Great Expectations at Ramadan: Graduate gripes from working in a convenience store

I’m in a weird place this Ramadan. Not just spiritually but geographically as well. Almost exactly a year ago I finished my MA thesis and moved back home: home being wherever so my parents were living, regardless of roots and attachments. A few months before my less-than-triumphant return to the moist womb, my parents had made the move to Northern Alberta for business.

“Hamudeh DVD” has become a household name in Amman. You can tell who’s been to Hamudeh by the stack of thin DVD cases and unlabeled discs that nest by their television sets. For many, trips to the pirated DVD store have become weekend staples.

Honey, you rock the boat and you’ll be ostracized. We will forever deem you as “strange” with your actions and your ideas, but we’re smart and pacifist enough to at least give you some ounce of pretend freedom to be who you are, you and your friends like you. You can create little bubbles that will keep the rest of society safe from your thoughts and ideas.