After 18 days of protests in Tahrir Square (Cairo), the protester's prayers were answered: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed power over to the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces. Here in Jordan, thousands gathered outside of the Egyptian embassy to celebrate the success of their Arab brothers in Egypt. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend. Betsy, however, was able to take part and remarked on the general excitement of everyone at the "party."
In my media Arabic class, we have discussed the situation in Egypt extensively. The Jordanian perspective seems to be support and excitement for the Egyptian people. At the same time, however, there is little desire for the same kind of revolution in Jordan. The important difference being that dissatisfied Jordanians are not calling for a change in the system of government or its leader (King Abdullah II) but rather for the government to do more re unemployment and the rising cost of food and fuel. I am continually amused by American news stations reporting on Jordan. I don't think I can emphasize enough how calm Amman is. The "protests" could be more accurately described as public gatherings.
What I cannot deny, however, is that change is contagious. Citizens of Bahrain, Algeria and Libya have begun to protest with the hope of similar results. On a less serious note, I have to give credit to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi for announcing he may
join in the protests... against himself. Crazy or genius? I think genius.
In other interesting news, one of Jordan's strongest tribes, the Bani Sakhr tribe,
staged a sit-in on the main road leading from Amman to the airport. The tribe has accused the government of withholding lands rightfully belonging to the tribe. This is an interesting depiction of the strength of tribes in Jordan.
In more personally related updates, Valentine's Day was a couple of days ago. Arabs seem to like Valentine's Day. All of the area flower shops had huge stuffed animals in the windows. The florist closet to the apartment had lit up red hearts on the sidewalks surrounding the shop. In the cab home from class on VDay, I passed "Savana Flowers." The florist had lined/ piled up stuffed Valentine's bears outside of the shop. At 4th circle, young men were selling individual flowers at the intersection so that people could buy them while waiting at the traffic light. Celine Dion and Enrique were the soundtrack of the day.
Qasid classes are going well. I had midterms a couple of weeks ago. I did well, thankfully. I am really starting to notice improvement especially when I work one-on-one with my tutor. My tutor and I discuss everything from current news items to baking to grammar. I am leaning towards substituting tutoring for my Qasid classes after the end of this term. I am finding it hard to believe that I have less than a month left of classes at Qasid.
Expect updates more frequently than they have been coming this past month :)
