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!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
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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