I was going to say that I have some New Years Resolutions, but really they're more like New Spring Resolutions? Haha. Either way. Being in Barcelona and realizing that I only have a month and a half left to my study abroad has made me realize some things. Life is fun! No matter what! Rain or shine (mostly the former in Barcelona), I can always be happy. No, I did not choose to be in Jordan this semester, but doggone it, I'm going to enjoy it.
I didn't take the move out of Cairo nearly as hard as some other people from my program did, but I've been spending the past month and a half that I've been in Jordan as if it's just something to wait out. I started out really positive with a go-getter attitude and then being here just became something that I have to do because I know it'll be good for me in the long run, not because I enjoy it. I guess I fizzed out because I tried to always go out and do cultural things and always try to be exciting, and I got tired and started running out of things to do and then got frustrated. I missed the point that just living and enjoying everyday things can be exciting.
For instance, today at Safeway Lauren and I were loitering in the Nescafe aisle. That's right, Nescafe is so popular in the Middle East that there is an entire section devoted to it. (The unusual popularity of Nescafe could be a whole post in itself!) We think of Nescafe as a coffee-drink, but not really a substitute for real coffee and the caffeine therein, thus making it especially funny when we realized that there are "gourmet" flavors of Nescafe! My particular favorite was one called "Alta Rica -Intense" and had a sultry container and a picture of... the pyramids of Chichen Itza?! Because the Mayans make me think of good, intense Nescafe.
It's little funny things like this that brighten my day, make me and Lauren cackle like insane people in the middle of Safeway, and make being in Jordan the immersive cultural experience that I wanted. I'm super excited to do all the touristy and historical stuff as well, of course, but in all honesty, it's the little differences that I love. Like how you're more likely to find authentic young Jordanians at Starbucks and KFC than you are at the Lebnani Snack Shop, or how the super complicated (in my opinion) system for transliterating Arabic on facebook is actually harder for me to understand than just writing out the Arabic characters. So far I've pretty much only taken pictures of the big, important trips we've gone on. But not anymore! Following Gina's example in Barcelona (except maybe not to the extreme scrap-collecting she takes it too, haha, love you Gina!), I'm going to bring my camera and my field notebook with me wherever I go and record as many interesting things as I can. This is me psyching myself up for this, haha. I am going to have such a fun last couple months, and I am going to have photos and scraps and blog entries to show for it! Stay tuned!
I didn't take the move out of Cairo nearly as hard as some other people from my program did, but I've been spending the past month and a half that I've been in Jordan as if it's just something to wait out. I started out really positive with a go-getter attitude and then being here just became something that I have to do because I know it'll be good for me in the long run, not because I enjoy it. I guess I fizzed out because I tried to always go out and do cultural things and always try to be exciting, and I got tired and started running out of things to do and then got frustrated. I missed the point that just living and enjoying everyday things can be exciting.
For instance, today at Safeway Lauren and I were loitering in the Nescafe aisle. That's right, Nescafe is so popular in the Middle East that there is an entire section devoted to it. (The unusual popularity of Nescafe could be a whole post in itself!) We think of Nescafe as a coffee-drink, but not really a substitute for real coffee and the caffeine therein, thus making it especially funny when we realized that there are "gourmet" flavors of Nescafe! My particular favorite was one called "Alta Rica -Intense" and had a sultry container and a picture of... the pyramids of Chichen Itza?! Because the Mayans make me think of good, intense Nescafe.
It's little funny things like this that brighten my day, make me and Lauren cackle like insane people in the middle of Safeway, and make being in Jordan the immersive cultural experience that I wanted. I'm super excited to do all the touristy and historical stuff as well, of course, but in all honesty, it's the little differences that I love. Like how you're more likely to find authentic young Jordanians at Starbucks and KFC than you are at the Lebnani Snack Shop, or how the super complicated (in my opinion) system for transliterating Arabic on facebook is actually harder for me to understand than just writing out the Arabic characters. So far I've pretty much only taken pictures of the big, important trips we've gone on. But not anymore! Following Gina's example in Barcelona (except maybe not to the extreme scrap-collecting she takes it too, haha, love you Gina!), I'm going to bring my camera and my field notebook with me wherever I go and record as many interesting things as I can. This is me psyching myself up for this, haha. I am going to have such a fun last couple months, and I am going to have photos and scraps and blog entries to show for it! Stay tuned!
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