End Times

Hey everyone, this is my last post. I am sitting in the Queen Alia International Airport at 5:43am waiting for my plane. I am tired and I don't feel like writing so this will b short, but I will add pictures to previous posts as well.

Last weekend I went to Jerusalem. It was great. There are the holiest sites in the world and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Pictures of the Dome of the Rock, Western Wall, Church of Holy Sepulchre, and a chess tournament.

I finished my class at the university and got an A, but I feel like the class was too slow.

I have enjoyed Jordan, but I am ready to come home. Amman is a little dull and I am sick of the food. Also I want a shower with water pressure that leaves me feeling clean and not just wet.

Finally when we were leaving our apartment our glorified doorman demanded that we all pay him 5 JD for cleaning the room. We laughed because the rooms were filthy when we moved in. He threw a fit and yelled that we needed to "pay or leave the rooms as you take them." We took this to mean that we should make the rooms as we were when we moved in, so we threw some dirt on the floor and looked for some cockroaches to hide in the bathroom.

Barring anything interesting on the flight back I don't have anything else to say. Thanks for reading.

The Second Oldest City in The World

Our first trip outside of Jordan was quite spectacular. Brett, Mary, and I decided that since Saleh wasn't able to get us visas to Syria we would try for ourselves at the border. We had to wait six hours before they would give us visas (America doesn't exactly have good relations with Syria), while all the Europeans passed by in mere minutes. We got dropped off by our service taxi outside the city and had to find a new one to take us to our hotel, and this driver didn't know where it was so we had to ask around on the streets of Damascus before we found a guy who answered by pinting directly above himself to a sign that read "Al-Rais" which was convienently the name of the place we were staying. We checked in to our hotel and we given a key that resembled the dungeon keys of the middle ages with a single tooth and weighing in at about 2.5 lbs. (picture to come when possible).

The city is very old; it s believied to be founded in 4000 BC and have been continuosly inhabited since. The only older city is Byblos in Lebanon. We visited The Ummayyed Mosque and a shrine that was the most ornate building imaginable. We were the only tourists in the shrine and we had a guide take us through because we were not sure where we were allowed to stand. We felt very uncomfortable as the Shiite pilgrims cried and prayed around us, but soon some started approaching us and asking us to take pictures of them. We then felt comfortable taking pictures of our own. We also saw the tomb of Saladin (the one who repelled the Crusaders) and the tomb of John the Baptist.

Aside from ancient buildings and graves, the city also has the enourmously large souks (markets). There are literally many square miles of wall to wall stores selling Middle Eastern goods. Unlike the souks in Jordan, Syrian souks maintain their Middle Eastern culture very well and do not sell many western goods. I bought a handmade backgammon and chess set for about $40. We also watched people make large plates out of copper, which apparently Syria is famous for.

We also went to the Syrian National Museum, which is very impressive. Brett tried to take a picture of some Babylonian script despite a sign that clearly said no pictures. An alarm went off and we were scared as hell. We were worried about going to Syrian prison. I left the room in hopes of not being associated with the perpetrator. This prooved unneccesary as the guards did not move an inch.

Despite being a country with notoriously bad relations with the U.S., I felt extremely safe in Syria and the people were extremely friendly and helpful. When we hesistantly told people we were American, they were generally interested in us and why we came to Syria. Mary and I even got some free chocolate.

Again I will try to put pictures up when I have an a way to do it. My usb drive is broken so I am looking for another way.

Wadi Rum

Two weekends ago I was at Wadi Rum with the two French girls in my class and a guy named Omar who lives near Boston. Wadi Rum is where T.E. Lawerence lived and the movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. The landscape is magnificent, however, the computer I am currently on will not allow me to load pictures right now so I will add them later. We took a long Jeep ride stopping at each of the famous sites. We climbed up a mountain the get to Lawrence Spring. At first. Wwalking in the desert actually wasn't so bad and I thought that the Israelites must not of had it as rough as the Bible makes it sound. Then we came to a sand dune. These things are gigantic and your feet sink into them. By the time I got to the top my legs were exautsted. After resting, I decided to run down, but realized I was heading for some rocks and took a head first dive into the sand. Every crevice of my body filled with the red sand, and it wasn't until three days later that I got all of it our of my ears. I still have some in my shoes and jeans two weeks later.

After seeing the rest of the sights we slept in Bedouin tents out in the desert. The stars were incredible. I was able to see the Milky Way galaxy strip across the sky, which I wasn't even able to see in New Mexico.

General Update

Again sorry for the complete lack of posting.

I had a request for a general update about classes who I am with. My classes are going well; however, they are a little slow. My teacher's name is Muthena and he has a PhD in Arabic grammar. He always says "mumtez (excellent)" after you do anything, even if it was quite poor. This made it especially funny when he told a student from my Miami that his dictation was horrible in front of the entire class. He grades all tests in front of you and tells you your grade loud enough for the entire class to hear. Using social pressure for motivation is the norm in Arab universities. For those who would like to know and because I like saying it, I got a 100% on the midterm.

The company here is also good. The Miami group has 16 people in it and is the largest group from one university by far. Whenever I meet someone at the language center they know at least one person from "the Miami delegation."

Also I have met a number of other people here. I hang out with two French girls in my class alot. There are three Italians here that are alot of fun. While visiting Jerash, I met a Dutch woman that runs an art exchange between Jordan, Lebanon, and the Netherlands. Also while at the Syrian border (more on that later) I met an Iraqi man that was very interesting to talk to. He graduated first in his class at Baghdad University, but was unable to complete his doctorate there because of the war. He is now studying in Beirut. We exchaged emails and hopefully we stay in touch.

The last general note is that on my birthday, I went to see Wall-E and got an ice cream cake. Despite turning 21, I felt like being 11 for a day. The cake came from a somewhat famous Jordanian dessert maker called Jabri.

Other than my travels which will be noted in other posts, that is all there is to report. Daily life consists of studying, planning our weekend excursions, relaxing in an air conditioned room.

More Old Stuff

Jerash and Petra are the sites of the best ruins in Jordan. Jerash also hosts a music festival every year in one of the the old Roman theaters. We were not there during one of the main performances, because tickets are expensive; however, we did see an Arab man in traditional dress play Ode to Joy on the bagpipes.

Petra is the most famous site in Jordan and is being called one of the new wonders on the ancient world. We walked through the whole site during the day, and went through again during a night tour. Unfortunately, the pictures from the night tour did not come out, but I still have pictures from the day

Meet and Greet

Hey all, Sorry for the lack of posting. I have been very busy lately.

Recently I have gone to The Kings Palace, The American Embassy, Jerash, Mt. Nebo, and Petra.

Going to the Palace is an experience in itself. We passed about six security checkpoints, which are guarded by Unit 71, Jordan's CIA/FBI/Secret Service unit. We were told not to take pictures, but someone on our bus attempted anyway. One of Unit 71 members came to confiscate her camera, but was laughing when he did it. After he took the camera he said he wasn't going to give it back, but as soon our bus started to go foward he ran up and handed the camera back with a big smile on his face.

The Kings Palace is less of a palace and more of a large house. It doesn't have large spires or tons of gold the way Saddam Hussein's palaces did. Instead it has mosaic ceilings and lots of gifts from leaders of foreign countries, including a trophy Richard Nixon gave a previous king for beating him in golf. While at the palace we were aloud to sit in the chairs in the living room, which is where the king greets visitors. They told us which chair was the king's and which chair was the main guest's, so we all took turns sitting where all the leaders of the world who have visited Jordan, including Bill Clinton and Goerge W. Bush, sat. The king's chair was the most comfortable.

At the American embassy, we spoke with some knowledgeable foreign service agents. We were all excited to meet them, but as soon as the came in the room, our adviser Saleh, started to complain about someone that works at the university and how the embassy needs to get him fired. Most of the students were embarrassed and tried to change the subject quickly, but he brought it up a few more times. Apart from this fiasco, we learned some interesting things, including that Jordan recieves more US aid per capita than almost any other country, largely due to its cooperation with Israel.

The people at the embassy also remarked that there is almost no region to settle the region of Jordan. We saw this first hand when we went to Mt. Nebo. This is the mountain the Moses suppossedly climbed in order to see the promised land that God forbid him to go to. To be honest, if I were Moses, I wouldn't have felt too left out. From the top of the mountain you can see all the way to Jerusalem, yet I could probably have counted the number of fertile looking areas on one hand. There is just alot of desert and the only large body of water is the Dead Sea (very salty).

Birthday at the Dead Sea

Two posts in one night! I have to take advantage of the broadband while I have it.

July 5th was Brett's 20th birthday. Excited by the irony, we decided to celebrate his birth at the Dead Sea. A French girl I met in class with family in Jordan negotiated a good price for a cab to take us down. The drivers were probably willing to accept such a low price because they get into the Dead Sea beach for free when they bring tourists, so they just chilled at the beach while waiting to take us back.

The water at the Dead Sea is different than any other water on earth. Ocean water has is about 3% salt. The Dead Sea is 30% salt. This makes sinking in this water impossible. As you walk into the sea, you feet stop being able to touch the ocean floor when the water is about at your shoulders, because the water holds your shoulders above water even when you are holding still. If you don't make a conscious effort to keep your lower body under water, it will also force that up, making laying on top of the water the easiest position to maintain. Joe, a tall athletic guy in our group, tried to dive to the bottom, but couldn't get his knees beneath the surface as he tried to swim down.

The mud at the Dead Sea is supposed to be very good for your skin, so we found some under a rock and rubbed at all over ourselves. After we washed the mud off our skin was so soft we all spent the next ten minutes rubbing our own skin.

More stunning than the water at the Dead Sea, may be the view across realizing that you can see Israel. It looks as if you could swim across, if you were both an Olympic swimmer and unafraid of the darts Israel supposedly shoots at you if you attempt such a feet.

After we swam in the sea and the swimming pools that are provided at our beach, we returned to our apartments slightly sunburned and in possession of a great birthday story Brett can tell. Now when someone tries to brag about their birthday Brett, always a showman, can confidently one up them.

Ruins

"Old" is a relative term in Amman. The city has some ancient structures from the Roman and Ummayid Empires. But when Jordanians talk about the city, anything built before 1980 is said to be old. This is partly due to Jordan being a third world country up until the 1990s. A friend of mine, who has been coming here for the past ten years, told me that when he first came there was basically one street of shops and very little western. Now, all the men wear knock-off designer clothing, and shopping malls are five stories tall.

As a group we have decided to avoid the malls as much as possible, trying to experience "the real Jordan," but the truth is these malls and western culture are just as much, if not more, a part of the life of the people that live in Amman as the ancient ruins that you will only find tourists visiting. In fact, when we ask taxi drivers for good place to eat, they usually respond "KFC."

One of the ancient sights we visited the Hill of the Citadel (Jabbal Al-Qal'a). Here there are large columns, a bunch of rubble, and a restored Ummayid mosque. The tall columns are from the Temple of Hercules. The rubble is from a palace and has not been restored, meaning it is just a pile of rocks. The mosque, however, being a building of Islam, has been restored and is quite impressive. Additionally, the dome provided shade making it the favorite building of pale American tourists, such as ourselves.

While these truly old sites are nice, sometimes we breakdown and need something newer. On the 4th of July we went to a Fudruckers to celebrate America with burgers, fries, and milkshakes. We considered getting fireworks as there are no regulations on them here, but from what we heard fireworks here are mostly slightly tame versions of TNT that you throw off your roof. There are already enough ruins in Jordan, so we decided to forgo that American pastime.

In Shah' Allah

Everyone knows that religion is more pervasive in the culture of the Middle East than it is in the United States. Here the call to prayer blasts out across the city five times a day including once around 4:30 am. You can’t look in any direction without seeing the spire of a mosque in the skyline. But the most interesting and most frustrating aspect of religious culture here is the idea of "In Shah’ Allah", which translates to “God Willing.” This phrase is said whenever you express that something will be done in the future. Some harmless examples include “I will wake up early tomorrow, In Shah’ Allah” or “We will eat dinner around 6:00, In Shah’ Allah.” Slightly more frustrating are the responses to the repairs we have requested from our landlord. Brett and my refrigerator is freezing everything and it will be fixed, “In Shah’ Allah.” Mary and Lauren (two other Miami students) have a couch that is so broken it is now a useless pile of wood and fabric. This too will be repaired “In Shah’ Allah.”

Sometimes, however, this attitude of placing life in God’s hands can be downright maddening. At dinner a few nights ago, we ordered our food around 7:00. God apparently willed half of our party’s orders to arrive at 8:30. I was supposed to meet a Jordanian student to practice Arabic at 1:45 the next day. God never willed her to show up at all.

Some things are easy...

If you know how to ask, you can get just about anything done in Jordan. We needed to get our Visas extended from one month to three months. The adviser at the university told us we needed blood tests, proof of registration from the university financial office, and a residence contract in order to get our visas. Then Saleh (our adviser from Miami) tells us that he knows some guys at police station that will stamp our passports for us without that. Saleh, however, is notoriously slow at getting thing done, and a friend of mine from France needs to get her passport renewed before Saleh will do it for us. So a couple of us go with her to get our visas, just to see if we can do it. We walk into the police station, without blood tests or proof of registration, and they tell us to sit in the lobby. The bench we sit on is no less than fifteen feet from a prisoner at the local jail. Soon one officer shows us into an office, where a man is sitting reading papers and doesn't look up when we come in. We tell him that we are students and that we need to get our passports renewed. He says in Arabic, "Speak Arabic, Speak Arabic." He apparently doesn't speak English. So when I finally come up with the word for Visa in Arabic, and tell him that we are students, he starts to speak perfect English. We continue on in Arabic as much as I can, filling in the gaps in English and he gives our visas without blood tests our proof of registration.

A few days later, I decide I want to take a raod trip to Mount Nebo, where on a clear day it is possible to see both Jerusalem and Damascus. I am ready to go at ten in the morning, but once I round everyone up, we (read: they) want to wait for our friend who has been studying in Dubai to get in. Once she does (now 11:00) we have to wait for her to finish her shower (now 12:00). Then "we" need to eat lunch before we go. Once we finish eating (now 1), we have to go back to the apartment and get everyone else. Thirty minutes later, we try to hail cabs, but someone has forgot something in the room and needs to go back and find. By the time we hail cabs again it is 2:30. We tell the cab drivers to go to the bus station so we can take that for most of the hour long travel time. Now after a few telephone calls and trying to find the right bus we realize that we can't find the people in the other cab. We soon realize that we are not at the same bus station. By the time we can convince their cab driver to take them to our station, it is 3:00 and too late to spend much time at Mt. Nebo. Now I am writing this post, not having gone anywhere and without any pictures to show you.