Last day in Jordan. I definitely have mixed feelings, because I'm way excited to see my family and friends back home again (and my dogs!!!), and I do miss a lot of things in America. Like the ability to walk down the street without notice from every sketchy guy in the area. But today I definitely got a little sad about leaving the program- I had some fabulous professors and even more fabulous friends here. And regardless of any negatives here, I definitely love Jordan enough to come back in the near future for a longer stay (not in Irbid, though).
So today we had our little graduation ceremony (I passed! Yay!), I did my last-minute packing and shopping errands, and then one of our Advanced-level professors invited the girls from our level to a girls-only party thrown by his daughter and wife at his apartment. The girls-only deal is pretty important in Arab parties, because it means that the girls who normally wear hijabs and abayyas can remove all of that and just dress in what we would consider "normal" clothing. So it was really cool, we arrived, the girls took off their hijabs and abayyas and were all wearing cute party dresses or similar clothing underneath, and almost immediately there was dancing. Like literally, we walked in, sat down, drank coffee (also an important part of visiting an Arab home), and then the music started and people started dancing around the sitting room.
I am very afraid of dancing. I feel like I am the world's WORST dancer, and any dancing I've done this summer has only come after a tequila shot or something similar. However, sitting on the couch and clapping along was only an option for so long, because everyone there really wanted us to dance with them. So I was peer-pressured into a dabke first (a Jordanian folk dance), and then later was pulled onto the living room dance floor by my professor's nine-year old daughter, who was an amazingly good dancer. That's the thing, though, ALL Arab women are good dancers. It's in the blood or something. I've very rarely felt so white as when I was dancing in a living room with a bunch of Arab women and trying very hard to not look like the Tin Man. My friends assured me that it was just in my head and I really wasn't the world's worst dancer.
Aside from dancing there was also really delicious cake, and a little after the cake we were like "Okay, we need to go back and finish packing", but the professor's wife was like "Oh, no, just wait for a tiny bit longer!" So we waited, and danced, and then pistachio ice cream was brought out for everyone and we were glad we had stayed for that. And then after the pistachio ice cream was conversation, and then tea, and then conversation...this is definitely a typical Arab home visit- it's hard to escape! And I really didn't WANT to escape, it's just that we are leaving the country tomorrow and it's kind of necessary to prepare. It was SUCH a nice evening with the girl party, though- it's a one-of-a-kind cultural experience here, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!
And now I'm really leaving. It's bittersweet, for sure. I don't even want to think about saying goodbye to my friends tomorrow. Ma'a salaama, al-Urdun. It's been an interesting summer.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Doing cultural things in my last week here.
If there's one thing I've learned in Jordan it's that doing seemingly strange and/or sketchy activities usually turn out for the best. In America, for example, I would rarely go to a wedding with a large group in which none of us knew the bride or groom, or go with the same group to eat dinner at the groom's brother's house the following day, or let off fireworks in a construction site. And to think this all started (except the fireworks part) because we went to a dance club above a McDonalds in Aqaba (yet another seemingly sketchy but actually fun decision).
So. My friend Genevieve, along with a couple of the program people that were with her at the time, met this guy in Aqaba at the dance club I just mentioned, and it turned out that he had family living here in Irbid. I showed up to the club with a different group a little later and met this guy briefly (particularly when he dragged me and couple of the guys forcibly onto the dance floor). At some point he was telling Genevieve that his brother was getting married in Irbid and she should totally come to the wedding, yadda yadda yadda.
And then this week arrives, and it turns out that his brother is getting married on Wednesday and this guy actually wants us to come to the wedding reception. In America, this is not a usual occurence, to invite a large group of strange foreigners to a wedding party, right? This is why I love Jordan! So we had to go to a big fancy dinner party on Wednesday given by the university in our honor, but after that a group of like 16 of us ended up going to this wedding. A lot of things are pretty familiar to American wedding guests- the bride was the pretty girl in white, the reception was in a large hotel, there was dancing and such, etc.
And then there were new things: men and women guests were separated for the bulk of the reception in completely different rooms (except for the groom, who was with the bride in the women's reception area), the bride had to look all stoic for most of the time, the dancing music was much cooler than the Macarena and everyone there could actually dance without the help of alcohol, and the wedding cake was cut with a SWORD!!!! That was probably the best part. There was also a crazy old man with a cane that turned into a sword, which was both strange and awesome. He apparently pointed the cane at our guys in a threatening/joking/insane kind of way when they were in the men's reception area. Nice.
After the reception, there's always a parade of cars that drives around the city honking (I know this much from living in Irbid for so long and hearing it every night), and then at some point they go let off fireworks. Most of us chose to go back to the campus after the reception because we had our last day of class and some tests the next day, but several from our group did go on the ride-along and had some adventures getting to know the family, and they apparently had a really good time.
So this guy from Aqaba (brother of the groom) also invited us to come eat mansef with him and his family yesterday. In order to get to his brother's house, we had to take some sketchy unmarked van-bus deal, which is apparently a normal thing to do here. We all had a fun time- the Aqaba guy was really the only one who spoke much English, so we had a lot of awkward and funny experiences trying to talk to all of them. And by "all of them", I mean Aqaba guy plus 4 of his brothers and his cousin. The youngest brother was 10 years old and so adorable! The rest of the guys were very funny and incredibly nice to have invited the whole crowd of us over for dinner. All in all, I was glad that I went and finally got to experience some of the Jordanian home life.
Oh, and after we had all returned from the Jordanian home experience, the guys of our program decided it was finally time to let off the rest of their fireworks (some of which had been let off in Petra a couple weeks ago). So we trekked out to a sketchy construction site and enjoyed some much better fireworks than are legally available in America. Nobody was arrested, nobody was exploded, so all was well.
My time in Jordan is very quickly coming to an end! Oh, and my Jerusalem pictures are still not posted. If anything, I'll get everything up when I get back to the States and then post links here for you non-Facebook users. Off to Amman tomorrow for one final shopping trip, and hopefully all my gifting will be finished. Until next time...
--K
So. My friend Genevieve, along with a couple of the program people that were with her at the time, met this guy in Aqaba at the dance club I just mentioned, and it turned out that he had family living here in Irbid. I showed up to the club with a different group a little later and met this guy briefly (particularly when he dragged me and couple of the guys forcibly onto the dance floor). At some point he was telling Genevieve that his brother was getting married in Irbid and she should totally come to the wedding, yadda yadda yadda.
And then this week arrives, and it turns out that his brother is getting married on Wednesday and this guy actually wants us to come to the wedding reception. In America, this is not a usual occurence, to invite a large group of strange foreigners to a wedding party, right? This is why I love Jordan! So we had to go to a big fancy dinner party on Wednesday given by the university in our honor, but after that a group of like 16 of us ended up going to this wedding. A lot of things are pretty familiar to American wedding guests- the bride was the pretty girl in white, the reception was in a large hotel, there was dancing and such, etc.
And then there were new things: men and women guests were separated for the bulk of the reception in completely different rooms (except for the groom, who was with the bride in the women's reception area), the bride had to look all stoic for most of the time, the dancing music was much cooler than the Macarena and everyone there could actually dance without the help of alcohol, and the wedding cake was cut with a SWORD!!!! That was probably the best part. There was also a crazy old man with a cane that turned into a sword, which was both strange and awesome. He apparently pointed the cane at our guys in a threatening/joking/insane kind of way when they were in the men's reception area. Nice.
After the reception, there's always a parade of cars that drives around the city honking (I know this much from living in Irbid for so long and hearing it every night), and then at some point they go let off fireworks. Most of us chose to go back to the campus after the reception because we had our last day of class and some tests the next day, but several from our group did go on the ride-along and had some adventures getting to know the family, and they apparently had a really good time.
So this guy from Aqaba (brother of the groom) also invited us to come eat mansef with him and his family yesterday. In order to get to his brother's house, we had to take some sketchy unmarked van-bus deal, which is apparently a normal thing to do here. We all had a fun time- the Aqaba guy was really the only one who spoke much English, so we had a lot of awkward and funny experiences trying to talk to all of them. And by "all of them", I mean Aqaba guy plus 4 of his brothers and his cousin. The youngest brother was 10 years old and so adorable! The rest of the guys were very funny and incredibly nice to have invited the whole crowd of us over for dinner. All in all, I was glad that I went and finally got to experience some of the Jordanian home life.
Oh, and after we had all returned from the Jordanian home experience, the guys of our program decided it was finally time to let off the rest of their fireworks (some of which had been let off in Petra a couple weeks ago). So we trekked out to a sketchy construction site and enjoyed some much better fireworks than are legally available in America. Nobody was arrested, nobody was exploded, so all was well.
My time in Jordan is very quickly coming to an end! Oh, and my Jerusalem pictures are still not posted. If anything, I'll get everything up when I get back to the States and then post links here for you non-Facebook users. Off to Amman tomorrow for one final shopping trip, and hopefully all my gifting will be finished. Until next time...
--K
Monday, August 3, 2009
Jerusalem and Crankiness
I'm way cranky right now. Which is terrible, because I'm trying to blog about my really cool trip to al-Quds (AKA Jerusalem), and I'm afraid that all of this pessimism will just seep into my descriptions. The crankiness is totally stemming from the fact that this is my last week of classes in Jordan, I have no will to keep studying, and I'm finally homesick. I have to force myself to put the slightest effort into my homework and classes, and it makes me very not happy.
However, I had a fabulous weekend trip to Jerusalem! I went with a small group- just me, Alice, Stephanie, and Kevin. We stayed in East Jerusalem, which is an Arab section of the city, and our hostel was right outside the Damascus Gate, which is one of the gates leading into the walled-in Old City. Yes, we did stay in a hostel. No, it was not like the horror film (which I did not see because I'm afraid of horror films). It was actually kind of cool to be there with a bunch of other young travelers, and also with a big parrot that suddenly appeared on Saturday morning.
Getting to Israel was an adventure in itself. It involved shouting at a bunch of people in Arabic and asking them about the bus to the border, to which they all responded that there was no bus (clearly not true, since some of the other students had taken a bus to the border the previous weekend). After a lot of confusion, and being swarmed at the bus station by a horde of service taxi drivers who had no idea where we were going but wanted to take lots of our money to drive us there, we finally just decided to take the service to save time rather than search for the bus. So we did a lot more shouting about "THE NORTHERN CROSSING!!!!!", which was the border that we needed to go through, and picked a driver who assured us that he could take us there. As it turned out, he was absolutely not sure where we were going, asked us if we spoke Arabic (after we had negotiated with him in Arabic), and generally seemed to be a big mistake. Oh, and then when we got to the border, he got a ticket because he was only licensed to drive to Amman, when we had specifically told him beforehand "No, we are NOT going to Amman" multiple times, and he wanted us to pay his 10 dinar ticket.
I could go on and on about this story, which involved about 10 more minutes of confused shouting in Arabic and refusal to pay 10 extra dinar (although somehow he still kept referring to me as a "bint quayyis" and Kevin as a "rajul quayyis, which roughly means a "good girl" and a "good guy", so he still liked us), but then you'd miss the part where we got detained at the Israeli border for like an hour and a half. Because 4 American students are way more suspicious than EVERY OTHER PERSON that traveled to the border that day. And then there's the part where I asked that they NOT stamp my passport so that I could freely travel to Syria, Lebanon, and other such countries in the future, but they mixed up my passport with someone else's and decided to go ahead and stamp me. Thanks, Israel.
However, we did eventually get through, got a taxi to Jerusalem, and arrived at our hostel safe and sound. We had no actual plans for the next day, so we pretty much just woke up and started wandering. We made our way into the Old City fairly early, and it's really a great place to just wander aimlessly because you will inevitably stumble upon something important. The Old City is like a labyrinth, with all of these tunnels and twists, and it's divided into the Christian Quarter, Arab Quarter, Jewish Quarter, and Armenian Quarter. We spent the morning between the Christian and Arab Quarters, did some shopping in the tunnel stores, and accidentally came across the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was pretty fabulous.
After this we went out to the New City, which involved a failed trip to find a specific waffle restaurant and then settling for waffles at a cafe on the way (because we got lost). When we made it to the New City, we basically just walked down Ben Yehuda St, which is closed off to cars and is just lined with a bunch of cute shops. After the walking fiasco, we elected to take a taxi back to the Old City, and by some twist of fate we ended up hailing the guy who had driven us TO Jerusalem (Sifian, the most amazing/hilarious driver on Earth), and he took us back to East Jerusalem for free!
When we returned to the Old City we decided to do the Via Dolorosa (Stations of the Cross), which ended up being really cool. We got to see all of these interesting churches that were built around some of the most famous sites in Christendom (depending on if you ask the Catholics or the Orthodox, who disagree on some locations). So we saw the place where Jesus healed the paralytic, the prison where he may have been kept, the places where he fell carrying the cross, etc. The end of the Via Dolorosa is in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (which we hadn't known earlier), so we did the Stations a little out-of-order, but it was no problem. Oh, and we also got to take pictures of the Dome of the Rock because we randomly wandered into the entrance. The Dome of the Rock plaza (AKA Temple Mount area) was closed to non-Muslims on Friday, but the guard let us take pics from the gate, so that was nice.
In the evening we ventured to the Jewish Quarter and down to the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall, but I think that's really the less polite term). It was really interesting to be there right before the start of Shabbat (the Sabbath), and there was a pretty decent-sized crowd. It was a pretty awesome experience to be at such an old and important site, surrounded by praying and crying people. Even though I'm not Jewish, I could still feel the power of the place, and it was really not something that I had expected.
In general, the whole trip was much more powerful than I had expected. I kind of envisioned having an exciting cultural experience, but not so much a religious one. I think I was subconsciously assuming that because I'm not Jewish, being in Jerusalem wouldn't be as meaningful in that way. However, my explorations around all of the holy sites left me with a much greater understanding of why everyone is fighting to keep a piece of Jerusalem for themselves.
In truth, Jerusalem really does belong to all of the religions and the people who claim it- I was only there for a short time, and even I could feel that. I think that anyone who's ever been to the city would have to sense that- and if you try to claim it solely for one group, you obviously haven't experienced Jerusalem in its entirety. I mean, I'm definitely not the world's best Christian all of the time, and I struggle with my faith just like a lot of people, but to be in the places where Jesus lived and died(regardless of the argument over the specific locations) was a shockingly meaningful experience for me. In some very small way, I had my own little tie to the land. And the tie that the residents, whether they are Arab or Jewish or otherwise, have to the land is so strong that it's nearly tangible. To ignore the multiple claims on Jerusalem is ignorance in the highest degree, as far as I'm concerned, and I think my visit made me understand more of why people are willing to put their lives and everything else on the line to fight for their place in Jerusalem.
But, yes, meaningful experience aside, it was also a very fun trip with very fun people. We didn't get to spend nearly enough time there (and it was a huge freaking hassle to cross borders. I hate borders.), but I think we spent our time pretty wisely for the most part and saw a lot of really cool sites. Oh, and Sifian ended up driving us from Jerusalem back to the border as well. He sang a lot, bought us popsicles, and made sure that we had pillows to sleep on. The only real hitch we had in getting back (which wasn't so much a hitch as a hilarious occurence) was at an Israeli checkpoint maybe 10-15 minutes from the border, where they searched our bags and pulled out Kevin's notebook (purchased in Jordan), which had a picture of Israel or something with the slogan "Palestine: We Will Return!" written above it (one of the many hilarious notebooks available in Irbid). Needless to say, he was cringing and the rest of us were almost peeing our pants from laughing at him. Yeah, other than that, travel back to Jordan was pretty simple.
Pictures are coming soon, whenever the internet cooperates. ALSO: I just figured out that people have been commenting me and I haven't gotten any notice of it via email or otherwise. So sorry! My ignoring you was very unintentional.
However, I had a fabulous weekend trip to Jerusalem! I went with a small group- just me, Alice, Stephanie, and Kevin. We stayed in East Jerusalem, which is an Arab section of the city, and our hostel was right outside the Damascus Gate, which is one of the gates leading into the walled-in Old City. Yes, we did stay in a hostel. No, it was not like the horror film (which I did not see because I'm afraid of horror films). It was actually kind of cool to be there with a bunch of other young travelers, and also with a big parrot that suddenly appeared on Saturday morning.
Getting to Israel was an adventure in itself. It involved shouting at a bunch of people in Arabic and asking them about the bus to the border, to which they all responded that there was no bus (clearly not true, since some of the other students had taken a bus to the border the previous weekend). After a lot of confusion, and being swarmed at the bus station by a horde of service taxi drivers who had no idea where we were going but wanted to take lots of our money to drive us there, we finally just decided to take the service to save time rather than search for the bus. So we did a lot more shouting about "THE NORTHERN CROSSING!!!!!", which was the border that we needed to go through, and picked a driver who assured us that he could take us there. As it turned out, he was absolutely not sure where we were going, asked us if we spoke Arabic (after we had negotiated with him in Arabic), and generally seemed to be a big mistake. Oh, and then when we got to the border, he got a ticket because he was only licensed to drive to Amman, when we had specifically told him beforehand "No, we are NOT going to Amman" multiple times, and he wanted us to pay his 10 dinar ticket.
I could go on and on about this story, which involved about 10 more minutes of confused shouting in Arabic and refusal to pay 10 extra dinar (although somehow he still kept referring to me as a "bint quayyis" and Kevin as a "rajul quayyis, which roughly means a "good girl" and a "good guy", so he still liked us), but then you'd miss the part where we got detained at the Israeli border for like an hour and a half. Because 4 American students are way more suspicious than EVERY OTHER PERSON that traveled to the border that day. And then there's the part where I asked that they NOT stamp my passport so that I could freely travel to Syria, Lebanon, and other such countries in the future, but they mixed up my passport with someone else's and decided to go ahead and stamp me. Thanks, Israel.
However, we did eventually get through, got a taxi to Jerusalem, and arrived at our hostel safe and sound. We had no actual plans for the next day, so we pretty much just woke up and started wandering. We made our way into the Old City fairly early, and it's really a great place to just wander aimlessly because you will inevitably stumble upon something important. The Old City is like a labyrinth, with all of these tunnels and twists, and it's divided into the Christian Quarter, Arab Quarter, Jewish Quarter, and Armenian Quarter. We spent the morning between the Christian and Arab Quarters, did some shopping in the tunnel stores, and accidentally came across the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was pretty fabulous.
After this we went out to the New City, which involved a failed trip to find a specific waffle restaurant and then settling for waffles at a cafe on the way (because we got lost). When we made it to the New City, we basically just walked down Ben Yehuda St, which is closed off to cars and is just lined with a bunch of cute shops. After the walking fiasco, we elected to take a taxi back to the Old City, and by some twist of fate we ended up hailing the guy who had driven us TO Jerusalem (Sifian, the most amazing/hilarious driver on Earth), and he took us back to East Jerusalem for free!
When we returned to the Old City we decided to do the Via Dolorosa (Stations of the Cross), which ended up being really cool. We got to see all of these interesting churches that were built around some of the most famous sites in Christendom (depending on if you ask the Catholics or the Orthodox, who disagree on some locations). So we saw the place where Jesus healed the paralytic, the prison where he may have been kept, the places where he fell carrying the cross, etc. The end of the Via Dolorosa is in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (which we hadn't known earlier), so we did the Stations a little out-of-order, but it was no problem. Oh, and we also got to take pictures of the Dome of the Rock because we randomly wandered into the entrance. The Dome of the Rock plaza (AKA Temple Mount area) was closed to non-Muslims on Friday, but the guard let us take pics from the gate, so that was nice.
In the evening we ventured to the Jewish Quarter and down to the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall, but I think that's really the less polite term). It was really interesting to be there right before the start of Shabbat (the Sabbath), and there was a pretty decent-sized crowd. It was a pretty awesome experience to be at such an old and important site, surrounded by praying and crying people. Even though I'm not Jewish, I could still feel the power of the place, and it was really not something that I had expected.
In general, the whole trip was much more powerful than I had expected. I kind of envisioned having an exciting cultural experience, but not so much a religious one. I think I was subconsciously assuming that because I'm not Jewish, being in Jerusalem wouldn't be as meaningful in that way. However, my explorations around all of the holy sites left me with a much greater understanding of why everyone is fighting to keep a piece of Jerusalem for themselves.
In truth, Jerusalem really does belong to all of the religions and the people who claim it- I was only there for a short time, and even I could feel that. I think that anyone who's ever been to the city would have to sense that- and if you try to claim it solely for one group, you obviously haven't experienced Jerusalem in its entirety. I mean, I'm definitely not the world's best Christian all of the time, and I struggle with my faith just like a lot of people, but to be in the places where Jesus lived and died(regardless of the argument over the specific locations) was a shockingly meaningful experience for me. In some very small way, I had my own little tie to the land. And the tie that the residents, whether they are Arab or Jewish or otherwise, have to the land is so strong that it's nearly tangible. To ignore the multiple claims on Jerusalem is ignorance in the highest degree, as far as I'm concerned, and I think my visit made me understand more of why people are willing to put their lives and everything else on the line to fight for their place in Jerusalem.
But, yes, meaningful experience aside, it was also a very fun trip with very fun people. We didn't get to spend nearly enough time there (and it was a huge freaking hassle to cross borders. I hate borders.), but I think we spent our time pretty wisely for the most part and saw a lot of really cool sites. Oh, and Sifian ended up driving us from Jerusalem back to the border as well. He sang a lot, bought us popsicles, and made sure that we had pillows to sleep on. The only real hitch we had in getting back (which wasn't so much a hitch as a hilarious occurence) was at an Israeli checkpoint maybe 10-15 minutes from the border, where they searched our bags and pulled out Kevin's notebook (purchased in Jordan), which had a picture of Israel or something with the slogan "Palestine: We Will Return!" written above it (one of the many hilarious notebooks available in Irbid). Needless to say, he was cringing and the rest of us were almost peeing our pants from laughing at him. Yeah, other than that, travel back to Jordan was pretty simple.
Pictures are coming soon, whenever the internet cooperates. ALSO: I just figured out that people have been commenting me and I haven't gotten any notice of it via email or otherwise. So sorry! My ignoring you was very unintentional.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Beirut!
So I just returned from a 4-day excursion to Beirut with a large group of students from the program. We had a "mid-semester break" here that doesn't really seem so much "mid" as "close to the end", but whatever. We were free to do whatever we wanted for those few days, and it was nice to get a break from studying because I am uber-burnt out. We took a plane to get to Beirut, in order to avoid the hassle of Syrian transit visas, and somehow had a nicer plane for our 1-hour flight that we had for our 11-hour (or so) flight from America to Jordan. Go figure.
Beirut is a very beautiful city, but it's really a strange kind of beauty that can only come from the uniquely conflict-ridden past and cultural heritage of Lebanon. The civil war tore Beirut apart from 1975-1990, but it somehow didn't entirely lose its cosmopolitan character after so much destruction. The renovations are stunning, particularly in the downtown area, but for every elegant French-style restoration and charming garden there are also bombed-out buildings and piles of rubble elsewhere. Wherever you go, it is nearly impossible to forget that the beauty of Beirut is built on the scars of the past.
French influence is EVERYWHERE- and nearly everyone in the city speaks at least 3 languages (usually French, Arabic, and English), from what I can tell. I really didn't feel like I was in "The Middle East" the whole time I was there- there were malls, bars, clubs, cafes, and lots of Euro-style all over the place. Also, I got to wear sundresses during the day and fancy club clothing at night, which made me SO happy. I've been dressing like I'm freaking Amish most of the summer because Irbid is so conservative, and I didn't realize how much I missed dressing in fun things. It was amazing how much more I felt like me when I put on my ridiculous pink sunglasses. It brought to my attention the fact that I don't ever really feel pretty in Irbid. Which, of course, made it all the more difficult to return here on Saturday and put on my loose linen pants and elbow-length sleeves. And the kicker is that a lot of the Muslim girls here are actually very fashionable, with jeans and flats and cute (but modest) shirts, but because I'm an American I would likely attract even more unwanted attention if I wore similar clothing in Irbid. Damn the American media for projecting this whorish image of American women!
Okay, rant over. Yes, I got to wear pretty things and feel like pretty Katelyn in Beirut, so that was fabulous. Although the pretty heels I bought for nighttime were actually better to look at than to wear. We did a lot of walking, and my feet were very much unhappy with me. On the plus side, if you have enough drinks then you can't even feel the pain! Hahaha- I'm just kidding, Mom and Dad, I couldn't resist :) But there was a good selection of bars and clubs on the same street as our hotel, so that was convenient. The one bar was owned by a guy from L.A. and he gave us some free shots one night. I enjoy things that are free, especially because Beirut is so expensive. Honestly, though- for a number of reasons that I don't need to detail- the daytime wandering ended up being more fun than the nights out, in my opinion.
Really, in the daytime we didn't do much that was special. The first day we went to the American University in Beirut's "beach" (which was less of a beach and more of a large rocky area), and dd some sunning. I got out of the water after the revelation that it was teeming with jellyfish. I hate jellyfish. But the Mediterranean was pretty to look at. The other days were literally just spent wandering to random places around the city, and I really had a good time with that. I will admit, though, that one of my favorite things that I did in Beirut was something that I could have done anywhere in America: seeing Harry Potter 6!
The last night we were in the city, Anne and I were at a cafe discussing how we had no desire to go "out" that night and were really just wanting a chill activity. I almost did a happy dance when we came back to the hotel and were intercepted by Alice, who invited us to meet up with a couple of the others at the ABC Mall to see Harry Potter. BEST DECISION EVER. I had assumed that I wouldn't be able to see it until I got back to the States (and I still plan on going with you in the States after you finish Book 6, Benjammin'), so it was extremely exciting. And the subtitles were in French AND Arabic!
All in all, it was a good trip, but I didn't really do a lot of touristy things and I will need to get back to Lebanon in the near future. My next destination is Jerusalem from Thursday-Saturday, and I'm looking forward to seeing the Dome of the Rock there especially.
Oh, and pictures can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2617577&id=12458491&l=6ff8863b91
Beirut is a very beautiful city, but it's really a strange kind of beauty that can only come from the uniquely conflict-ridden past and cultural heritage of Lebanon. The civil war tore Beirut apart from 1975-1990, but it somehow didn't entirely lose its cosmopolitan character after so much destruction. The renovations are stunning, particularly in the downtown area, but for every elegant French-style restoration and charming garden there are also bombed-out buildings and piles of rubble elsewhere. Wherever you go, it is nearly impossible to forget that the beauty of Beirut is built on the scars of the past.
French influence is EVERYWHERE- and nearly everyone in the city speaks at least 3 languages (usually French, Arabic, and English), from what I can tell. I really didn't feel like I was in "The Middle East" the whole time I was there- there were malls, bars, clubs, cafes, and lots of Euro-style all over the place. Also, I got to wear sundresses during the day and fancy club clothing at night, which made me SO happy. I've been dressing like I'm freaking Amish most of the summer because Irbid is so conservative, and I didn't realize how much I missed dressing in fun things. It was amazing how much more I felt like me when I put on my ridiculous pink sunglasses. It brought to my attention the fact that I don't ever really feel pretty in Irbid. Which, of course, made it all the more difficult to return here on Saturday and put on my loose linen pants and elbow-length sleeves. And the kicker is that a lot of the Muslim girls here are actually very fashionable, with jeans and flats and cute (but modest) shirts, but because I'm an American I would likely attract even more unwanted attention if I wore similar clothing in Irbid. Damn the American media for projecting this whorish image of American women!
Okay, rant over. Yes, I got to wear pretty things and feel like pretty Katelyn in Beirut, so that was fabulous. Although the pretty heels I bought for nighttime were actually better to look at than to wear. We did a lot of walking, and my feet were very much unhappy with me. On the plus side, if you have enough drinks then you can't even feel the pain! Hahaha- I'm just kidding, Mom and Dad, I couldn't resist :) But there was a good selection of bars and clubs on the same street as our hotel, so that was convenient. The one bar was owned by a guy from L.A. and he gave us some free shots one night. I enjoy things that are free, especially because Beirut is so expensive. Honestly, though- for a number of reasons that I don't need to detail- the daytime wandering ended up being more fun than the nights out, in my opinion.
Really, in the daytime we didn't do much that was special. The first day we went to the American University in Beirut's "beach" (which was less of a beach and more of a large rocky area), and dd some sunning. I got out of the water after the revelation that it was teeming with jellyfish. I hate jellyfish. But the Mediterranean was pretty to look at. The other days were literally just spent wandering to random places around the city, and I really had a good time with that. I will admit, though, that one of my favorite things that I did in Beirut was something that I could have done anywhere in America: seeing Harry Potter 6!
The last night we were in the city, Anne and I were at a cafe discussing how we had no desire to go "out" that night and were really just wanting a chill activity. I almost did a happy dance when we came back to the hotel and were intercepted by Alice, who invited us to meet up with a couple of the others at the ABC Mall to see Harry Potter. BEST DECISION EVER. I had assumed that I wouldn't be able to see it until I got back to the States (and I still plan on going with you in the States after you finish Book 6, Benjammin'), so it was extremely exciting. And the subtitles were in French AND Arabic!
All in all, it was a good trip, but I didn't really do a lot of touristy things and I will need to get back to Lebanon in the near future. My next destination is Jerusalem from Thursday-Saturday, and I'm looking forward to seeing the Dome of the Rock there especially.
Oh, and pictures can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2617577&id=12458491&l=6ff8863b91
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Petra, Aqaba, etc.
I could continue to apologize for slacking on my blog, but you probably won't believe me. I legitimately have had homework issues since the last post! And I don't have time to catch up on weekends because I'm always traveling. However, I opted to stay a little closer to home this weekend, with a small shopping trip to Amman tomorrow with Anne to break the monotony and buy a few important clothing items.
Why do I need important clothing items, you might ask? I am happy to report that our semester break begins next Tuesday afternoon, and I will be spending the entirety of it in Beirut!!! I bought my plane ticket today (along with several others of our Beirut travel group) and now I need to go buy some Beirut-appropriate clothing/cute bathing suit. If I dressed in my conservative clothing while in Beirut, I would be the object of much ridicule. An excuse for shopping is always appreciated, of course, so Anne and I will be spending part of tomorrow at the Mecca Mall in Amman (yes! mall!), and then some more traditional shopping downtown.
So last weekend we traveled to Petra and Aqaba with the whole program, which was AMAZING. Petra, if you don't know about it, is an ancient Nabatean city (later also Roman) entirely carved into the stone cliffs in the area. It's super old and also is one of the new wonders of the world, so it was great to go see it. We left on Thursday morning, because it's a several hour drive down from Irbid to Petra. Our hotel was definitely nice, and I think all of us went directly into the pool area as soon as we dropped our stuff in the rooms. Honestly, the first night was pretty uneventful for me (not so much for others, I think)- I went to bed at like 10:30 because we had to leave the hotel at 6:00 AM in order to beat the heat at Petra.
When you enter into the city, you walk for a little ways until you reach the first real building- the Treasury. It's very large and imposing, which you can vaguely see from my pictures. Khaled suggested that those of us who wanted to see the monastery should go directly there after the treasury, because it's like an hour's hike up to the top, and we only had so much time to be in Petra. So I went with a group and trekked up the mountain, which was much worse than the scrambling I did in Wadi Rum, I must say. However, the view from the top WAS pretty stellar, and I didn't regret the excessively tiring climb. It was good that we climbed in the morning, but it was already really hot. I tried wearing my kuffiyeh Tupac-style to keep the sun off, but I was even getting too sweaty to do that, and it was quickly abandoned.
After the monastery climb, we went to look at some really cool mosaics, but then I and two of the guys decided that we were tired, hungry and disgusting and wanted to head back to the hotel in order to eat/shower before going to Aqaba. Remember how I said you walk for "a little ways" before you hit the Treasury? So it doesn't seem like such a short walk when it's 100000 degrees outside and you've just hiked all morning. Everytime I thought we were almost out, it was a false alarm. I told the guys "Listen, we're going to actually die in Petra." and I was only very slightly kidding.
Nonetheless, we made it out. I showered. I ate a burger the size of my face at the hotel bar. We left the hotel in the afternoon, arrived to Aqaba 2 hours or so afterward, and upon seeing our Aqaba hotel I no longer thought that the Petra hotel looked quite as nice. We were living in total luxury at this new hotel. Oh my goodness. The hotel has its own lazy river-style pool that wraps winds around the whole back of the building, private beach access, room balconies, large beds, hi-tech bathrooms (and nice robes!), and is for sure the nicest place I've ever stayed. As we did in Petra, we dropped our stuff, paused to be amazed by our very nice hotel rooms, then hit the pool/beach area.
And if you don't know Aqaba, it's a resort city at the bottom of Jordan on the Red Sea, and it's right across the water from Eilat in Israel. It was wonderful to hit the beach- I'm definitely an ocean kind of girl, and I haven't been in salt water for so long! Also, it was totally over 100 degrees outside, so being in the ocean was so so so nice. I also tested out the pool and hot tub, with similarly relaxing results. We didn't spend too much time frolicking in the water because there was much to be done during the nighttime in Aqaba. Khaled and Allison (our program leaders) had arranged with the hotel bar for our group to get a 25% discount from 8:00-9:00, so Anne and I went to join the two of them there after dinner to get some fun fancy drinks.
And of course, a bunch of the others in the program decided to go out and experience Aqaba nightlife after that. I somehow always get sucked into these things. Nobody ever listens to me here when I repeatedly tell them "I can't dance!". So my bad influence friends found a way to bring me with them to various locations throughout the night. I had fun watching some of them have progressively more alcohol-influenced fun as the night went on. The night was capped off at a bar/club which was above a McDonalds. If that's not one of the shadiest things you've ever heard... But it was not actually a shady place. Some of my friends danced themselves silly while I just sat and had some good conversation. We ended up meeting up with two of the other members of the large going-out group which had split up earlier in the night. Genevieve had made a new Jordanian friend, who forcibly dragged me and the rest of the guys out of our seats and onto the dance floor around 3:00 AM, but we ended up leaving not long afterward.
Oh, and then we went to McDonalds. What? The club was kind of above McDonalds and you expect people to not pick up some fries on the way out? As I said before, it was very entertaining to hang out with my drunk friends and have some very interesting conversations. And even though I went to bed so late, I got my butt out of bed at 9:30 so I could have several good beach hours before we had to leave in the afternoon. So I enjoyed some delightful sunbathing and swimming, ate another ridiculously large burger, and then before I was ready it was time to go. I was never so sad to get back to Irbid.
The one negative aspect was the severe sunburn that finally caught me. You know that movie "Final Destination" where Death follows those kids who avoided dying? I think that's what went down with the sunburn. I avoided getting burnt in the rest of my Jordan trip (including a day in the freaking desert), so the sunburn finally caught me in Aqaba. I was pretty uncomfortable. At the first rest stop we hit, I changed out of my shirt and asked Anne "Oh, is my back red at all?", to which she only replied "OH." That, as you can imagine, is not a good response. Small price to pay for an extremely fun weekend, but still painful.
The ride back was very long. We went by the Dead Sea to see the sunset (gorgeous!), and then stopped at McDonalds in Amman for a late dinner. I've never been so excited for chicken nuggets in my whole life. It sucked that we didn't get back to the university until like 11:30, because we had class the next day (for which none of us had done any homework, obviously). Needless to say, the next day was LONG. But, all in all, the weekend was by far the most fun I've had here, and I've had some pretty good trips in general! I only wish we could have spent several days in Aqaba rather than just 1-ish. Ah well.
I will make an effort to do more posting, but homework calls during most days of the week. Trying not to fail, you know.
Pictures are on Facebook and can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2609410&id=12458491&l=95594a6531
Why do I need important clothing items, you might ask? I am happy to report that our semester break begins next Tuesday afternoon, and I will be spending the entirety of it in Beirut!!! I bought my plane ticket today (along with several others of our Beirut travel group) and now I need to go buy some Beirut-appropriate clothing/cute bathing suit. If I dressed in my conservative clothing while in Beirut, I would be the object of much ridicule. An excuse for shopping is always appreciated, of course, so Anne and I will be spending part of tomorrow at the Mecca Mall in Amman (yes! mall!), and then some more traditional shopping downtown.
So last weekend we traveled to Petra and Aqaba with the whole program, which was AMAZING. Petra, if you don't know about it, is an ancient Nabatean city (later also Roman) entirely carved into the stone cliffs in the area. It's super old and also is one of the new wonders of the world, so it was great to go see it. We left on Thursday morning, because it's a several hour drive down from Irbid to Petra. Our hotel was definitely nice, and I think all of us went directly into the pool area as soon as we dropped our stuff in the rooms. Honestly, the first night was pretty uneventful for me (not so much for others, I think)- I went to bed at like 10:30 because we had to leave the hotel at 6:00 AM in order to beat the heat at Petra.
When you enter into the city, you walk for a little ways until you reach the first real building- the Treasury. It's very large and imposing, which you can vaguely see from my pictures. Khaled suggested that those of us who wanted to see the monastery should go directly there after the treasury, because it's like an hour's hike up to the top, and we only had so much time to be in Petra. So I went with a group and trekked up the mountain, which was much worse than the scrambling I did in Wadi Rum, I must say. However, the view from the top WAS pretty stellar, and I didn't regret the excessively tiring climb. It was good that we climbed in the morning, but it was already really hot. I tried wearing my kuffiyeh Tupac-style to keep the sun off, but I was even getting too sweaty to do that, and it was quickly abandoned.
After the monastery climb, we went to look at some really cool mosaics, but then I and two of the guys decided that we were tired, hungry and disgusting and wanted to head back to the hotel in order to eat/shower before going to Aqaba. Remember how I said you walk for "a little ways" before you hit the Treasury? So it doesn't seem like such a short walk when it's 100000 degrees outside and you've just hiked all morning. Everytime I thought we were almost out, it was a false alarm. I told the guys "Listen, we're going to actually die in Petra." and I was only very slightly kidding.
Nonetheless, we made it out. I showered. I ate a burger the size of my face at the hotel bar. We left the hotel in the afternoon, arrived to Aqaba 2 hours or so afterward, and upon seeing our Aqaba hotel I no longer thought that the Petra hotel looked quite as nice. We were living in total luxury at this new hotel. Oh my goodness. The hotel has its own lazy river-style pool that wraps winds around the whole back of the building, private beach access, room balconies, large beds, hi-tech bathrooms (and nice robes!), and is for sure the nicest place I've ever stayed. As we did in Petra, we dropped our stuff, paused to be amazed by our very nice hotel rooms, then hit the pool/beach area.
And if you don't know Aqaba, it's a resort city at the bottom of Jordan on the Red Sea, and it's right across the water from Eilat in Israel. It was wonderful to hit the beach- I'm definitely an ocean kind of girl, and I haven't been in salt water for so long! Also, it was totally over 100 degrees outside, so being in the ocean was so so so nice. I also tested out the pool and hot tub, with similarly relaxing results. We didn't spend too much time frolicking in the water because there was much to be done during the nighttime in Aqaba. Khaled and Allison (our program leaders) had arranged with the hotel bar for our group to get a 25% discount from 8:00-9:00, so Anne and I went to join the two of them there after dinner to get some fun fancy drinks.
And of course, a bunch of the others in the program decided to go out and experience Aqaba nightlife after that. I somehow always get sucked into these things. Nobody ever listens to me here when I repeatedly tell them "I can't dance!". So my bad influence friends found a way to bring me with them to various locations throughout the night. I had fun watching some of them have progressively more alcohol-influenced fun as the night went on. The night was capped off at a bar/club which was above a McDonalds. If that's not one of the shadiest things you've ever heard... But it was not actually a shady place. Some of my friends danced themselves silly while I just sat and had some good conversation. We ended up meeting up with two of the other members of the large going-out group which had split up earlier in the night. Genevieve had made a new Jordanian friend, who forcibly dragged me and the rest of the guys out of our seats and onto the dance floor around 3:00 AM, but we ended up leaving not long afterward.
Oh, and then we went to McDonalds. What? The club was kind of above McDonalds and you expect people to not pick up some fries on the way out? As I said before, it was very entertaining to hang out with my drunk friends and have some very interesting conversations. And even though I went to bed so late, I got my butt out of bed at 9:30 so I could have several good beach hours before we had to leave in the afternoon. So I enjoyed some delightful sunbathing and swimming, ate another ridiculously large burger, and then before I was ready it was time to go. I was never so sad to get back to Irbid.
The one negative aspect was the severe sunburn that finally caught me. You know that movie "Final Destination" where Death follows those kids who avoided dying? I think that's what went down with the sunburn. I avoided getting burnt in the rest of my Jordan trip (including a day in the freaking desert), so the sunburn finally caught me in Aqaba. I was pretty uncomfortable. At the first rest stop we hit, I changed out of my shirt and asked Anne "Oh, is my back red at all?", to which she only replied "OH." That, as you can imagine, is not a good response. Small price to pay for an extremely fun weekend, but still painful.
The ride back was very long. We went by the Dead Sea to see the sunset (gorgeous!), and then stopped at McDonalds in Amman for a late dinner. I've never been so excited for chicken nuggets in my whole life. It sucked that we didn't get back to the university until like 11:30, because we had class the next day (for which none of us had done any homework, obviously). Needless to say, the next day was LONG. But, all in all, the weekend was by far the most fun I've had here, and I've had some pretty good trips in general! I only wish we could have spent several days in Aqaba rather than just 1-ish. Ah well.
I will make an effort to do more posting, but homework calls during most days of the week. Trying not to fail, you know.
Pictures are on Facebook and can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2609410&id=12458491&l=95594a6531
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Wadi Rum
Just returned from Wadi Rum (which is this place: http://www.wadirum.jo/About_Wadi_Rum.htm) and had an amazing time! The views were absolutely stunning- red sand dunes and giant rock formations everywhere. It was funny, when we got to the entrance to the Wadi Rum protected area we were still on a legitimate road, and the visitor's center is this nice, modern building. So when our bus dropped us off in Rum Village (which has homes and stores and stuff), I was thinking "This is my desert experience? I thought we would be in the middle of nowhere!". It was at this point that we piled into two old SUVs that promptly left the road and drove 15 km or so (I forget) out into the desert.
We (the 10 of us from the group who went) arrived past 9:00 on Thursday night, so really all we had time to do was eat, drink some tea by the fire, and go to bed. By bed, I mean mattress inside a cloth tent with an oddly hard pillow. Some of us tried to get up to see the sunrise at 5:30, but as it turns out the sunrise is blocked by one of the aforementioned giant rock formations. Failure.
No matter- after our sunrise failure we ate a good breakfast and piled back into the SUVs to go on our desert tour for the day. We basically went around to a bunch of interesting sites spread throughout the area, like Lawrence's Spring (where Lawrence of Arabia supposedly bathed), some giant sand dunes, rock bridges, and one other big rock that one of the guides told us "looks like a big chicken". The day was spent mostly "scrambling", which is essentially rock-climbing without any gear. If you think this sounds unsafe (for me especially), it probably is. There were several times that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it up or down some of the mountains, but I escaped mostly unharmed, with the exception of some rock-burned hands and scrapes from a small fall. Even though I am generally a chicken (much like that rock) about heights, it was pretty worth it to get the views from on top.
Also, have you ever attempted to climb a giant sand dune? Here's what it's like: you run and run and don't go anywhere for a long time. As if walking in sand isn't difficult enough, climbing it is freakin ridiculous. The dune we climbed had a rock wall beside it, so after attempting to do the dune properly I (and most everyone else) gave up and just pulled myself up with some rock assistance. Lawrence's Spring was probably the most tiring climb for me (I broke out the inhaler after that one), but it was not unbearable. I was expecting the heat to be a lot worse than it actually was! Don't get me wrong, it was hot, and I was sweaty after climbing around stuff, but for some reason I expected desert heat to be more ridiculous than it really was. So that was a positive thing. After about 3 sites, we ended up meeting up with 4 other guys from our program who chose to come separately from the larger group. It was kind of funny to see a vehicle driving towards us in the middle of the desert and then see that it was full of people that we knew.
After our long day of touring, we came back to the camp to veg out for a bit. I didn't actually sit for too long, because I went to do some further hiking/scrambling in the area surrounding our campsite with a couple of people. After that came the most stereotypical (and awesome) desert experience: camel riding! Our guide just kind of took us around in a circle, so it's not like we really travelled a great distance, but it was cool nonetheless. Camels sound like Wookies (just for you, Dad).
All in all, the Wadi Rum trip was one of the coolest things I've ever done. In addition to the views and the scrambling, staying at the camp with our Bedouin buddies was pretty cool, too. The food was some of the best (if not THE best) I've eaten since my arrival in Jordan. The tea was especially delicious, too- more like the kind of tea I was expecting to drink in Jordan, with some kind of great spices in it. The bathroom situation was less stellar than the food, but I would prefer not to dwell on it. Also, can we just marvel at the fact that I A) did not die by falling off one of many cliffs I was on and B) did not receive any sort of sunburn from hiking in the DESERT?! Two very successful things.
Pictures will be forthcoming, but I need to do my homework now. Oh, and happy July 4 to all of you back home :)!!
--K
We (the 10 of us from the group who went) arrived past 9:00 on Thursday night, so really all we had time to do was eat, drink some tea by the fire, and go to bed. By bed, I mean mattress inside a cloth tent with an oddly hard pillow. Some of us tried to get up to see the sunrise at 5:30, but as it turns out the sunrise is blocked by one of the aforementioned giant rock formations. Failure.
No matter- after our sunrise failure we ate a good breakfast and piled back into the SUVs to go on our desert tour for the day. We basically went around to a bunch of interesting sites spread throughout the area, like Lawrence's Spring (where Lawrence of Arabia supposedly bathed), some giant sand dunes, rock bridges, and one other big rock that one of the guides told us "looks like a big chicken". The day was spent mostly "scrambling", which is essentially rock-climbing without any gear. If you think this sounds unsafe (for me especially), it probably is. There were several times that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it up or down some of the mountains, but I escaped mostly unharmed, with the exception of some rock-burned hands and scrapes from a small fall. Even though I am generally a chicken (much like that rock) about heights, it was pretty worth it to get the views from on top.
Also, have you ever attempted to climb a giant sand dune? Here's what it's like: you run and run and don't go anywhere for a long time. As if walking in sand isn't difficult enough, climbing it is freakin ridiculous. The dune we climbed had a rock wall beside it, so after attempting to do the dune properly I (and most everyone else) gave up and just pulled myself up with some rock assistance. Lawrence's Spring was probably the most tiring climb for me (I broke out the inhaler after that one), but it was not unbearable. I was expecting the heat to be a lot worse than it actually was! Don't get me wrong, it was hot, and I was sweaty after climbing around stuff, but for some reason I expected desert heat to be more ridiculous than it really was. So that was a positive thing. After about 3 sites, we ended up meeting up with 4 other guys from our program who chose to come separately from the larger group. It was kind of funny to see a vehicle driving towards us in the middle of the desert and then see that it was full of people that we knew.
After our long day of touring, we came back to the camp to veg out for a bit. I didn't actually sit for too long, because I went to do some further hiking/scrambling in the area surrounding our campsite with a couple of people. After that came the most stereotypical (and awesome) desert experience: camel riding! Our guide just kind of took us around in a circle, so it's not like we really travelled a great distance, but it was cool nonetheless. Camels sound like Wookies (just for you, Dad).
All in all, the Wadi Rum trip was one of the coolest things I've ever done. In addition to the views and the scrambling, staying at the camp with our Bedouin buddies was pretty cool, too. The food was some of the best (if not THE best) I've eaten since my arrival in Jordan. The tea was especially delicious, too- more like the kind of tea I was expecting to drink in Jordan, with some kind of great spices in it. The bathroom situation was less stellar than the food, but I would prefer not to dwell on it. Also, can we just marvel at the fact that I A) did not die by falling off one of many cliffs I was on and B) did not receive any sort of sunburn from hiking in the DESERT?! Two very successful things.
Pictures will be forthcoming, but I need to do my homework now. Oh, and happy July 4 to all of you back home :)!!
--K
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Coffee, Friends, Cat
Cultural lesson of the day: "Black Coffee" is not, in fact, black coffee in the American style. Black coffee in Jordan is most definitely sweetened (everything here is sweetened). I found this out after visiting my new favorite 40 piastre coffee machine, where I can get various coffee drinks, including my new favorite mochaccino (or however you spell it). Before I found this, I had to get my caffeine fix from Turkish coffee in sit-down restaurants (no Starbucks, no Dunkin Donuts)- and if you've never had Turkish coffee....it's roughly the same consistency as mud, and it is impossible to finish the whole cup because once you get to the bottom of the cup it's entirely coffee bean sludge. It's not bad, once you get used to it. But, yeah, this sweet coffee machine has various options, including both "Sugarfree Coffee" and "Black Coffee". This was confusing. But, apparently, "black" just means that it doesn't have milk in it, as I discovered after drinking it. I wonder if Arabs who visit the U.S. are unpleasantly suprised when they try to order black coffee there.
I don't know what I'm going to do without A) Falafel stands and B) Fresh pita when I go back to America. I think my diet is like 90% fresh, amazing pita bread. And I have recently discovered the joys of a falafel stand near our apartment building, where 50 piastres gets me two very delicious falafel sandwiches (or one delicious chicken sandwich). Also, me and the falafel stand guy are probably going to be BFFs. The first time I went, he started smiling and laughing when I spoke to him in dialect, so I was like, "What? Am I funny?" (roughly, in Arabic), to which he said "No, no, your Arabic is good". And now I've gone back a couple more times so we're on a first-name basis (Apparently Katelyn is a hard name to pronounce for a lot of Arabic-speakers, so I shorten it to Kate a lot of the time). But, yes, I'll probably continue speaking hilarious Arabic to him and thus will cement our BFFness.
I also got a "language partner" today, which is definitely a good thing. The program sets us up with Arabic students who want to learn English, so we help each other out. My new friend's name is Nayra, and she's Egyptian but her family lives in Amman (and she commutes to Irbid for classes! It's a bit of a haul). I've assured her that my Arabic is not good, so today we just mutually struggled to talk correctly, and I think it will be REALLY helpful for my Arabic speaking. Nayra was helping me to correct my grammatical mistakes (and helping me find the right words to say) in my Arabic, and I helped her with her English mistakes, as well. Her friend Shireena is buddied up with my roomie Connie, so I got to talk to Shireena (who is from Turkey) as well. They are both super nice, and I think they're going to help Connie and me go shopping and not get ripped off sometime. Inshallah they can help me buy my kuffieyehs.
Last, but not least, our program gained guardianship of a very tiny kitten this week. I won't pretend to have had any responsibility for him, but my friend Anne essentially became a Mama Cat while I pretty much just was petting him and fawning over his adorableness. He was apparently abandoned outside our Language Center here, and is WAY too small to be on his own. He's probably like 4 weeks old, but is definitely a runt. And now he's going to live with a family, which is good because he'll get more attention than any of us can provide while doing our studies. Let me just repeat, though, this baby kitty (named "Shuks", like in "Shoukran", which means "Thank you") is absolutely adorable in every way. It will be sad when he leaves tomorrow :(
On the bright side, I am off to camp in Wadi Rum tomorrow. Hanging out with some Bedouins, falling over some rocks, attempting to stave off dehydration in the desert...it's going to be a blast. Inshallah there will be pictures katheer. My English skills AND my Arabic skills are failing, but my Arablish speaking is only getting better.
--K
I don't know what I'm going to do without A) Falafel stands and B) Fresh pita when I go back to America. I think my diet is like 90% fresh, amazing pita bread. And I have recently discovered the joys of a falafel stand near our apartment building, where 50 piastres gets me two very delicious falafel sandwiches (or one delicious chicken sandwich). Also, me and the falafel stand guy are probably going to be BFFs. The first time I went, he started smiling and laughing when I spoke to him in dialect, so I was like, "What? Am I funny?" (roughly, in Arabic), to which he said "No, no, your Arabic is good". And now I've gone back a couple more times so we're on a first-name basis (Apparently Katelyn is a hard name to pronounce for a lot of Arabic-speakers, so I shorten it to Kate a lot of the time). But, yes, I'll probably continue speaking hilarious Arabic to him and thus will cement our BFFness.
I also got a "language partner" today, which is definitely a good thing. The program sets us up with Arabic students who want to learn English, so we help each other out. My new friend's name is Nayra, and she's Egyptian but her family lives in Amman (and she commutes to Irbid for classes! It's a bit of a haul). I've assured her that my Arabic is not good, so today we just mutually struggled to talk correctly, and I think it will be REALLY helpful for my Arabic speaking. Nayra was helping me to correct my grammatical mistakes (and helping me find the right words to say) in my Arabic, and I helped her with her English mistakes, as well. Her friend Shireena is buddied up with my roomie Connie, so I got to talk to Shireena (who is from Turkey) as well. They are both super nice, and I think they're going to help Connie and me go shopping and not get ripped off sometime. Inshallah they can help me buy my kuffieyehs.
Last, but not least, our program gained guardianship of a very tiny kitten this week. I won't pretend to have had any responsibility for him, but my friend Anne essentially became a Mama Cat while I pretty much just was petting him and fawning over his adorableness. He was apparently abandoned outside our Language Center here, and is WAY too small to be on his own. He's probably like 4 weeks old, but is definitely a runt. And now he's going to live with a family, which is good because he'll get more attention than any of us can provide while doing our studies. Let me just repeat, though, this baby kitty (named "Shuks", like in "Shoukran", which means "Thank you") is absolutely adorable in every way. It will be sad when he leaves tomorrow :(
On the bright side, I am off to camp in Wadi Rum tomorrow. Hanging out with some Bedouins, falling over some rocks, attempting to stave off dehydration in the desert...it's going to be a blast. Inshallah there will be pictures katheer. My English skills AND my Arabic skills are failing, but my Arablish speaking is only getting better.
--K
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Post-travel pics.
I'm lame about posting, but I'm legitimately trying to do my work here! We traveled around all day Friday to Umm Qais, Ajloun Castle, and Jerash. I will leave the explanations of these sites to the experts: Umm Qais (Um Qais) , Ajloun , Jerash.
It was a long day, but I got a lot of good pictures (I think), and you can find them all here:
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Umm%20Qais/
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Ajloun%20Castle/
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Jerash/
The views from these sites were absolutely incredible. From Umm Qais we were overlooking the much-contested Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee, which was stunning. Ajloun Castle was up on a gigantic hill (I was fearing for my life on the bus ride up the twisty, steep hill. No joke.), so of course you could see like everything from there as well. Apparently, on a clear day you can see Jerusalem from Ajloun, but it was a little cloudy or something so we couldn't get that view. Jerash was my favorite, I think, just because it was an ENTIRE city of ruins. Once again, pictures don't do it justice, but I thought Jerash was pretty amazing.
We were discussing how funny it is that ruins in Jordan are just kind of all over the place, and you can touch them, sit on them, whatever- if these ruins were in America, they would be roped off and you would have to stand like 50 feet away or something. Being in a place as old as Jordan-- old as in having a long history of civilization... my Dad always tries to tell me that North America is old, too. Whatever, Dad :)-- it's just so strange to think about how long all of these pillars and steps and streets have really been there.
Oh, and we capped off the day by watching the Miss Lebanon pageant. I'm pretty sure Anne and I started this whole Miss Lebanon craze, because we were watching TV a few days ago, saw an advertisement for the pageant and were immediately like: "We MUST watch this." So we were mentioning it in casual conversation throughout the rest of the week and some of the other girls were totally interested in it, and then of course the guys got word of it...you know they would be into watching Lebanese girls strut around on stage. After we got back, we were all extremely excited for Miss Lebanon, and we thought it was on at 8:30, so we were frantically searching through the channels with no luck. Apparently the guys were calling, very concernedly, because they couldn't find it either. I got online and found the right channel (although the website apparently screwed up the time), and then we all gathered to enjoy whatever we could understand of the pageant (which was suprisingly more than I thought I would understand). Also, our fave girl won. Victory!
And now I've taken much more time than intended. Enjoy this bonus post, and enjoy the multitude of pictures!
It was a long day, but I got a lot of good pictures (I think), and you can find them all here:
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Umm%20Qais/
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Ajloun%20Castle/
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Jerash/
The views from these sites were absolutely incredible. From Umm Qais we were overlooking the much-contested Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee, which was stunning. Ajloun Castle was up on a gigantic hill (I was fearing for my life on the bus ride up the twisty, steep hill. No joke.), so of course you could see like everything from there as well. Apparently, on a clear day you can see Jerusalem from Ajloun, but it was a little cloudy or something so we couldn't get that view. Jerash was my favorite, I think, just because it was an ENTIRE city of ruins. Once again, pictures don't do it justice, but I thought Jerash was pretty amazing.
We were discussing how funny it is that ruins in Jordan are just kind of all over the place, and you can touch them, sit on them, whatever- if these ruins were in America, they would be roped off and you would have to stand like 50 feet away or something. Being in a place as old as Jordan-- old as in having a long history of civilization... my Dad always tries to tell me that North America is old, too. Whatever, Dad :)-- it's just so strange to think about how long all of these pillars and steps and streets have really been there.
Oh, and we capped off the day by watching the Miss Lebanon pageant. I'm pretty sure Anne and I started this whole Miss Lebanon craze, because we were watching TV a few days ago, saw an advertisement for the pageant and were immediately like: "We MUST watch this." So we were mentioning it in casual conversation throughout the rest of the week and some of the other girls were totally interested in it, and then of course the guys got word of it...you know they would be into watching Lebanese girls strut around on stage. After we got back, we were all extremely excited for Miss Lebanon, and we thought it was on at 8:30, so we were frantically searching through the channels with no luck. Apparently the guys were calling, very concernedly, because they couldn't find it either. I got online and found the right channel (although the website apparently screwed up the time), and then we all gathered to enjoy whatever we could understand of the pageant (which was suprisingly more than I thought I would understand). Also, our fave girl won. Victory!
And now I've taken much more time than intended. Enjoy this bonus post, and enjoy the multitude of pictures!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Amman!
So the taxi riding is going to have to be a whole separate post. Taxis here are...interesting. But we took several taxis to Amman (there were 15 of us or something close to that), and arrived at our hotel right in downtown Amman (in the old city) in decent time. After everyone made it, we went walking around the city and ate at this fabulous (and well-known) restaurant where they only serve falafel, hummus, foul, and bread. By this time I was starving, so I pretty much just stuffed my face. We just kind of walked around after dinner, went to the Gold Souq (souq = market) to look at very very pretty displays of jewelry that I would have loved to buy, and saw just a couple of sites like the King Hussein Mosque (which was right near our hotel).
I headed back to the hotel after that with Lilly and Kevin, and those two decided that this juice (smoothie) stand looked interesting so we stopped there for them to get smoothies. The guys at the smoothie stand became our new BFFs- they were so so funny and legitimately nice. They talked to us in some English about the soccer game between Egypt and Italy (I think Italy?), because the one guy was from Egypt. We talked to him about how we were studying Arabic at Yarmouk University and such, and he introduced us to this guy from New Zealand who was living in Amman, so we also talked to him for a bit (fabulous accent!). At this point, we were sitting in chairs right in front of the stand, and I failed to notice that some juice was dripping out of the blender and down the side of the stand right onto my back. Some women near us kindly pointed this out, and after the juice guys realized what had happened they were profusely apologizing and absolutely falling all over themselves to get me some napkins and water to clean myself up. Furthermore, they gave me a free smoothie for my troubles, even though I assured them that it was totally fine. This is just one of many examples of how people in Amman are like the nicest people I've ever met.
We left the nightlife plans to one of our program guys who has family in Amman and therefore knows the city fairly well, so he led us to a super nice rooftop bar with a great view of the city. We hung out there for a fair amount of time, rang up an astronomical bar tab (don't worry, I didn't account for any substantial part of the tab!), then went to a club to dance until like 3:00 AM. I originally was just going to stay in the hotel because, as you probably know, I'm kind of a homebody, I don't really go out much, and I am a horrible dancer. However, I did want to hang out with everyone else and get to know them better- it's kind of hard to hang out with people who aren't in your class level, and it's especially hard to hang out with the guys because they live in a separate part of the building and we can't visit each other in our apartments. In the end, I was glad I went, and I had fun with my terrible dancing- though I didn't go to sleep until about 4:00 AM.
We left the hotel by 9:30-ish the next morning (not enough sleep.) to go check out the Citadel and the Roman Theater (of which I posted pictures). It was amazing to be somewhere with so much history. We had a beautiful view of Amman from the top of the mountain (the Citadel is up way high), so I got a lot of pictures. I totally forget the exact ruins in some of my pictures, but we saw a Roman bath house, Byzantine church, and a bunch of other really old ruins. After the Citadel, we hiked down the hill and over to the Roman Theater, where we had to climb some dangerous-looking, weatherbeaten stairs to get to the top. The view from the top was totally worth the fear of death. Apparently they still hold summer concerts in the theater today, which I thought was pretty sweet.
We were all in desperate need of food after all of that hiking, so the group went to a restaurant recommended by our Citadel tour guide, where they supposedly served the best mansef in Amman. Mansef is like the Jordanian national dish- it's made up of lamb (or chicken), rice, and then this sauce made from yogurt that is dried out and then reconstituted with some water. You eat it all with bread, just like you do with almost all food here! It sounds weird, but it was actually delicious.
Post-food, I went shopping around with my friend Lilly and we both bought pretty hijabs and shirts. It was the first time I've had to haggle! It went okay, both the hijab and the shirt were cheap already, so it wasn't like we had to bring them down very far. By this time, I was absolutely exhausted from lack of sleep + walking around ALL DAY, so I went back to the apartment to shower (because I was gross and covered in ancient dirt) and take a wonderful nap. The bathrooms in this hotel were...interesting. They were shared by all the other rooms in our hallway, the shower was big enough to stand in and not move much, and we had to use our own toilet paper. That night wasn't as exciting as our first night, but I went out to eat with a small group and then we met the rest of the group at this Irish Pub place. Some of the group danced there, but I was so exhausted that I just sat around and had a few interesting conversations with all of the other tired people.
The next day, before we left, we got to actually go inside the King Abdullah Mosque, which was BEAUTIFUL. The girls had to cover our hair (hence, the hijab) and also wear a long black cloak (abayya), because we were walking around the entire mosque and not just staying in the women's area. They had abayyas for tourists to borrow, so it was no problem. It was the first mosque I'd ever been in, so I was just so stunned by how pretty it really was. My pictures don't even do it justice. And the guys at the mosque were super nice and gave us free tea after we were done looking around. The rest of the group went to visit a museum, but I went with 3 others back to our university because A) did I mention we were tired? and B) we had a load of homework to do before class the next day!
So, basically this whole long post can be summed up by saying: Amman is amazing. Please visit it if you are ever anywhere close to Jordan. The people there are literally the nicest people I've ever met- I know from some of my friends that some people in other Middle Eastern countries try to rip you off at every corner, but people in Amman were bending over backwards to welcome us, help us find places, and recommend good things to do and eat. I know for me, it's hard to tell sometimes if people (guys) in Irbid are being nice or if they are just talking at me because I look like some American floozy. But I felt so much more comfortable walking around Amman at all hours- I wasn't getting anywhere close to the attention I get in Irbid, because there are a lot of foreigners in Amman, and the city isn't nearly as conservative as Irbid anyway.
Oh, and useful info: being a student, rather than a tourist, gets you a lot of reduced prices! Tourists have to pay more at the ruins (and in taxis, but that's just another rip-off story for another time), but we showed our student IDs to the ticket windows and got in for almost no money. Well, actually, I forgot my ID, but at the Citadel, the tour guide just let me in with the rest of the group, and at the Theater I just went up and gave the ticket guy my most charming smile and told him (in Arabic, of course) that I had forgotten my ID, and he just smiled, laughed, and let me in cheaply anyway. I am not above using my smile to get into places!
Okay, so if you've made it to the bottom of this post, congrats. I now have to go work on my mountain of homework, which is the price to pay for having a fab weekend.
--K
I headed back to the hotel after that with Lilly and Kevin, and those two decided that this juice (smoothie) stand looked interesting so we stopped there for them to get smoothies. The guys at the smoothie stand became our new BFFs- they were so so funny and legitimately nice. They talked to us in some English about the soccer game between Egypt and Italy (I think Italy?), because the one guy was from Egypt. We talked to him about how we were studying Arabic at Yarmouk University and such, and he introduced us to this guy from New Zealand who was living in Amman, so we also talked to him for a bit (fabulous accent!). At this point, we were sitting in chairs right in front of the stand, and I failed to notice that some juice was dripping out of the blender and down the side of the stand right onto my back. Some women near us kindly pointed this out, and after the juice guys realized what had happened they were profusely apologizing and absolutely falling all over themselves to get me some napkins and water to clean myself up. Furthermore, they gave me a free smoothie for my troubles, even though I assured them that it was totally fine. This is just one of many examples of how people in Amman are like the nicest people I've ever met.
We left the nightlife plans to one of our program guys who has family in Amman and therefore knows the city fairly well, so he led us to a super nice rooftop bar with a great view of the city. We hung out there for a fair amount of time, rang up an astronomical bar tab (don't worry, I didn't account for any substantial part of the tab!), then went to a club to dance until like 3:00 AM. I originally was just going to stay in the hotel because, as you probably know, I'm kind of a homebody, I don't really go out much, and I am a horrible dancer. However, I did want to hang out with everyone else and get to know them better- it's kind of hard to hang out with people who aren't in your class level, and it's especially hard to hang out with the guys because they live in a separate part of the building and we can't visit each other in our apartments. In the end, I was glad I went, and I had fun with my terrible dancing- though I didn't go to sleep until about 4:00 AM.
We left the hotel by 9:30-ish the next morning (not enough sleep.) to go check out the Citadel and the Roman Theater (of which I posted pictures). It was amazing to be somewhere with so much history. We had a beautiful view of Amman from the top of the mountain (the Citadel is up way high), so I got a lot of pictures. I totally forget the exact ruins in some of my pictures, but we saw a Roman bath house, Byzantine church, and a bunch of other really old ruins. After the Citadel, we hiked down the hill and over to the Roman Theater, where we had to climb some dangerous-looking, weatherbeaten stairs to get to the top. The view from the top was totally worth the fear of death. Apparently they still hold summer concerts in the theater today, which I thought was pretty sweet.
We were all in desperate need of food after all of that hiking, so the group went to a restaurant recommended by our Citadel tour guide, where they supposedly served the best mansef in Amman. Mansef is like the Jordanian national dish- it's made up of lamb (or chicken), rice, and then this sauce made from yogurt that is dried out and then reconstituted with some water. You eat it all with bread, just like you do with almost all food here! It sounds weird, but it was actually delicious.
Post-food, I went shopping around with my friend Lilly and we both bought pretty hijabs and shirts. It was the first time I've had to haggle! It went okay, both the hijab and the shirt were cheap already, so it wasn't like we had to bring them down very far. By this time, I was absolutely exhausted from lack of sleep + walking around ALL DAY, so I went back to the apartment to shower (because I was gross and covered in ancient dirt) and take a wonderful nap. The bathrooms in this hotel were...interesting. They were shared by all the other rooms in our hallway, the shower was big enough to stand in and not move much, and we had to use our own toilet paper. That night wasn't as exciting as our first night, but I went out to eat with a small group and then we met the rest of the group at this Irish Pub place. Some of the group danced there, but I was so exhausted that I just sat around and had a few interesting conversations with all of the other tired people.
The next day, before we left, we got to actually go inside the King Abdullah Mosque, which was BEAUTIFUL. The girls had to cover our hair (hence, the hijab) and also wear a long black cloak (abayya), because we were walking around the entire mosque and not just staying in the women's area. They had abayyas for tourists to borrow, so it was no problem. It was the first mosque I'd ever been in, so I was just so stunned by how pretty it really was. My pictures don't even do it justice. And the guys at the mosque were super nice and gave us free tea after we were done looking around. The rest of the group went to visit a museum, but I went with 3 others back to our university because A) did I mention we were tired? and B) we had a load of homework to do before class the next day!
So, basically this whole long post can be summed up by saying: Amman is amazing. Please visit it if you are ever anywhere close to Jordan. The people there are literally the nicest people I've ever met- I know from some of my friends that some people in other Middle Eastern countries try to rip you off at every corner, but people in Amman were bending over backwards to welcome us, help us find places, and recommend good things to do and eat. I know for me, it's hard to tell sometimes if people (guys) in Irbid are being nice or if they are just talking at me because I look like some American floozy. But I felt so much more comfortable walking around Amman at all hours- I wasn't getting anywhere close to the attention I get in Irbid, because there are a lot of foreigners in Amman, and the city isn't nearly as conservative as Irbid anyway.
Oh, and useful info: being a student, rather than a tourist, gets you a lot of reduced prices! Tourists have to pay more at the ruins (and in taxis, but that's just another rip-off story for another time), but we showed our student IDs to the ticket windows and got in for almost no money. Well, actually, I forgot my ID, but at the Citadel, the tour guide just let me in with the rest of the group, and at the Theater I just went up and gave the ticket guy my most charming smile and told him (in Arabic, of course) that I had forgotten my ID, and he just smiled, laughed, and let me in cheaply anyway. I am not above using my smile to get into places!
Okay, so if you've made it to the bottom of this post, congrats. I now have to go work on my mountain of homework, which is the price to pay for having a fab weekend.
--K
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Back, and pictures!
I'm at the wireless cafe so I just uploaded my Amman pics. I forgot my camera or was just unable to get a picture for some occasions, so I'll steal some off of the other program people on Facebook and update them later. I promise a full Amman account when I have time- right now I have homework that I didn't do all weekend.
Pictures: http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Amman/
Pictures: http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/Amman/
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Off to Amman
Nothing too exciting over the last couple of days, except that I moved up from the Upper Intermediate to the Advanced class. This means more homework. On the plus side, my Arabic will most certainly improve, and that is why I'm paying thousands of dollars to be here, right? I think I can keep up with the work.
I'm off to Amman in an hour and a half, so hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures when I return! The pictures depend on my getting fast wireless access with my laptop somewhere, though, so we'll see if I can actually post those. But I'll be seeing a bunch of historical places, in addition to the obvious cultural exploration and fun stuff, so I'm looking forward to that. The downside is that I have to take my homework with me, because I don't really think it's wise to leave it all for Saturday night. That's right, our class week starts on Sunday. This is an Islamic country, remember?
Speaking of that, one of the things I like most about being in an Islamic country is hearing the call to prayer at its specific intervals throughout the day and night. I admit that my first few days here I was not a fan of the call to prayer at 3:48 AM and 5:29 AM (yes, I just looked that up), for obvious reasons. Now, however, that I can sleep through those early early calls, I can definitely see the beauty in them. It's especially nice in the evening, when everything else is so quiet outside and then you hear the call ringing out through the campus. I'm sure any of you that have seen any news report or documentary or really anything related to Islam or the Middle East have heard the call to prayer on one of those things, but television doesn't really do it justice, in my opinion. For me, the call to prayer is one of the biggest reminders that I am in a different culture, and I think it's so amazing to know that all through the campus (and through the city, from another mosque) we are all connected for a brief period in hearing the call to prayer. I know it's one of the things I'll miss in August when I leave.
And now, off to Amman! Those of you who email me/Facebook me regularly
I'm off to Amman in an hour and a half, so hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures when I return! The pictures depend on my getting fast wireless access with my laptop somewhere, though, so we'll see if I can actually post those. But I'll be seeing a bunch of historical places, in addition to the obvious cultural exploration and fun stuff, so I'm looking forward to that. The downside is that I have to take my homework with me, because I don't really think it's wise to leave it all for Saturday night. That's right, our class week starts on Sunday. This is an Islamic country, remember?
Speaking of that, one of the things I like most about being in an Islamic country is hearing the call to prayer at its specific intervals throughout the day and night. I admit that my first few days here I was not a fan of the call to prayer at 3:48 AM and 5:29 AM (yes, I just looked that up), for obvious reasons. Now, however, that I can sleep through those early early calls, I can definitely see the beauty in them. It's especially nice in the evening, when everything else is so quiet outside and then you hear the call ringing out through the campus. I'm sure any of you that have seen any news report or documentary or really anything related to Islam or the Middle East have heard the call to prayer on one of those things, but television doesn't really do it justice, in my opinion. For me, the call to prayer is one of the biggest reminders that I am in a different culture, and I think it's so amazing to know that all through the campus (and through the city, from another mosque) we are all connected for a brief period in hearing the call to prayer. I know it's one of the things I'll miss in August when I leave.
And now, off to Amman! Those of you who email me/Facebook me regularly
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
First (full) day of class
So yesterday we just had one class after our test. Today was our first 5-hour day! I can already tell that I'm going to love the teachers. They are incredibly nice and patient, and so enthusiastic. Our reading (and I think writing) teacher in particular is just a bundle of energy and she really made the class fun. We also have a discussion class 3 days a week, and our teacher for that class was hilarious today. Honestly, I'm surprised with how much I already know. I thought our homework was really not THAT difficult. I'm going to give it a week or so and then I might try to move up to the advanced class. I hesitate to do this just because one of the guys in Advanced just demoted himself to our Upper Intermediate class and he said he understood very little (and he's had 3 years of Arabic just like me). I don't know, we'll see how it goes.
I'm getting more confident in speaking a little Arabic in stores and restaurants. Hopefully after we take a few more dialect classes I will be able to say more full sentences! I've come to the conclusion that most of the Arabic I know is completely not useful in everyday life. Like, I can drone on about elections and politics, but I can't order food at a restaurant. These things are problems. For now, I'm at least greeting people in stores, I can say "I would like" when buying things or ordering food, and I definitely know how to say "I don't know". I think "I don't know" is going to become a very overused phrase for me here.
I didn't really do much yesterday because I wasn't in the mood for going out to do anything. I went to the grocery store with a group of the other girls, and on our way back to the apartment we also stopped at a small fruit/vegetable store where the owner gave our group a very helpful list of fruits and vegetables with their English and Arabic names, and there were even a few fruits/veggies that we apparently don't have in America that just had descriptions in English of what they were like. I've been craving some fruits and veggies after a few days of eating a lot of fried food, so I'll go back soon to the greengrocer and be able to order in Arabic, hopefully!
Aside from that little trip, I basically just hung out, did my homework, and watched the Simpsons with Arabic subtitles. It made me feel a little more at home. One of the girls mentioned that a group is trying to go down to Amman this weekend, so I might get in on that. I PROMISE to take more pictures if I do. No telling when I'll be able to post them, but I will try. I feel awkward taking lots of pictures in Irbid because I have to live here, you know? I feel like such a tourist. But I will take more Irbid pictures, and definitely Amman pics.
Perhaps I'll do something more exciting tonight. You know I'm not a very exciting person in general, but the whole trip has been pretty exciting for me, personally! So, basically, if I have things worth updating on, I might update tomorrow. If not, I'll just wait for something fun. Ma'a salaama (I hate doing English transliterations of Arabic)!
--K
I'm getting more confident in speaking a little Arabic in stores and restaurants. Hopefully after we take a few more dialect classes I will be able to say more full sentences! I've come to the conclusion that most of the Arabic I know is completely not useful in everyday life. Like, I can drone on about elections and politics, but I can't order food at a restaurant. These things are problems. For now, I'm at least greeting people in stores, I can say "I would like" when buying things or ordering food, and I definitely know how to say "I don't know". I think "I don't know" is going to become a very overused phrase for me here.
I didn't really do much yesterday because I wasn't in the mood for going out to do anything. I went to the grocery store with a group of the other girls, and on our way back to the apartment we also stopped at a small fruit/vegetable store where the owner gave our group a very helpful list of fruits and vegetables with their English and Arabic names, and there were even a few fruits/veggies that we apparently don't have in America that just had descriptions in English of what they were like. I've been craving some fruits and veggies after a few days of eating a lot of fried food, so I'll go back soon to the greengrocer and be able to order in Arabic, hopefully!
Aside from that little trip, I basically just hung out, did my homework, and watched the Simpsons with Arabic subtitles. It made me feel a little more at home. One of the girls mentioned that a group is trying to go down to Amman this weekend, so I might get in on that. I PROMISE to take more pictures if I do. No telling when I'll be able to post them, but I will try. I feel awkward taking lots of pictures in Irbid because I have to live here, you know? I feel like such a tourist. But I will take more Irbid pictures, and definitely Amman pics.
Perhaps I'll do something more exciting tonight. You know I'm not a very exciting person in general, but the whole trip has been pretty exciting for me, personally! So, basically, if I have things worth updating on, I might update tomorrow. If not, I'll just wait for something fun. Ma'a salaama (I hate doing English transliterations of Arabic)!
--K
Monday, June 15, 2009
Harry Potter makes life better.
Also, my English is going down the tube, because I just typed "lefe" for "life" in the title the first time I tried to write it. Whatever.
So yesterday I finally got some good shawarma! And it was like .50, so that's even better. I also went to this great bookstore with my roommate- they had SO many books in like every subject. Lots were translated from English to Arabic (a bunch of Agatha Christie, for some reason?) including....Harry Potter 1-4!!! If you know me (and you should, if you read this), you know how much I love HP. And Harry Potter is kind of my "comfort" series when I'm sick or in a bad mood. So I bought books 3 and 4 in Arabic, and this will be FABULOUS because I know the HP books so well that I can actually take a stab at reading them in Arabic and I'll know what's happening! The man at the bookstore was so so so nice- I think book-lovers can gravitate toward each other in any language, right? So he gave my roommate and me a very generous discount on our books. I'm definitely going back to get some actual Arab works of literature sometime soon.
I also got some bootleg DVDs earlier in the day yesterday. One of the guys in the program had seen some bootleg places the day before and wanted to go back and browse, so I went with a group of the program guys to go look at a very impressive selection of bootlegs. I wanted Star Trek, but the quality was bad (the guy tested the DVDs for us so we could see). So I ended up with "Iron Man" and "Babel", and two of the other guys got some movies that I'll definitely be borrowing sometime. Between this, Arabic Harry Potter, and fascinating Arabic TV, I will need to budget my time exceptionally well to get homework done and do some exploring. Maybe it's good that I don't have internet access in my room!
Things are good in general. I was late to class today, because I and two other people from the program went to grab a quick lunch. As it turns out, none of us know enough dialect to get any quick food. We were ushered to a dining room, and somehow we ended up with this huge kebab platter, hummus, tabbouleh, and baba ganoush. I need to learn the Arabic for "ripped off", because the whole thing cost like 14JD and we couldn't even finish it, because we had to run to class. We kept trying to say things, and the guy just stared at us. It was an experience.
In general, things are ok. I've been feeling a little down yesterday and today. There are some things that are hard to get used to, like men who are pigs. I take for granted in America the ability to walk down the street without much fear of verbal or physical harassment (for the most part). In what culture would this be okay?! Inshallah, I'm just going to stick with big groups and walking around with guys from the program so I can feel a little safer. I'm not actually in fear for my safety, it's just uncomfortable going out (mostly at night) when the streets are filled with young guys and some of them (by no means all of them) don't have a lot of respect for American women.
I refuse to let pig men ruin my trip, though. First homework assignments tonight! Wish me luck.
--K
So yesterday I finally got some good shawarma! And it was like .50, so that's even better. I also went to this great bookstore with my roommate- they had SO many books in like every subject. Lots were translated from English to Arabic (a bunch of Agatha Christie, for some reason?) including....Harry Potter 1-4!!! If you know me (and you should, if you read this), you know how much I love HP. And Harry Potter is kind of my "comfort" series when I'm sick or in a bad mood. So I bought books 3 and 4 in Arabic, and this will be FABULOUS because I know the HP books so well that I can actually take a stab at reading them in Arabic and I'll know what's happening! The man at the bookstore was so so so nice- I think book-lovers can gravitate toward each other in any language, right? So he gave my roommate and me a very generous discount on our books. I'm definitely going back to get some actual Arab works of literature sometime soon.
I also got some bootleg DVDs earlier in the day yesterday. One of the guys in the program had seen some bootleg places the day before and wanted to go back and browse, so I went with a group of the program guys to go look at a very impressive selection of bootlegs. I wanted Star Trek, but the quality was bad (the guy tested the DVDs for us so we could see). So I ended up with "Iron Man" and "Babel", and two of the other guys got some movies that I'll definitely be borrowing sometime. Between this, Arabic Harry Potter, and fascinating Arabic TV, I will need to budget my time exceptionally well to get homework done and do some exploring. Maybe it's good that I don't have internet access in my room!
Things are good in general. I was late to class today, because I and two other people from the program went to grab a quick lunch. As it turns out, none of us know enough dialect to get any quick food. We were ushered to a dining room, and somehow we ended up with this huge kebab platter, hummus, tabbouleh, and baba ganoush. I need to learn the Arabic for "ripped off", because the whole thing cost like 14JD and we couldn't even finish it, because we had to run to class. We kept trying to say things, and the guy just stared at us. It was an experience.
In general, things are ok. I've been feeling a little down yesterday and today. There are some things that are hard to get used to, like men who are pigs. I take for granted in America the ability to walk down the street without much fear of verbal or physical harassment (for the most part). In what culture would this be okay?! Inshallah, I'm just going to stick with big groups and walking around with guys from the program so I can feel a little safer. I'm not actually in fear for my safety, it's just uncomfortable going out (mostly at night) when the streets are filled with young guys and some of them (by no means all of them) don't have a lot of respect for American women.
I refuse to let pig men ruin my trip, though. First homework assignments tonight! Wish me luck.
--K
Saturday, June 13, 2009
On my own laptop!
At a wireless cafe with my laptop! That makes me very happy. I'm just sitting here, drinking tea and catching up on all my emails along with like 6 other girls from my program. We're all internet-deprived.
On the plus side, we all figured out how to take the block off our satellite TVs in our apartments, so we now get like 200+ Arabic/other channels! There are also some English movie/TV channels with Arabic subtitles, so we've watched Austin Powers 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with subtitles (lot of interesting words in Austin Powers...). I also spent the latter part of the afternoon falling asleep on the floor while watching some possibly Moroccan (definitely Arab) soap operas and music videos. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite so dramatic as an Arabic drama. The music and everything is just so over-the-top! I love it. But, really, it's so hot in the afternoon that there was nothing better to do than watch Arabic TV and sleep. I also obtained my new(used) Jordanian cell phone, so now I can actually call people as soon as I buy some minutes.
So the earlier part of today was spent shopping in downtown Irbid. Irbid is very crowded and busy, and it's definitely kind of unkempt in general. However, it kind of adds to the charm. I'm still getting an uncomfortable amount of attention for being a very conspicuous ajnabiyya (foreigner) with my obviously blonde hair, no matter that I'm wearing modest clothing and sunglasses. After my roommate and I walked around various stores (she was looking for some traditional clothing) and maneuvered around the crowded streets, I found a cute blue scarf/hijab that I decided to buy. As we looked at the scarves (which were out on the street), the shopowner kept talking to us in rapidfire Jordanian colloquial, of which I understood "Are you German?" "Are you married?" and "Do you speak Arabic?" (to the latter I replied "A little little bit", but he kept talking anyway). He then poured me some very strong coffee (it comes in little shot-glass sized cups here, like espresso), and I unsuccessfully tried to pay my 1.50 and walk away. He made us come into the actual store so that he could "put my scarf in a bag" (he just wanted us to look at more merch), and we finally kept saying "No, thank you" until we could escape.
After that, we took a taxi back to the apartment. Riding in a taxi is another great experience here. If I drove here, I would fear for my life on a regular basis. Everybody is trying to get into the same small street area at once, and there's a LOT of beeping. As a woman, you have to sit in the back of a taxi and it's polite to be pretty quiet (guys are supposed to sit up front, because I guess sitting in back is kind of pretentious for them. I don't know, it's just custom.). So we got charged a dollar for the taxi ride, which was probably the inflated ajnabi price, but whatever.
The food situation has been pretty good, but people eat late dinner here, which is weird for me. I actually got some fabulous ice cream last night, though! The guys in the program have been really good about walking around with us. I especially like this because I stick out like a sore thumb, and at night time there are a lot of guys congregating on the streets, which is already uncomfortable and would be doubly so without one of the American guys walking around with me. I hope I get used to the attention. I hope even more that I make some Jordanian friends quickly so I can find out how to shop well here!
I've only taken a few pictures in the arrival rush, but I'll post them periodically (slow internet):
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/
EDIT: Having mushkilat katheera (many problems) with my picture posting. Be patient! I promise to take more pictures this week and afterward. Until then, ma'a salaama!
-K
On the plus side, we all figured out how to take the block off our satellite TVs in our apartments, so we now get like 200+ Arabic/other channels! There are also some English movie/TV channels with Arabic subtitles, so we've watched Austin Powers 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with subtitles (lot of interesting words in Austin Powers...). I also spent the latter part of the afternoon falling asleep on the floor while watching some possibly Moroccan (definitely Arab) soap operas and music videos. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite so dramatic as an Arabic drama. The music and everything is just so over-the-top! I love it. But, really, it's so hot in the afternoon that there was nothing better to do than watch Arabic TV and sleep. I also obtained my new(used) Jordanian cell phone, so now I can actually call people as soon as I buy some minutes.
So the earlier part of today was spent shopping in downtown Irbid. Irbid is very crowded and busy, and it's definitely kind of unkempt in general. However, it kind of adds to the charm. I'm still getting an uncomfortable amount of attention for being a very conspicuous ajnabiyya (foreigner) with my obviously blonde hair, no matter that I'm wearing modest clothing and sunglasses. After my roommate and I walked around various stores (she was looking for some traditional clothing) and maneuvered around the crowded streets, I found a cute blue scarf/hijab that I decided to buy. As we looked at the scarves (which were out on the street), the shopowner kept talking to us in rapidfire Jordanian colloquial, of which I understood "Are you German?" "Are you married?" and "Do you speak Arabic?" (to the latter I replied "A little little bit", but he kept talking anyway). He then poured me some very strong coffee (it comes in little shot-glass sized cups here, like espresso), and I unsuccessfully tried to pay my 1.50 and walk away. He made us come into the actual store so that he could "put my scarf in a bag" (he just wanted us to look at more merch), and we finally kept saying "No, thank you" until we could escape.
After that, we took a taxi back to the apartment. Riding in a taxi is another great experience here. If I drove here, I would fear for my life on a regular basis. Everybody is trying to get into the same small street area at once, and there's a LOT of beeping. As a woman, you have to sit in the back of a taxi and it's polite to be pretty quiet (guys are supposed to sit up front, because I guess sitting in back is kind of pretentious for them. I don't know, it's just custom.). So we got charged a dollar for the taxi ride, which was probably the inflated ajnabi price, but whatever.
The food situation has been pretty good, but people eat late dinner here, which is weird for me. I actually got some fabulous ice cream last night, though! The guys in the program have been really good about walking around with us. I especially like this because I stick out like a sore thumb, and at night time there are a lot of guys congregating on the streets, which is already uncomfortable and would be doubly so without one of the American guys walking around with me. I hope I get used to the attention. I hope even more that I make some Jordanian friends quickly so I can find out how to shop well here!
I've only taken a few pictures in the arrival rush, but I'll post them periodically (slow internet):
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/kcarson147/
EDIT: Having mushkilat katheera (many problems) with my picture posting. Be patient! I promise to take more pictures this week and afterward. Until then, ma'a salaama!
-K
Friday, June 12, 2009
Back at the internet cafe
Back here again. So when I said it was "hot" earlier, I meant it. It's way way hot. But, on the bright side, there is a fabulous breeze most of the day so you don't die! It's still pretty sweaty to walk around all day, though, and I did a lot of walking today.
Food here is SUPER cheap! Like between .50-1.00 for most food items, and I think I paid less than 2 dollars for 6 bottles of water- and I'm talking GIANT like 1.5 liter water bottles. This is good, because you need to drink like your weight in water to stay hydrated. The people are pretty friendly for the most part. At the airport, some random guy who was there with his family helped me get my suitcases out of this crowded section and wheeled them a few feet away to where my group was waiting, so that was really helpful. Lots of people on the street today were saying "Welcome to Jordan!" in English. We also got a few catcalls, though. This is a hazard of having such obviously Germanic features in a country like Jordan! A bunch of people like to stop in the street and beep and wave, but we aren't really supposed to respond to that type of greeting, I guess. There are a lot of things that I have to be careful of here, as an obviously non-Arab woman in Jordan! I'll get used to it sometime, I'm sure.
Irbid is a fairly bustling city. There's a lot of trash and stuff around, so I can't exactly call it "beautiful", but it IS interesting. There are American stores like KFC, Popeye's, Adidas, and several others- not as many chains as there are in Amman, but more than I expected. I might have to hit up Burger King when I get sick of cheap falafel, shawarma, hummus, shishtawook, etc...but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I will hopefully be getting a cheap Jordanian cell phone tomorrow and calling cards so I can talk to my family and Ben sometime. It's rough being without internet most of the time AND without phone! But, this is part of the experience. And, now, back to my apartment. Pictures soon?
-K
Food here is SUPER cheap! Like between .50-1.00 for most food items, and I think I paid less than 2 dollars for 6 bottles of water- and I'm talking GIANT like 1.5 liter water bottles. This is good, because you need to drink like your weight in water to stay hydrated. The people are pretty friendly for the most part. At the airport, some random guy who was there with his family helped me get my suitcases out of this crowded section and wheeled them a few feet away to where my group was waiting, so that was really helpful. Lots of people on the street today were saying "Welcome to Jordan!" in English. We also got a few catcalls, though. This is a hazard of having such obviously Germanic features in a country like Jordan! A bunch of people like to stop in the street and beep and wave, but we aren't really supposed to respond to that type of greeting, I guess. There are a lot of things that I have to be careful of here, as an obviously non-Arab woman in Jordan! I'll get used to it sometime, I'm sure.
Irbid is a fairly bustling city. There's a lot of trash and stuff around, so I can't exactly call it "beautiful", but it IS interesting. There are American stores like KFC, Popeye's, Adidas, and several others- not as many chains as there are in Amman, but more than I expected. I might have to hit up Burger King when I get sick of cheap falafel, shawarma, hummus, shishtawook, etc...but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I will hopefully be getting a cheap Jordanian cell phone tomorrow and calling cards so I can talk to my family and Ben sometime. It's rough being without internet most of the time AND without phone! But, this is part of the experience. And, now, back to my apartment. Pictures soon?
-K
In Jordan!
It's hot. I had a LONG day yesterday, from Ohio to Pittsburgh to New York (wrong airport. my original flight into JFK was cancelled, so I had to shuttle around the city), then 10 hour flight into Amman. Lots of crying babies on that flight. I'm in Irbid now, in an internet cafe- so this is just a brief hello. More updates whenever possible!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Almost...but not quite
I'm flying out to my group orientation in New York on Wednesday morning, then onward to Amman that evening. I'll be at Yarmouk University on Thursday, so I will likely not update until then. Maybe pictures? We'll see how jetlag hits me.
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