Cabin Fever --- Lewis

"Cabin fever" according to Wikipedia, "is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, for an extended period. Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping."

Being from Western Washington I know what it is like to get out of the house on a rainy day and go adventuring through the woods or to the park, or even down the street to a local coffee shop. But being here in Amman things aren't quite the same. Although it's not as cold here as it gets just yet, it feels so much colder because our floors are made of marble and we haven't bought diesel to turn on our central heating (which we are told isn't that effective in the first place). So we sit around inside all day huddled in close proximity to our little electric heaters, but not so close as to burn our blankets we have wrapped tightly around ourselves nor our new slippers which have rubber soles. Sometimes I run over to the window and open the blinds long enough to soak in a little sunshine as the sun is setting at the perfect angle to be directed inside with us. It's really only about 50F here right now, but all of us wish it were a little warmer.

We are used to getting up early and heading off to work where the heaters are run all day and we are, most of the time, running around after our students (all except Tine who is currently in the warmth and comfort that is Zambia) so we manage to keep quite warm. Zach and I, however, are currently on Winter Break which gives us quite a bit of extra time. We have time to do all kinds of things like catch up on our Bible study, read a few new novels from the ABS library, watch television (which gets old after a while), or perhaps venture out into the city in pursuit of some adventure. Oh wait, it's cold outside so the last option is a little iffy. Actually, for two days straight it rained, including one day and night that was rather blustery. The two of us braved the elements that day for a few hours on a search for some falafel sandwiches. The wind was blowing harshly that afternoon and, if not for Zach, I surely would have been blown into oncoming traffic as we crossed the street and then I would never have met Jimmy.

Jimmy is the owner of new neighborhood falafel shop. I say new because we only this week discovered it existed. Jimmy, whose Arabic name is actually Jamal, moved back to Jordan from the US about five years earlier. He had lived there as a cook for about ten years. Currently he has (if I remember correctly) two children in attendance at various universities in the states. The crazy part of this story is, as it turns out, not merely the fact that Jimmy lived in Ohio but the fact that he lived in the same town that Zach and Emily had lived in. What a small world? How odd is it that we had to travel all the way to Amman to meet one of our neighbors (well potentially they were neighbors depending on time and exact location of course)? We left Jimmy with smiling faces because we had met and friend AND because Jimmy had given us free falafel sandwiches because we were his neighbors both in Ohio and, since we live so close to his shop, here in Amman.

Zach and I continued on our journey down to a local "library," the local name for a shop that sells paper goods and various writing utensils as well as all kinds of other odds and ends, but doesn't lend books. We managed to pick up some ink pens and some yarn for our wives as well as a new USB storage device for myself (I was excited that I got it so cheap and Zach pondered buying one for himself).
We returned home safely and only slightly damp, as it wasn't raining by the time we had made it out the door. This whole ordeal took us no more than a couple of hours. If it were a sunny day when we awoke that morning, we had planned a hike to a nearby neighborhood to scope out some old architecture and to discover a little more about our surroundings.

It's amazing how little one can get done when there is "nothing" to do. The rest of the day, at least for me, was very unproductive and when the wife got home she wasn't that pleased with the falafel sandwiches, although she always fancies a new pen or two (she likes to write). It's not that I had intended on doing nothing and sitting around all day. It's just that the weather had thwarted our plans and us guys aren't too keen on coming up with stuff to do on our own. We actually get quite bored at home alone without the wives. Who would have thought that we had become so boring?

To continue the definition that I lead into this blog post with (again according to Wikipedia, as to give credit to a more credible source than myself), "The word" still referring to Cabin Fever, "is also used humorously to indicate simple boredom from being home alone." As it turns out, Zach and I (or at least myself) have suffered slightly from the effects of Cabin Fever. Our condition could get worse here in the near future (actually starting tomorrow) because we are still on break from work but our wives are still going to be working. Soon enough the monotony of the daily lack of routine will be over and we will be back at school, warm and cozy running after crazed youngsters who we only want to help, all the while keeping up with paper work and grades and wishing to be back on break again.

Emily and Lena will soon enough have their own taste of Cabin Fever. They go on break the day we go back to work.

***PS - To show you how boring I knew this break had potential to be, and to add to the vicious effects of Cabin Fever, I decided to schedule an exam for myself during the early part of my break. I came home from work on Monday and the very next day I took a cab to a different part of town and proceeded to take the GRE (GRE stands for Graduate Record Examination). It's basically an entrance exam for graduate school. I painstakingly studied away many nights in preparation for this exam, and by "painstakingly studied away many nights" I mean I studied a couple of times and took a few different practice exams. There are three parts to the general GRE exam (the version of the GRE that I took): (1)the verbal reasoning section, (2)the quantitative reasoning section, and (3)the analytical writing section. The writing section has to be read by an actual person to be scored so I don't know the conclusion of that area. Although I can't say that I am a brilliant essay writer I once got an A+ on a paper in high school that was basically an essay about nothing, according to my teacher, but he loved it. On the practice tests I took I was averaging above 500 (out of 800) points on the verbal reasoning section which is only slightly above average. On the actual exam I scored a measly 400 points. I give credit for that low score to the fact that I don't read a whole lot. In the quantitative reasoning section (basically a math section) I was averaging above 600 (again out of 800) points which was again only slightly above average, except for engineering students whose average score is somewhere above 700 points. On the actual test (this part is amazing and what I consider to be a miracle) I managed a score above 700 points up there with the engineers! That's good because I happened to study engineering in college and getting a score up there with the rest of the engineers makes me feel like I did take something away from college.***