Circles, Cigarettes, and Coffee

It's time to talk about everybody's favorite geometric shape. The planar figure that packs a punch, the genius behind the wheel, the locus of points equidistant from the center; that's right ladies and gents, we're talking about circles. Circles are pretty incredible, despite the fact that they take the apple out of pi. This shape wasn't only used by Europeans to create wonderful things like Stonehenge, (fun fact: the stones at Stonehenge weigh around four tons, the ones at the Great Pyramids of Giza weigh between 25-80 tons) they were also used to create roundabouts in Amman. On my way out of the airport my first day here, one of the CIEE staff members explained that there are eight roundabouts that run through Amman. These circles are important landmarks used to describe where you are in the city. He also said these circles had a lot of traffic, and that we were closing in on our first experience with traffic in Amman. This didn't seem like an intimidating statement, but he said it with a gleam in his eyes that indicated he spends too many hours a day receiving requests, both reasonable and absurd, from American students.

There is a loose understanding of traffic laws in Amman. You can find Jordanians making their own lanes, jay walking, going the wrong way on one way streets, and you can almost always hear honking. The best way I can describe driving is through the use of the word inshallah. In an approximate English understanding of the word, inshallah means “if God wills it”. Most of the time traffic seems to follow this simple rule: let's see if we can do this crazy thing and make it out alive, inshallah. During orientation we were told our biggest threat in Jordan is a Jordanian behind the wheel, and so far nothing has indicated that this statement is a lie. Even though this system is foreign to my notion of traffic, there's a special kind of beauty to it. I've been in multiple taxis where you'll spend one second cutting people off and weaving through traffic like a native New Yorker through a group of tourists, and the next second the driver will politely stop to allow another car to pull in front of them. Even though there seems to be more fluidity in the understanding of what a lane is and what's appropriate to do while driving, there is some sort of understanding between Jordanians that allow them to pull out inches away from each other into traffic without ever batting an eye. This is a constant reminders that I'm just settling into a new culture that I can't completely understand yet, but it's exciting to think that I may be able to learn a piece of it, even though that piece will most definitely not be about driving.

The driving habits here are a constant reminder to me that I don't want to meet the same fate as James Dean, but the other reminder of this iconic actor is the cigarette. I've yet to see somebody pull off smoking in the same smooth manner of James Dean, but there are plenty of cigarettes going around here. During orientation we were told that the official numbers are that around 60% of Jordanians smoke, but our presenter told us he believes it's closer to 90%. The other day I was in a taxi that had the universal no smoking sign posted on the windshield; halfway through the ride the cab driver offered me a cigarette. There really isn't a concept of a non-smoking area from what I can tell. You can smoke inside, outside, upside-down, rightside-up, and you can light up a Camel if you're a 10 year old riding a camel. I personally don't smoke, but I also don't really mind when other people smoke. It's sort of fun to see man-made smoke clouds when you walk into a room. Despite the fun side of it, part of me does miss the fresh air of Western PA. The other day I was talking to a Jordanian who had spent two months in America, specifically in San Francisco. He said he'd like to go back because he enjoyed the fresh air. I thought I was more likely to meet the king of Jordan than hear somebody call the air in San Francisco fresh. For a while I thought this person was crazy, but as my time here goes on, I'm slowly starting to see where this person was coming from.



One of the places where you can walk into a cloud of smoke is a Cafe. While I am not addicted to cigarettes, I do seem to have developed a slight addiction to coffee since being here. Cafes are really nice here, which makes sense because coffee houses originated in the Ottoman Empire. One thing that has changed since the time of the Ottoman empire is now coffee houses are one of the best spots to get WiFi. The sixth cafe in the world that offered WiFi is actually located in Amman, which, I'm not going to lie, is a huge draw for a millennial college student who constantly feels the urge to stay connected with family and friends back home. The Cafe isn't the only place where I'm offered the elixir of life. When I'm at home I often get Turkish coffee, which is wonderful coffee that comes in a tiny cup with a huge impact. This deceptive cup of coffee is enough to make my heart flutter like a hummingbird, and because the Turks know what they're doing with coffee, it tastes delicious. There is a lot that can be talked about with coffee, as one of my classes back at SU spent a couple months on just that topic alone, but for now I'm going to leave you with the tantalizing thought of the juice that gives us a jolt, and how great it is that I'm halfway around the world experiencing a cup that is better than any I had while I was back in the states.