ahlan wa sahlan!

It has been about a week now and Amman continues to be fantastic. I spent the first few days in a hotel for orientation and now live in an apartment with two roommates. The apartment itself is quite spacious and in a lovely neighborhood. I am within walking distance of a supermarket, internet cafes, restaurants, etc, although everyone takes taxis anyway (which are very inexpensive here), so transportation is not an issue. Jordanians are some of the most generous, hospitable people I've ever met. This is the kind of place where if you're walking around and ask for directions, someone will often offer to take you there himself. It is the kind of place where relationships are paramount; if you can build a connection with someone, things happen. Admittedly, this can be frustrating from an American point of view, since American society favors equal opportunity, everyone abiding by the same set of rules with less regard for social connections, and so forth. Here, if you know someone who knows someone in the internet company, you are likely to get DSL installed faster. I'm realizing already that it is not a better or worse system than in the U.S.- it's just different. Jordanians, who grow up understanding the importance of being part of a large social network, all play by the same set of their rules, and so the system still works. Moreover, since people are so social and willing to help, it is very easy to make friends. As our director was explaining, this social system of building relationships and asking favors (and getting them in return) is called wasta. In a sense, society seems to favor the emotional (relationships, bonding) over the unemotional (rules on paper, like in the US).

This became apparent to me during a cab ride yesterday. When I got in, I spoke to the driver in Arabic. He could tell that I was a foreigner, although I told him that I spoke Italian (since often it is assumed that foreigners speak English and so cab drivers will revert to that, but I wanted to practice). Under the assumption that I didn't speak English, we conversed solely in Arabic (albeit roughly). We discussed the beauty and difficulty of the Arabic language, the character of Amman, and so on. It was quite a pleasant conversation, even if I didn't always have the words for what I wanted to convey. At the end of the cab ride, having established this mutual connection, he refused to let me pay. Although this kind of thing (not paying) is not common, it does demonstrate how actions here are taken, it seems, on a more interpersonal level.

Time now to go explore the university for a bit before class, perhaps get some coffee. Ciao, amici.