It always amuses me to no end when I see my mom getting interested
in the latest technological trends. As I was meeting my parents and sister at
the airport last weekend, my mom recounted how my sister almost lost her
Ipod before they took the flight to DC from Amman.

My first reaction was: "Mom, you know what an Ipod is? Impressive."

"Of course I do!" said my mom sounding offended. "And I know Facebook as well," she added.

Is that not just so cute? It seems that facebook is more embedded in Jordanian life than I thought. Fascinating!

Last year, I was contacted by Oxford University Press for permission to reprint an article that I had written for The Jordan Times some years ago. I was really pleased and humbled that such a prestigious publisher was interested in my work. I gave them permission to publish my work instantly and waited patiently for the book to be published. The book, called Well Read 4, is a an educational textbook that encourages English students to embrace reading. Here is how the book is described at Amazon.com:

Worried that students find academic reading boring? Think again! Well Read develops the skills and strategies that make academic reading enjoyable and interesting. Well Read accomplishes this with relevant and interesting readings, through strategies and skill building exercises and by encouraging active participation in the classroom.

Well Read 4 has a number of articles by various contributors. I received a copy of it a few days ago and could not be happier to have my name associated with such a top-notch publisher. At this moment of my life I’m feeling grateful. The article that was selected was an interview with Jordanian director Jackie Oweis Sawiris. Here is an excerpt:

AMMAN — The travails of Raz, a young Arab American woman searching for her true self, is the theme of a feature film that producers hope to shoot entirely in Jordan but with the western market as its target audience. The film project, "Falls the Shadow," is the brainchild of Jackie Oweis Sawiris, an Arab American director, born of a Jordanian mother and Egyptian father.

"It is a semi-autobiographical epic love story of denial, the search for and, ultimately, the acceptance of self," explained Sawiris, also a screenwriter and an actress. For the enthusiastic 39-year-old, the efforts she is exerting are not just about making a movie. The film would be a prototype upon which other Jordanian film productions could be based, helping the burgeoning film community here "develop into a commercially competitive entity within the global media marketplace," she explained.

You can read the whole article here.

Since moving to the US two years ago, I have dreaded going to the hairdresser. One reason for this is the fact that styling your hair in this country is just too damn expensive. The price of a haircut here is really excessive, especially if you want a stylish cut. The last time I decided to do that I paid around $70, partly due to my "long hair," which stipulated higher charges.

Another reason is the the myriad of comments I usually receive about my hair whenever I make a journey to the beauty salon. Besides the usual comments about the length of my hair, hairdressers (of all nationalities, including one Hispanic and one South Korean) often make annoyed remarks about the amount of hair I have on my head. Apparently, I have "too much hair," which seems to tire hairdressers here. I find the comment about the quantity of my hair particularly amusing since back in Jordan my hairdresser used to complain about my "light hair." "You must be using a large amount of conditioner. It is very light," my Amman-based hairdresser used to tell me. I guess the gauge for "normal" amounts of hair varies across continents.

So last weekend I got a haircut. Refusing to pay $70, I went to the McDonalds of US beauty salons: the Hair Cuttery. The outcome was satisfactory. I got a decent haircut for $19 but when I asked my South Korean hairdresser about a blow-dry she said she would charge me $20 additional because I have "long hair." Hearing this figure, I immediately nixed the idea. To win me back she offered to charge me the "regular length hair" price of $10. I agreed and ended up paying $33 (including tip) to get this more mainstream haircut. I was satisfied. It definitely beats the $70 I paid several months ago for a "stylish" one. Of course, once again I had to endure comments like, "You have beautiful, healthy hair but it is too much hair." I was willing to put up with that one last time for the reduced charge.

While getting my hair done at the Hair Cuttery, I suddenly felt nostalgic. I missed my hairdresser back in Amman who charged me $10 for both a haircut and a blow-dry. This service, of course, came with a cup of Turkish coffee and a very nice chat as Arabic pop music played in the background. Sigh! Who would have thought that haircuts could reveal such curious cultural comparatives.