- 07:23 i keep forgetting im in asia. wow #
- 18:28 i will never take air conditioning for granted again. high of 101 tomorrow? لا شكرا #
- 20:30 i'm melting. mellllltinnnnng #
- 20:47 there is no water in jordan. how in the name of god is it humid? i do not approve #
- 20:59 i really miss speaking french. if i had lots of money and no obligations, i would go back to france in a heartbeat. #
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Daily trivia
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Daily trivia
- 16:51 wadi mujib was epic. already really sore, bruised & cut though. rivers and i are not friends. and i just typed half sentence that in french #
- 20:06 various local mosques were not in sync doing the call to prayer just now. i think this is the 1st time it's happened. or first i've noticed. #
Wadi Mujib, or "Wait, there's water in Jordan?"
Dead Sea, with Israel in the background.
So Wadi Mujib was pretty epic. It was this pretty narrow canyon with a small river running through it. The rocks looked pretty amazing. The sandals I bought yesterday were a pain in the butt because gravel + rushing water + velcro = fail. I wasn't the only one with sandals though, and everyone seemed to be having the same issue. Whatever, it was better than destroying my sneakers.
We walked through the river for a while without issue, and then came to a mini waterfall. There was a rope to hold on to but it was pretty difficult. I obviously need to go to the gym more because I have zero upper body strength. Woot. I am super graceful and pretty much managed to fall/slip/do something stupid at every climbing point. I need to get over my fear of getting hurt. Although there was reason to be a little careful this time, because one of the archeologists living in our building definitely broke her leg at Wadi Mujib. But we all came out of it unharmed, except for random cuts and bruises that come with, you know, being in a rocky river.
The hike ended (for us, anyway) at a big waterfall. Very cool to see. And play around in. And float in. With the exception of the waterfall and some of the mini-waterfalls we had to climb, the water wasn't more than knee-high in the deepest parts, I don't think. After a little while we headed back, and going down the waterfalls we'd climbed was definitely harder than getting up.
Me, Morgan, and Kelly in front of the waterfall. Standing up in that water was not easy.
(Totally stole this pic from Nick's facebook.)
Stole this one from Michelle's Facebook. Yay for waterproof camera bags. Thanks Michelle!
Also stolen from Michelle. More for the view of the walls than the flattering picture of me.
I've pretty much done nothing since we got back at 2. Cleaned up my room a little, applied antibacterial ointment to the scrap on my hand countless times, pretended to start working on the essay I have to write to graduate with honors (graduate? me? insha'allah!)... yeah. Nothing too fancy. And I'm about to go watch Bones with a friend. My life is pretty awesome. Or will be, til I wake up in the morning sore from today's adventures and faced with 4 hours of class. Dun dun dun.
Irbid & Um Qais
Okay, so last Saturday we went to Irbid and Um Qais. In Irbid all we saw was a museum. Well, it was first an Ottoman castle, then was converted to a prison in the 19th or 20th century, then it became a museum in like, the 1980s? It was a pretty small museum, but pretty cool to think, "Hey, this used to be a castle!" Which was a little weird because now it's in the middle of a crowded city with narrow streets and way too many cars and buildings. There were artifacts from all different points in history, but only a few from each point. Bronze or Stone Age tools, Roman things, Ottoman things, other peoples' things. And a view underneath the courtyard of old walls. I assume they pre-date the palace, but I'm not sure. Twas cool anyway. It's funny how I hate history but love seeing old things.
From there we went to Um Qais, which is an old city once named Gadara. And is in the Bible. And is supposedly the place where Jesus drove demons out of a guy and into a herd of pigs who then ran down the hill and drowned in the Sea of Galilee, although according to Wikipedia this location is disputed. (The Sea was pretty far, unless it was super huge back then.) We could also see the Golan Heights and I think Palestine from there? I can't remember. The city also used to be an Ottoman village. The dilemma with excavations there is that the Ottoman stuff is considered ancient and they can't/won't destroy it to access the older stuff, of which there's a whole lot just chilling underground. Oh well.
Sea of Galilee. It's a blue strip that starts about in the middle on the left side.
It was a hazy day so the pictures didn't come out well.
Golan Heights
We wandered a little bit and had lunch at the restaurant that was there. It was tasty. I am so in love with hummus it's ridiculous. I hope VCU's dining hall still has it when I go back. They definitely did before and always looked at it and thought it had to be disgusting. Oh how wrong I was. I mean, I'm sure VCU hummus can't be half as good as actual Middle Eastern hummus, but I'll take what I can get. After lunch we had 45 more minutes to wander. Jennifer and I wandered out to where a temple used to stand, and to where an amphitheatre used to be. Except most of the structure is gone and it's just a huge dirt hill. And we thought it would be awesome to climb up it instead of going all the way back around. That was a fantastic decision, let me tell you. Running up a steep hill made of bone-dry dirt with pretty much nothing to hold on to? It was definitely a workout. And Um Qais was really really hot, too. And a little humid, which was a strange feeling because there is definitely no humidity in Amman. At all.
My shoes got really dusty running up the hill. They were black once.
At some point we were supposed to go to Yarmouk to a battle site from the Crusades (?), but for some reason it got scrapped. Oh well. Not a huge problem. (Because really, what's going to be there? Probably nothing to actually see.) Came home. Did nothing of value. Glorious day.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Daily trivia
- 09:07 so it finally happened. the building ran out of water. this is going to make life awkward for the rest of the day. #
- 19:57 when i go home i think i will actually miss the calls to prayer. i hardly notice them now but will likely realize they're missing later #
- 19:58 also a car backfired near us earlier and i jumped a mile thinking it was a gunshot. #
- 21:39 it's going to be really, really weird trying to speak english without random arabic words when i go home. and probably really awkward :( #
Tilapia, Vampires, and Werewolves, Oh My!
Lame title is lame. Anyway.
Life continues as usual in Amman. Classes, tutoring appointments, the same routine all day. Followed by trying to cram homework and naps into our free time. For my class it's not so bad, but some of the upper levels are just doing homework constantly. I was awesome and didn't get to the gym at all last week, go me. But I will be making up for it tomorrow, for sure. We're going to Wadi Mujib tomorrow (here's another website) and it looks like it's going to be an epic workout. Unfortunately there won't be any epic photos. Swimming and rivers and waterfalls are involved, meaning we can't bring anything that can't get wet. Sadness.
Aaaaanyway, yesterday I went to see Eclipse (the third installment of Twilight) with some of my friends. I wasn't a fan of the first one and loathed the second, but wanted to see this to see how bad it was, basically, since I've read all the books anyway. After our test yesterday afternoon, Nick, Morgan, and I went to one of the malls here, got our tickets, and went to Chili's in said mall. Yes, Chili's. Right next to TGI Friday's. Wow. As far as the movie tickets went, you had to pick your seats before the tickets were even printed. That was a new experience.
Chili's was extremely tasty. I had tilapia with rice and veggies and it was really good, though very spicy. So to balance it, I had a cookie brownie sundae thing for dessert. It was amazing. Gloriously unhealthy, but amazing all the same. We also had the most ridiculous conversations during dinner. And the waiter probably thought we were crazy, but that's totally okay. After dinner we met up with Kelly and Michelle, but they hadn't been with us when we bought tickets so we weren't all sitting in the same place. :(
Once we got inside the theater, we had to wait til 730 (scheduled movie time) before they even let us in the room. And once inside, we had ushers guide us to our seats. Whaaaat. They were cushy seats and there was actually room to walk through the aisle without jumping over people. They didn't recline, though, which was a little disappointing. Going to the movies in the States will never be the same.
The movie itself was kind of meh. I have no reason to like it but for some reason I still do. Really hoping it's just the fact that I was having a great night and even Robert Pattinson couldn't ruin that for me. Yeah, let's go with that explanation. People in the theater talked through the whole thing, though, and answered phones and whatnot. I don't quite understand, but oh well. I got kind of excited during the (two) previews, because they were in English but subtitled in Arabic and French. But then when the movie started the only subtitles were Arabic. Sad face. They went by a little too fast for me to get a lot out of them, but I got some words, so I'm happy.
After the movie I just came back here, watched an episode of Bones, and went to bed. Because I'm that awesome. But it was a pretty good day. Very fun. Even if I did go see Twilight. Today I've pretty much done nothing. Homework, went out with Morgan shopping for shoes to wear tomorrow rather than destroy my sneakers, went to some other stores, came back. And I couldn't tell you what I've done for the past few hours. Whoops.
I know I still have to write about Irbid and Um Qais last Saturday. That's on the way, eventually. And there will be a post about tomorrow, eventually. Probably not too long, but there will be one. Til then, good night!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Daily trivia
- 15:10 test today. then going to chili's and to see the new twilight movie with friends. win. #
- 22:26 that was a fun night. i think i kinda liked eclipse, but hoping it's just misappropriation since i liked the people i was with /psych minor #
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)