The leaves are starting to change
But all I feel is exactly the same
And the cold is coming in
Through the window panes
And your eyes are getting
That same sad look you wore last year
Beneath the hood of your coat
And I think that we should get away
So pack your bags I won't ask twice
I'll drag you if I have to
Throw your mittens out into the night
And get in my car
And we'll take the road south
And we'll keep driving
'Til you feel warm again
Warm again
Some nights I'm happy to sit with
My cup of tea and my blanket around me
But others you know I just feel empty
And you're back in that
Same sad cave that you dug last year
In an attempt to escape
And I think that we should get away
So pack your bags I won't ask twice
I'll drag you if I have to
Throw your mittens out into the night
And get in my car
And we'll take the road south
And we'll keep driving 'til you
Feel warm again
Warm again
So pack your bags I won't ask twice
I'll drag you if I have to
Throw your mittens out into the night
And get in my car
And we'll take the road south
And we'll keep driving
'Til you feel warm again
Warm again
Oh we'll keep on driving
'Til you feel 'til you feel
Oh we'll keep on driving
'Til you feel 'til you feel
We'll keep driving
We'll keep driving
'Til you feel
We'll keep driving
'Til you feel
Warm again
Monday, December 24, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Final Stretch
So I am almost done! Yesterday was my Media Arabic final. We had to do a Panorama of news from 2012 on a specific topic, and then discuss one of the topics in detail. Both Olivia and I wanted to do education so we asked if we could do it together. We could, ours just had to be longer. I discovered a new better than power point website called Prezi. Its pretty cool. We used it for our presentation. We had a picture of the world and zoomed to different places and discussed what happened with them this year in regards to education. Then Olivia talked about Malala, a Pakistani girl who started sending her journal to BBC Urdu. Her journal was all about her trying to get an education under the Taliban, and how difficult it was. She got shot in the head this year and is currently healing in England. Shes pretty fucking cool, and Olivia and her friend actually started an online campaign to get pictures of all the girls in all the world reading all the books, because if thats what the Taliban is scared of, thats what we want to do. Her campaign is called #Girlwithabook and she has gotten pictures from over 400 countries and even from famous people like Ban Ki Moon (Secretary-General of the United Nations) reading a book with his granddaughter. So thats pretty awesome. So she discussed that in detail, and I discussed the Mama Project, which is in Kechenga, DRC (Congo). For her masters in education, one woman went to the Congo to set up a school for women because they need a lot of help and education, and it has been really successful and really cool. We talked about a bunch of other things too. Our project was supposed to be 30-40 minutes but we easily talked for about an hour or longer, all in Arabic! So that was pretty cool.
Today I have my Archaeological History of Jordan final. Basically I made a Prezi and have to discuss the paper I wrote. Its in English, so I am not worried at all. My paper was on the Umayyad period, so that is also a really easy topic.
After that, at 6 today I have my OPI meaning my Oral Proficiency Interview. Yesterday I got a practice OPI from our Academic Director Manal. She is licensed to give them I think but she can't give them to us because she is our teacher and its a conflict of interest. But she said if she doesnt like the scores we get she will send them to the people and make them change our scores. I got an advanced low, but she said there is a chance I could be an advanced mid. so thats pretty cool! I started here this summer at novice low. there is novice low, med, high; intermediate low, med, high; and advanced low, med, high. So thats a pretty big jump- 6 levels in 6 months. Not bad. Hopefully I can get to advanced medium, but I kind of doubt it. The only problem now is convincing my professor at GW that advanced low is still better than the 'advanced' class at GW. According to GW I should have come here at Intermediate mid, but I didnt cause they can't teach me in an adequate way really. 1 hour a day isn't the same as 3 hours a day plus 1 hour of amiyya plus 6 extra hours of Media Arabic a week, plus just not speaking in English like ever. its not the same.
Anyways, tomorrow I have my Arabic fos-ha final, and I also have to talk about my paper that I wrote. I'm actually really proud of it. The boys in my class wrote their papers on 'food in Jordan' and 'the difference between living in Jordan and Morocco'. My paper was on the the participation of Arab nations in WWII. I talked about the Grand Mufti who was a raging anti-Semite, the revolt in Iraq, and to balance it out, I told some of the amazing stories discovered by Robert Satlof in his book Among the Righteous about Arabs who saved Jews in North Africa
then I'm DONE!!!!!!
Today I have my Archaeological History of Jordan final. Basically I made a Prezi and have to discuss the paper I wrote. Its in English, so I am not worried at all. My paper was on the Umayyad period, so that is also a really easy topic.
After that, at 6 today I have my OPI meaning my Oral Proficiency Interview. Yesterday I got a practice OPI from our Academic Director Manal. She is licensed to give them I think but she can't give them to us because she is our teacher and its a conflict of interest. But she said if she doesnt like the scores we get she will send them to the people and make them change our scores. I got an advanced low, but she said there is a chance I could be an advanced mid. so thats pretty cool! I started here this summer at novice low. there is novice low, med, high; intermediate low, med, high; and advanced low, med, high. So thats a pretty big jump- 6 levels in 6 months. Not bad. Hopefully I can get to advanced medium, but I kind of doubt it. The only problem now is convincing my professor at GW that advanced low is still better than the 'advanced' class at GW. According to GW I should have come here at Intermediate mid, but I didnt cause they can't teach me in an adequate way really. 1 hour a day isn't the same as 3 hours a day plus 1 hour of amiyya plus 6 extra hours of Media Arabic a week, plus just not speaking in English like ever. its not the same.
Anyways, tomorrow I have my Arabic fos-ha final, and I also have to talk about my paper that I wrote. I'm actually really proud of it. The boys in my class wrote their papers on 'food in Jordan' and 'the difference between living in Jordan and Morocco'. My paper was on the the participation of Arab nations in WWII. I talked about the Grand Mufti who was a raging anti-Semite, the revolt in Iraq, and to balance it out, I told some of the amazing stories discovered by Robert Satlof in his book Among the Righteous about Arabs who saved Jews in North Africa
then I'm DONE!!!!!!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Rii7la Tweela
The title of this post is the Jordanian chat language version of saying
'long trip'. Unfortunately, it was not as long as we had hoped, due to
protests. It was only 2 days, one night, and we didn't get to go to Wadi Rum (my favorite place in Jordan) I was sad, but what can you do? Our plan was this: 7:50 am drive to Mount Nebo. Hang out for an hour, then head over to the Dead sea. Spend an hour there, then lunch, then trek on over to Petra! We got there at about 7:30 pm, had some time, then dinner, and studying! Yay going on the trip 2 weeks late, aka the week before finals!!!!! Then in the morning at 7 we woke up for breakfast, and 8:10am we left for Petra (a 5 minute walk to the entrance). We returned around 3:30 for a quick lunch and then back on the bus to Irbid :( No in more detail.
Mount Nebo
So last time, we got a big bus that was relatively comfortable. Of course, as we are only 7 people on the program and only 3 roommates came and 4 teachers and a driver, we were lucky enough to get the little shitty bus that is much bumpier on the terrible Jordanian roads. The roads are also pretty bad in Israel, I don't know what it is about this part of the world, but they don't have smooth roads. Anyways, not really important. When we finally got there, it was fine...nothing super special to me, but a nice view. For those of you who don't know, Mount Nebo is a holy christian sight. This is because it is where Moses died. He lead the Jews for 40 years, so obviously, dealing with grumpy Jews in the desert made him rather annoyed at life, and when he asked G-d for some water, G-d told him to tap a rock with his staff. But Moses smacked the rock hard, and water did come out, but he was banned from the Promised Land...kinda a harsh punishment, but G-d is G-d and he gets to make the rules I guess. Anyways, I didn't quite get why it was a HOLY CHRISTIAN site, until my friend reminded me there aren't really Jews here, so I guess that makes sense. Anyways, this picture above is of me being Moses and looking out at the Promised land (actually its in the opposite direction, but no big deal) I've got my beard and my (invisible) staff, and I am sad to not be able to cross, and know I am about to die cause I've done my part. Yeah, I thought about this. The picture below is of my and my favorite teacher, Iman. She was my teacher during the summer, and now I have Adella. I miss Iman as my teacher...she is from Syria which is a totally different culture, so she understands why its hard for us here...Her and Manal, the Academic Director, as well as Mazen the Residential Director, but
he's a man so its not exactly the same, are all from Syria and all are
pretty miserable here. The American CET staff based in DC don't like
them talking smack about the city we live in, but I am glad they do.
This is a pretty awful place, and knowing that Arabs have just as hard a
time living here as I do lets me know that it is not my American habits
and ideas that are the problem...its not that I am not open minded, and
its not that I didn't try to like it. This place really does just suck.
And that doesn't mean that everyone here is bad, but a lot of them. It
is a very sexist and oppressive place, and I will NEVER return. Jordan,
of course...as a whole, I really like Jordan. Irbid, is its own thing,
its own little bit of hell. We joke that it is next on the list after
Sodom and Gomorrah to be smited by G-d. Just you wait. We'll read about
it in the news one day. Anyways, I really like the three Syrians, and would not have made it 6 months here without them, so American CET office can suck it. They should never have made the Syria program move here...it was a terrible idea.
Dead Sea
So this is officially my fourth time at the Dead Sea. Woot. It was Olivia and Katie's first times, so that was exciting. At first, I didn't go in because I wanted to study and didn't want to get all salty and dirty or wet. But you can't go to the Dead Sea and see all your friends (not splashing, that is such a bad idea here) rolling around and floating in the water. So I went in.
This is maybe my favorite picture, because Chelsea actually looks really good and I ruin it by rolling over...it also looks like I got a million limbs all twisted up...I think its pretty funny, so I added it. :)
After the fun in the sea, we had to dry off and change (I was still salty and sandy like I thought, but oh well) then we went to have lunch at the restaurant and I bought my friend a souvenir from the gift shop. It was originally 10JD so I said oh HELLS no (Jordan is super cheap so no way was I paying touristy prices for some crap produced in India anyways) so then they said 5JD and I said okay. But since I was pretty tired and salty from the sea, I wasn't bubbly or smiling, which made the Jordanians concerned I was unhappy, so the man brought it down to 4JD...still over priced, but much less so...so I was okay with it. I was at the Dead Sea so I couldn't expect too much, but I brought it down over 50% so that is always a good sign and I didn't even try to really 'haggle'.
PETRA
Petra, the best place of all. We arrived and had a little time before dinner so I took a proper shower. Of course, this is Jordan, so the temperature was only scalding hot to freezing cold and back and I really actually had no control over it...I turned on the water and it changed on its own. Still, the pressure was descent so I can't complain...it was the best shower I'd had since Amman. Dinner was great, with a ton of veggies, although the hotel owner guy had a really hard time wrapping his head around vegetarianism. He kept asking me how I ate, and what I wanted to eat for breakfast (In Jordan, breakfast is generally cheeses, lebne which is like yoghurt, veggies, and breads with normal spreads, and hard boiled eggs...all of which I eat, so I was confused why he was confused) he also asked several times about lunch (which I will discuss later as it was a huge success in my book). After dinner, we asked Mazen if CET would pay for the girls to get internet (3jd per hour! way expensive) since we had to do work for school since it was the end of the semester. He agreed, and I got pretty far in my research essay. My research essay for my fos-ha class (Modern Standard Arabic) was 5 pages single spaced in Arabic. We got to choose our own topics. This summer (5 pages but double spaced) I wrote about Petra, but it was kind of a cop out because it was sooo easy and I just translated a few on-line sources. The essay isn't about the research it is about how well you use Arabic, so after I ran out of things to say about Petra I discussed it's appearance in popular culture, films like Transformers and Indiana Jones. This time, I didn't want to do that, I wanted to write about something real that I was interested in, actually put some effort into it. Since we learned all these violent and sad words, I decided to write about he holocaust and World War 2. Since our only rule was to relate it to the Arab world, my topic was the participation of Arabs in World War 2. It was actually quite fascinating, and I found out about this author who researched and documented stories of Arabs who had saved Jews in North Africa during the holocaust. I wrote about both sides, as there was a strong anti semitic group of Arabs, especially in Palestine (the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was pretty good pals with Hitler) as well as other countries who didn't care about the Jews plight or not but they wanted to be free of their colonial powers and joined the opposite side as their colonial country. Again I ran out of things to say (my Arabic vocabulary is not that great so my sentences were pretty concise) so I discussed holocaust denial and other things of the sort. I got to 3.5 pages by the time I stopped, and went to bed.
The next morning was so difficult to wake up. I actually convinced myself to skip going to Petra because I've seen it, but then realized that was not something I wanted to do, and got myself up. Breakfast was fine, but there was salt in the coffee and I was way sad. Two of the girls didn't get up, and I had to go wake them. We finally walked over to buy the tickets to get in, but there was some mix up and we had to get a fax from the university to get discounted tickets, and it took about an hour to actually get inside. Finally, we walked in, and being in an archaeology class, my homework had been to read the chapter on the Nebateans (who built Petra). Thus I gave the girls the walking tour (at least through the Siq - the big skinny canyon you walk through, about 1km until it suddenly opens out and you see the Tomb of the Pharoah) Pretty cool huh? This was built in AD 100s. Their view point was go big or go home. They went big. The amazing thing is they didn't start small either...they have some basic cave houses, and then several huge tombs and churches like this...huge! Its crazy, I can't really believe how awesome this is. There were some pretty grumpy 'Roman Soldiers' standing around trying to make money, so we took a picture with them, trying to look grumpy like we were captives...
After that, we walked around. It really is amazing...my roommate Lara, Katie and I climbed the Khubtha Trail (I think that is what it was called). It was 612 stairs (I counted on the way down) and we nearly died. We took many breaks, and finally we made it to the top. There was a great view, but nothing else...just rock. Slightly disappointing. It was sad because Olivia didn't feel well so she didn't explore too much. Below will be a series of photos of the amazingness of Petra:
Mount Nebo
So last time, we got a big bus that was relatively comfortable. Of course, as we are only 7 people on the program and only 3 roommates came and 4 teachers and a driver, we were lucky enough to get the little shitty bus that is much bumpier on the terrible Jordanian roads. The roads are also pretty bad in Israel, I don't know what it is about this part of the world, but they don't have smooth roads. Anyways, not really important. When we finally got there, it was fine...nothing super special to me, but a nice view. For those of you who don't know, Mount Nebo is a holy christian sight. This is because it is where Moses died. He lead the Jews for 40 years, so obviously, dealing with grumpy Jews in the desert made him rather annoyed at life, and when he asked G-d for some water, G-d told him to tap a rock with his staff. But Moses smacked the rock hard, and water did come out, but he was banned from the Promised Land...kinda a harsh punishment, but G-d is G-d and he gets to make the rules I guess. Anyways, I didn't quite get why it was a HOLY CHRISTIAN site, until my friend reminded me there aren't really Jews here, so I guess that makes sense. Anyways, this picture above is of me being Moses and looking out at the Promised land (actually its in the opposite direction, but no big deal) I've got my beard and my (invisible) staff, and I am sad to not be able to cross, and know I am about to die cause I've done my part. Yeah, I thought about this. The picture below is of my and my favorite teacher, Iman. She was my teacher during the summer, and now I have Adella. I miss Iman as my teacher...she is from Syria which is a totally different culture, so she understands why its hard for us here...Her and Manal, the Academic Director, as well as Mazen the Residential Director, but 
Dead Sea
So this is officially my fourth time at the Dead Sea. Woot. It was Olivia and Katie's first times, so that was exciting. At first, I didn't go in because I wanted to study and didn't want to get all salty and dirty or wet. But you can't go to the Dead Sea and see all your friends (not splashing, that is such a bad idea here) rolling around and floating in the water. So I went in.
 |
| The four girls, from Left, Chelsea, Olivia, Me, and Katie, starring into the distance. |
After the fun in the sea, we had to dry off and change (I was still salty and sandy like I thought, but oh well) then we went to have lunch at the restaurant and I bought my friend a souvenir from the gift shop. It was originally 10JD so I said oh HELLS no (Jordan is super cheap so no way was I paying touristy prices for some crap produced in India anyways) so then they said 5JD and I said okay. But since I was pretty tired and salty from the sea, I wasn't bubbly or smiling, which made the Jordanians concerned I was unhappy, so the man brought it down to 4JD...still over priced, but much less so...so I was okay with it. I was at the Dead Sea so I couldn't expect too much, but I brought it down over 50% so that is always a good sign and I didn't even try to really 'haggle'.
PETRA
Petra, the best place of all. We arrived and had a little time before dinner so I took a proper shower. Of course, this is Jordan, so the temperature was only scalding hot to freezing cold and back and I really actually had no control over it...I turned on the water and it changed on its own. Still, the pressure was descent so I can't complain...it was the best shower I'd had since Amman. Dinner was great, with a ton of veggies, although the hotel owner guy had a really hard time wrapping his head around vegetarianism. He kept asking me how I ate, and what I wanted to eat for breakfast (In Jordan, breakfast is generally cheeses, lebne which is like yoghurt, veggies, and breads with normal spreads, and hard boiled eggs...all of which I eat, so I was confused why he was confused) he also asked several times about lunch (which I will discuss later as it was a huge success in my book). After dinner, we asked Mazen if CET would pay for the girls to get internet (3jd per hour! way expensive) since we had to do work for school since it was the end of the semester. He agreed, and I got pretty far in my research essay. My research essay for my fos-ha class (Modern Standard Arabic) was 5 pages single spaced in Arabic. We got to choose our own topics. This summer (5 pages but double spaced) I wrote about Petra, but it was kind of a cop out because it was sooo easy and I just translated a few on-line sources. The essay isn't about the research it is about how well you use Arabic, so after I ran out of things to say about Petra I discussed it's appearance in popular culture, films like Transformers and Indiana Jones. This time, I didn't want to do that, I wanted to write about something real that I was interested in, actually put some effort into it. Since we learned all these violent and sad words, I decided to write about he holocaust and World War 2. Since our only rule was to relate it to the Arab world, my topic was the participation of Arabs in World War 2. It was actually quite fascinating, and I found out about this author who researched and documented stories of Arabs who had saved Jews in North Africa during the holocaust. I wrote about both sides, as there was a strong anti semitic group of Arabs, especially in Palestine (the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was pretty good pals with Hitler) as well as other countries who didn't care about the Jews plight or not but they wanted to be free of their colonial powers and joined the opposite side as their colonial country. Again I ran out of things to say (my Arabic vocabulary is not that great so my sentences were pretty concise) so I discussed holocaust denial and other things of the sort. I got to 3.5 pages by the time I stopped, and went to bed.
The next morning was so difficult to wake up. I actually convinced myself to skip going to Petra because I've seen it, but then realized that was not something I wanted to do, and got myself up. Breakfast was fine, but there was salt in the coffee and I was way sad. Two of the girls didn't get up, and I had to go wake them. We finally walked over to buy the tickets to get in, but there was some mix up and we had to get a fax from the university to get discounted tickets, and it took about an hour to actually get inside. Finally, we walked in, and being in an archaeology class, my homework had been to read the chapter on the Nebateans (who built Petra). Thus I gave the girls the walking tour (at least through the Siq - the big skinny canyon you walk through, about 1km until it suddenly opens out and you see the Tomb of the Pharoah) Pretty cool huh? This was built in AD 100s. Their view point was go big or go home. They went big. The amazing thing is they didn't start small either...they have some basic cave houses, and then several huge tombs and churches like this...huge! Its crazy, I can't really believe how awesome this is. There were some pretty grumpy 'Roman Soldiers' standing around trying to make money, so we took a picture with them, trying to look grumpy like we were captives...
 |
| Katie taking on of the many breaks on the way up to the top of the Khubtha trail |
 | |
| check out the ceiling! its like that everywhere! Fucking Amazing!!!!! |
 |
| Like I said, buildings just pop out of the rocks, Like Daisies! |
 |
| Here is a picture of Katie and Lara looking through what could have been a window...who knows for sure? |
 |
| here is their amphitheater...a lot of things were pretty badly damaged by earthquakes, but the ruins are still pretty cool |
 |
| Rommie picture! Lara, my roommate and I play games in the houses |
 |
| Here is me, playing on the ruins...because you can do that in Jordan |
 |
| This is high up, but still not the top of the Khubtha trail. Its hard to see, but there are Katie and I standing on the rock waving. |
Fort Night Fortnight
Tonight will be a big night. I will be writing two blog posts tonight because I have fallen slightly behind. So be prepared for some awesomeness.
In Israel, the girls and I decided we would not make it 40 days in Irbid without doing something 'happy' every day. We made a list of little things and big things to try and bring some sunshine into our apartment-stuck lives (girls aren't really supposed to be out after dark unless accompanied by a related man. Also, outside is where the shebab are, so we don't go there...needless to say I think I am quite vitamin deficient - especially since they dont eat a lot of veggies....I do my best, but there is only so much I can do.
Anyways, what I was most excited for from our 'Happiness List' was Fort Night Fortnight. Our two weeks left mark would be celebrated with the building of a fort! When was the last time you built a fort? Its been years, and I am pretty sure I was with Grant, the 2 year old version of the boy I used to babysit. That was 8 years ago (oh my g-d I feel old right now). Anyways, I was super excited, cause I love forts. Two weeks was November 29th, last Thursday (I'm late I know, but I have a good excuse - several even!) So Thursday rolls around, and after class (Arab Media, interesting but much too long - it is 1.5 hours on the schedule, but she usually goes for 2. Once, she even went for 3 hours....all in Arabic....after a full day of Arabic classes...too much, makes my head explode) my 
friend Olivia and I hop in a cab and try to explain to the cab driver where we want to go (the one liquor store in Irbid) without actually telling him where (because alcohol is BAD here) and also, there aren't really addresses so we had to say 'the circle before the circle with the clock tower'. The cab that picked us up had two other girls in it, so it was kind of awkward, but what the hell? Welcome to Jordan! So we finally got there, and asked about their wine selection. Unable to properly convey to us what kind of wine they had, they just told us 
to come behind the counter and look. Again kind of awkward, but Jordan! We got a white and a red, and headed back to the university. We picked up some veggies for our dinner, and while Olivia and 
Chelsea worked on dinner, Katie and I worked on the fort. Here are some awesome photos of the night...the fort in various stages, and might I say, it was a fort of champions. It was twine reinforced, with a squeegee entrance way, some sparkles and was big enough for 4 women and a table full of food and wine. As you can see, it was pretty epic. All in all a fantastic night. We got a little tipsy, and sang along to all my favorite musicals like Rent and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
The next day, we all came back to the fort to study. We made a mountain of banana nut pancakes, and sang 'Banana Pancakes' by Jack Johnson. We had planned on going back to Amman, just for the day, to study at Starbucks, but our residential director didn't want us to because of protests. Sad, but fort time was nice. Hours later, we went out for food and shenanigans, and when we came back, my roommate was there (she goes home for the weekends, but as our 'school trip' - the subject of my next entry- was the next day, she came back early). Needless to say she had some question. But as she is an amazing young woman and very open minded (very much NOT from around Irbid), she sort of just went with it. She joined in our studying, and hung out in the fort.
Saturday was a LONG day. and I will continue this story in the next blog post.
In Israel, the girls and I decided we would not make it 40 days in Irbid without doing something 'happy' every day. We made a list of little things and big things to try and bring some sunshine into our apartment-stuck lives (girls aren't really supposed to be out after dark unless accompanied by a related man. Also, outside is where the shebab are, so we don't go there...needless to say I think I am quite vitamin deficient - especially since they dont eat a lot of veggies....I do my best, but there is only so much I can do.
friend Olivia and I hop in a cab and try to explain to the cab driver where we want to go (the one liquor store in Irbid) without actually telling him where (because alcohol is BAD here) and also, there aren't really addresses so we had to say 'the circle before the circle with the clock tower'. The cab that picked us up had two other girls in it, so it was kind of awkward, but what the hell? Welcome to Jordan! So we finally got there, and asked about their wine selection. Unable to properly convey to us what kind of wine they had, they just told us 
to come behind the counter and look. Again kind of awkward, but Jordan! We got a white and a red, and headed back to the university. We picked up some veggies for our dinner, and while Olivia and 
Chelsea worked on dinner, Katie and I worked on the fort. Here are some awesome photos of the night...the fort in various stages, and might I say, it was a fort of champions. It was twine reinforced, with a squeegee entrance way, some sparkles and was big enough for 4 women and a table full of food and wine. As you can see, it was pretty epic. All in all a fantastic night. We got a little tipsy, and sang along to all my favorite musicals like Rent and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.  |
| "This is an ADULT fort!" says Chelsea with as much conviction as anyone can while sitting in a fort |
 |
| Like our sign? |
 |
| Look at all the delicious veggies we get to eat!!!! |
The next day, we all came back to the fort to study. We made a mountain of banana nut pancakes, and sang 'Banana Pancakes' by Jack Johnson. We had planned on going back to Amman, just for the day, to study at Starbucks, but our residential director didn't want us to because of protests. Sad, but fort time was nice. Hours later, we went out for food and shenanigans, and when we came back, my roommate was there (she goes home for the weekends, but as our 'school trip' - the subject of my next entry- was the next day, she came back early). Needless to say she had some question. But as she is an amazing young woman and very open minded (very much NOT from around Irbid), she sort of just went with it. She joined in our studying, and hung out in the fort.
Saturday was a LONG day. and I will continue this story in the next blog post.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Photos from my weekend in Amman
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| So we got a pretty bad room service dinner, followed by tiramisu and tea |
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| This was the MOST AMAZING BREAKFAST I HAVE EVER HAD! One of the few reasons Amman is 100,000x better than Irbid! |
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| We were so happy to finally make it to something so familiar and comfortable....we got the red holiday cups and listened to Christmas music, and felt almost happy for a few hours- it was priceless. |
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Thanksgiving, conspiracies, and other dissapointing things
Happy Thanksgiving! I was so sad I couldn't celebrate with my family. I actually looked up prices for flights home for a week, and they were $1000, but I knew it was really impossible. But we tried our best. We decided to have a small Thanksgiving celebration with our group, and invited our roommates. Olivia made vegetarian stuffing, Chelsea made green bean as well as sweet potato casseroles and I made mashed potatoes and veggies, and because the boys didn't want to spend so much money on turkey, Katie made chicken. Oh Olivia made 2 pumpkin pies (from scratch including starting with a whole pumpkin!) and Peter made apple pie. He was the only boy to contribute. Orion (we call him Bitrus because his middle name is peter and Orion is really weird here and Peter is already called Peter, but I will call him Orion because it is easier for this post) Anyways, Orion decided to invite 4 or 5 Jordanian shebab- yes, the slimy kind who sexually harass us girls on a daily basis. Then, last minute, he invited 5 of the Europeans from a different program, without telling the girls (who were doing all the cooking). So that sucked. Katie and I decided we'd better make Sambosas in case food ran short. The room was crowded and full of sleazy shebbab who were annoying us- also, the one thing us girls had asked for from the boys was some wine. That did not happen because the boys had their own arak. I HATE arak and we had asked for wine, so I was pissed. Their job was to clean up after we were done. The girls ate in a separate room, because we didn't want to get sleezed on. Oh I forgot. Orion also nearly ruined the pie and killed us all! How did he do this you ask? He didn't know how to turn the oven on. He thought we were in America and you just turn the switch. He has been here for months and apparently never used his kitchen. You have to light the gas to make it work. He told Olivia he knew how to do it, and then turned the gas on the pies and Olivia noticed 40 minutes later when she went to check on them. Then, after a meal we had slaved hours over, Orion comes in and cowardly says one of the Jordanians wanted to talk to us womenfolk. The Jordanian boy comes in (without so much as a thanks for cooking food for me) and says according to Jordanian culture, girls clean up and the boys were going to go socialize on the street. We just stared at him for a moment speechless with his audacity. Then rage boiled up and we all exploded on them (in Arabic I will add) and they retreated. That doesn't mean they did what they were supposed to. I was too exhausted to keep a constant eye on them, but from what I could tell, the American boys did most of the cleaning (although my kitchen is dirtier than when I cooked the meal in it so they did a TERRIBLE JOB) and the Jordanian boys ran around laughing and taking pictures of their friends doing this demeaning task. I keep reminding myself that in 20 days I will leave this god-forsaken place and I will NEVER RETURN. I promise you, back in the day there was Sodom and Gomorrah. Irbid is next. I promise. I was thinking about this the other day, because I have found people here that I like. Then I realized all my friends were students. None of them are from Irbid. Ra'ad and Rasha are from Amman. Lara is from Zarqa (just south of Amman) and Khalid is from Kuwait. The teachers I like, Mannal, Mazen and Iman are from Syria. Everyone from Irbid is part of a homogeneous tribal community that rejects any attempt to change. All outsiders are not accepted, and in the case of us girls, are harassed on a daily basis. All God needs is a period where everyone who isn't from the area to go home, and I promise you he will smite this place.
The worst part about living here this semester is the American boys. In the summer, it was hot and miserable and there were two weeks of Ramadan which made the shebab ramp up their harassment out of pure misery. But the boys in the program defended our honor. It bothered me that it was necessary for them to do that, but I would rather walk around with American men around me staring down onlookers and yelling at anyone who tried to yell at us or come near us than get trash thrown at me or worse grabbed at. The boys this semester don't care. They don't defend our honor, and I am pretty sure they are just as sexist as the Jordanians here and are enjoying acting on this without guilt because they are just "integrating themselves into the local culture".
In other news, I have three weeks left, or as I like to think about it, 28726 minutes until I head off to Amman to catch my flight. I can't wait. In the meantime, I have to write a 5 page research essay in Arabic, make a 20 minute video talking in Amiyya, write a 10-12 page essay (in English thank goodness) on some topic within Archaeology in Jordan, and make a power point presentation for I think 40 minutes on some facet of the news of this year- make a 'panorama' and then zoom in on one section and discuss it in detail for my Arab media class. I have A LOT to do..Oh I forgot, I also have my Arabic final exam to take on the last day. I am getting ready to be WAY stressed, and to 'help' my body decided to reject Irbid, and I am overly exhausted 24/7 no matter how much sleep I get.
This weekend, Olivia, Chelsea, and I decided to go to Amman because we NEEDED to get out of Irbid. We left really early Friday morning, and even decided to spring for a hotel instead of a hostel. We went to study, so we didn't do too much, but we did go to 2 very important places: A chocolate restaurant (think Chocolate the movie with Johny Depp) and STARBUCKS. Our original plan was to go get food at the mall, study at wherever we ate for several hours, then go see a movie. We forgot everything is closed on Fridays, and we got to the mall at 12:30 but it didn't open until 2pm. Next to it was the Chocolate restaurant and we couldn't resist. We got fondue! with fruit and cakes - one of them was green but we could not for the life of us figure out what flavor it was! After that we studied until I was falling asleep on the table, then we returned to the hotel for a quick nap- turned into 3 hours, followed by studying and room service dinner. then we decided we had done good work, and could reward ourselves with a movie before bed. We chose the little mermaid, and of course ended up analyzing it from the point of view of the 'Arab Father'. Wow Disney is super sexist. I know this and it isn't news to me but I keep forgetting just how much. Thank goodness I didn't internalize it too much and still have some semblance of self worth and self sufficiency.
The next morning I had to get up WAY EARLY at 7:30 on a Saturday! to shower and get ready for a long day at ACOR, American Center for Oriental Research. Their library is great and it is a really beautiful, calm, and AMERICAN place to study and besides, Olivia needed to use the library. It was a conspiracy though. After 3 cabbies having NO IDEA what we were talking about when we gave them the name and the address, we got in a cab and called my teacher. She had taken us there once before, but I was sleeping and we went at night so no one remembered exactly how to go. We called her and handed the phone off to the cab driver (who shouted a lot in what sounded mean but wasn't meant to be, and he also spit in probably the most disgusting manner constantly). He got lost and so we called her again. He couldn't find it still, so we called her again. Still no luck, so we told him to drop us off at the Amman International Hotel and we asked the front desk woman if she knew. She said (and I quote), "I don't know. I have only been here for 5 years" After 5 years you should know your way around your city. Anyways, one of the men who worked there knew where it was and pointed it out to us from a window. 'Just a 10 minute walk' he said. He didn't mention up an 80 degree incline and that after 30 minutes we still couldn't find it! We looked for this place for about 1.5 hours then gave up. Is a conspiracy. Or maybe it was the Room of Requirements. We should have paced back and forth....But I swear it was moving around, eluding us! Eventually we just hopped in a cab and told him to take us to the nearest Starbucks. We saw the sign and were about 300 m away from it when we got pulled over by the police. He did a general inspection of the taxi (in America we have to get those done at a special time, not while we are generally driving around). Luckily enough after 15 minutes of turning on and off blinkers and lights and checking tires, our cab passed inspection and got a sticker to prove it! He dropped us off and I nearly cried. They had comfy chairs and good coffee and snacks and Christmas music, and was all things western. If I didn't look out the window, i would have no idea I was only 1.5 hours away by car from the worst place on earth! We stayed until 4:30, a good 6 hours of working and I feel pretty good. I was mostly taking notes and gathering information for my Arabic essay (I am writing about the Arabs during WWII. There are many cases in North Africa where Arabs saved their fellow Jews, and that made me happy. There are also many cases of working with the axis powers, which is too bad, but what can you do. Good, Bad, and Evil, right? But I am interested in learning about this, so I am happy with the topic. Anyways, I should sign off now so I can get some sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow because I have office hours at 8:30 am.
The worst part about living here this semester is the American boys. In the summer, it was hot and miserable and there were two weeks of Ramadan which made the shebab ramp up their harassment out of pure misery. But the boys in the program defended our honor. It bothered me that it was necessary for them to do that, but I would rather walk around with American men around me staring down onlookers and yelling at anyone who tried to yell at us or come near us than get trash thrown at me or worse grabbed at. The boys this semester don't care. They don't defend our honor, and I am pretty sure they are just as sexist as the Jordanians here and are enjoying acting on this without guilt because they are just "integrating themselves into the local culture".
In other news, I have three weeks left, or as I like to think about it, 28726 minutes until I head off to Amman to catch my flight. I can't wait. In the meantime, I have to write a 5 page research essay in Arabic, make a 20 minute video talking in Amiyya, write a 10-12 page essay (in English thank goodness) on some topic within Archaeology in Jordan, and make a power point presentation for I think 40 minutes on some facet of the news of this year- make a 'panorama' and then zoom in on one section and discuss it in detail for my Arab media class. I have A LOT to do..Oh I forgot, I also have my Arabic final exam to take on the last day. I am getting ready to be WAY stressed, and to 'help' my body decided to reject Irbid, and I am overly exhausted 24/7 no matter how much sleep I get.
This weekend, Olivia, Chelsea, and I decided to go to Amman because we NEEDED to get out of Irbid. We left really early Friday morning, and even decided to spring for a hotel instead of a hostel. We went to study, so we didn't do too much, but we did go to 2 very important places: A chocolate restaurant (think Chocolate the movie with Johny Depp) and STARBUCKS. Our original plan was to go get food at the mall, study at wherever we ate for several hours, then go see a movie. We forgot everything is closed on Fridays, and we got to the mall at 12:30 but it didn't open until 2pm. Next to it was the Chocolate restaurant and we couldn't resist. We got fondue! with fruit and cakes - one of them was green but we could not for the life of us figure out what flavor it was! After that we studied until I was falling asleep on the table, then we returned to the hotel for a quick nap- turned into 3 hours, followed by studying and room service dinner. then we decided we had done good work, and could reward ourselves with a movie before bed. We chose the little mermaid, and of course ended up analyzing it from the point of view of the 'Arab Father'. Wow Disney is super sexist. I know this and it isn't news to me but I keep forgetting just how much. Thank goodness I didn't internalize it too much and still have some semblance of self worth and self sufficiency.
The next morning I had to get up WAY EARLY at 7:30 on a Saturday! to shower and get ready for a long day at ACOR, American Center for Oriental Research. Their library is great and it is a really beautiful, calm, and AMERICAN place to study and besides, Olivia needed to use the library. It was a conspiracy though. After 3 cabbies having NO IDEA what we were talking about when we gave them the name and the address, we got in a cab and called my teacher. She had taken us there once before, but I was sleeping and we went at night so no one remembered exactly how to go. We called her and handed the phone off to the cab driver (who shouted a lot in what sounded mean but wasn't meant to be, and he also spit in probably the most disgusting manner constantly). He got lost and so we called her again. He couldn't find it still, so we called her again. Still no luck, so we told him to drop us off at the Amman International Hotel and we asked the front desk woman if she knew. She said (and I quote), "I don't know. I have only been here for 5 years" After 5 years you should know your way around your city. Anyways, one of the men who worked there knew where it was and pointed it out to us from a window. 'Just a 10 minute walk' he said. He didn't mention up an 80 degree incline and that after 30 minutes we still couldn't find it! We looked for this place for about 1.5 hours then gave up. Is a conspiracy. Or maybe it was the Room of Requirements. We should have paced back and forth....But I swear it was moving around, eluding us! Eventually we just hopped in a cab and told him to take us to the nearest Starbucks. We saw the sign and were about 300 m away from it when we got pulled over by the police. He did a general inspection of the taxi (in America we have to get those done at a special time, not while we are generally driving around). Luckily enough after 15 minutes of turning on and off blinkers and lights and checking tires, our cab passed inspection and got a sticker to prove it! He dropped us off and I nearly cried. They had comfy chairs and good coffee and snacks and Christmas music, and was all things western. If I didn't look out the window, i would have no idea I was only 1.5 hours away by car from the worst place on earth! We stayed until 4:30, a good 6 hours of working and I feel pretty good. I was mostly taking notes and gathering information for my Arabic essay (I am writing about the Arabs during WWII. There are many cases in North Africa where Arabs saved their fellow Jews, and that made me happy. There are also many cases of working with the axis powers, which is too bad, but what can you do. Good, Bad, and Evil, right? But I am interested in learning about this, so I am happy with the topic. Anyways, I should sign off now so I can get some sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow because I have office hours at 8:30 am.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
ldskjf;sldkfj
If I have to sit through one more racist, sexist, homophobic, ignorant fucking lesson in this G-d forsaken country I'm gonna flip a shit.
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