Falafel and Fuddruckers

Ahlan wa sahlan! I've finally reached Amman. Except for the trickiness of navigating the Boston airport, the trip here went quite smoothly. I was exhausted by the end of it and thus slept very soundly the first night. Jet lag set in a day or two later, but I would consider myself adjusted now.
As I write this, I am sitting on the floor of my bedroom beside the open balcony door, where it is coolest. It has been reaching the 90s during the day here, but nighttime is considerably cooler and there is always a pleasant breeze which rustles the palm tree beside the balcony. The heat is not nearly as bad as back home since here we don’t have to deal with humidity, but cool evenings are appreciated nonetheless.
Amman can be aptly described as a city in between the east and the west. On the one hand, street vendors sell cheap (but delicious!) shawerma and the pita bread sold in even the big supermarkets is always hot and fresh because it has just been baked in the store. On the other hand, these are some of the American restaurants in Amman: Quizno’s, Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, Applebee’s, Bennigan’s, Fuddruckers, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Popeye’s. Driving into the city from the airport, we saw a huge billboard advertising the new LG Chocolate cell phone- very snazzy, urban. However, we also saw many people having dinner picnics- they set out chairs in the dirt under the scrawny pine trees by the side of the road. In this way, it is difficult to characterize Amman as any one type of city. In some respects, it is becoming more traditional- for example, more women are choosing to wear hijab (the mode of dress that includes the head scarf) than in years past. In other respects, less traditional- it is possible to find dance clubs, complete with alcohol, techno music, and Western styles of dress. While watching “The Italian Job” today on satellite TV, my roommates and I had to wait until the call to prayer from the local mosque was finished to hear the movie’s dialogue. Waiting for the call to prayer to finish already seems perfectly normal, though stopping to think about it yields one of those "oh my gosh- I'm in the Middle East!!" moments.

All for now, more later.