Under the weather and what weather it is!
I've been a bit incommunicado the past few days due to general busyness and now being ill. I seem to have two ailments at the same time: I have both a sore throat/cold and upset digestion. Fortunately it's freezing-raining outside right now so I don't feel bad about staying in all day. I'ts been a fun couple of days, though. Thursday we had a little dinner party with several of Alex's friends, followed by a viewing of "The Incredibles". Yesterday we went to Abdullah's family's house for a Friday meal, which was the traditional dish "mensef". This is probably why my stomach is upset, I'm sorry to say. It's the typical dish of the region (remember that before the 1970s Jordan was a loose set of Bedouin tribes) and is basically lamb and rice with a yogurt sauce. Being lactose intolerant, the yogurt sauce is probably what did me in along with the general greasiness of the dish. Mensef's okay, but in terms of national dishes it makes me wish Alex had chosen Thailand rather than Jordan.
Although much of my life I've been told by people that cold weather does not cause colds, I feel that kind of clinging to science rather than the wisdom of millenia is often misguided. The word "cold" perfectly describes my state of being, and the all-pervasive condition of my surroundings for the past week. That's all it boils down to: it is just plain cold here and there is nowhere to go to get warm. It is simply inevitable that I would get _a cold_ in this situation, and that is exactly what I did. When I get home (in sha'allah) I will be so thankful for the miracle of insulation, rooms of heatable size, and centralized heating. It's crazy here--sometimes I envy the gypsies who live in ramshackle tents in the empty lot across the street because I know that their tents are small and heatable and they have a fire in the center to huddle around. It seems that when people build homes and apartments here they think only of getting the structure up and not at all of the details about wiring or heating the place. Thus most buildings are characterized by non-insulated cinderblock construction, large adjoining rooms, and poorly installed windows.
Oooh...yippee! Alex just returned from the corner market with cough drops, which we weren't sure they'd have. We've decided to barricade ourselves into the house for the rest of the afternoon to watch Lord of the Rings and drink copious amounts of tea with fresh mint. I hear he's planning to go to salsa dance lessons with Abdullah, so we'll see if that materializes. Take care everyone, and hopefully the next time I write it will be amid more favorable conditions.
BTW...is anyone connected with the biomedical engineering department at the U or know someone who is? Abdullah is finishing up his last year and a half of BME here and would like to study in the US or UK. Since the U of M is so strong in BME he is planning to apply there and I was wondering if there's anyone he could e-mail with questions about the department. Let me know--Thanks.
Although much of my life I've been told by people that cold weather does not cause colds, I feel that kind of clinging to science rather than the wisdom of millenia is often misguided. The word "cold" perfectly describes my state of being, and the all-pervasive condition of my surroundings for the past week. That's all it boils down to: it is just plain cold here and there is nowhere to go to get warm. It is simply inevitable that I would get _a cold_ in this situation, and that is exactly what I did. When I get home (in sha'allah) I will be so thankful for the miracle of insulation, rooms of heatable size, and centralized heating. It's crazy here--sometimes I envy the gypsies who live in ramshackle tents in the empty lot across the street because I know that their tents are small and heatable and they have a fire in the center to huddle around. It seems that when people build homes and apartments here they think only of getting the structure up and not at all of the details about wiring or heating the place. Thus most buildings are characterized by non-insulated cinderblock construction, large adjoining rooms, and poorly installed windows.
Oooh...yippee! Alex just returned from the corner market with cough drops, which we weren't sure they'd have. We've decided to barricade ourselves into the house for the rest of the afternoon to watch Lord of the Rings and drink copious amounts of tea with fresh mint. I hear he's planning to go to salsa dance lessons with Abdullah, so we'll see if that materializes. Take care everyone, and hopefully the next time I write it will be amid more favorable conditions.
BTW...is anyone connected with the biomedical engineering department at the U or know someone who is? Abdullah is finishing up his last year and a half of BME here and would like to study in the US or UK. Since the U of M is so strong in BME he is planning to apply there and I was wondering if there's anyone he could e-mail with questions about the department. Let me know--Thanks.