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!