finally in CHINA

hey guys, its been a while since i updated this but IM FINALLY IN CHINA!!! After spending a month in Japan and nearly giving up on going on a TN this summer to China I finally pulled through to get a visa into CHINA. Due to the olympics this summer getting a visa into China for long period of time was rediculously hard... But Im in China and everything has been great so far. The @ers from WUHAN has been really helpful. i will be putting up more stuff but for now I just wanted everyone to know that I got to China safely!! Its been great about 20 TNs in WUHAN here teaching ENGLISH! Hope you guys are all doing great!

hey @IL!

I recently got my old blog moved over to the nomadlife server, so now I'll mostly be posting at travelaura.nomadlife.org.

for @ers everywhere...

Since we all seem to be constantly jetting off to some new and exciting place, I thought this blog entry from my friend Saba here in Jordan would ring true with all of us (it certainly did with me) :)

http://sabaimtiaz.nomadlife.org/2008/03/who-are-you-gonna-call-whatchoo-gonna.aspx

'Who are you gonna call? Whatchoo gonna do when you're stuck in the airport zoo?'

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

..or Telecommunication in Transit

Alright people, you'd better watch your feet cos I'm about to drop some knowledge. Haha, I love Barney Stinson's lines! :D

Anyway, over the course of many a discussion and random caffeine inspired moment of idle thinking, I have come up with the following theory: 'Telecommunication in Transit/the Airport Call theory'. Its been born out of listening and trying to interpret the countless stories people tell me (read: my friends with 'extremely interesting / the stuff soap opera dramas are made of' love lives).

Now basically how it goes is this: you're at an airport, killing time in a departure lounge. Depending on your luck, the lounge probably has minimal forms of distraction & entertainment, but you have your cell phone. Obviously, you can pick the phone up and call a friend who will undoubtedly listen to your ranting and raving, but thats not what you do. You call or text someone who you truly care about - whether its a new crush, your boy/girlfriend, someone you're undeniably attracted to.

However, you don't do this intentionally, and this is where it gets interesting. They're the ones that currently matter to you the most, so you call/text them. You think you're doing it because hey, maybe h/she is an insomniac or you miss speaking to him/her - but the truth is, you just want to be with them. See, this is a sign of how you can tell if you really like someone - if you can talk to him/her at an ungodly hour from a different timezone, this is the person you want to end up with.

So the next time you're in transit, desperately trying to find free wifi or thanking God that your cell phone has extensive roaming (instead of window shopping at duty free or drinking at 7 AM at an airport bar), or trying to hide your phone from the flight attendant because you want to send one last message before the plane takes off - remember: this is who you (regardless of how much you convince yourself or tell your friends that its just a fling/random crush) want to be with. The Airport Call theory has spoken.

Red, Green, Blue: a whole new meaning..

This past Thursday I got to see a side of Amman (and for that matter, the Middle East), that is usually not even discussed...the gay scene. The evening started off very innocently, with me, Saba (MC from Pakistan), Nadim (trainee from Canada) and Oksana (MC from Ukraine) watching Rang De Basanti and eating biryani. It was our attempt to bring a little bit of the subcontinent to Jordan. Anyways, we were sitting outside and Saba got a call from a friend asking if we wanted to go to a club. A gay club. Anyone who knows me probably know that I have a fondness for gay clubs; they always seem to play the best music, I don't get hit on, and it's great people-watching. C-Street in Champaign is the best and Pegs n' Pints in Delhi barely got old, even after almost 6 months of going there almost every Tuesday. So as you can imagine, I was kind of excited about this new Jordanian venture.

Me, Saba and Nadim arrived at RGB (Red, Green and Blue) and were introduced to Saba's friend's friends: about 10 guys wearing tight jeans and tank tops...and as we were introduced, all of them gave Nadim the once-over. Then we ventured inside, following the pumping sounds of house and techno songs that I haven't really heard since leaving the States. It was quite a nice change from the usual Arabic pop that plays in every single taxi...

Embracing the music, the three of us started dancing. It felt SO great to dance! Although I have to say I was probably staring as much (or more) as I was dancing...there was pretty much every kind of person imaginable there. Young, old, trendy, fashionably hopeless, big, small, anything...the whole time, I kept wondering (as I wonder about just about anyone I encounter): what is this person's story? The guy who was dancing next to me looked like he could have been my cab driver to work that very morning. Did he have a family at home? A wife who probably has no idea about this double life? So many contradictions seemed to be taking place....at one point, a techno remix of an Arabic pop song came on, and I couldn't help but thinking that these guys here in this underground club were singing the words to the same songs that the most conservative part of Jordanian society hear every day as well. Two very, very real parts of Jordanian society that are so close to each other but at the same time, worlds apart. Jordanian society is one that not only doesn't embrace homosexuality; it flat-out ignores it exists. Homosexuality is illegal in Jordan, but to add to the irony RGB was right next to the 3rd circle police station...

All that analysis aside, it was a damn fun night. It felt great to dance, even when two guys pummeled through our Laura-Nadim-Saba dancing triangle and started grinding up against me and Saba. We both amused them for awhile, but they were the world's most horrible dancers, so we quickly gave that up. Both of us noticed that Nadim (who had been stuck to Saba and I like glue the whole night) was nowhere in sight. Then we spotted him chatting it up (reluctantly) with a middle-aged bald hairdresser. He seemed pretty thankful that Saba and I had re-emerged again, and the three of us enjoyed the rest of the night dancing in our little expat corner.

What an unexpected night....and one that brought so many interesting realities into light. Everytime I think I've finally come to understand something about Jordanian (or more accurately, Amman) society, something comes along and completely contradicts it. I still haven't figured out Jordan, and I don't know if I ever will.

Until then, plenty more blog posts to come.