We’ve made it through our first quarter and through fall break. We are all feeling more settled and at home, and finding our routines. I wanted to share some random thoughts in no particular order.
Coffee: I just finished reading A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage, and aside from being a delightful book, I learned that so many of the world’s influential drinks (the “six glasses” of the book are beer, wine, coffee, tea, spirits, and Coca Cola) have roots in the Middle East. Beer was invented in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), wine in Iran and Egypt, Coffee in Yemen, and spirits were first distilled in the Islamic Golden Age. Of course, 3 types of alcohol originated in the Middle East, and now many if not most Muslims don’t drink alcohol. According to Standage’s book, coffee was put on trial for a time by Muslim leadership in Mecca, but it was decided that coffee was not an intoxicant.
This all makes sense when you see the coffee culture here in Jordan. Coffee is a way of life here. And that’s saying something as someone who spent 7 years in the world’s number one exporter of coffee. There are so many coffee shops and cafes, and so much coffee consumption. One nice complimentary good to coffee here is incredible baked goods. The cakes, the pastries, they are amazing. I seriously have never had such tender, moist, fluffy cakes.
Is there an interpretation of coffee culture here as a result of less alcohol consumption? I think you can argue that. Whereas other countries have bars for socializing, here it’s all coffee houses. They become meeting rooms, hang outs, date spots, personal offices. The coffee is delicious and the vibes are excellent.
My favorite coffee here has cardamom in it. It is so delicious. Jordan was an important link in the spice trade, and that evidence is everywhere, even in the coffee.
Smoking: Jordan has one of the world’s highest rates of smoking. 66% of men smoke! Jordan has tried to limit smoking indoors, but it’s somewhat inconsistently applied. Many people smoke tobacco hookahs in restaurants, which is called shisha here. At least shisha is less smoky than regular cigarettes, but the amount of smoking is disconcerting, but not impossible to avoid.
Again, I wonder about the human penchant for vice. (John Green wrote about this in his essay on Diet Dr. Pepper in The Anthropocene Reviewed, about the human desire to pursue vices, even small ones). Without alcohol, are cigarettes a logical choice? Maybe it’s not so simple. Maybe cigarettes just got a hold here and there haven’t been big public campaigns to reduce the use.
Regardless of the source, it makes me sad to see so much smoking. I think about the families that are watching their loved ones die of cancer, COPD, heart attacks. I think about the probably American tobacco companies that are profiting off of the addiction and death of so many. And it’s hard to think about tobacco companies without thinking about the children they hire today who are often immigrants, or about the enslaved people they used in the past to pick tobacco.
Hummus: I was told that the hummus was going to blow my mind and they weren’t wrong. It’s so much creamier here. Better olive oil? Better tahini? I don’t know, but it’s awesome.
Cost of living: Amman is an expensive city. Because of limited farmland, food is expensive. You can buy more imported things here than in Brazil, and there aren’t giant tariffs, but things are more expensive. Early on in our time here, I mentioned to someone that I was looking to buy things made in Jordan. The person I was talking to said you needed water to make things, and there is not enough water here. Restaurants are not cheap here, either. The one exception is falafel. It is so cheap and so delicious. You can get like 50 falafel and salad and hummus and baba ganoush and you will spend like 10 USD.
Another exception is rugs. We are in the right part of the world to buy rugs, close to Turkey and Iran and other rug producing countries. We bought 2 rugs for our apartment and the prices were not bad and the selection was enormous.
There’s a fun game in finding the cheap places around town that appeals to my inherent genetic bias toward a deal. There’s an interesting pipeline of European and American products to Amman, often things that are reaching their expiration date, but you can find a good deal on cereal in British or Spanish boxes.
Work: I am really enjoying my work. My students are a delight, my colleagues are smart and funny, my classroom is lovely. I find myself feeling invigorated and content. Of course, I’m also getting my butt handed to me by being in my first year at a new school, but under the learning curve and the new teacher mistakes, I feel like we’ve landed in great place.
I also have to say that I feel very lucky to have landed in another great department. We are all new, and we’ve been building our team dynamic like a plane built mid-air. I love to be part of a department where we all bring different talents, skills, and points of view. I love that I can learn from them and feel inspired to be a better teacher.
Travel: One of the amazing perks of living here is its location. It’s not just that Jordan is smack dab in the middle of east and west, but Jordan itself is amazing. We just got back from our fall break week driving around Jordan. We spent two nights in Petra, two nights in Wadi Rum, and then two nights in Aqaba.
Petra is the ruins of a Nabataean civilization, with ruins from 2,000-3,000 years ago. The Nabataeans were basically a tribe of nomads who put down routes and became the czars of the spice trade. Almost all trade passed through their territory, and this made them incredibly wealthy. (Listen to some podcasts, here, here, and here). They got absorbed into the Roman empire, and then when Mediterranean shipping routes opened up, crossing the desert into Nabataean territory became a less favorable option, and just like cities that became ghost towns when the interstate bypassed them, the Nabataeans faded and dispersed. They left behind the most amazing tombs and holy sites carved into the rose colored stone of a canyon. The pictures don’t do it justice. It’s amazing.
“The Treasury” is a deceptive name. This was most likely a burial tomb, and unlike other carved buildings in the world, it does not go very deep. People did not live in there and it definitely didn’t house a treasury. There was a bedouin legend that the urn at the top held the Pharaoh’s treasure.
This is called the street of Facades. More tombs! So many different styles and influences. Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Persian.
On day 2 in Petra, we did what is called the backdoor hike. We parked at the main entrance, took a bus and a truck to the back entrance of Petra, and entered Petra from the end of the canyon where the second most famous building is, the Monastery. Then we hiked 10km back to the main entrance where our car was waiting. It was only at about 8.5km that Everett through a fit and refused to keep walking. Calvin came in a pinch and piggy backed Everett some of the remaining distance, which perked Everett up enough to make it to the end.
Next, we headed to Wadi Rum, a protected desert area in Jordan. It looks like Mars, and in fact The Martian and Dune were filmed here. It looks like Tatooine, but that was filmed in Morocco.
We took a 3 hour Jeep tour through the desert. Here are some of the sights:
We had another Jeep tour the next day in a different direction:
And on our last night we did the required sunset camel ride. We learned that camel saddles are not super comfortable and when the camel stands up and sits down to let you get on and off, you better hold on.
The next morning, we had our final desert sunrise:
Next, we were off to Aqaba, a beach town on the Red Sea.
We had a delicious dinner on the marina:
And now we’re home!
Okay, this has gotten super long, but I just want to say one final thing: I really love the desert. I know it’s a whole thing to say you want to live near the water. How many house hunting shows have someone say that exact phrase. I didn’t think I’d be a person who would say I love living in the desert, but here I am. It helps that my asthma and allergies have almost completely disappeared. Even beyond that, I am finding the desert colors and blindingly blue sky to be really…charming? That feels like the wrong word. Awe-inspiring? Deeply moving? I don’t what words to choose for the sentiment, but suffice to say I’m falling in love with the desert. The improbability of it, the colors, the peace.
