Thursday, April 28, 2005
Taxi
I actually look forward to my daily commute by Taxi.
First of all, after living in DC where a taxi ride of 4 blocks costs you $7.00, I love that I can go anywhere in the city for about 1 JD or $1.50. Plus there are like 6 taxis to every person looking to go somewhere in Jordan so you never have a problem finding one even on side streets.
Also, I admit I am proud that I can now do an entire cab ride in Arabic, which isn't easy because they don't have street names or addresses really here. So you have to do a lot of talking to get where you want to go. Anna bidi arduah duar taled, sharra el amir mohammad, dogeri, yemin, yassar, hone (I want to go to 3rd circle, prince mohammad street--and when they don't know where that is--straight, right, stop here). (Yes Joe, I know I probably butchered the spelling but you get the point).
And also, because they always know I am a foreigner (probably by the way I can't ever say that throaty "H" properly) so they usually start telling me their life stories or asking me about mine (which I almost always completely make up--just to be on the safe side--I'm a married woman from Bologna, Italy or Montreal, Canada if I don't feel like bringing back a few words in Italian).
Or like yesterday, they take out their casette tape of Amer Diab and put in Celine Dion and start singing along to "My Heart will Go On." Or the other day when the driver stopped at an ice cream shop mid-trip and bought us both ice cream cones. And the time the taxi driver kept asking if I had a friend he could marry to come to Canada with us. Or the time I jumped into a taxi pimped out with black lights and velvet curtains....
In other news, heading to Aqaba again tomorrow with Shane to do my first real, non-training dive. Getting ready for our trip to Egypt at the end of May. We had to shift gears away from Africa and on to Egypt since we only get a week off instead of the two we were planning to have. The other week we are saving for a trip home to the states in July, to do a Schiavon family reunion and a wedding of a very good friend of Shane's. I don't know which I'll have more to write about? My crazy family reunion or a trip down the Nile....
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First of all, after living in DC where a taxi ride of 4 blocks costs you $7.00, I love that I can go anywhere in the city for about 1 JD or $1.50. Plus there are like 6 taxis to every person looking to go somewhere in Jordan so you never have a problem finding one even on side streets.
Also, I admit I am proud that I can now do an entire cab ride in Arabic, which isn't easy because they don't have street names or addresses really here. So you have to do a lot of talking to get where you want to go. Anna bidi arduah duar taled, sharra el amir mohammad, dogeri, yemin, yassar, hone (I want to go to 3rd circle, prince mohammad street--and when they don't know where that is--straight, right, stop here). (Yes Joe, I know I probably butchered the spelling but you get the point).
And also, because they always know I am a foreigner (probably by the way I can't ever say that throaty "H" properly) so they usually start telling me their life stories or asking me about mine (which I almost always completely make up--just to be on the safe side--I'm a married woman from Bologna, Italy or Montreal, Canada if I don't feel like bringing back a few words in Italian).
Or like yesterday, they take out their casette tape of Amer Diab and put in Celine Dion and start singing along to "My Heart will Go On." Or the other day when the driver stopped at an ice cream shop mid-trip and bought us both ice cream cones. And the time the taxi driver kept asking if I had a friend he could marry to come to Canada with us. Or the time I jumped into a taxi pimped out with black lights and velvet curtains....
In other news, heading to Aqaba again tomorrow with Shane to do my first real, non-training dive. Getting ready for our trip to Egypt at the end of May. We had to shift gears away from Africa and on to Egypt since we only get a week off instead of the two we were planning to have. The other week we are saving for a trip home to the states in July, to do a Schiavon family reunion and a wedding of a very good friend of Shane's. I don't know which I'll have more to write about? My crazy family reunion or a trip down the Nile....
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