Without much of a local soccer scene to speak off (unless of course we’re talking about racism), Jordanians tend to follow and relate to soccer tournaments abroad with a lot more passion (case in hand: Euro Cup, Italian League, World Cup, etc).

During large tournaments such as the Euro Cup taking place now, the entire town seems to turn into a large soccer themed party. The games are watched by every class of society, young and old. The good teams and the bad teams are the focal point of a lot of the casual conversation in offices, cab rides and waiting lines. When the games are on, society seems to forget about the horrendous rates of inflation increasing every day, their shitty jobs, and the gas prices: all that matters is the ball being kicked from European to European.

Soccer matters. It is practically the only activity that a large portion of the population rallies around, fingers crossed. Yet, it comes with a price, as the games are never screened on local tv. It comes on an AlJazeera +1 card with a price tag. For example, in our case, our receiver doesn’t come with a card slot, so in order to get access to AlJazeera +1, not only do we need to buy the card, but also buy a different satellite dish with a card-slot enabled receiver.

We considered it seriously at first, as there are at least 6 people with constant access to our tv who would like to watch the games every day. But then it was decided that instead of spending money on a receiver + satellite + card, we’ll just go watch the games we feel like watching every now and then at random places around town.

Then of course came the very unpleasant surprise taking place as “Minimum Order” and “Cover Charge”.

For example, below are the exploitation policies of some of the places we sometimes hang out at:

The Courtyard - ten jd cover charge
Salute- Five jd cover charge
Tche Tche- two jd cover charge
Champions: ten jd cover charge
Players: 15++ jd minimum charge (yes, with a ++) and a 5 jd cover charge
Books- ten jd minmum charge
Canvas- ten jd minimum charge
Prego- seven jd minimum charge
La Calle- two jd minimum charge

The only place I have called that actually didn’t have an exploitation policy was Dubliners.

I mean, it is really grade A exploitation to make use of the fact that not everyone has AlJazeera +1 to bump up the prices to a minimum of 10 jds, and even worse, a 10 jd cover charge! It makes you just feel like damn, if these guys are so open about capitalizing on such occasions, how else are they ripping us off on a daily basis?
I think I’m going to boycott the places that have high minimum charges and cover charges for good.

Where’s the summer?

Someone decided that the Jerash Festival, held yearly since 1981 in the Greeko-Roman ruins of Jerash, is no more. Instead, we’re having the “Jordan Festival”, which according to an announcement by the (boooooo) Ministry of Culture “a nationwide concept and a theme-oriented carnival to take place at the Kingdom’s various governates.”

Apparently, the Cabinet wants a festival “which not only includes an array of cultural and folklore activities, but helps promote the Kingdom’s archaeological sites”. A film festival will take place in Amman, while folklore and traditional dance and concerts will take place in Jerash. Poetry reciting events and literature debates will take place in the rose-red city of Petra.

I think this is an absolutely horrendous idea. The Jerash Festival has been a landmark of Jordan for the past half-century, and it is a crime to just kill it off. The Jordan Festival in actuality isn’t such a bad idea on its own, but why did they decide for a replacement rather than a complement?

What do you think, was it a good idea to kill off the Jerash Festival or as bad an idea as I think it is?

According to the OpenNet Initiative:

“Access to Internet content in Jordan remains largely unfettered, with filtering selectively applied to only a small number of sites. However, media laws and regulations encourage some measure of self-censorship in cyberspace, and citizens have reportedly been questioned and arrested for Web content they have authored.”

The report also says that there isn’t much transparency. Personally, I think that there is a lot less internet freedom these days than when there was 5 years ago in Jordan. To me, it is not just the official channels though, it’s also society at large, which most Western-based reports do not take into consideration.

It’s an interesting report, although it seems to be slightly outdated when it comes to dates and figures, and you can read it all here.

This is my favorite time of the year, aside from all the bugs of course. I’ve really missed the summer. I’ve missed wearing flip-flops and leaving the office when there’s still light outside. I’ve missed sitting outside and enjoying the sun on my skin. I’ve missed my dresses and skirts, and all my gorgeous summer shoes. I’ve missed the kites in the horizon, the sun reflecting across the windows, the icecream and the popsicles.

It’s still not time yet to get the summer wardrobe out, but it feels like that’s only a few days away, and that’s refreshing.

We have been spending these gorgeous weekends apartment shopping. We usually just park our car somewhere and then walk for a couple of hours, enjoying the weather while looking around. Our destination today was the 3rd-5th Circle district. We started at the 5th Circle, which was full of high-rise, crowded housing projects that reminded me of Cairo and Damascus. We walked down to the Fourth Circle, and the area in between was very nice, but also crowded. Unfortunately, we did not see a single sign for a house on sale, so we crossed over to the Third Circle area (the Jordan Hospital side), and ohhhh, my God.

I fall in love with that area every time. The problem is, the deal with these old neighborhoods is that they are usually not advertised in the newspapers or in real estate agencies. But I REALLY want a house there. We are looking for something small (around 110-150 sq m), rennovated/new, and that is under 80 thousand JDs to buy. In a calm area where I can read outside without being bothered.

Everyone keeps laughing at me and telling me that I’m dreaming. Which perhaps I am… but I hope I’m not.

So I’m wondering if anyone has heard/seen of any apartments in the 3rd/4th/5th Circle district that would fit what we’re looking for. A number… Precise directions… anyone selling? I’d really appreciate some help.

Thanks!

Spring is here and with the sun burning so brightly over head, I don’t think it will last long.
This is my first year spending spring in an office rather than on the green campus of Jordan University, and although our office is quite a hot one with all the glass, paper, and steel, I really miss taking pictures of Amman. But hey, on the bright side, we’re switching back to DST (right?) in a few days and that means that I have a few more hours of daylight after work.

For now, I’ll share this picture, courtsey of Mahmood, which I could not help but stare at for a few minutes.

 

She looks pretty gorgeous there, doesn’t she?