Hello, all! Sorry there was no post yesterday, it was the Jordanian equivalent of a Saturday and the family was hanging out for most of the day. It was pretty nice.
Did you know that traditionally the Jordanian weekend was Thursday/Friday? It has been changed to Friday/Saturday due to the fact that they essentially were out of sync with the Western world for four days out of the week, making international business pretty hard to conduct. Thus, Thursday night is the big night out for most Jordanians, and Friday lunch is a big family affair. Also, lunch is the major meal of the day, not dinner. Typically it's a light breakfast, large lunch, and small dinner. I love the meal schedule... not to mention the INCREDIBLE food. The food here is absolutely amazing. Lots of cooked veggies, rice, delicious hummus and mutabel (baba ganoush), and there's always fruit for dessert. I could dedicate an entire blog post to just the fruit - it's unlike anything we get in grocery stores in the States. I'm wondering whether or not it would be worth a shot trying to bring some of the melon back with me...
Last post I talked about my desire to travel more... honestly, I'm looking at the months I'll be in the States as an extended period in which to run errands and make some money, then heading back out. It's strange. Even though I really want to travel around, I can also start to sense complacency creeping back in. I really want to get back to Houston to see my friends that I've made there, as well as my dad and his partner. I can't wait to get back to Poison Girl and to check out what crazy midnight showings are at the River Oaks theatre for the week and a half I'm there... but I have to fight the urge to just ease back into a life without really examining why I'm there. I got caught up in my life in Colorado that way, without realizing what I might be giving up without exploring before settling. Now I'm terrified of doing the same thing in a place that's cooler, but still may end up being a lovely trap where I realize in four years that I'm completely unhappy. So, with this in mind, I've devised of an escape plan.
I will force myself to leave in October for another extended stay in Jordan.
I'm planning on taking an internship with an organization here in October, then (fingers crossed), I'll be invited to be the social media maven for Jack Hanna's 'Into the Wild.' After that, back to the States. Then in January I hope to be off again! Regardless of how amazing life is in Houston (and I'm worried that it might end up being pretty awesome), I'm going to go... that is, if everything works out according to plan. Which it will........... I hope.
So, I'm on to Children of Dune now in the series. I have never gotten this far without being completely disappointed in Frank Herbert; I guess it's a sign of maturity? When I would read Dune before it was a nerd-gasm of delight and happiness. I LOVED the messiah story of Paul Atredies, not to mention the rise to power of the Fremen people. Then I would read Dune Messiah and freak out. Dune Messiah is such a buzz kill after Dune. ****Spoiler Alert**** The government is corrupt? Chani dies?!? Paul goes blind?!?!? HE WANDERS INTO THE DESERT TO DIE?!?!?!?!?!? What the heck. I've made it through the book before, but I always really resisted and hated it. After Dune Messiah I've read Children of Dune once. It's pretty sad. I've read Dune 15+ times, Dune Messiah three times, Children of Dune once. But this time, I've made it all the way through to Children of Dune without throwing any of the books in disgust - a first (and it's a good thing too, since I'm reading the books on my Kindle).
I have a confession to make about the books: Brian Herbert's introduction helped me get through them. It's not just maturity, it's also the intros that he wrote to each of the books, particularly the intro to Dune Messiah that helped me understand the method to Frank Herbert's madness. I know, I know! I'm fully aware that Brian Herbert is riding on his father's coattails and stealing his ideas to write more Dune books which completely ruins the canon and needlessly commercializes the success of Dune as his father is probably spinning in his grave! But, regardless, it was nice to hear that Frank Herbert had a different vision for the Dune saga than just a meteoric rise, even if it's hard to see your heroes as flawed creatures (particularly Paul Atredies and Stilgar).
Ok. I'm done being a nerd. Love Children of Dune, though. I love the whole series (finally!). Now that I have enough time to sit down and actually read something, it's been a lovely story to read as I'm in the land where the culture inspired the novel.
Here's my clip for the day: not the usual, but amusing.
Alright. Well, that's enough of my rambling.
Cheers!
Did you know that traditionally the Jordanian weekend was Thursday/Friday? It has been changed to Friday/Saturday due to the fact that they essentially were out of sync with the Western world for four days out of the week, making international business pretty hard to conduct. Thus, Thursday night is the big night out for most Jordanians, and Friday lunch is a big family affair. Also, lunch is the major meal of the day, not dinner. Typically it's a light breakfast, large lunch, and small dinner. I love the meal schedule... not to mention the INCREDIBLE food. The food here is absolutely amazing. Lots of cooked veggies, rice, delicious hummus and mutabel (baba ganoush), and there's always fruit for dessert. I could dedicate an entire blog post to just the fruit - it's unlike anything we get in grocery stores in the States. I'm wondering whether or not it would be worth a shot trying to bring some of the melon back with me...
Last post I talked about my desire to travel more... honestly, I'm looking at the months I'll be in the States as an extended period in which to run errands and make some money, then heading back out. It's strange. Even though I really want to travel around, I can also start to sense complacency creeping back in. I really want to get back to Houston to see my friends that I've made there, as well as my dad and his partner. I can't wait to get back to Poison Girl and to check out what crazy midnight showings are at the River Oaks theatre for the week and a half I'm there... but I have to fight the urge to just ease back into a life without really examining why I'm there. I got caught up in my life in Colorado that way, without realizing what I might be giving up without exploring before settling. Now I'm terrified of doing the same thing in a place that's cooler, but still may end up being a lovely trap where I realize in four years that I'm completely unhappy. So, with this in mind, I've devised of an escape plan.
I will force myself to leave in October for another extended stay in Jordan.
I'm planning on taking an internship with an organization here in October, then (fingers crossed), I'll be invited to be the social media maven for Jack Hanna's 'Into the Wild.' After that, back to the States. Then in January I hope to be off again! Regardless of how amazing life is in Houston (and I'm worried that it might end up being pretty awesome), I'm going to go... that is, if everything works out according to plan. Which it will........... I hope.
So, I'm on to Children of Dune now in the series. I have never gotten this far without being completely disappointed in Frank Herbert; I guess it's a sign of maturity? When I would read Dune before it was a nerd-gasm of delight and happiness. I LOVED the messiah story of Paul Atredies, not to mention the rise to power of the Fremen people. Then I would read Dune Messiah and freak out. Dune Messiah is such a buzz kill after Dune. ****Spoiler Alert**** The government is corrupt? Chani dies?!? Paul goes blind?!?!? HE WANDERS INTO THE DESERT TO DIE?!?!?!?!?!? What the heck. I've made it through the book before, but I always really resisted and hated it. After Dune Messiah I've read Children of Dune once. It's pretty sad. I've read Dune 15+ times, Dune Messiah three times, Children of Dune once. But this time, I've made it all the way through to Children of Dune without throwing any of the books in disgust - a first (and it's a good thing too, since I'm reading the books on my Kindle).
I have a confession to make about the books: Brian Herbert's introduction helped me get through them. It's not just maturity, it's also the intros that he wrote to each of the books, particularly the intro to Dune Messiah that helped me understand the method to Frank Herbert's madness. I know, I know! I'm fully aware that Brian Herbert is riding on his father's coattails and stealing his ideas to write more Dune books which completely ruins the canon and needlessly commercializes the success of Dune as his father is probably spinning in his grave! But, regardless, it was nice to hear that Frank Herbert had a different vision for the Dune saga than just a meteoric rise, even if it's hard to see your heroes as flawed creatures (particularly Paul Atredies and Stilgar).
Ok. I'm done being a nerd. Love Children of Dune, though. I love the whole series (finally!). Now that I have enough time to sit down and actually read something, it's been a lovely story to read as I'm in the land where the culture inspired the novel.
Here's my clip for the day: not the usual, but amusing.
Alright. Well, that's enough of my rambling.
Cheers!
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