19, 2009
where the streets have no names
This is my third weekend here and still i don't know how to move around by transportation in Amman. It's actually kind of embarassing and ego-damaging for my generally very independent and walk-about ways but I'll get there eventually... just need to learn basic taxi-drivers' Arabic (hun - here -, schwei - slow down, a litlle) and how to get to the circles. Maps are outdated most of the times, so follow my advice, stick to the circles.
Important Notice: if you wanna go around Amman, forget about street names (they exist, but no-one really knows or uses them), focus on the 8 circles (roundpoints ranging from big to tiny, barely noticeable) and landmarks, although this is also tricky cause it might be pure luck to find a taxi driver who actually knows what you're talking about... And if he doesn't, most probably will keep going randomly until you notice it because he won't admit his ignorance.
And i don't keep talking about taxis because I'm a fancy person (though I am too :P), but because apart from them you have basically private cars and buses which don't go everywhere and don't leave until they're full and again you should know some Arabic already or know basic way of how to get to a place so that when they say a name it actually rings a bell to you and you drop off. And taxis here are cheap, which makes sense, given the situation. So public transportation here could definitely be better, reach more places and be more constant. But it's also part of the charm!
But all of this because I'm planning to go to Jara, friday open air fair, in fact a lot of people want to come too but none seem to know exactly how to get there... including Jordanians! So I guess we'll follow someone's advice and ask to be taken to Rainbow St (which is actually not the real street name but everyone calls it like that) and then look around until I find lots of people and the market on the right.
Until I improve my scarce Arabic and learn by heart where the circles are =)
I'm leaving now!
Important Notice: if you wanna go around Amman, forget about street names (they exist, but no-one really knows or uses them), focus on the 8 circles (roundpoints ranging from big to tiny, barely noticeable) and landmarks, although this is also tricky cause it might be pure luck to find a taxi driver who actually knows what you're talking about... And if he doesn't, most probably will keep going randomly until you notice it because he won't admit his ignorance.
And i don't keep talking about taxis because I'm a fancy person (though I am too :P), but because apart from them you have basically private cars and buses which don't go everywhere and don't leave until they're full and again you should know some Arabic already or know basic way of how to get to a place so that when they say a name it actually rings a bell to you and you drop off. And taxis here are cheap, which makes sense, given the situation. So public transportation here could definitely be better, reach more places and be more constant. But it's also part of the charm!
But all of this because I'm planning to go to Jara, friday open air fair, in fact a lot of people want to come too but none seem to know exactly how to get there... including Jordanians! So I guess we'll follow someone's advice and ask to be taken to Rainbow St (which is actually not the real street name but everyone calls it like that) and then look around until I find lots of people and the market on the right.
Until I improve my scarce Arabic and learn by heart where the circles are =)
I'm leaving now!
Monday, June 15, 2009
feels like home now
Today.
One day after a weekend where I met about 50 extraordinary people I'll be working with throughout the year, where I challenged myself and had interesting, hilarious, touching and also random talks, where I slept less hours and lived more intensely, where I got up on the roof and saw the sun rising while around people were speaking in Arabic and still I could get a sense of what they were saying, where I felt inspired and proud.
It had to be today and i couldn't delay the blog for any longer. Because today, or right after the conference to be more exactly, when i couldn't sleep but then I landed in my bed until the next day, because now I feel that I'm at home. I'll have a Jordanian heart and soul from now on and it probably won't vanish even after I leave.
So this is not the best intro to this blog but it's the most immediate message I had to tell. Later on, I promise to tell more, like where I'm staying, what I'm doing exactly, what I eat and what do I do in the meantime. But that's not the most important now. The main thing is that I'm home now, in Amman, Jordan.
One day after a weekend where I met about 50 extraordinary people I'll be working with throughout the year, where I challenged myself and had interesting, hilarious, touching and also random talks, where I slept less hours and lived more intensely, where I got up on the roof and saw the sun rising while around people were speaking in Arabic and still I could get a sense of what they were saying, where I felt inspired and proud.
It had to be today and i couldn't delay the blog for any longer. Because today, or right after the conference to be more exactly, when i couldn't sleep but then I landed in my bed until the next day, because now I feel that I'm at home. I'll have a Jordanian heart and soul from now on and it probably won't vanish even after I leave.
So this is not the best intro to this blog but it's the most immediate message I had to tell. Later on, I promise to tell more, like where I'm staying, what I'm doing exactly, what I eat and what do I do in the meantime. But that's not the most important now. The main thing is that I'm home now, in Amman, Jordan.
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