Taxi Drivers and Old Arab Men: WTF?

I'm catching up on several days of journal writing that I have not put onto the blog. Now that I have time and internet here in Amman, I am sharing with you all. I do apologize for the delay.

6/23/09

Lael arrived last night so I am excited. Her Taglit friend and her uncle escorted her to meet me at Damascus Gate and they asked me many questions. Their paranoia was apparent. They implored me to take care of Lael as if I were the one who'd just met her and they were the ones who had known her for two years.

Yesterday in class we learned the word for spoon and Richard asked, "Would that also be the verb 'to spoon' or...?" There was an awkward silence and then all the students started laughing. By Sami's silence I guess he does not know what it means. Today he wrote the word for teeth on the board and said, as usual, "What this mean?" and Edward blurted out "vagina!" I may have been the only one who heard.

6/25/09
9ish pm in Amman

Getting from Ramallah to Amman was rather more difficult and unpleasant than I thought it would be. It was so hot and we were surrounded by pushy people. Lael informed me that the U.S. is actually in the minority regarding the polite use of lines.

The trip involved three buses and three taxis. The drivers of the last two taxis had no navigational skills. Our driver from the Israeli town of Beit She'an to the Jordanian border asked me directions to the border and then demanded more money than we agreed on after he took us there. I stood firm.

The taxi ride on the other side of the border was more than an hour long and we shared it with an elderly French couple. I am surprised at how liberal Jordan is, and how high the quality of life seems to be here in the Western side of Amman. And cheap everything is [ed. note: on second thought, things aren't really that cheap]. We just ate a huge, three course meal at a fancy restaurant for 22 Dinars. Lael says that is $33, but I am still having trouble with the conversion.

There is a bar underneath our hotel room and they are playing pretty good American hip hop, like Lil Wayne and Kanye West. I am beginning to regret bringing only one shirt.

6/26/09

Last night I dreamt that Lael's trip to Jordan was insured and the insurance company had a long list of crazy demands.

1. Lael had to fix the gap in her teeth (she doesn't have one in real life). Meaning she had to wear a retainer at all times.
   
2. Lael had to wear a helmet when riding the bus.
   
3. We had to travel with a pet rabbit for emotional support.
   

I told Lael about this dream when I woke up and she said, "If we find a rabbit while we're out today, you can buy it. I don't care."

While we were out walking, we encountered a street that was filled almost solely with pet shops. Most of the merchandise was fish and birds but as I was admiring an African Gray parrot in the doorway of one store, the kindly storekeeper said, "I have rabbit!!" I followed him to the back of the store, where he opened a cage full of juvenile rabbits and put one in my hands.

It had a very disapproving look on its face, like, "You know I don't really like you touching me, so you're being quite selfish right now." I touched his belly for a minute, then put him down, managing to leave the store without buying him, despite the provinence (correct use of the word???) of last night's dream and Lael's total lack of discouragement.

6/27/09
Saturday
2pm ish

This girl Katie, Lael's friend, is really starting to get on my nerves. I'm trying to be charitable and just say that she's not used to traveling with others, but neither am I, and I'm not going around ignoring other peoples' clearly-stated needs and desires.

I have said more than once since she arrived yesterday that I can't walk as fast as she can and asked her and Lael to walk slower. It was said for Katie's benefit, not Lael's, because Lael has adopted the policy of walking somewhere between us to keep the chain connected.

Also, Katie seems to like taking the lead, perhaps because she speaks Arabic fairly well, but instead of communicating with me and Lael about what she's doing, she just decides and then does it. It's not that I don't trust her, I'm sure we would get where we're going one way or another, but it's no fun to just follow someone around.

Then, this creepy guy with no sense of personal space came up to me and asked to show me around. I said no thank you, but he kept circling back to pick up our trail at every turn. Katie was thrilled to let him lead us, citing "Arab Hospitality" but I didn't trust him. I suspect "Arab Hospitality" is different in Yemen, because here, when gross old men offer to take you somewhere, it never turns out well.

So we followed. Up and up we went, climbing stairs, trails, and alleyways. Katie continued apace with no apparent concern that I was falling farther and farther behind. Luckily, Lael hung back with me, but that didn't stop Mr. Arab Hospitality from touching my ass whenever he found himself in the rear of our caravan. The first time I wasn't sure if it was an accident or not. The second time, I turned around and yelled, "Stop!" very forcefully and he left us.

I was pretty annoyed with Katie at that point but also recognized that such a level of tension would not be fun to endure over the course of the next 18 hours, until I leave them. So I looked for an opportunity to defuse the tension. One came when Katie reported that we were supposed to buy a ticket to the ruins but that we had bypassed the gate because our ass-grabbing guide led us to the secret back door entrance.

I said, "Hey! That's worth a couple of ass grabs. I guess I paid for our tickets!"

She acted neither surprised nor amused nor concerned.

Then she asked to spend 40 more minutes in the museum, even though we had all agreed to go to lunch much earlier than that time. I said I would be happy to wait for her, but 30 minutes was really my limit. She said, "Really???" in an unbelieving tone, which could have meant, "Really? That long. Thanks!" or "Really? That short? Selfish asshole." And poor Lael feels put quite in the middle of this discord.

UPDATE:

Katie did find her way back to my location within 30 minutes, which has abated the annoyance somewhat.

A Note about Taxi Drivers:

Two common mistakes in Amman are as follows:

• to mistake a meter reading of "688" to mean six dinars and 88 piastres. What it actually means is 688 piastres, slightly more than half a dinar. I made this mistake yesterday.
  
• to allow a driver to take you somewhere without the meter running. Do this at your own risk and only if you have agreed to a price before departing.