I went shopping today. I am trying to get some work clothes together, and so I went to this mall that R. told me was really cheap. It was a lot like Tijuana, but louder and with more bargaining...I think they had a group meeting this morning, and they all chugged about 12 RedBulls before work.
So here's now it works. You walk in, and look American. It feels like there is a target on your forehead, and the guys working there are all counting the money they'll get from you even before they accost you in the walk way. Oh, and they are ALL men. I've never had a guy try and dress me, so that was weird. All the shops have essentially the same clothes, yet I was drug into a few as if they had a completely different stock.
I bought a couple of shirts and a skirt. Many of the merchants really wanted me to try on their jeans, but I have a ton of them. Few believed me, and tried to talk me into that corner of the store. Jordanians like some loud, busy clothes. Most of what I saw was not attractive to me at all. Some of what I already have is good enough for work, so I didn't feel like I needed many pieces.
The last thing I bought were a couple of scarves. If there's a time you want to blend in and disappear a little, then a scarf will do the trick. Think of the Harry Potter invisibility cloak. Yep, that's what we've got here.
The guy told me 4 JD each. I thought that was reasonable. Then he said, if you buy 3, I will sell for 14 JD. Good deal, no? I just looked at him and said no, not good deal. 3x4=12. You need to do better. So I got them for $10.
In other news, I started my internship today. It was really...challenging. So we started right up and had a team meeting which was almost entirely in Arabic. I understood a large part of it, but I found myself on Arabic overload, and had to remind myself that I was listening to instructions, not white noise. It was really, really intense. At one point, I wanted to clarify something, and while I was right in what I thought she meant, she told me that I really needed to learn better Arabic. I just smiled and said that's why I'm here.
Tomorrow I am done with class by 1030 and I have to go over to work, and from there, we are going to their IT department so they can show us how to redo the website. Unless it's vastly different from what I usually have worked with, I think this will be a far less intense situation. I just really hope that I'm not going to be a great big giant fail. I am, for once, a little intimidated.
So here's now it works. You walk in, and look American. It feels like there is a target on your forehead, and the guys working there are all counting the money they'll get from you even before they accost you in the walk way. Oh, and they are ALL men. I've never had a guy try and dress me, so that was weird. All the shops have essentially the same clothes, yet I was drug into a few as if they had a completely different stock.
I bought a couple of shirts and a skirt. Many of the merchants really wanted me to try on their jeans, but I have a ton of them. Few believed me, and tried to talk me into that corner of the store. Jordanians like some loud, busy clothes. Most of what I saw was not attractive to me at all. Some of what I already have is good enough for work, so I didn't feel like I needed many pieces.
The last thing I bought were a couple of scarves. If there's a time you want to blend in and disappear a little, then a scarf will do the trick. Think of the Harry Potter invisibility cloak. Yep, that's what we've got here.
The guy told me 4 JD each. I thought that was reasonable. Then he said, if you buy 3, I will sell for 14 JD. Good deal, no? I just looked at him and said no, not good deal. 3x4=12. You need to do better. So I got them for $10.
In other news, I started my internship today. It was really...challenging. So we started right up and had a team meeting which was almost entirely in Arabic. I understood a large part of it, but I found myself on Arabic overload, and had to remind myself that I was listening to instructions, not white noise. It was really, really intense. At one point, I wanted to clarify something, and while I was right in what I thought she meant, she told me that I really needed to learn better Arabic. I just smiled and said that's why I'm here.
Tomorrow I am done with class by 1030 and I have to go over to work, and from there, we are going to their IT department so they can show us how to redo the website. Unless it's vastly different from what I usually have worked with, I think this will be a far less intense situation. I just really hope that I'm not going to be a great big giant fail. I am, for once, a little intimidated.
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