The Death Of Fridays In Jordan

Alternatively titled: ‘The Search For Weekend Vital Signs’ and/or ‘An Ode To Fridays’

All over the world, weekends are usually divided between one day that is a go-out-and-do-weekend-stuff kind of day, and a sleep-in-and-dont-go-outside-all-day kind of day. But Fridays in Jordan can be so dead that it’s a kind of strange sensation. In fact, I kind of notice that Internet usage really takes a plunge on Friday, which indicates one of two things to me: either everyone manually and deliberately unplugs themselves from connectivity on a Friday, or everyone has access to the Internet at work only and is too cheap to get it at home (thank God for my neighbor’s beautiful wireless connection).

The only interesting thing about Friday in Jordan, particularly Amman, is probably the 8 to 11pm time frame, when everyone comes out of hiding for a few hours and there is a hint of weekend vital signs.

Try as I might, I find it difficult trying to remember how weekends used to be when they were Thursdays and Fridays instead of Fridays and Saturdays. This was over a decade ago and I remember it taking me awhile to get adjusted to going out on Thursday nights instead of Wednesday nights. But I remember Thursdays and Fridays being along the lines of Saturdays and Sundays, the weekends of most western countries: where the week ended on one active day and one dead day. It was a decompressing-shutting-down-logging-off kind of process, or in other words, a slow-unwinding-of-the-spirit, if you will, instead of a sharp decline that we now suffer: going from a lively Thursday to an all but dead Friday.

But I suppose the same can be said of the opposite: leaving the weekend from a dead day straight into the work week makes that first day even less tolerable. So perhaps the sudden-weekend-shutdown is also a build-up-to-yet-another-weekday, making that first day a little more bearable. Another advantage is that it lets people stay up late on Thursday nights, where they can sleep in on Friday mornings. This lets the lucky bastards who get Saturdays off feel like they got something done on that day.

So I don’t know. I guess it all depends on your preference.

Personally, I just don’t like the whole crashing-to-the-floor-in-weekend-spasms kind of feeling that comes with Fridays in Jordan. There’s a feeling of infirmity, of weakness, of frailty.

Anywhoo.

This is one of those go-nowhere-into-existential-kingdoms kind of posts that will probably go unnoticed and uncommented on for awhile.

Because you probably won’t read it until Sunday.