Is anyone still out there?
I'm a gigantic slacker and never got around to making the last few posts about Jordan. Hopefully I will get to that soon.
I'm also going to start using this blog again. Hopefully. Now that I've graduated and moved on from VCU I figure I should probably keep people updated on what I'm doing with my life. Which hasn't been a whole lot at this point, but it's only been a week and a half. Don't judge me.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Fun weekend of fun.
Thursday night 7/29: Jennifer, Nick, and I rented a car to drive around and see the desert castles that are here. More on those later. We'd wanted to leave Thursday night and just spent the night somewhere in the east, but it didn't work because we didn't even decide to go and to rent the car until 1 that afternoon. So we stayed in Amman, but Jennifer and I wanted to go out somewhere because we had a car. So we went with George, Miriam, and Carissa to a restaurant called The Seven Hills and was maybe 20-30 minutes away? Everything here is a pretty decent drive from anywhere else, so I don't really notice length anymore. Dinner was tasty. Pretty much the same food as usual. But still tasty. On the road leading to/from the restaurant there was a small amusement park. One of the best quotes of the night: "Can I ride a horse ON the ferris wheel?" We were joking with George about riding a horse and riding the ferris wheel too. And then had a fun joke for the rest of the night. Of course it's one of those you-had-to-be-there things, but it still amuses me.
I should mention that maps here are fairly useless because the streets aren't marked, or signs are wrong, or things change, or for any number of reasons. Regardless, we set off for Marka, which we can't figure out whether it's a city/town itself or just a section of Amman (all of which have names). We wound up looking for Al-Quds (Jerusalem) street, and from there were supposed to turn onto Al-Houriya (freedom) street. The irony is delicious. After turning onto some random street and driving for a while, and being stuck in traffic for a while, and having no idea what street we were actually on (but being totally okay with that), we magically wound up on the next street we needed. It was a pretty epic moment. We're not sure that we ever found houriya though. (These are probably only funny if you speak Arabic.)
We wandered around Marka for a while, just up and down the main street. And while we were there we ran into Ali and Othman, two of the Iraqi refugees we meet with in Marka every week and teach English to. We went back to their house and sat for a while, then went back out with them and got ice cream. We joked about eating their fish (in their fishtank) for dinner. It was fun. And we watched random Arabic music videos on TV and made fun of them. Woo.
Friday 7/30: Friday I got up bright and early to go see the castles with Jennifer and Nick at 7am. Ugh. We drove. We got mildly lost. We found the right way and still joked about being lost. Honestly, the desert looks the same whether you're going the right way or not. The first of the castles in the loop that we came upon turned out not to be a castle, but we didn't know this until we got back in the car after seeing it. It was really an old bathhouse for the castle/fort nearby. It was super small and when we drove by it at first we were all like, "No. No this cannot be a castle. What is going on?" So we explored a little. Moved on. The next castle (which was actually a fort) wasn't open for visitors yet, because it wasn't yet 9 am and probably because it was Friday. I'm not sure about that part. Either way, we admired it from afar and kept going. Stopped at Azraq Castle, or whatever it was called. It was in Azraq regardless. Wandered around in it for a while. Drove around and around looking for the Wetland Reserve that we'd been told to go to by other people. Finally found it and then were disappointed by the lack of animals and the lack of wet. It used to be an oasis but most of the water is gone. Whoops. There was a lot of water buffalo poop though. And I mean a lot. We saw some tiny frogs and three water buffalo and that was it. Anticlimactic.
After that we went to lunch at a Saudi restaurant in Azraq. Fun experience there. We asked what they had (menus as we know them in the US aren't too popular here). I remember saying "I don't care what we get so long as it's not an organ of some kind." We wound up ordering kubdeh (?), which sounded familiar to me, but I wasn't sure so I didn't say anything. Nick said he didn't know what it was but had had it before and it was good. So when our food comes, Jennifer tries it and looks at him funny. It was liver and he knew it. (Evidenced by how he started laughing.) Turns out it's not so bad. Not on my list of favorites, but I can now cross "eat something weird" from my to-do list. Yay.
After lunch we went to one last castle, which wasn't a castle but was again a fort. And had the remains of a city with it, but we were exhausted and melting so we didn't care too much about seeing the rest of the random things. Judging from the map I don't know how much of the random things was actually left to see; it sounded more like there was just spots where they thought things used to be. As we walk into the castle/whatever building, a huge Saudi family is leaving. And then they come back in.
And they stare at us. And giggle. And blatantly start taking pictures of us on their phones. It was actually pretty hilarious, in a "is this really happening?" kind of way. The kids followed us around and crowded around us in the small rooms of the castle. Finallyl one girl came over and asked if they could take a picture with us, and I swear there were at least a dozen pictures taken. It was cute. We walked back to our car not long after they did, and they kept staring at us, waving, and even taking pictures from their car in the parking lot. It was so. Cute.
We got back to Amman between 3 and 4. I took an amazing nap. And then I did nothing of import until bedtime. Yay.
Saturday 7/31: Saturday was the last organized trip we had as a group. We started at Mt. Nebo, where Moses is supposedly buried. The church there was closed for renovation. Story of my life; everywhere I go something is covered by scaffolding. So there wasn't a lot to see there. There was the big cross thingy and a hazy view into a few different countries. Still a cool experience, but would have been better minus the haze. And minus the heat. I'm pretty sure they told us that day was the hottest day of the summer. Awesome.
After Mt. Nebo we went to a mosiac school in Madaba, where people learn how to recreate old mosaics. It was impressive but the replics don't have the same feel as old ones. Then we went to St. George's Church in Madaba, where there is/was a huge mosaic map of the world at that time. More for pigrams and such, I think, and less geographically accurate, but still awesome. Except half of it was lost in the 13 years after they uncovered it and didn't do anything to preserve it. Then we had lunch, which was tasty but of course I can't name half the food we ate.
From there, it was Dead Sea time. At the Dead Sea it was over 115 degrees. Death indeed. There are one or two public beaches there (which you still pay to get into), and all the hotels around it have private beaches, so you pay the hotel instead. We did the latter. People burnt their feet on the way down to the beach because the sand was so hot. The water was so warm it was like the most disgusting bath ever. And so salty. Floating in it was cool. At least at the beginning. Then it got kind of old. And they tell you only to swim on your back because people have drowned on the surface of the water on their stomachs because it's super hard to flip yourself over.
We all covered ourselves in mud (so SLIMY!), which is really good for your skin and a really good exfoliator and whatnot. There are all kinds of dead sea beauty products here. And then we washed the mud off. I went up to the hotel pool with Brittney and we went down the water slide, which we figured out after the fact was probably only meant for kids because it was made of fail for us. Stayed in the pool a few minutes then got out and changed because the humidity was just gross. Yeah the heat wasn't fun but it's really the humidity that kills you. It's been 100+ here a lot but it's better than being at home with low 90s but high humidity. Found the hotel bar, got a drink, discovered I don't like pina coladas, and did my homework. Yes, I brought homework. But a lot of us did, because we had like 5 hours there and you can only swim for so long. The bar was air conditioned too, which was the best part.
We got back around 7 and I spent from about 8 until 2am working on a paper for VCU; instead of a thesis like some schools have, the Honors College requires a reflective paper if we want to graduate with university honors (different from latin honors, which is automatic if you qualify). So that was done, finally. It was due by midnight EST, so I finished about 5 hours before it was due. Awesome.
Since sometime before that weekend, today was the first day I've had to get a decent amount of sleep, and it was glorious. It's nasty and hot out again as usual, which is a bit of a problem, but eh. I can't wait to go to VCU and have my own room and bathroom. I'm so over the sharing a bathroom thing. And with 3 roommates here it's been pretty impossible to sleep through the night. Wah. It's not as desperate as it sounds, but being able to sleep for 8 straight hours with no interruptions will be so amazing. Yay. 15 days til Richmond. 10 til Boston. Excited kitty is excited.
Other posts about other things to come in the future, but I'm going to lunch with a friend at her Jordanian friend's house soon and I have to get ready. Bye bye!
Pictures
I should mention that maps here are fairly useless because the streets aren't marked, or signs are wrong, or things change, or for any number of reasons. Regardless, we set off for Marka, which we can't figure out whether it's a city/town itself or just a section of Amman (all of which have names). We wound up looking for Al-Quds (Jerusalem) street, and from there were supposed to turn onto Al-Houriya (freedom) street. The irony is delicious. After turning onto some random street and driving for a while, and being stuck in traffic for a while, and having no idea what street we were actually on (but being totally okay with that), we magically wound up on the next street we needed. It was a pretty epic moment. We're not sure that we ever found houriya though. (These are probably only funny if you speak Arabic.)
We wandered around Marka for a while, just up and down the main street. And while we were there we ran into Ali and Othman, two of the Iraqi refugees we meet with in Marka every week and teach English to. We went back to their house and sat for a while, then went back out with them and got ice cream. We joked about eating their fish (in their fishtank) for dinner. It was fun. And we watched random Arabic music videos on TV and made fun of them. Woo.
Friday 7/30: Friday I got up bright and early to go see the castles with Jennifer and Nick at 7am. Ugh. We drove. We got mildly lost. We found the right way and still joked about being lost. Honestly, the desert looks the same whether you're going the right way or not. The first of the castles in the loop that we came upon turned out not to be a castle, but we didn't know this until we got back in the car after seeing it. It was really an old bathhouse for the castle/fort nearby. It was super small and when we drove by it at first we were all like, "No. No this cannot be a castle. What is going on?" So we explored a little. Moved on. The next castle (which was actually a fort) wasn't open for visitors yet, because it wasn't yet 9 am and probably because it was Friday. I'm not sure about that part. Either way, we admired it from afar and kept going. Stopped at Azraq Castle, or whatever it was called. It was in Azraq regardless. Wandered around in it for a while. Drove around and around looking for the Wetland Reserve that we'd been told to go to by other people. Finally found it and then were disappointed by the lack of animals and the lack of wet. It used to be an oasis but most of the water is gone. Whoops. There was a lot of water buffalo poop though. And I mean a lot. We saw some tiny frogs and three water buffalo and that was it. Anticlimactic.
After that we went to lunch at a Saudi restaurant in Azraq. Fun experience there. We asked what they had (menus as we know them in the US aren't too popular here). I remember saying "I don't care what we get so long as it's not an organ of some kind." We wound up ordering kubdeh (?), which sounded familiar to me, but I wasn't sure so I didn't say anything. Nick said he didn't know what it was but had had it before and it was good. So when our food comes, Jennifer tries it and looks at him funny. It was liver and he knew it. (Evidenced by how he started laughing.) Turns out it's not so bad. Not on my list of favorites, but I can now cross "eat something weird" from my to-do list. Yay.
After lunch we went to one last castle, which wasn't a castle but was again a fort. And had the remains of a city with it, but we were exhausted and melting so we didn't care too much about seeing the rest of the random things. Judging from the map I don't know how much of the random things was actually left to see; it sounded more like there was just spots where they thought things used to be. As we walk into the castle/whatever building, a huge Saudi family is leaving. And then they come back in.
And they stare at us. And giggle. And blatantly start taking pictures of us on their phones. It was actually pretty hilarious, in a "is this really happening?" kind of way. The kids followed us around and crowded around us in the small rooms of the castle. Finallyl one girl came over and asked if they could take a picture with us, and I swear there were at least a dozen pictures taken. It was cute. We walked back to our car not long after they did, and they kept staring at us, waving, and even taking pictures from their car in the parking lot. It was so. Cute.
We got back to Amman between 3 and 4. I took an amazing nap. And then I did nothing of import until bedtime. Yay.
Saturday 7/31: Saturday was the last organized trip we had as a group. We started at Mt. Nebo, where Moses is supposedly buried. The church there was closed for renovation. Story of my life; everywhere I go something is covered by scaffolding. So there wasn't a lot to see there. There was the big cross thingy and a hazy view into a few different countries. Still a cool experience, but would have been better minus the haze. And minus the heat. I'm pretty sure they told us that day was the hottest day of the summer. Awesome.
After Mt. Nebo we went to a mosiac school in Madaba, where people learn how to recreate old mosaics. It was impressive but the replics don't have the same feel as old ones. Then we went to St. George's Church in Madaba, where there is/was a huge mosaic map of the world at that time. More for pigrams and such, I think, and less geographically accurate, but still awesome. Except half of it was lost in the 13 years after they uncovered it and didn't do anything to preserve it. Then we had lunch, which was tasty but of course I can't name half the food we ate.
From there, it was Dead Sea time. At the Dead Sea it was over 115 degrees. Death indeed. There are one or two public beaches there (which you still pay to get into), and all the hotels around it have private beaches, so you pay the hotel instead. We did the latter. People burnt their feet on the way down to the beach because the sand was so hot. The water was so warm it was like the most disgusting bath ever. And so salty. Floating in it was cool. At least at the beginning. Then it got kind of old. And they tell you only to swim on your back because people have drowned on the surface of the water on their stomachs because it's super hard to flip yourself over.
We all covered ourselves in mud (so SLIMY!), which is really good for your skin and a really good exfoliator and whatnot. There are all kinds of dead sea beauty products here. And then we washed the mud off. I went up to the hotel pool with Brittney and we went down the water slide, which we figured out after the fact was probably only meant for kids because it was made of fail for us. Stayed in the pool a few minutes then got out and changed because the humidity was just gross. Yeah the heat wasn't fun but it's really the humidity that kills you. It's been 100+ here a lot but it's better than being at home with low 90s but high humidity. Found the hotel bar, got a drink, discovered I don't like pina coladas, and did my homework. Yes, I brought homework. But a lot of us did, because we had like 5 hours there and you can only swim for so long. The bar was air conditioned too, which was the best part.
We got back around 7 and I spent from about 8 until 2am working on a paper for VCU; instead of a thesis like some schools have, the Honors College requires a reflective paper if we want to graduate with university honors (different from latin honors, which is automatic if you qualify). So that was done, finally. It was due by midnight EST, so I finished about 5 hours before it was due. Awesome.
Since sometime before that weekend, today was the first day I've had to get a decent amount of sleep, and it was glorious. It's nasty and hot out again as usual, which is a bit of a problem, but eh. I can't wait to go to VCU and have my own room and bathroom. I'm so over the sharing a bathroom thing. And with 3 roommates here it's been pretty impossible to sleep through the night. Wah. It's not as desperate as it sounds, but being able to sleep for 8 straight hours with no interruptions will be so amazing. Yay. 15 days til Richmond. 10 til Boston. Excited kitty is excited.
Other posts about other things to come in the future, but I'm going to lunch with a friend at her Jordanian friend's house soon and I have to get ready. Bye bye!
Pictures
Saturday, July 24, 2010
You Know You've Been Abroad Too Long When...
...you make faces like this. This is Morgan, me, and Nick making our "excited faces" when we went to see Eclipse on July 8th. Morgan took it, but I just had to share it. I think it's the most ridiculous picture that's been taken on this program. And one of the more awesome ones.
(Does anyone really want me to come home after seeing this?)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Photos
Dana photos
Day 2: Wadi Musa and Little Petra
Petra photos to come tomorrow, since Photobucket still doesn't like me and is begin difficult.
Day 2: Wadi Musa and Little Petra
Petra photos to come tomorrow, since Photobucket still doesn't like me and is begin difficult.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Epic Jordanian Weekend
Thursday: Wadi Dana Nature Reserve
Last Thursday we had our midterm at Qasid (our school thing) and some classes, and then we all bolted back home to pack. We had an hour before we left for our epic weekend.
A 3(?)-hour drive took us south to the Wadi Dana Nature Reserve. At the top of a mountain we wound had the option of walking down to the camp or taking their "shuttle," which is pretty much a large pickup truck with benches around it. Most of us wound up walking down. Our guide had said it was "a few miles" but it definitely didn't seem like that on the way. I didn't think to time it, but it's not like we were walking super quickly or anything. We were taking a lot of photos and enjoying the crazy scenery.
We had time to kill before dinner, so after stashing our stuff in our tents I went with Jennifer, Morgan, Brittney, and Ashley and we hiked a little bit. Then sat and kinda sorta watched the sunset, by which I mean watched the colors in the sky change because the sun was behind a mountain that we thought we wouldn't have had time to climb but it turns out we probably would have. Oh well.
I couldn't tell you what dinner was, because I never usually know what food is here anyway. It was tasty though. After dinner we went and sat under some other tents in a little open area and then sat by a campfire and talked. And there were stars. So many stars. If there's one thing I miss about Morocco, that is definitely it. You couldn't see all of them from AUI, but you could definitely see a lot more than you can from home or Richmond. And then of course there were the zillions of stars I saw in Chaouen and the Sahara. But yeah. We could see lots of stars in Dana too. Not as many as I saw before, I don't think, which is weird. Or I could just fail at figuring out nature. Which is likely. Anyway. Yeah. Went to bed after that.
Friday: Showbak Castle, random fortress, Little Petra, Bedouin dinner?
Friday we got up bright and early for breakfast before heading to Wadi Musa, the city next to Petra. Petra being the old city/current park, Wadi Musa being the actual city. Out hotel was little across from the entrance to the park. On the way there we stopped for an hour at a 12-th century Crusader castle. It was empty and partially destroyed, but pretty cool.
We had a really tasty buffet lunch at our (5-star!) hotel, then I headed out with some friends to another 12-century fortress that was just chilling by the sid eof the road 10-15 minutes from the hotel. Just chilling. There wasn't a whole lot left of it, but it was pretty awesome. Especially scrambling up and down on it. We spent probably two hours out there. It was awesome being in the little mountain area and whatnot. But it was really hot and really windy, especially the higher we got up.
After the fortress and a glorious 40-minute quasi-nap, we headed to Little Petra, which was the commercial part of Petra. (The more famous part was the necropolis.) There's not a hole lot there anymore, obviously. Things carved into the cliff/mountain walls. Big things. I mean, they're pretty impressive and pretty cool, but I think I'm hitting the point where ruins aren't super awesome to me anymore. Olympos was amazing; Volubilis was okay but nothing too impressive; Jerash was kind of awesome; and since then I'm kind of getting tired of ruins. They're all pretty much the same thing. Granted all that I've seen with the exception of Petra has been Roman, which really is all the same thing, but... yeah. I still think they're awesome but I'm not in a hurry to see too many more. Maybe I should have gone to Rome during my semester in France, because now I don't know how cool it would be. =P
Dinner consisted of stopping the bus on the side of the road and walking into the desert/mountains a little ways. It was Bedouin style? But still consisted of the same things we have all the time at restaurants and such here. But sitting outside in the beautiful weather and enjoying the food and the people. Though we were all pretty exhausted already so we weren't entirely into it.
Saturday: PETRA
Up bright and early again. Breakfast buffet at the hotel. 8 hours spent in Petra. Lots of walking, lots of sun, lots of hot. The Treasury was awesome though. Tis the building in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Just being able to see part of it from the Siq (path/road/something between two cliff walls) and knowing the rest was around the corner was kind of crazy. Of course the sun was shining right on it so it didn't come out half as epic in the pictures, but it was awesome. I mean, none of my pictures of anything do things justice here. These are things that you just have to experience yourself to really get it.
From the Treasury (which is really a tomb but is so named because people believe/d that a pharaoh hid a treasure in the urn carved at the top of it) we went down the road (the only one in the city really) and then started an epic climb to the "High Place of Sacrifice." Lolz. Along the way we got separated from the large group that our tour guide was leading, but it wasn't really an issue. I wound up with Michael for most of the time. At the top of the High Place we were talking to two French ladies. And my French failed me, which is seriously disturbing. I mean, maybe not failed so much as when they asked us questions I fully understood them but the first words that popped into my head in terms of answers were definitely Arabic and I stumbled over them trying to force the French out. It was so frustrating. I mean, probably a sign that I'm getting a lot better at Arabic but really not my favorite feeling in the world. Meh.
We wound up taking the back way, ish, from the High Place. I mean, there was a trail but it was even more climbing down the back of the mountain and more dirt path behind everything. A few times I wondered whether we were even going the right way, but there was no other way to go. The map I had was a little deceiving in terms of the distance between things. But we found our way out in the end. Saw more old things. And a giant temple. And then had tasty lunch. Which made some people sick, but luckily not me.
After lunch Michael and I stuck together and headed up the 45-minute hike to the Monastery. It's the building in Transformers 2. Which I haven't seen but probably will even though it's supposed to be awful, if only to watch it and say "Hey I was there!" It was a pain in the butt hike, for real. But we made it. And saw the end of the world, which is just the view from the top of the mountains. But it was pretty epic. I have lots of photos of it, but they will have to wait til the next post because I'm having issues logging into Photobucket right now. But for now you get the text version, at least. I know I didn't write a lot but there's not a lot to write. It's a whole lot of seeing things and taking pictures and not being able to describe things accurately because there aren't words to do them justice.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Bah.
Awesome, so the twitter-posting-thing I've been using seems to have stopped working and the website is down. You can still find my twitter and check it there, though admittedly I've not posted a lot in the past few days. Well I couldn't post anything over the weekend, but yeah.
I swear photos and recaps of the weekend will come soon. But between activities and being super tired the past two days I've not had time to do anything. But they will happen. Soon. Ish. Maybe. Insha'allah.
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