Under the Stars - Arab Style

Chillin' on the roof.

View of Zarqa.

Bedtime!

So recently I went over to a friend's home with a couple of the other guys in the program to hang out for a while and spend the night. We all thought it was weird that he would ask us to spend the night, but it was really the only way to be able to really experience his neighborhood, which we aren't technically supposed to visit because it's kind of dangerous (Al-Zarqawi, a leader of Al-Qaeda, is from that neighborhood). Imagine the worst ghetto in the states but without guns and that's Zarqa (Al-Zarqawi's name comes from the name of the area). All of those things made me a bit nervous, but Spencer (our group leader) said it was OK for us to go as long as Ahmed was with us at all times.
Overall we had a lot of fun. I was really interested to see what Arabs do when they just hang out, and I must say that they're not too different from anyone else. We sat in their living room for a while to talk when we first arrived, during which members of his family slowly came in one or two at a time to introduce themselves. We mostly talked about where we were from, what life is like there, Islam, you know, the normal stuff.
After that, it was time to hit the town. Ahmed took us to a pool club, which he described as scandalous, so I was a bit worried. Luckily, Arab scandalous turns out to be pretty G-rated by our standards. The most scandalous thing in there was the cigarettes, but they're everywhere. They even stopped the music for the Athan (the call to prayer).
Our trip around town then brought us to a dessert shop, where you would have thought that we were celebrities the way people gathered and stared, and the waiter treated us like we were the president's personal entourage when he found out we were American. This leads me to an interesting thought. Zarqa is supposed to be scary. It's supposed to be dangerous. It's true that the only white people there are the ones with a certain skin condition, but I felt more welcome and safe walking the streets of Zarqa that anywhere in Amman. It was an interesting experience to have.
On the way home, we bought the traditional dinner foods (hummus, fool (beans), and falafel). It's worth noting that we bought enough for all 4 of us for 1 dinar ($1.50)! It was a great dinner, and then we slept out under the stars on Ahmed's family's roof, which doubles as a hang out area. All in all it was a great experience, and I actually had a lot of fun. I really wish that we could go back there again, but time will most likely prevent that.