It’s been a year and a month since I came to Jordan. My life has changed ever since I got on that plane to Amman.

Nothing much to say about the flight itself. The day I arrived is all but a blur right now. Even my stay at some of relatives’ in Irbid which wasn’t very pleasant I assure you, is also a distant memory right now.

Took me a whole year to start recovering from my cultural shock. No I haven’t come from Paris or Berlin but still, the differences between the UAE and Jordan are anything but negligible; I could write a small book about surprising social phenomena and behavior from the view point of an outsider.

I can write a list of the small yet very annoying things I don’t seem to get over. Like for example the obsessive compulsive usage of the English language between normal- Arabic-speaking- living in the Arab world all their life Jordanians. And I hereby exclude people like me who’s English is not perfect and are keen on not losing the little they know and so try to use it as much as possible but definitely not for the heck of it. Which also reminds me with another annoying habit, because it’s related to talking in English, since when do people who know each other but are not in any kind of romantic relationships keep calling each other “babe” and “baby”? seriously, am I the least cool person in this country or what. Of course I’m not generalizing, but this is something common among Ammani youngsters, but I’m not sure whether they mean to be nice/sweet or cool (AKA fay3een).

Now drinking in this country is getting out of hand. But I’ll leave this to another post. Just why do people tend to take things to an extreme once they have them? Sometimes I wonder if people ask themselves why they drink and why people drank in the past and even now, in a far far western world where drinking is less appreciated. I’m not saying don’t drink, even though I’m personally against it, just don’t over do it. Don’t over-do anything.

Oh, and it turns out its true, many girls wear the veil just to get married. It has nothing to do with being religious or anything; they decide to settle down so they wear it, as a sign maybe, that they’re now serious about life and that they’re full grown women who are ready to get married (or maybe they’re just trying to satisfy men’s ego by finally abiding by the rules of a “shame” culture, hoping that men or their mommies will propose). And if they’re tall and okay-looking then the deal is sealed. Don’t ask me why would any man want to marry such a woman, I don’t know why and I’m not interested to know.

Jordan’s economy of course is something I’d rather not talk about! But lets just say, it’s what makes Jordan one of the most frustrating countries in the world, at least in my opinion. I mean, Amman is the most expensive country in the Arab world, and when you think that the cost of living in Amman is actually a lot higher than that of any Arab Gulf city, well I don’t know about you, but it frustrates the hell out of me (me is a poor student/employee/expat/underpaid by all means).

And don’t get me started on jobs. Even after eliminating the money factor, don’t get me started!

I’ll leave the rest of my observations for other posts (maybe).

Don’t get me wrong, I love Jordan, especially Amman. But what I love about it don’t seem to spare me the harsh reality of a bad economy and depressive social norms.

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