Thanksgiving in Tel Aviv

Dan and I celebrated Thanksgiving in a wine bar in Tel Aviv. We had beef bourginon for dinner and gravlax which made us smile and think of Thanksgivings past and eating Tim B.'s superior gravlax.

Tel Aviv is about four hours from Amman including the hour it takes to cross the border. Being able to easily (and an hour is considered "easy") cross is probably the top (only?) benefit we get for being diplomats. Once in Israel, we get a lot of funny looks for having a car with Jordanian plates because for most people it is not easy to cross the border and you typically CANNOT bring your car across.

Whereas Jerusalem is a religious city full of important religious sites - the dome of the rock, the church of the holy sepulchre, western wall, etc. Tel Aviv is a regular city that happens to be located on the Mediterranean. We walked on the beach; watched surfers from a bar on the beach where we could drink beer that wasn't Amstel (Jordan's one brewery); and went to an art museum that had an impressive collection of impressionist works and some terrific Marc Chagall paintings.

Happy Thanksgiving to You!

Talking Like an Egyptian in Morocco

So, this is the loser who left his wife date-less for the Marine Ball.

I spent the week in Morocco with Rob. He has been serving in the Peace Corps there for over a year. Rob lives in Tamesloht, a village 30 minutes outside Marrakesh. Just off the main highway, the village of Tamesloht would be easy to miss if not for the tire fire. Rob's fellow Peace Corps volunteers from across the country are unanimous in agreement: this is the ugliest town in the entire kingdom. If you Google "Tamesloht", you can view the ambitious mission statement of Tamesloht 2010, a European-funded revitalization effort launched seven years ago. Rob said they were having a hard time making a go of it. With the decade half-spent, the group renamed itself Tamesloht 2012. Not long after, they closed up shop for good. For better or worse, Rob is in Tamesloht to stay. He will be there another year.

Don't feel too bad for him. He is just a bus-ride away from Marrakesh, home to the Djemaa el Fna, the one-of-a-kind town square jammed with humanity - noticeably more Morrocans than tourists, snake charmers, sorcerers, monkeys on leash wearing fez, and my favorite: a man seated, playing guitar and singing, while a live chicken sat nonchalantly atop his head. I have no pictures from Marrakesh. None could live up to the experience. These photos are from Essaouira.

Rob with Orson Welles plaque. Welles shot "Othello" in Essaouira.

Before coming to Morocco, I was very pessimistic about the usefulness of my Arabic. Rob and I sometimes compare words, and we never agree. Morocco's location, the French influence, and the native Berber population have all combined to make Moroccan Arabic virtually unrecognizable to the rest of the Arab world. However, thanks to satellite television and Egyptian cinema, Moroccans are more and more familiar with "pure" Arabic. While browsing the souks (markets), I was always greeted in French - and I don't speak any French. But when I answered in Arabic, "pure" Arabic, they responded with wide eyes, disbelieving laughs, and in some instances, tea. "You speak Egyptian!" they exclaimed. I quickly grasped that "Egyptian" means non-Moroccan Arabic. I wanted to say "Egyptian Arabic is almost as bad as Moroccan Arabic! I mean, what if your name was Jerry, but everyone called you Gary?! I speak Lebanese Arabic, thank you!" But instead I kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the tea.

3:10 to Yuma and movie news

Last night Dan and I saw 3:10 to Yuma in Amman's newest 10-screen multiplex. It was terrific and we highly recommend it. We still don't understand which movies make it to Jordan and when. The multiplex had 8 English language films - a few of which like Good Shepherd we saw back home; another "No Reservations" was on Dan's flight to Morocco and a few of which are quite new.

This week is also the European Film Festival at the city's cultural center. Tomorrow night we are planning on seeing German's One Day in Europe which I swear I have seen a preview for somewhere (and which certainly wasn't in Amman). Maybe we saw a preview when we saw Lives of Others this spring (which remains my favorite movie of the year.) A guy from the Goethe Institut (Germany's cultural center) promised me that the movie was subtitled in English AND not just Arabic.

We also continue to subscribe to Netflix although we have had to increase our subscription to have the 5-16 days it takes for mail to travel each way. A paltry selection of movies, mostly action films are also available at the embassy store. Jordan works on a different DVD system than the US - so the many DVDs available for $1.50 in downtown won't work on our sytems AND are clearly violating lots of intellectual property laws.

Dan has lots of pictures from Morocco but we are having Internet problems at home and so while the pictures are out of the camera and on the computer we haven't yet gotten them online. Our Internet problems also mean our Vonage isn't working.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Marine Ball

Dan is in Morocco and so last weekend I went to a dance by myself. I have to admit that this conjures up many memories of junior high events – will I have fun? Who will dance with me? What should I wear?

This weekend was the 232nd Marine Corps Birthday Celebration in Amman - I think these happen around the world and ours was hosted by the Embassy's marine guards. Marines celebrate with a black tie dinner; fancy uniforms; cake sliced with a saber and unapologetic patriotism. My favorite part was seeing the military dress uniforms – here in the embassy, military colleagues wear business attire for the most part and only occasionally their uniforms. For this event, they showed off dress uniforms which I hadn’t seen before including a few guys in cavalry outfits with civil-war era hats that made me laugh but which they were very proud of. As the evening wore on, uniform jackets came off and underneath many guys were wearing creative shirts. If you've ever seen gaudy American-flag shirts in stores and wondered "who would wear that and where?" - apparently the answer is the military at formal events.

Here is me at dinner. The picture was taken by Ahmed Juma who is the head of the embassy motorpool but is also an enthusiastic photographer. During the First Lady’s visit, the press officers were trying to keep tabs on all of the photographers and saw Ahmed taking pictures and got nervous of “who is he” but I explained that he was working with the drivers and the pictures were a hobby.

Here is me dancing with my co-worker Mark. Mark is retired Air Force and he is wearing his military awards he is most proud of. Apparently as a foreign service officer there are awards that come with ribbons too but no one wears them.

Getting ready for the party was a reminder of all of the gifts I have received from family and friends. I wore my long blue dress from Stephanie’s wedding. A shawl Kate brought back from Pakistan. A beaded purse Mom gave me as a Christmas present and a rhinestone broach that was my grandmother’s.

Dan's folks pay a visit

Dan here. We've been busy playing host, and this weekend I'm off to Morocco to see Rob. Please enjoy these photos for now, and I'll get back to writing soon.

Mom and Dad at Petra, unknowingly paying homage to the bestselling Petra-based nonfiction book, "Married to a Bedouin"

Mom at the Baptism Site on the River Jordan

Reenactor and jackass at Nazareth Village

Amman amphitheater at night

Sea of Galilee at dusk

Duffy's photos from the big Petra trip

Showing off earpiece radio with Petra Park Director and Head of Regional Authority

Female soldiers taking a break on the steps of the Treasury

Siq (gorge) that is the entrance to the Treasure where Indiana Jones was shot.

Test-driving for the First Lady

Aaron's tomb (brother of Moses) is the little white speck on top of the mountain.

View from Petra hotel room. Petra is under the fog.

Re-learning my bad Arabic

I (Duffy) have Arabic class at lunchtime at the embassy. In theory, I have class for five hours a week but I am usually only able to attend two of the three classes in a week. The classes are to teach us “Jordanian” Arabic as opposed to the “high” Arabic which we were taught in DC. This means learning a lot of words over again. For example the high Arabic word for "to go" is “thehebe” but the Jordanian word is “roo.” Sure, roo looks like an easier word but it took me a long time to learn thehebe and every other word that I actually know in Arabic so it kills me every time the teacher says “oh, we don’t really use that word.”

The State Department grades languages based on how hard they are. I think Arabic is hard because (1) it has a different alphabet which is written right to left but mostly because (2) there are almost no cognates. Cognates are words that sound alike – if you heard in French “le chat” – you might guess that it means cat. Between Arabic and English there are very few cognates – some are computer words “al-internet” taken from English and in English most words that begin al (algebra, alcohol…) have some Arabic tie. But this lack of cognates means every word in Arabic I had to actively learn with almost no freebies (Arabic does have the same word for pineapple as German) and so when I find out that “we don’t really use that word” I feel like the hours it took me to learn it were wasted.

The good thing about Arabic class is that there are only 1-3 students and we can focus on very practical language. Today we practiced being in a grocery store. Arabic is a very polite language (I know quite literally 10 ways to say “how are you” and a perfectly legitimate conversation is asking “how are you” five different ways.) So today’s grocery store lesson in addition to learning some foods I didn’t know already – beets, turnips, spinach focused on the many, many ways a shopkeeper might say “how can I help you.”

My Trip to Petra

I (Duffy) spent last week with the White House advance team helping prepare Petra for the First Lady’s arrival. It was not something I was originally very excited about – it was going to require spending many nights in a VERY small town and I had heard that White House visits meant crazy hours and general chaos. But in fact the opposite was true – except for Wadi Musa being a small town. I had a great time. It was terrific seeing how White House staff plans a visit and seeing how the Secret Service works to make it succeed.

The pre-visit planning also meant that I got to spend a lot of time wandering around Petra which truly is an amazing park. I also got to spend time with archaeologists learning about the history and the excavations. It is definitely a truism that like “a bad day fishing is better than a good day in the office” – similarly any day in Petra is better than a day in the office.

The visit itself went smoothly. Greta Van Susteren was traveling with the First Lady and you can see some video footage of the tour. No video of me but good shots of Mrs. Bush and Petra. EVERYONE in town knew that the First Lady was visiting (although some rumors had it as Barbara Bush.) This meant that tour operators and hotel staff urged people to go to the park early so there were lots of tourists around during her tour. October is peak season in Petra and in Jordan. During one very sweet moment, Mrs. Bush was serenaded with the University of Texas song by American tourists being cordoned off by the Secret Service and she responded with big smiles and that finger thing UT grads do that is supposed to look like a longhorn steer.

At the end of the day I got my picture taken with Mrs. Bush. I haven’t gotten my copy yet but I know that she looked beautiful and I looked like someone who had literally just spent six hours frantically running around a desert. Cars in the park are VERY restricted so many of the last minute set-up tasks required “Hike into park a mile carrying gear – set up space – hike out of park a mile back to the helicopter landing zone. Repeat.”