As translated from Al-Ghad by yours truly,

“…Females did much better than males on the Jordanian secondary school leaving test Al-Tawjihi. On a national level, they held 41 spots from the 54 top spots in both academic and skill-based courses.”

HA!

My Lebanese cousins are here for the weekend for the first time in almost 10 years, which is a whole lot of time, especially as they are teenagers. Anyhow, although the Lebanese have a stronghold over the Arabian media, although Lebanon is a Levantine country, and although these cousins are half Palestinian, I am finding it really hard to communicate with them.

Typically, the communication barrier is language, especially as their second language is French and not English. You’d think that adding an “-ay” to the end of every word would help them understand me and vice versa, but no, their vocabulary is a completely different set from mine. Then, when I want to explain to them what the word I just used means, for example “faye3″, I can’t resort to English because they don’t speak a word of it and I don’t speak a word of French! It happens with even simpler words, like “awa3i”(clothes). They don’t know what “awa3i” means, and I’m terrible with languages, so it is literally impossible for me to remember that the Lebanese equivalent is “tyeib” (but seriously, I understand where “tyieb” comes from, but what’s the etymology of “awa3i”?)

It’s just really ironic how I find it so much easier to converse with my American cousins. How sad is it that I find it demanding to communicate with the Lebanese in Arabic? Lebanon, a 3 hours cruise from Jordan! The Lebanese, with their monopoly over Arabic media! Cousins, whose mother is my father’s sister!

Sadder still is the case with other Arab regions, like North Africa and the Gulf. During the few times that I had the opportunity to communicate with North Africans, I could never get past hello, and although I lived in Saudi Arabia for most of my life, the Gulfian words I understand are “tsolfein”, “kobri”, and “ja7dah”.

I know that it is too late to change anything, especially as the Arab world is vast and spread over many lands. I also can’t really complain because I’m guilty of a much more drastic linguistic sin- I never had any real Arabic schooling!

Wow, I just realized I can say all of the above in 6 concise lines:

Roba says:
my aunt and her kids are here from Lebanon
Roba says:
yey 3al 7aki il lobnani
Roba says:
wala bafham 3aleihom eshi
Roba says:
and i cant explain in english..
Roba says:
cause they only speak french
Roba says:
its horrible

Left to right, standing row: Jad, Mohammad, Nader, Isam, Iyas, Ethan, Haitham, and Ahmad
Left to right, sitting row: Hind, Roba, Ammar

(Yes, that is the most random title in the whole wide world, but well, I’m watching a movie about airplanes, so it’s random with an explaination.)

Today, dearests, was the the 5th Jordan Planet blogger meet-up. I’m sorta losing count, the arithmetic side of my brain only handles the first three numerals then “safers” back to 0.

Numbers or not, the meet-up was great and a good amount of people showed up, some of them first timers like Haitham Sabbah, Mr. and Mrs. Jameed, Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices, Egyptian blogger Mohammad Sameer, and Raida Il-Zo3bi(hello Raida). Naturally, the permanent meet-up members Isam Bayazidi, Nader Shnoudi, Ammar Ibrahim and myself also had to make a showing, and we had the pleasure of seeing Ahmad Humeid, Hind Sabanekh and Jad Madi again.

We talked about a lot of stuff, like the Global Voices project, an interest in launching blogging in remote areas of Jordan, and of course, computers, technology, and the internet.

Through the meet-up, Haitham and Iyas surprised me with a birthday tart for my upcoming birthday. That was really sweet of you guys :) I totally loved it!

First picture is of Haitham and Ethan, and yes, there really is a tree in the middle of the table. At first I thought it was cute, but now that my neck is all cranked up from trying to get a better view of Ethan and Haitham, it’s sooo not a good idea anymore! Second picture is of Jad and Mohammad.

First picture, Mr. and Mrs. Jameed and Haitham, I’m not sure what Iyas was doing, he was “passionately” telling Ammar something though… Second picture, Ethan, Ahmad, and Mohammad Sameer.

First picture, Mohammad showing us some glitch in some ATM machine. Second picture, me with my surprise birthday tart. Thanks again guys :)

For more on the meet-up and more pictures:
Haitham Sabbah
Ethan Zuckerman
Ahmad Humeid
Jad Madi

“Jeishana jeish il wa6an sameina bi esm allah, ye7mi il 3alam wil wa6an we3 yoon Abdalla!” Did you know ino that song is really popular after hours?

Interested in meet-ups 1 through 4?
Jordan Planet Meet up 1
Jordan Planet Meet up 2
Jordan Planet Meet up 3
Jordan Planet Meet up 4

PS. I’m not very happy with how colorless the group picture is… Why isn’t anyone wearing red..?

Yes, it’s 1:00 AM, but the only thing I can hear anyway is toj toj, bang bang, and beep beep. That is, to those who aren’t aware of Jordan’s three rules of celebration- gunshots, fireworks, and a whole lot of very happy honking.

I am very much against the gunshots, but I’m all for celebrating in the Jordanian style, especially for Tawjihi, regardless if you think its nawari or not. Congratulations to all those who passed and did well, mabrook!

(And I will use this opportunity to diss the stupid system that is tawjihi. HOW CAN YOU PLACE THE LIFE OF A CHILD ON THE OUTCOME OF 2 MONTHS? Really, how can you? How can you place all that pressure on those kids? And how can you flunk half of them? It’s just mean.)

Special, special congrats to Abeer and Rasha!!! You go girls!

Yesterday, a cousin of mine told that JU did it again- they decided to go on and have a very drastic change in their system without telling anyone.

So apparently, the two semester model that has been used in JU for over a decade has now been changed back to the trimester model, and the starting date of the school year 2005/2006 has been pushed forward(backward?) from the usual October to Septemeber.

AH! Can’t they decide beforehand and let the students know before they go on their respective summer vacations?! And ok, if it was an impromptu decision, can’t they at least publicly declare it on their official website?! Or even deny it ya 3ami…

AHHH!

So, does anyone have details? Me, I’m lost.

Related lostness:
Lost Little Roba
Lost Little Roba (Part II)

I came upon some really hilarious Ammanish material on the Jordanian blogosphere today and here are some of the stuff that just made my day, especially as today was particularly depressing with alerts and false alerts.

This years excessive use of fireworks is the talk of town- someone has mentioned it in almost every single conversation I’ve had this month, even if just in passing- “Batalo ta’7-ta’7a saro fagagee3, lazem yotrosho il nas”. So when I saw this cartoon by Sha3teeli, I just cracked up!

Then there were the awesome digi-shots that Jameed posted.

As Laith said, apparently, there’s a 25th hour that can only be found in Amman. I am, naturally, totally loving the idea. A TWENTY FIFTH hour that can ONLY be found in Amman! How can anyone not love Amman? The city of 25 hours(and hey, is that Bart Simpson?)…

You’re also gonna have to go check out Jameed’s blog to appreciate one of my very favorite signs in Amman- “New Yourk Nigt Club”. It’s on the way home from well, practically anywhere, so it’s been and endless source of laughter throughout the years.

I’m also totally loving the last picture- who in the world would write a book titled “Be Warned- The False Messiah Takes Over the World from the Bermuda Triangle”?
That’s a man I’d love to meet…