Unless there is someone from Amman reading this, I do not think it will be fully appreciated.
C-town in Harlem.
The same as that in Amman, the landmarks of the city. That's what we use- we live near C-town in Tla Al Ali (neighborhood). I usually start by saying near Duwar Al Waha (near the Al Waha circle). There is a restaurant called Al Waha (the oasis) past this circle, if you are coming from Garden Street (garden, as in the English word). But most people seem not to know it!!! Life no longer ends at the circle, it continues past the circle into an area that used to be referred to as near the New English School (same as in Kuwait, I think, where Queen Rania went, I think).
But the city has grown and now people don't refer to the same landmarks.
Aside: we don't have actual addresses (well, until recently and so nobody uses addresses). Landmarks are how you get around.
So there are places like C-Town. Like Safeway. Or the new (Abdoun, Mecca) or old (Mujama' Jaber) malls.
I'm going to start using it- you know, it's in Harlem, near C-Town.
Love it. Somehow to me there is little that compares to sitting in a coffee shop in the middle of a work day, guilt-free, unhurried. It feels like I am getting an additional "enjoy life" card, a bonus. Go directly to GO, collect the $200, go for it, unburdened and free.
There is the whole carpe diem dilemma. Dead Poets' Society member since the 8th grade, Alice in Wonderland since always, strong believer in life is short and you need to be sincere in how you live it.
The other side of the coin is the part I'm learning now to appreciate. Carpe diem can almost be a burden, a weight. Because every waking hour needs to be special, useful, inspired. A long weekend like the one coming up (from noon on Friday to Tuesday morning) is a wasted weekend if it's not filled with adventure and excitement and emotion.
But peacefulness is seeping in. Spending an evening at home with nothing to show for it- no movie seen, no art project done, no new city explored- is beginning to seem even more like living fully than the living through emotions.
And so I approach summer hours with the idea of it as a practice of sorts, a meditation on life, bonus time, a free pass.
My coffee awaits.
What, Kris, American Idol Kris? Are you people crazy??!
I mean, really, can you beat this? Mad World or One (a classic)!!
This guy is phenomenal... How could they (ie, those ditsy teenage girls)?
Sri Pattabhi Jois developed the Ashtanga yoga system based in Mysore, India. I do not know much about him (always studying the way and not the teacher). For more information, here's the wikipedia link.
He passed away yesterday at the age of almost 94. I heard about it in a yoga class- the teacher was not mourning this as a great personal tragedy-he lived a long life, she said.
My favorite response to it is how my sorely missed yoga studio in DC approached it: the link.
I'd thought about going to Mysore at some point- still could. Was not ready for it but now not sure it would be different than taking yoga classes here. Anyway, an end of an era of sorts.
Impressions upon my return:
- Pretty close to zero fashion sense as a city- or rather a single fashion sense- shared by most and overall dull. (blunt, harsh, not to say I'm better but just saying). It's inevitable when you compare to NYC.
- Not much has changed- the stores, the pace, even the rhythm of the traffic lights on the walk to Aldon from the Bethesda metro. Not even the corners on which the homeless hold their cups out to passersby- only the actual faces have changed, a passing of the guard. Granted it has been less than a year but still.
- Friends. You pick up where you left off.
- Buildings coming up in Bethesda- a more urban feel with the tall buildings. But Bethesda's charm was non-urbanism so close to downtown. Anyway, it's DC-style urbanism, which is softer, gentler.
Nothing profound. Just thoughts.
An aside. A coincidence? On the train ride down I caught up with a friend from lives ago who told me she lost her father to thyroid cancer. After our call I pick up the Nadine Gordimer book I brought along (hoping it would be as good as The Pickup but frustratingly disappointed) in which the first paragraph is a statement that the protagonist is isolated after a thyroidectomy and radiation therapy.
