May 25: Independence Day

May 25 is Jordan's Independence Day/yawm al-istiqlal (يوم الاستقلال) so we had the day off. This day is a national holiday for schools/offices/government, but many restaurants and businesses were still open. After a lecture by Dr. Sullivan and Charles on the Syrian Refugee Crisis, we went to the King Hussein Park (حدائق الحسين) to see some Independence Day celebration.

As a group, we took the bus to get to King Hussein Park in West Amman. The bus lines run on roughly straight lines on the main arteries of the city. At 35 girsh/ride, they're much cheaper than taxis, but if you don't know the streets of Amman well you could easily get lost. West Amman is definitely the newer and more opulent part of the city, with King Hussein Park almost at the edge of the city. From a distance, the greenery of the park stands out from the endless beige of the rest of Amman. New development like the King Hussein Medical Center are also located in this part of town.

The Park itself is a huge area, stretching for what seems to be at least two miles along the main street. It features several notable sights in Jordan, like a Roman-style amphitheater (after the amphitheater in the City Center) and a section of railroad (after the Hejazi railroad from Mecca to Istanbul that passed through much Jordan until the Mandatory Era). There was still lots of construction in the Park.

As we walked along the walls of the park looking for an entrance that was open, we passed by many vendors selling water, trinkets, and Jordanian flags. Once we actually entered, we walked around the park, seeing the sights in the Park, enjoying the precious greenery in the city, and eating lunch at Sultan Snack (سلطان سناك) where we had 1JD chicken shawarma sandwiches.

After a lunch break, we headed down to a section of the park where lots of people were gathered. A group of Saudi men were dancing a traditional dance, dabkeh, in Saudi clothing to loud Arabic music. A group of Jordanian men also had their own dabkeh circle. Nearby a concert was being set up with two sections: one for the shabaab/young men and one for everyone else (basically families and American tourists). The shabaab section looked a lot more rowdy and fun than the everyone else one. Shabaab were dancing dabkehs and just in general around the concert venue and in the shabaab section. Guys were on each others shoulders and throwing each other in the air. While the concert was set up, loud Arabic music was blasting from the stage with heavy beats. Everyone was waving Jordanian flags in patriotic fervor, and waving posters with portraits of King Abdullah II that read something like "بلدنا الغالي بملكنا العالي"/"our country is rich as our king is high (morally/in stature/in splendor)" or something like that. I don't remember it well and I didn't get a good picture of it. Many had camo pants/vests/outfits in a show of support for the Jordanian military. A kid even had a full military outfit with a beret and aviators. Her beret was still better than half our battalions' berets back home.

Taking a selfie with some shabaab. The nose thing is a thing with the Jordanian football team

A girl with a patriotic military outfit

A boy with patriotic traditional clothing. The flag looks taller than him.

After a while, the music started playing patriotic songs praising the Hashemite royal family and the Jordanian military. After a while a chant started: الشعب يريد (the people want) and then something I didn't hear clearly. I'll ask someone later what they said. The concert finally started, with the Army band playing patriotic music, but we left at that point. They also released an enormous flag made of balloons in a symbolic gesture of the majesty and symbolism of the flag.

Throughout Independence Day, the traffic was insane. Amman traffic is bad as is, but Independence Day makes it worse. Our cab drivers complained multiple times about it.

At night, we visited a cafe for shisha with seats on the balcony overlooking Rainbow Street. The street's traffic moves slowly in one direction with 1-2 usable lanes. That night, more shabaab (more teenagers and boys this time in addition to young men) were dancing in the street, waving Jordanian flags, and generally being merry. The already sluggish traffic slowed to a halt because of the shabaab blocking the road, dancing in front of the traffic. The drivers in the car were also merry, with passengers rising out of sun roofs and while making a cacophony of car horns in clashing rhythms that endured the entire two hours or so we were at the cafe. I felt pretty bad for anyone actually trying to get through that traffic.

The view from the cafe