downtown

We had a drop off in downtown the other day, which was awesome. (A drop-off is a mix between field research and a scavenger hunt.) We wrote up a big long report as part of the assignment, but I don't feel like regurgitating everything we did. If you're really curious, I can send you the paper. Basically, it's the pedestrian-focused urban shopping area. It's not quite a traditional suq, but it also doesn't feel like a bad imitation of Western strip-malls. (Side note: The lingerie here is ridiculous. Let's just say "ornate" and "frilly" would be understatements. I'm told Muslim countries have the highest lingerie sales in the world.) We had lunch in a great hole-in-the-wall restaurant. (Side note: Good food is cheap here. The standard price for a falafel sandwich at a good restaurant costs the equivalent of 50 cents.) Anyway, it was almost all men, and we were the only mixed group, and the only foreigners until this oblivious tourist couple walked in (we at least had the sense to feel horribly awkward). One of my friends insulted another friend's face, and it was kindof awesomely hilariously awkward. (Thank goodness I'm not the only one here who appreciates that sort of thing.) The stores are grouped by category, and clearly geared for foot traffic because most of them are down alleys. The clientele was older, less wealthy, and dressed more traditionally than in the more Westernized shopping areas we were used to (i.e. Swaifiya). We were supposed to find and interview someone who turned out to be an ancient, black peanut vendor, but we failed because the only person comfortable in Arabic was a woman, and he told her that he would only talk to a man. We fed one of the boys lines, but all he could get out of the peanut vendor was an indecipherable rumble-mumble, and our translator couldn't get close enough to help. So we gave up, and went wandering. We saw an advertisement for a women's facial product called "Radio Cream." This was next to the protein product, "PowerThrust". Eventually I tried to meet up with another group to get a cab and go back to Sweileh, which ended up being challenging because there weren't clear landmarks. They told me to meet them at the mosque, but I didn't know which mosque, and they kept telling me to follow the street to the end at the mosque. Once I figured out that I'd been walking in the wrong direction, I turned around, and after winding down narrow streets for awhile I abruptly came to a large plaza with a mosque. It was so easy to find once I was already there.