Warm Again

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

~lyrics by Hannah and Maggie

This song pretty much got me through my time in Irbid. I love it. Now I am home, warm and safe in Massachusetts. Here's the story:

After 7 months of misery,I took my fos-ha exam (I was too done to study which I am not proud of but whatever... It doesnt really matter in the long run, I still have to take another test when I get back to GW). It was really hard, and I don't think I did that well, but who knows?

Then I went to Manal's apartment. She is the Academic Director. We discussed my essay, and it was nice to just talk with her. That night we had a goodbye dinner, and all our teachers came to say goodbye. It was nice and we got a lot of lovely photos. The girls made cards for each of our teachers. Then we said goodbye and went to finish cleaning our apartments, before heading out to the airport!!! My flight was the first, at 4am but we all were so eager to get out of Irbid that the other girls came with me. We got there at about 11:30, but only about 30 minutes later, they called my flight for check-in. I said goodbye and headed through. They were very confused with my carry-on bag because I had a glass lamp (you put a candle in it and it is really beautiful) inside. I took it on carry-on because I was worried of it breaking. They made someone check my bag, and when he realized what it was he got all worried about it breaking and helped me wrap it up nice and carefully. They let me take an open water bottle and food on the plane. Jordanian security, ladies and gentlemen. I flew to Istanbul which is a very confusing airport. Luckily, I was creeping in on people's conversations on the plane and knew one man who was going to New York, so I followed him and he found where to go okay. Still though, the shear size of the airport made me get to the gate after it was closed, but they still let me on without a hassle. The plane was HUGE and had WiFi! I didn't use it though, I just took a sleeping pill and tried to sleep. I woke up a few hours later and had enough time to watch a movie. I landed in New York and hoped in a cab and headed to Hannah's office where I met her and left my large suitcase. Taking only a small duffel, we had a quick lunch (Thai food!!!!!! How I missed it!!!) then I had to walk over to catch my megabus to DC. Of course, the bus left on time and was about 40 minutes late, but finally I got there and was met by my two best friends Marissa and Raquan! It was lovely to see them and was Raquan's 21st birthday! We rushed home so I could shower (about 30 hours of travel leaves one in desperate need of a shower). We went out for a lovely birthday meal and were "planning" on going to some bars but decided to reconvene with some other friends at Raquan's apartment. When we got there, a SURPRISE PARTY! awaited her. It was so lovely to see everyone, but I felt like I had been off planet (like in star trek) for so long. I missed A LOT. The next day, I met a friend from work for coffee and then passed out in the most beautiful bed ever for a while, and Raquan and I went out to eat more Thai food. Then it was a holiday party, and the next day I left. I got back on a bus and headed back to New York. When I arrived, I walked over to my sisters office, and met up with Hannah and my mom, and we walked to meet my dad (who had NO idea I was home. He thought I was in Vienna as an au pair). I surprised him for his birthday and he was very happy and shocked. We headed home.

It is lovely to be home.

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!!!!!!

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.

The four girls, from Left, Chelsea, Olivia, Me, and Katie, starring into the distance.

 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:

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.

"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.

Photos from my weekend in Amman

So we got a pretty bad room service dinner, followed by tiramisu and tea

This was the MOST AMAZING BREAKFAST I HAVE EVER HAD! One of the few reasons Amman is 100,000x better than Irbid!

Hey, so my friend Olivia is really the 'on top of it' one in the group, and she got it together to take photos during our weekend in Amman. She finally posted them online so now I can share them with you! There aren't a lot, but I haven't put up photos in a while, so I thought I would.

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.

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.

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. 

Trouble in Paradise day 163

After coming home from our wonderful vacation, I got a new roommate! Luckily, I knew her- Lara my language partner- so I wasn't afraid of her being weird or anything. I like living with her. We cook, watch My Fair Lady, I help her with her English pronunciation and she helps me with Arabic. We have very deep and complicated conversations about politics and history. Its a lot of fun. And she makes delicious ma'luba without chicken (its potatoes and eggplant and sometimes cauliflower and rice with spices and herbs)!

Last weekend I went to stay over at a Jordanian family's house. It was the strangest experience of my life. My friend Jenny is in the Anthropology class and her teacher set up the overnight stay with one of his "real students". She had to go for class and write a paper about it. I was just being nice and accompanying her because there were three girls, and two went to another Jordanian house together, and Jenny would be on her own if I didn't go. The girl was very nice. She was wealthy up the wazoo, and her entire house was purple! She and her mother kept showing us what in the house was from America, as if it was proof that they were worthy of our time. The girl asked us if we like to go to JC Penny and Dilliards and showed us all her American clothes. The mother also kept stuffing food down our throats. The seccond we got there, we ate dinner (at 6pm about). I had told them I was vegetarian, but forgot to say I wouldn't eat rice if it was cooked with meat. I didn't want to be rude, so I ate it. My stomach was a little unhappy, but not too bad. After dinner, we were given Khunafa (a cheesy pastry thing) and some of the deserts we had brought as a 'thank you for having us' gift. After that, some family members came over. The girl's older sister (there were 6 siblings and the girl was the youngest- three were in America and one was in Hungary) and her 3 children came over- ages 7,5, and BABY! The baby was super cute! But he was left alone a lot which made me nervous...they didn't have a crib or anything, just lay him on the couch and checked on him if he cried....

The girl kept asking if Jenny and I were tired, so finally we said yes and were sent to her room for a nap. It was more that we felt uncomfortable with all the family babbling on about this and that and 'this is from America, and so is that'. When we returned, we were greeted with more desert!

The sister brought cake, and the mother made us eat it...by this point I was concentrating on not getting sick from eating so much, but it is rude not to accept the food, and I didn't want to be rude. After cake, A lot of us piled into a car. It was like a clown car, as some more people had arrived (I don't know who they were). There were two women in the front, then in the back was Jenny, the girl, and me. Oh and three children sitting on our laps! This made me very nervous as I was in the center and the boy on my lap wanted to stand on my knees and stick his head out the sunroof...I grabbed him and didn't let him do it. He and the girl on Jenny's lap were very curious with us, and talked a lot...They were young and had kid voices, so it was hard to understand and they thought it strange that two adults couldn't understand them. We arrived at a house and a lot of the people got out, so it was just the girl, the woman driving, me, Jenny, and the boy who had been on my lap (he got his own seat now). He wanted to play a game and explained it to be a riddle! We told riddles, (I was a little out of practice and forgot most of mine) and he seemed to enjoy it immensely. We went to Mcdonalds drive through and got MORE DESERT! We got ice cream! Then we drove to a little stand on the side of the road and got beans. you have to peel the skin off the bean and the little boy taught us how  to do it properly. After that, we were dropped off by the house again and Jenny, the girl, and I walked around her neighborhood for a while (the street was named after her family). Then finally, we went to sleep. The next day I woke up around 10...I stayed in bed until about 1pm when both Jenny and I couldn't take staying in bed any longer. We got up and then the girl got up when she heard us moving around. We had breakfast, and then watched tv for an hour. The the mother brought in a bowl of chocolates and the girl showed us her pictures of when she visited America. We told her we couldn't stay past 4:30 because we had a previous engagement, and she was dissapointed. She thought we were staying for 2 nights! Then we had to have lunch. This is where my problem really was. We were far from hungry as we had just eaten breakfast. But the mother had made soup. She ladled a bunch of greenbeens from the soup onto my plate along with leftover rice from the day before...I had a feeling, but I didn't want to be rude and didn't know what to do so I ate it...BAD IDEA. The soup had tons of meat in it. I told Jenny we had to leave immediately.  I made it home and then started puking my guts out. I spent a good portion of the day in my bathroom, and then lay in my bed in pain for a while. Not the most successful of ventures, but I survived.

Escape!

So last week we had a vacation! Thank goodness because I really needed one. Sorry it took me so long to catch y'all up, but I was waiting for the good pictures from the ladies to be posted on facebook so i could steel them and post them here ;)

My midterm in Arabic was on Wednesday, as well as my archaeology paper due. I made sure to finish my paper Monday so I could focus on studying for the test. It was about the archaeological history of Philadelphia (Amman). It was pretty easy, I just had to sit down and do it.

My test was really hard, and I thought I bombed it but I got an A (I have no idea how that happened, but I am not complaining). During this time, I was also stressing out about deciding to come home for spring semester, and go back to GW instead of studying abroad again. There was a lot of emailing back and forth with my millions of advisers, and I figured out that if I try, I can graduate a semester early! Also, one of the girls here who studies at American University in DC and I decided to live together in an apartment, so thats awesome. So needles to say, I was way distracted.

Anyways, all the boys went to Egypt, and the girls went to Israel. We really only went to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv- I don't really consider that as 'seeing Israel' but whatever. I bought all my gifts for people, and ran around the old city and all the shop vendors in the shook (market) were so confused as to how I spoke English, Arabic, and Hebrew. I helped one of them write a sign that said 'clearance' and he made a pair of earrings for me as a thank you. We went to Mike's (an American bar) and played a trivia game on the tv at our booth. it was really fun. Basically we just relaxed and were not in Irbid. We were in Jerusalem for 3 days, and then went to Tel Aviv. We were in Tel Aviv for 3 days too- supposed to be for 4 but we realized our last day would be Saturday, and we would never get a bus from Jerusalem to the border, so we went a day early.

 This trip was really about eating. I dont mean eating shit food, I mean REAL food...not just rice, felafel, and weird cheese bread things or bad pizza. Olivia and I were masters of eating on this trip. We are the two vegetarians, and food in Israel is really big, so we shared a lot of the time. We went to my favorite restaurant in Jerusalem- Sam's Bagels, and ordered a Salad and a bagel. The bagel was veggies and feta black olive cream cheese. the salad had quinoa and grilled veggies and corn and tons of delicious raw veggies and sweet potato, and was so unbelievably amazing! I am sooo bored with the food in Irbid- its not that healthy, and its boring and beige! The food in Israel is delicious and colorful and has tons of veggies!

 After Jerusalem, we hopped a Sheirut (shared taxi) to Tel Aviv. We went to the same hostel I have been to 2x before- when I went to Israel after the summer session, and then I flew back and stayed there for a 2 days before I came back to Jordan. So they new me, which was cool. We walked around, went shopping for our Halloween costumes, walked around Old Jaffa. We went to my favorite breakfast restaurant in the Area, Chocolulu, and got delicious breakfast foods with salads and shakshuka and omlets, and home fries. One morning we went to Jenny Sue's favorite breakfast place (I forget the name) but we met up with two of her friends, and ate delicious food again. She got which chocolate espresso pancakes. I got a fritata and it was amazing!

We HAD to get thai food because it is my favorite and I needed some before going back to the boring foods. This was the tofu salad appetizer we shared:

 We also went to the shook in Jaffa. I got a cool pocket watch necklace thing and some more gifts for friends. I also had to go to my favorite little store called Galilee, where they sell delicious sauces and mixes and healthy yummy food stuffs and wine and lotions and all this stuff made in Israel. I got some eggplant pesto, and some granola. While walking in the shook in Jaffa, we saw these big plastic animals. there was a monkey on a banana, a zebra, a dinosaur, a lion and a unicorn...I pretended to be the dinosaur, but it looks more scared of me than anything... :(

 For Halloween, I dressed up as Hipster Princess Ariel, from the little mermaid. it was difficult to do because I couldn't find any of the clothes I wanted for a price I wanted, and I wasn't about to buy something I didn't like just for Halloween. Olivia was Hipster Snow White, Jenny was a ninja princess (her head band was sparkly hence the princess part) and Katie was a pumpkin, and Chelsea was Rosie the Riveter.  It was a lot of fun, and we went out again to Mike's (in Tel Aviv this time) and they were having a Halloween party, and it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun, and a much needed break from Irbid! I also was able to send my ballot, and hopefully it reached America in time! Sadly, we had to leave a day early, but it gave me a day to....do nothing but stay in bed and watch movies!

If we die, we die with honnor

So. Midterms sucked majorly. Sunday we asked for review, but we were given a reading with new vocab. Monday and Tuesday we were given new grammar that was on the test. Wednesday we took the test. That is not how we do things in America. All of us wanted to die, we were so stressed! I know this is a very academically intensive program, and I am fully prepared to study, but to give us new material to understand and process and remember on top of well over 1000 new vocab that we go over once in class is not going to help me learn anything. My teacher kept saying the test would be easy and not to worry! I thought maybe it would be like it was in the summer (there were fewer vocab words and we studied them more in class, but similar). I WAS WRONG. My teacher was wrong too. THAT TEST WAS WAY HARD. There was a reading with questions, and the reading was something about Jews and Christians wanting to build their respective places of worship next to the Dome of the Rock and the Muslims are angry? But there was something about fundamentalist Jews attacked a Mosque and trapped a bunch of students inside and didn't let people over 40 in? I really didn't understand much, and using key words from the questions tried to answer as best as possible, but I was way confused. Then we had two writings! And I didn't know a lot of the vocab, but I wrote about and compared the tactics of MLK, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X in their struggle for freedom and equal rights. The second writing I wrote about some made up terrorist attacks in Paris (I can't spell place names in Arabic so I just went for an easy one). The grammar section I did my best, but we shall see. I didn't really study that much at all because we just learned it and I had to study the thousands of words! All of us in that test were just working, plowing through, and the only time we made any noise was either a groan or a string of profanity. I am a fast test taker. It is my motto that on the day of the test, if you don't know it you don't know it and you can bs your way through as best you can and then get on with it. But this test took me until the very last minute because it was so long and so hard and I had to read the reading like 5 times and still didn't understand it!

So I didn't feel great after the test, but it is over and I can do nothing about it. If I failed, at least I know the others failed too. And if we all failed, its not our fault, it is our teacher's fault.

Today is a holiday, I don't really know what it is about, but I think it has something to do with those two sons of one of the Caliphates who were killed? Hassan and Ha....something? I don't know. I just know they fast and then kill a sheep. I should really take an Islam class one of these days.

This leads me to my very important announcement. (At least important to me and possibly my family people who will now get to see me) I am no long studying abroad in the spring. It was the original plan, but I did some thinking and discussing with my advisers, and I can graduate early (in the fall) if I don't study abroad in the spring. I am mostly done with my language requirements, all I have to do is take another Hebrew class, then I have 3 more history/culture classes to finish my major, and 3 more GCRs (general course requirements) but one of them (writing intensive class) is the same as the Hebrew class. the hard part is that I have to get to 120 credits I will have either 35 or 32 credits to reach after this semester (depending on if I can get two dialect courses approved or not). That means I may/probably need to take a summer class, but it is still a LOT cheaper than an entire extra semester! So I am happy about that! And this means I will be home for the spring holidays and summer and fall! (well in DC but still- home = AMERICA) I can honestly say that I never truly appreciated America until all my rights and thoughts and ideas that I was free to express there got taken away from me! I LOVE YOU AMERICA! I REALLY DO! We all got problems, but at least in America we can say something about it!

Midterms- Keep your fingers cross!

So midterms. They suck in any setting. Lucky for me, I only have a paper and one test. The test is super important and I am super unprepared, but I will get through. After that I get to go to Israel! Thank goodness. I need some freedom from this place. (remember my game? I got 40 points today- and I had my headphones in so I could have gotten more and not known.) It is making me go to the gym more- I have a lot of anger I can work out on the treadmill, so that's good I guess.

Another thing that makes me mad is the education system here. My language partner, the sweetest smartest girl I have met in a long time, Lara, is studying translation (like I want to! twinsies! lol). However, she is learning incorrect English! I don't mean she isn't learning properly, I mean they are teaching her incorrectly. For example, the phrase is NOT keep your fingers cross! it is crossed. And she is not the only English student whose professors were teaching them incorrectly. My friends Ra'ad and Khalid had a test this summer, and it was on something about verbs. Their teacher taught them that after "I like" there must be a verb ending in 'ing', and after "I would like" there must be the infinitive, "to...." but you could not do "I like" followed by "to...." for example, they were taught that "I like to swim" is incorrect, and you must say "I like swimming". I know I never properly studied English grammar, but I am pretty sure I say "I like to swim" all the time. Frustrating. I am seriously considering coming back (not to Irbid, but to Amman) and teaching English properly after graduation. Also, its not just their English that could use some work. General knowledge is lacking too. My Arabic teacher told us there was a genetic difference between Arabs and Americans and that Americans could not gain weight. Because of genetics. Of Americans. There are so many problems with that statement, we just started at her in exasperation. I mean, 1) we invented McDonald's! 2) Americans don't all have the same ethnicity, so saying we all share some commonality that is different from other countries is just...just wrong. She thought we all looked like actors on TV. That's how they learn about America-from our television shows!

Anyways, I am exhausted, and procrastinating my homework, so I am going to finish this up real quick:

This weekend, my "archaeology class" went on a trip to see the desert castles. We didn't see all of them, just 3: Qasr al-Azraq, Qasr Amra, and Qasr Kharana. They were really cool! Unfortunately, we ended up going with a Jordanian anthropology class so we went on a bus with about 20 Jordanian students. Different cultures, I know, but I was kinda hoping I could sleep on the bus because they are far apart, and about 2 hours from Irbid, so we left really early. I am NOT a morning person, but I figured I would sleep, and when I woke up we would be there. Nope. It was a party bus! There was singing and clapping and trilling, and lots and lots of noise! On top of that, I have been getting these headaches ALL THE TIME and it sucks, and I had one for most of the trip, but explaining to a bus full of Jordanian students that but time was for sleeping is like trying to tell kindergarteners how to build rockets in Chinese. Impossible. On top of that, a lot of the ACs were broken, and were on full blast, so I was freezing. I was miserable on the bus, but the forts were really amazing.

Roman guards carved a mancala board into the floor in the entrance way to play while they worked! how Awesome is that?!

And I am standing in T.E. Lawrence's office....Like a boss

The first one, Qasr al-Azraq was the oldest, and the one I researched (there are 3 students in my Archaeology class so we each researched a fortress and taught the others about them)  It was really cool- Lawrence of Arabia used it as HQ during the winter of 1917 in the revolt, and its entirely made of basalt, and the doors weigh 1ton, but you can open them (with some effort) because they used palm tree oil.

The second fortress was Qasr Amra (Qasr means fortress/castle) it is pretty small and in the middle of the desert. But it was really cool because it is covered floor to ceiling in frescoes from before Islam, aka there are people and animals, not just designs. However, it is in disrepair, and there were people doing restorations, but it kills me that people would graffiti OVER these amazing frescoes from way back in the Umayyid period!

Frescoes at Qasr Amra

The last fortress was really cool too. I don't have any photos yet because my camera died, but I will have to get some from my friends who went with me. It wasn't decorated, and was used only for meetings so it wasn't quite as exciting as the others, but it was earthquake proof!

Next week we have a week break, and I will be going to Israel to party it up!

Its all fun and games until....

I have decided to make a game out of my life here in Irbid, to make the time pass quicker. Here are the rules:

5 points for a drive-by harassment
5 points for original style of harassment
10 points if you see a swastica
10 points if someone throws something at you
20 points if you come inches away from being run over by a car
25 points if you get grabbed on the street
Automatic win for the day if you get hit by a car
Automatic win for the day if you get grabbed more than once

If you get to 100 you win for the day. The game is Us vs Irbid: the Daily Battle


Can you tell what kind of a  week I am having?

oh and I got up to 45 today! Not too shabby eh?

Bnat vs. Food fi Aqaba

Ahlan w Sahlan!

So as you know, the ladies and I spent our weekend in AQABA! It was awesome, aside from being a little sick, having a ton of homework, and having to take two buses to get there. I planned to do my homework on the way down, but the bus driver decided to chain smoke the entire 6 hours to Aqaba, and I was sick already so add some second hand smoke and I was choking and hacking and coughing for about 6 hours, and the smoke stung my eyes so I couldn't read my school book, and it was a huge unfortunate journey. Once we arrived, we went to the hotel where they upgraded us for free because the internet lied about their availability, and then we went out to eat where my ego was lifted as all the waiters were shocked that a white girl could speak so well. I got asked where I was from so many times, and they didn't believe me when I said from America. One waiter asked if I was from Morocco, which was a HUGE ego boost!

That night was movie night. "THANK YOU FOR NOTHING, YOU USELESS REPTILE" Can you guess which movie we saw? Shout out to my awesome sister who gave me all the movies a girl could want in Jordan.

The next day we got up late-ish, and my friend Jenny Sue and I went down to the kitchen to scrounge the last of the breakfast and brought it up to our sleeping friends. We ate, then went to the private pool/beach! Its nice because it is owned by 4 hotels (I think 4) so it is super fancy because some of the hotels are really nice, but not that expensive, and has a swim up bar! I only got one drink because I had to do a lot of reading, and I did finish one chapter and began the second one! Go me! This picture looks like I am drowning a little because I am on point under the water....I'm a little too short. Jenny is on flat feet by the way- she is tall. Oh well, s'est la vie. The pool was beautiful. I didn't go to the beach because I have been before and I didn't want to get all sandy. This pool is water enough for me. and the ocean behind it is in view so it is beauty without the sand! Lunch kinda sucked there- the service was terrible. We ordered salads and a pizza to share, but the pizza took 1 hour to cook apparently and we asked the waitress 3 times and she kept saying 5 minutes and then it would be another 20 minutes before we saw her again. But overall, a great day. We left around 6, and the last bus from the pool was filled, so one of the workers at the beach was instructed to drive us back to the hotel, but then two other girls needed to go, and we were already 5 (not including the driver) in a 5 person car (including the driver) so it wasn't going to work. So they called another bus and we were driven home.

Back at the hotel, after showers, we went to eat and ran into the owner of the hotel who directed us to a very nice restaurant. He also bought us tea (yay free tea!). We ordered what we thought was a reasonable amount of food- I got a small salad and a lentil soup and split an order of sambosak (cheese pastry thing). However, our ideas about the amount of food were a little off! This is the meaning of the title of the podcast (Bnat means girls). The pizza in the photo was called a pastry...we thought it would be small...it wasn't. Unfortunately, I think the lentil soup had chicken stock and I got a stomach ache and went back to the hotel early. The girls were going to go out, but they ended up coming home with movies and Ice cream! Sweet girls. My stomach was still kind of iffy, but the hotel forgot the spoons we requested and when we called down to remind them they sent up more complimentary tea! (yay free tea!) The tea really helped with my stomach and we ended up talking and hanging out eating ice cream and drinking tea till the wee hours of the morning, all together on the big bed Olivia and I shared (such a comfortable bed!).

The next morning I got up early to study a little before we went out. We ended up going to a pizza place and just studying for until it was time to get on our bus home though, so it was a very productive day. The bus ride was long, and the scenery was beautiful if you are feeling optimistic or bleak if you are feeling pessimistic. Jordan really depends on your attitude.

I finished my homework just in time, but was still exhausted for class the next day, and had a coughing attack during my office hour where I pretty much coughed for 30 minutes straight. My teacher almost freaked out and thought I was dying.


Today class was very difficult. Our discussions were...sort of controversial and we talked about homosexuality in my amiyya class. I got a little upset trying to explain that parents are parents and there are good ones and bad ones and if you have two moms or two dads it doesn't matter because love is love is love. And the historical reason for religious opinion against homosexuality is to increase the believers, but now we have too many people in the world so being gay shouldn't be against religion because it is helping...also, one in five of any animal on the planet is gay, so it is totally natural and g-d would not have done that if he had a problem with homosexuality. But after class I talked with my language partner about it, and realized how much I love her! She is so open minded and wonderful and smart and while she doesn't know everything I know, she knows a lot of what I don't know so our conversations are always great...then we ended our chat in a fit of giggles as I told her all the bad words I know in Arabic, and all the bad words in English that have double meanings with not-bad words. Like 'ass' and 'Dick' (the name).

The Awkwardness of Being a Vegetarian in Jordan

People just don't understand what vegetarianism means. Okay so I don't eat mean, but the rice under the meat is fine, right? Sure it's made with chicken stock and soaked in meat juices, but its not meat so you can eat that, right?

No? Why? You are difficult!

That is pretty much how it goes. I have come to a point where I haven't eaten meat in so long (about 13 years) that I can no longer process the enzymes in meat, or something along those lines- all I know is I get violently sick if I eat meat. That is how I explain it to the Jordanians, that I would love to try the food they make me but I will be very sick if I do. They are a polite people and would feel awful if they thought they had made me sick, so they back off. I still offend them for not trying their food, though, and that makes me sad.

Yesterday was cooking class instead of real class. We bought the food, went to my friend Jenny Sue's Apartment with our teachers, and cooked Maqlube (chicken with rice and veggies- potatoes and eggplant and cauliflower) Its relatively similar to every other Jordanian dish, but whatever. It was fun to have a different type of class, but when it came time to eat, my teacher was sad that I didn't try any of the Maqlube and stuck to the salad and cucumber yoghurt we had also made. She couldn't really understand why I didn't eat it, and was disappointed that I hadn't told her before she put the rice in the chicken pot that I wouldn't eat it (I didn't tell her because she had already mixed in chicken stock to the rice, so I wouldn't eat it anyways) It was okay though, because we had lots of salad and yoghurt, and a different class (all 3 classes were cooking and we all live in the same building) had made a vegetarian dish, so I had some of their vegetarian rice with the yoghurt and salad and it was quite good.

It did kinda bother me a little bit that my teacher told us the day before we would be cooking in one of the girls' apartments:
     1)ask us?
     2)why not one of the boys' apartments? I don't cook, but once one of the boys in my class made us a home made pie! kinda sexist, but "Welcome in Jordan!"


On a different not, I was pretty sick this week which sucks because I am going to Aqaba tomorrow!!!!!!! It was supposed to be a whole group thing and be super fun, but all the boys are being stupid and are too tired to come so its just the girls, but it will still be super fun!!!!! I love love love Aqaba! Best place in Jordan!!!

Yesterday, my friend Jenny Sue and I decided to get materials to make muffins with. We made coffee cinnamon muffins, and will be creating different batches in the weeks to come. we both love making muffins for breakfasts, so it will be our Saturday ritual I think. Next week we will be making blueberry muffins (from a box, but still delicious!) Yay I love muffins!!!!

A very busy (and unEllalike) week

Well! two big things I did this week: cook, and hike! Not things I generally enjoy doing, but I did have a great time.


This past Sunday, I learned how to make a Jordanian dish with Lara, my language partner. I forget what it is called, but it is fried eggplant and potatoes cooked with rice and was delicious! I went to Lara's apartment for the first time, and ended up staying there for about 5 hours! We cooked, her friends came over and we all ate together, then she painted my nails (and added pretty stamps to them! It was soo cool I have to get some!) and some little girls from the apartment upstairs came over. One of them had an English test the next day so I helped her study.

My friend Katie and I do yoga while we wait to go hiking

Left to Right: Sam, Me, Chelsea, Olivia, Andrew, Pitrus, Katie, Jenny Sue, Peter

Olivia and I lying in the water after floating down

At the end of the hike, we were underneath a waterfall...thank goodness for waterproof cameras!

Then, this weekend, I had to go to Amman with my Archaeology class, and everyone decided to make a weekend out of it. We went down on Thursday evening, and went to a library that was converted into a bar. On Friday, we went to Wadi Mujib. It was AMAZING. Basically,  there is a siq (like a canyon) created by this river that you walk up. You walk in the water, and have to climb up several small waterfalls to get to a big waterfall. It was really hard at times, and I am sore and bruised and cut up now, but I love anything with water. We had life jackets, and in parts that were deep enough, we would float downstream for a bit. The end of the hike was at a waterfall, and there were a ton of hikers there. Some of the shebab (Jordanian boys) were jumping off a rock under the waterfall, so I did too. I slipped once, but dove a few times. it was pretty fun!

More yoga

The citadel

A view of Amman atop the Roman theater

On Saturday, we met my Archaeology teacher at the Roman Theater, and learned about the history. We also visited the Citadel, which had a beautiful view. We ate lunch at a very non-vegetarian restaurant, even though I told them to ask if there was veggi food, my teacher assured me there would be. There was humus and pita...thats about it. Luckily the heat made me not that hungry.