Futbol and Mansaf

So, I realize it's been a while. I meant to post sooner, but life came up. 

Alright, school is still going good, well as good as school can go. But, I'm enjoying it, I have an awesome class. One of the other students, Logan, came up with the idea for a game. Every day before class we'll decide on a random topic, and every time we mention it in class we get points, and at the week, whoever has the most points wins. We haven't decided what the winner gets, but it'll be good. Some of the topics we've had are: Inspector Gadget, Gushers, and R2D2. 

For those that don't know, Soccer is the biggest sport everywhere except the US. Jordan is no different. The final home game for the National Team was last Tuesday, against Australia. This also happened to be the World Cup qualifier game. A group of 12 of us decided that we would go to the game, since it was the last home game and really, when would we ever have an opportunity like that again? 

Because we all are super white, we got figured it would be smart to get jerseys so everyone knew we weren't cheering for Australia

We all took taxi's over to the stadium, and then got tickets (which were 2 JD, or about $3 USD). It was a madhouse. There were so many people. It was near impossible to get into the stadium. A lot of the people trying to get in didn't actually have tickets, and the Stadium didn't have a way of checking to make sure everyone had one, so the people generally would try to mob the guards and slip in. One of the guys, Logan, made friends with one of the guards, and when the guard saw that there was a group of Americans (okay, 11 Americans and 1 Norwegian), he rounded us up and took us off to the side. The riot police, in full SWAT gear had to come out things were getting so bad. Then the guard came up and got us, and led us into the stadium. We ended up walking through a tunnel of policemen. The area we were shown to was for foreigners and families. For the most part, anyway. So, we pretty much got special treatment because we were American. There actually was a guy outside the stadium next to us who had his American passport to show to the guards to prove that he was American. Oh, funny side story: One of the other guys, Mark, wasn't with our group, he was with some of his Arab friends. Mark is Peruvian, so he does look a bit like an Arab and he is one of the best speakers in our class, so when he and his friends first tried to get in, they were chased off by the police, then, thankfully, Mark showed his passport, and proved he was American, so he was able to get in. 

The game itself was awesome (which, coming from mean is a big deal, since I am not a big sports fan). Our seats were behind one of the goals. Right before the game started, the police let more people in, and most of theses people weren't foreigners so we were surrounded by Arabs, predominantly Arab men (women don't usually go to soccer games). But, we made sure that we had guys in our group and they were positioned around us girls for a kind of "defense". But, we still were the oddities, and everyone knew it. Everyone wanted pictures with us or of us, it was a little disconcerting, I felt like I was some exotic animal at a circus that everyone was staring at. 

Logan and the Girls

Some of the guys near us were around 15 or 16 and they became chummy with Logan, they ended up teaching him (and the rest of us) the chants, which was fun. There was one guy who came down and asked to be in a picture with two of the girls, Stefanie and Mary. Initially it was them and him, but then Logan inserted himself into the picture and was pretty much cuddling with the guy. When the guy tried to get a picture with just Stefanie, Logan said he couldn't because she was his sister, and when the guy asked for a picture with just Mary, Logan said she was his sister as well. I'm not sure if the guy believed him, but he didn't want to call Logan out on it. Arab guys tend to treat a girl with more respect when they find out she's related to a guy they're talking to. So, by the end of the night, all of us girls were somehow related to him. 

Anyway, so the game. It was pretty intense. The Australian goalie, in an interview said that this match was going to be a vacation. So, no one was expecting Jordan to win, but everyone was cheering for them anyway. For the first half, Jordan took several shots at the goal, but they either overshot or were blocked. The Australians didn't really get to shoot that much. At the beginning of the game we all were shouting in English, but by half-time we were shouting the Arabic equivalents, which is really fun. One of the words essentially sounds like "eew-aah", and means look-out or watch out, one person saying it is fun, but when you hear most of a crowd yelling it, it just sounds even cooler. 

Nothing says 'Win' like a fireworks display

To keep fans energized there were some guys walking around the stadium with drums and were leading us in chants. They were one of the best parts of the night. 

One of the players after the game

So, second half, things really heated up. Jordan scored the first goal!!!!! And we all went crazy. I don't even like sports and I was getting into the game just like everyone else, the enthusiasm was infectious. We later scored a second goal, Australia did end up scoring one goal, but that isn't important, what matters is the Jordan won the World Cup qualifier!!!!!! 

After the game, things got crazy again, actually, they were crazier than they were before the game. The police, it turns out, hadn't forgot about us, and they herded us down against the fence between the field and the stands, and they made a barrier between us and the other people in the stadium. Once everyone had exited, the police led us out. Things were just as crazy outside. Since we were a group of 12 foreigners, we got a lot of attention, and most of it wasn't good. People wouldn't take "no" for an answer when we wouldn't take pictures with them, and they started getting insistent and really forceful. At this point the guys in our group were getting worried and just wanted to get us out of there, so we tried to make a human chain and just run as fast as possible. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay together, we ended up breaking up into smaller groups of 3 or 4. Meanwhile people are grabbing at us trying to get our attention, and we're just trying to get away. Thankfully, a group of shabab (that's what groups/cliques of Arab guys are called), saw what was going on and made themselves our protectors. They formed a chain as well, and did their best to keep people away, they tried staying even with us, and keeping us between them and a wall. Eventually, the police and stadium security people realized what was going on, and initially they tried to stop our protectors, but then they quickly realized that they were helping, and the police went further ahead to clear the way, while the security people began getting to those of us who had become separated from the group and herded us back together. At one point we were running over glass, and had to go through a small passage between a shed and the wall, that was probably the scariest part of the whole thing. 

The police worked on clearing the way for us, but the crowds (mainly other shabab, not good ones) wouldn't leave. So, we ended up finding a bakery, and the police tried to get us in there, the store owner was up and at first wouldn't let anyone in, he grabbed a stick and came out with it, swinging at the shabab (Logan thought the guy was going to hit him). I'm pretty sure he thought that the shabab were trying to go inside, but then it was explained to him, and he saw us and he let us in. Once we were in, he gave all of us some bread and water. He constantly was apologizing, and saying that this wasn't the 'real Jordan'. He saw some of the girls crying and told her not to cry, that it was ok for Jordanians to cry, but not for her to. He really was a sweet old man. We were holed up in the bakery for at least half an hour. They had pulled down this thing, like a garage door, that they use when the store is closed, so that people couldn't get in. Sometimes a cop would open it and come in, and every time they did, we could see all the people trying to get in, and the moment we heard the door go up, we all tensed up, afraid that people were going to get in. Eventually a cop came in and asked where we lived, we told him where, and around 15 minutes later he came back and said that they were going to take us home. So, they open up the door, and we see between 15-20 police officers in a tunnel formation, leading to an ambulance that we all got in. So, we rode home in an ambulance, with a police car in front and behind us. Now, quick reminder, Amman is built on 7 hills, and the roads aren't amazing, oh yeah, and I get carsick, and it had been almost 6 hours since I had taken Dramamine (so it was wearing off). The ride home felt like it took forever. I was ready to throw up by the time we stopped. But, the police officers with us were so nice and helpful, they even let some of us use the megaphone thing to shout "Yalla, yalla" to get people to get out of the way. By the time I got home I was feeling sick, but still jacked up on adrenaline, that it was almost another 2 hours before I was able to go to sleep. 

The next day at school, classes sucked. I'll be honest about that, I had gotten a lot of homework done, but I was dead tired. Thankfully 6 of the 8 students in my class were in the same group as me, so we all were pretty much dead during class together. So, the game was awesome, the aftermath....not so much, but as negative as those experiences were they could've been worse (especially if we had lost and if the police and the good shabab hadn't come to our rescue), there were good things, and that's what I try to focus on. 

If you didn't figure it out, the game was on 9/11, which also was the day of the attacks on the Embassies in Libya and Egypt. I am going to say that the attacks saddened me. In the time that I have been here, I have seen and met so many good people. But this reiterated the fact that there are always bad people out there; people who are so vindictive and vengeful, that they feel the need to go out and ruin the lives of others, and then have the nerve to do it in the name of religion. Something that we tend to forget, that the news neglects to remind us, is that these terrorists, these people who do horrible things, are the outliers. They are not the norm for the people of this region, or the members of this religion. 

On a happier note, last night (the 16th) I went  to dinner at someone's house. While at he soccer game, we became friends with a couple people next to us. One was a guy, Ayman, and his sister Yasmina. They invited us to their house last night for mansaf. It was an awesome experience. The family was huge. In Arab culture, at least one son will live with his parents, nad most live close by. Ayman, is older and has 3 sons, who are all in the army. Yasmina is in her mid 20s, and still lives with her parents (and will until she gets married). Also there were a couple other brothers (Majd, with his wife and 3 kids, Muhammad (who was 17), and Mubarak (who was about 14), and a bunch of other nieces and nephews.  8 of the 12 people in our group were there for dinner last night. They brought out 3 huge platters with food on them. 

Mansaf is a dish that has rice, and meat (generally lamb) and some nuts, and a sauce. All of the platters had lamb on them.....two of them had the lamb head in the center (it was the skull, so there wasn't any fur or anything on it). In Arab culture, they will keep feeding you unless you leave some food on the plate. However, sometimes they don't take no for an answer and will keep piling on the food. Ayman did this....at Logan's encouragement. Ayman would ask if we wanted more, and Logan would reply saying how many more scoops we wanted. In my case, Logan said 3 or 4, while for everyone else he stopped after 2. When I saw that Ayman was refilling everyone's plate, I picked mine up and put it on my lap and scooted as far away as I could (which wasn't that far, but enough to make it impossible to get my plate without me handing it over). One of the wives thought it was hilarious, actually everyone did. 

***this next part gets a little gross, so if you're squeamish, you may want to skip to the paragraph after the pictures***

I mentioned that the lamb skulls were the centerpieces, well, the skulls weren't empty, everything was still inside. So, the men, offered lamb parts to the guys. All three guys, Logan (on the left), Joachim, and Phil (below) ate lamb tongue, and lamb brain. Logan actually ate most of 2 lamb tongues and most of a brain too. 

One of the men offered an eyeball to one of the girls, Alex, but she didn't want it (granted, I wouldn't have touched it either). Majd, actually cracked the lamb skull open to get at the brain. After that, I was too grossed out to eat. Logan and Joachim took great pleasure in telling us about the textures of the tongue and brain (they described it as being like pate). And they pointed out that after they ate the brain, there was still bits of brain matter that was stuck to their hands. 

Logan with the lamb brain

Alright, we did a lot of socializing, there were so many people, it was impossible not to. And I'm going to take this opportunity to say that I love my name. Being named 'Chelsea', especially in a country that loves soccer, is great. FYI, one of the big soccer teams is the Chelsea soccer team from Chelsea England. (I know that they're big in Jordan, because I found a big billboard that said "We are all Chelsea", with pictures of the players on it....yes, I am vain enough (when it comes to my name) to take a picture with it). Anyway, Muhammad (he's the one that's 17), thought my name was awesome. So did one of the women, they didn't really believe that my name was Chelsea, until we all told them that it actually was. Muhammad, then proceeded to use my name every chance he got. And he showed me his Chelsea soccer jersey. Which I fell in love with. Logan then chimed in that he had a Chelsea jersey too, that he had gotten in London (since his dad lives there), but that he hadn't brought it to Jordan, and it was back in Provo. But, Logan said he'd go with me down to the Balad (or down town) to the Sport Jersey souq (all of the stores that sell a certain kind of product are right next to each other, these little groupings are called 'souqs', and there pretty much is a souq for everything), so I could get my own Chelsea jersey. 

This is the key chain Muhammad gave me

We finally left around 10:30pm, Ayman and his brother Majd drove us back. We said goodbye to everyone (and that took a good 6 minutes, because there were so many people), and Ayman gave us all a key chain that shows Petra, and says 'Jordan' on it. As we were pulling out, Muhammad stopped by the car I was in, and after the window was opened, he gave me a key chain of a camel that is wearing a saddle blanket that says "I <3 Jordan". It made me feel special. I was in the same car as Logan, and because he ate the most, they were going to give him a 6-pack of beer (even though Logan had made it clear, multiple times, that we don't drink alcohol), at first, Ayman forgot to give him the beer, but when he realized it, he turned around (even though Logan assured him it was okay), and went back to get the beer. Logan accepted it, and once they had dropped us off and driven away, he promptly found a garbage can and threw the beer away. 

It was a great night, another one of those experiences that I will always remember and be grateful for.