Parkouring in the North

Yesterday was our first group trip. It was a short trip, only one day. In three weeks we will go on a longer trip and stay over night in places (Petra I hope! But probably in a beduin camp in the desert). This trip we went on yesterday was a ton of fun. All the language partners were invited, and many came but mine stood me up which I was disappointed about. 

Little aside about my language partner: She is really sweet, but she seems like school is too busy for her and doesn't have enough time to meet with me. I have to talk to her next time I see her because I have only met with her twice and we were supposed to meet four times. 

Now back to the trip.

We went to three sights of Roman ruins: Um Qais, Ajloun, and Jerash. The difference between ancient ruins here and anywhere else in the world, we were allowed to climb all over the ruins! I know its wrong, but it was sooo muuuch fuuunnn! I felt like a kid again, parkouring all around the ruins. DEFINITION: Parkour (par core) the act of getting from point a to point b in the most difficult way possible

Basically, we climbed all over everything. 

UM QAIS

Located in sight of the Sea of Galilee, it was too cloudy to see Tiberias, but I think I was able to make out a bit of it. I love ruins, and this was no exception. One thing I particularly enjoyed was the flowers I saw there. There is a lack of color here, but I came across some beautiful flowers and and flowering bushes.

When we first were set lose in the ruined town, most of the students walked up some stairs and found their way into the Amphitheater. However, I was interested in exploring a side tunnel (turned out to be what looked like a sewer line of sorts). A few of the boys followed me into the tunnel and we ended up climbing up a 10 foot wall to get to the amphitheater and everyone else. The boy in this picture is Jeff. He studies at George Washington University as well along with another girl here, Lindsay. I really like most of the people here (There are a few annoying people here, but for the most part everyone is really nice). 

This photo is of me and two of my better friends on the program. The blonde girl in the middle is Jessie from New York (not the city) and the girl on the left is Danielle from Tennessee. They both go to American University in D.C. (Danielle actually graduated this past spring, so I guess technically she doesn't go to American anymore. 

AJLOUN CASTLE

 

Ajloun Castle is about 40 minutes from Irbid, where I live. I think it was used as protection during the crusades from invasion in the north. It is pretty close to the border with Syria as well. Before we went into the castle, there was a man selling fresh authentic Arabic Coffee (Kahuah in Fos-ha and 'ahua in Amiyya). This is where most of the students really got into their parkouring- I personally didn't come into my own until the next site, Jerash, but still mannaged to do some climbing. 

This photo was taken at the top of the castle, and from left to right is Laura (not Lauren my roommate- we still accidentally mix up their names a lot, as well as between Jess and Jessie, and myself and the girl Emma - So many similar names!!!!!) Anyways, the first girl is Laura, then Nicole, myself, and Jessie.

JERASH

Jerash was my favorite place of the three. It was the biggest and most extensive bunch of ruins. This is where I really got to climb and play and parkour with my friens :)

This is a photo of Hamseh (a language partner with a need for attention) climbing up the wall and into a hole in Jerash. We all watched as he almost fell like five times, but he was fine and no one got hurt (here).

Above, I am sitting on stones from the town center. Some Roman emperor with a really long name came here for his winter home. Thus the town was built up and a colonnade was built for him, and everything was really nice. Hundreds of years later, its still pretty cool. The photo to the right is taken from the top of a wall I climbed - about 40 or so feet up. In the distance is the rest of the town and you can see  the famous colonnade and amphitheater and temple. We spent the most time here and I had the most fun (there were also two horses here which was nice to see). It was hard climbing up, but really fun, and it felt pretty awesome to be up on top of a huge ancient building! 

After Jerash, we went out to dinner at this HUGE tented restaurant. It really was more of a banquet hall. It was a lot of family style Middle Eastern food, however they brought all the vegetarians (there are like 5 of us and two girls who only eat chicken!) individual bowls of vegetables and rice....basically it looked and tasted like Aloo Gobi which I thought was really funny. I ate SO much because it was delicious, and they brought us tea and coffee afterward, (the do after every meal) and we also got some Argila (Hookah) and some of us sat in a circle smoking. I don't really get why its so much fun, it doesn't really do anything for me, but I sat with everyone and drank my tea. I did try some, but it really doesn't make me light headed like it is supposed to, so I don't really like it.

After all that, we went home, and I thought I would just pass out because I was exhausted, but nope! It was party time! A lot of the students went over to my friends Jessie and Lindsay's room and we had booze and music and chatted away in Arablish (Arabic English combined, like Spanglish) until very late. Unfortunately, and what goes against everything I have been raised to be, us women folk are forbidden from walking alone outside after 6pm! So one of the boys, Rob- a very nice man who I was able to get to know a lot better today- we had some good bonding- walked me and the other girls from my building home. I really hate having to be walked home, but there have been some issues from the Shebab (the young boys between the ages of 15 and 25 who are horrible annoying boys who think they can harass women as they walk by) so its better to be safe than not.

Today, I have done NOTHING! Literally, it took me until 2pm to get up and make myself some food, a delicious stir fry which I am getting quite skilled at making with my limited ghetto cooking supplies. Mostly, I have been trying to upload these photos onto this blog, which takes forever, and listening to my favorite podcast, 'Stuff You Missed in History Class'. Oddly enough, I took a break from my computer to stare out the window for a while as it suddenly started pouring, and stranger yet, hailing! there were little balls of hail, and I was so shocked because it is almost 90 degrees out! I was also worried because the rain made the street into a river in about 5 seconds, so I hope it doesn't rain too much in the fall!