This past week, Amman had a visit from America’s premier collegiate a Capella group, the Whiffenpoofs. The 14-man choir is currently in the middle of their annual world tour and thanks to the efforts of one of Dozan wa Awtar’s choir members, we were able not only have a joint concert with them this past week but also a little party-social event, too.

The guys assemble for their first song as the late King Hussein of Jordan watches over them serenely

It was great to be doing a choir event again. My summer has been relatively low-key so far, and part of that is due to the lack of work and lack of choir events. Dozan has been on summer hiatus since the Germany trip returned, and it’s strange to have my Monday and Wednesday nights back again after so much meticulous practicing for those proceeding three months! Thankfully, Dozan will be re-convening for the fall “Quiz Night” in just a couple days now, so we can all go back to having our bi-weekly choir fix again. Last year’s Ramadan Quiz Night was such a big hit that it was almost a given that we’d do it again for 2010.

For this “mini-concert” with the Whiffenpoofs, we didn’t have our full Dozan choir assembled (many people are gone on vacation) but we sang a few Arabic songs for our standing room-only audience. That was only about 12 minutes, though – the majority of the concert was of course for the Whiffs. After listening to them sing for an hour, the history and tradition that comes from a 101-year-old senior-class choir group with dozens of recorded albums and the pick of the thirty-something other a capella groups on the Yale campus.

For their rendition of the Flight of the Conchord’s “Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)” they picked my fellow Austria-traveler Mai from the audience to be the butt of their perfectly-harmonized complimenting/teasing.

We had a good old college-style party for them at a friend’s house the next night, after they came back from a day’s touring down in Petra (what else would you visit in Jordan if you only had one day to sight-see?). It was relaxing to be able to kick back with the guys when we were all in casual street clothes instead of dressed up in tuxedos and suits!

Today’s my 24th birthday, and I’ll be taking it easy thanks to being sore and stiff-jointed from yesterday’s Friday Ride of 90 kilometers. The Cycling Jordan guys insisted that I join them down at the company farm in Madaba for the post-ride barbecue that the beginner biking group has every Friday evening after their 25km ride. It was a great day, with 60km of hard uphill riding in the morning, and then 30km of gentle Madaba farm roads in the afternoon, with kebab, shish tawooq, and ariys to top it all off. I have to ask myself; I can’t believe I’m leaving Jordan and the delicious food behind! I need to open up a Jordanian restaurant back in Madison, I think.

Abu Khalid and Ahmad the farm's guard grill the Ariys (flatbread with kebab meat inside) and shish tawooq (grilled and seasoned chicken chunks)