Thursday is the new Friday

Well folks, for those who don't know in the Islamic world the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Friday is the holy day and Muslims gather together at the local mosque (which literally means "gathering") or prayer center at noon for prayers and a hutbah, "sermon." In most settings the men pray at mosque and women pray at the household. In Islam, there are five ritual prayers a day: one just before sunrise, at noon, in the afternoon, at dusk, and at night. The ritual prayers involve sets of phrases and movements- a lot like the Rosary or Orthodox prayer rituals.

So you know what this means? Yup, Thursday is the new Friday, and Sunday is the new Monday, and Allison gets woken up at 4am by the call to prayer...

This Thursday (Hkamiis) was our first official weekend debut in Irbid, which was a much needed break from our grueling class schedule. I have 6 classes that meet on and off for 5 hours every day. 5 hours of Arabic class. a. day. Back at good 'ole Harvie we would take 5 hours of Arabic class a week. a. week. So I'm taking a week's worth of instruction in a single day, multiplied over the week, over the month, over the summer. Oh, yeah, and did I mention it is all taught in Arabic? haha, haha. Hello Arabic Boot Camp! Sir, yes, Sir! or rather: Saiid, nam, saiid!! Instead of giving us a full metal jacket and matching BDU's I have 5 new Arabic books and some awesome long skirts.

What does a group of haggard first year Arabic students do after absorbing 5 hours of instruction? Search for kunafa. Kunafa you say? What's that you say? Well, here in the West we call it "heaven," and in Jordan it is a doughy, sweet-cheesy, crunchy-pastry, covered-in-sweet-sweet-nothing syrup, all-on-one-plate GOODNESS. We went to a fancy sweets shop (Jordanians love their sweets) and just ordered up a whole mess of the stuff after class- not quite sure what were going to get, but greatly delighted when the little man brought Heaven-on-a-plate to our table. Somehow I feel this will be a regular occurrence...

The second pastime of Jordanians is gathering with friends and family, going out on the town, finding a nice cafe, throwing on some World Cup (K'as al-All'm), and smoking hashish. Walking down the streets in the cool evenings wafts of sweet peach or mint flavor smoke tumbles out of the cafes and fills the air like a perfume. It is the smell of relaxation, of friends, and of taking some time off. On Thursday night we joined this tradition and enjoyed an evening of friendship, and most importantly- no Arabic class!

Look in the new pictures for The Great Kunafa Adventure and The Great Amman Adventure (beta coming soon)!