A Mecca of a Mall
Oh, the irony! Mecca is the holiest city in Islam, yet the biggest and fanciest shopping mall in Amman is the “Mecca Mall.” I waded in yesterday, not realizing it was a huge sale weekend, out of the sheer need to let my skin feel the air after being completely covered all summer.
Turns out the mall has a lot of mid-priced European clothing stores with absolutely beautiful clothes. I’m so tired of shopping at the same stores in the states and wearing the same clothes! I’m ready for a new aesthetic, a new sartory, as it were.
The shoppers seemed mostly to be “Gulf Arabs,” i.e. folks who are so pampered and have so much money that throwing it around a mall and waiting in line for a dressing room, arms overflowing with expensive garments, is the most strenuous part of the day. I’m sure there were a few Jordanians in the mix, too.
So I puttered around the air-conditioned complex, not realizing how large it is. I found a beautiful beaded necklace at an Afghani crafts store for $2 (I’m hoping it was actually made in Afghanistan, but what are the odds?).
Today I’m wearing short sleeves; a graphic t-shirt in the same shades of gray as my almost floor-length French-made skirt, which is today’s concession to the modest dress standards here. If I were anywhere else in the city (I’m in the Western-ish, replete-with-expats Jebel Amman district), I’d put on my handy black cardigan cotton sweater to cover my arms.
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