Happy Eid Al-Hub / عيد حب سعيد

Happy Valentine's Day or Eid al-Hub (Day of Love) from Jordan! 

Today ended up being a boon for my research--conspicuous Valentine's consumption made the presence of dating on campus much more obvious than it already is. Boyfriends with small, sparkly bags for their girlfriends, and girlfriends with roses from their boyfriends. As one friend pointed out to me, how will they explain those roses to their mothers, won't it be obvious they have a boyfriend?

Spotted on campus in "Lovers' Lane" -- the area where couples
often sit on the curb together and while away the time

Even though Valentine's Day isn't quite as big of a "thing" as it is at home, the flower shops were out in full force with the color red and buckets of roses. I was in cahoots with my roommate's boyfriend to get her a bouquet of flowers and ended up finding out that the going rate for ONE rose in Amman is 3JD ($5). Now that's what I call love!

Our local flower shop all gussied up

How did I spend the day, you might ask? By doing some romantic participant observation at the various cafes surrounding campus (favorite spots for young lovers). Later in the evening, after hitting the gym and picking up my roommate's flower bouquet, I ended up at Buffalo Wings & Rings with two friends. In scheduling a dinner for Thursday night, I was unawares that it was Valentine's Day. As I learned on New Year's, most restaurants end up doing special fixed (and expensive) menus on holidays and they sell out fast. Finding a restaurant becomes even more challenging if one wants to eat both good food and have access to alcohol--there are only a limited number of restaurants where the latter is easy to find. Thus, my friends and I found ourselves eating buffalo chicken and drinking pitchers at Buffalo Wings & Rings. Imagine our surprise when we sat down and the waiter placed two roses on our table (we're talking 6JDs ($10) here). Now that is what I call Buffalove!

As if Valentine's day couldn't get any more special, it was also biannual Tawjihi results day. This meant waking up to fireworks at 6AM, happy high schoolers honking their car horns all over town, and going to bed to the sound of fireworks as well. It was a bit of a frenetic day, but also a very good one. 

The Tawjihi warning email from our Commission Director