The first ten days, chapter 1: The city

Irbid is home to 200,000 people, and Yarmouk University, which represents 30,000 students. We live just inside the south gate of the university, and have wandered little farther than the streets that border the campus, though the "downtown" is a short taxi ride away. The people here tend to be rather observant, and you notice when they are not well-dressed, or if there are women not wearing the hijab (veil). You especially notice if they are not wearing the hijab, are wearing a goretex coat, and walking hand-in-hand with a man wearing sneakers. . . . Such a couple would stick out like a sore thumb, you might say.

Every morning we walk to the Language Center, about 1 block from our apartment, where we take classes from 8:30am-1:30pm, with an hour break, Sunday-Thursday. When we want to go into "town" we simply walk out the gate, take a left to go to Safeway, cross the street for our ultra-local grocer and produce stand (there are several others within a half-mile walk), or simply go right and walk up to University Street, the heart of Irbid's social scene. Everything feels very close, from bakeries and sweet shops, coffee grinders and nut roasters, nargilla cafes, even Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits. The town is dead on Friday mornings, when everyone is praying, but bursting with life at night, when men crowd into the cafes to smoke and chat. The women don't usually go out, but you see groups of them snacking on amazing cakes and other desserts that . . . well, if we weren't living vegan (or, in one case, mostly vegan), we'd be a lot rounder.

The pace is also a lot different here. It is not uncommon to go into a store and be offered coffee or tea, even if you have already established that you aren't going to buy anything. A couple of days ago we walked into a small school supplies shop, asked if he had index cards (which no one here does), turned to go, and heard, "Would you like some coffee?" There's a much higher propensity to just sitting around and chatting.

And it is no doubt a desert here. It is very dry, when it is not raining. This is the rainy season, and we've even seen hail twice. It's chilly, in a largely dry sort of way, the rain notwithstanding. It sounds like the summer, and the heat, will be intense. But hey, we'll see.