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).
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