And I'm Back

Hello friends and family, sorry for the delay in writing this blog post.  It's been two months since I posted, which was quite irresponsible.  I wish I had a good excuse, but I think I just got lazy.  And then had finals.  So what I'll do, just to check in, is give a quick run-down of things that I did, then I'll go back and do individual posts about most things.  Sound good?

Well, obviously, a lot has happened since the last time we chatted.  Let's start with Spring Break - Rome and Barcelona 2012.  I had a great time, got wowed by the Sagrada Familia church by Gaudi, among other things.  Then I came back, flying from Barcelona through Cairo and on to Amman.  Back in Jordan, I've traveled around a little.  Seen the Wadi Rum and Petra (yes, Petra is featured in both Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and one of the Transformer movies) which were both extremely cool.  Pictures and more on that to come.

I finished my finals last week, which was a relief to say the least.  So glad to be done - the Jordanian Independence Day (Yawm al-Istiqlal) was a day or two after my last final, which I thought was quite fitting.  Some tests, presentations... pretty standard fare for finals I guess.  Most of my friends have gone back to the US now, save a group of about five kids from the Middlebury program.

I'm going to make the final arrangements on an apartment with a few friends today - very excited.  That means that yes, I'll be here for at least a portion of the summer.  I should be back in the good old U.S. of A. by halfway through July.  I'm pretty excited to be staying - I'm going to be volunteering in the UNRWA Gaza Camp in the city of Jerash, about 45 minutes from Amman.  It's mostly Palestinian refugees originally from Gaza (hence the name) and there's a summer camp for the kids in the camp.  Very exited to be working with them.

In other news, my family is coming to visit!  My wonderful sister is finally graduating from high school, and the day after graduation she and my parents are hopping on a plane to Jordan.  After a few days in Amman, we're going to tour the country and then cross the border from Aqaba to Eilat and head north to Jerusalem.  I'm wicked excited for that trip as well, especially because there were definitely some things I forgot in Lexington and, well, the mail is unreliable.  My parents sent me a package on March 10, and it didn't get to me until April 23.  Slightly unreliable.

Well, that's all for now, more to come soon I hope!

Until next time, Inshallah.

Amman, You Win This Round

Well Amman won this time.  I got pretty lost and turned around today.  And Amman won, as I missed a chance to meet a friend of the family living here in Amman.

I was supposed to meet a family friend at around 6:00 today.  He's a guy who's been in Amman for a while, but we haven't yet connected.  I found out that the place we were supposed to meet, the Souq Um Uthaina, was about 20 minutes walking distance from the house here.  After getting three different sets of directions from Bego, Othman, and Sharaf, I set off walking.  I immediately turned left instead of turning right, which led to much confused walking about.  It took me 45 minutes to an hour to find the location, and I had to ask a bunch of Jordanians along the way.  Needless to say, I was extremely late and the friend had left, though I did meet some nice American ex-pats.

In other news, we gained back a member of the family yesterday.  Bakr, one of the family's sons who was studying in Spain, came back!  Very exciting, he's a really nice guy.  Of course there was a nice little welcome-home dinner for him.  The food was delicious, and Sharaf even cooked.  Chicken with apple, mashed potatoes, salad... great stuff.  Sharaf's husband joked that Bakr would have to leave and come back if that's what it took to get Sharaf to cook like that!  Funnier in Arabic, probably.

Mid-terms are next week, so there's not a lot planned for this weekend.  Lots of studying, or procrastinating, take your pick.  We did, however, visit the bootleg DVD store today.  6 movies, all pretty new, all pretty good quality, for 5 JD.  That deal can't be beat.

Just thought I'd post while I had a minute, that's all for now.

Until next time, Inshallah.

Obligatory Post-Birthday Post... I Play Soccer with the Bedouins!

It's been about two weeks since we last chatted, I'm sorry about that but I've been busy.  We left off with the trip to Ajloun, which was a blast.  That being said, this past weekend's trip to the Dana nature reserve blows it out of the water.

View at the beginning of Dana Valley

We'll start with last weekend, I guess (nothing much happens during the week, other than school).  We've had a crazy run of birthdays in our group, with four different birthdays during the space of about 10 days or so.  So, to start, Wednesday night a group of us planned to go to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that we sort of knew the location of, called Yoshi.  By sort of, I mean none of us knew exactly where it was.  So, after getting out of the taxi at the nearest circle (Jordan doesn't have many stoplights, they use big rotaries instead) I wandered around a bit.  Luckily, I ran into my friend Liz, who was also confused about the directions.  I'd say we walked for about 25 minutes, before we ran into a security guard in front of an embassy who knew where it was.  Oh, it's just your next left, he said, then go straight.  We saw an opening to the left, but it was not well lit and had a low fence protecting about 90% of it.  Luckily, there was another guard about 100 yards in front of us, who directed us back to said sketchy alleyway/street.  Turned out it was the right place, but it was definitely an adventure.

Dana Village

Thursday day we cooked with Kirsten's (program director) husband, who has formerly run restaurants. Needless to say, the food was incredible, and I even learned to cook a bit.

Then on Friday night (our Saturday night, we have school on Sunday), we had a surprise birthday party for our friend Elizabeth at her apartment.  "Mufaja'aa!" is a little more startling than "Surprise!" but everyone had a good time.  We did go to a bar (there are several in Amman) and I may or may not have sung karaoke to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl.

On the hike

Again, not much happened during the week, so we'll skip ahead to this weekend.  Thursday morning, most of the group hopped on a bus and headed south to Dana Nature Reserve.  Around 2:00, we found our way down a winding trail (walking, we had to leave the bus at the top of the valley) to a collection of tents and a picturesque desert view.  We wandered around, finding caves and different rock formations and such, and the food was really good.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize how cold it would be, and most of the group got pretty cold.  I, however, had brought an extra jacket (something my mother might do?) and was just chilly, but they had blankets and it was warm inside the tents.  This was also my birthday.  Now that I'm 21, I feel like a real man.  The change is significant - I'm pretty sure I could now grow a moustache if I wanted to.  I've matured so much in just one day.

The soccer field from afar.
Note, no green there.

Friday was pretty solid, all around.  Breakfast was good, and then we ventured out to the Dana village to start our hike.  The village is (if I understood correctly) about 1500 years old and was pretty darn cool.  The hike was about 4-5 hours, mostly downhill.  The path was winding and sloping and rocky, but we saw our fair share of goats, flute-playing bedouin, and young bedouin girls chanting at said goats.  Pretty cool stuff.  At the end of our hike, we reached the Feynan EcoLodge, which was a sight for sore eyes.  Sweaty, dusty, dirty, and tired, we stumbled in to find hot water showers and a nice cool hotel for the night.  There was no artificial light, only candles and the occasional flashlight.  The stars were bright and beautiful, it was really quite a romantic place.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Soccer on Saturday at the school

After showering at the lodge, I was about to settle into a hammock for a nice little nap, when someone said something about a sunset hike.  I had literally closed my eyes, but then my father popped into my head with his favorite vacation saying - "We didn't come here to sleep."  So, I went on the hike and I'm glad that I did.  It was only about a 20-30 minute hike to the ridge, where there was tea and a magnificent view.  I didn't see much from there, though.  Along the path, there was a small school, and across from it, a large group of Bedouins playing soccer.  Initially I didn't think I was going to play, but then a friend of mine really wanted to so I went with.  The field was all dirt and rocks, no nets, and many of the Bedouins were playing without shoes or with one shoe.  It was crazy.  They immediately put me and Zoe on opposite teams, and we started playing.  I actually scored two goals - unbelievable right?  Ah it was so much fun.  Then we went back to the hotel, ate, saw Mars, Jupiter, and Venus (among all the other constellations) through a pretty great telescope.

First-class Jordanian transportation

Saturday, we drank tea at our Bedouin friends from the soccer game's tent, which was a cool experience.  Afterwards, we played for a little while again, and then jumped into the back of a bunch of pickup trucks who were to take us back to the main road, and our bus.  It was pretty remote (only dirt "roads" and I use the world road loosely), and one of the trucks in front of us stalled out a few times trying to climb a hill.

That brings us back to today, with class and all that jazz.  Not the most exciting, but my Iraqi friend Ali (general friend of the group) from the gym said that he's making Iraqi food for us this weekend... can't wait for that!

Also, I was twice confused for a Jordanian today.  Don't know if that means I'm fitting in better, or that I'm tanner, but it was cool.  First, someone thought I was an employee at the Adidas store.  Then, coming out of the gym, someone asked me for directions.  Sort of cool, but I had no clue where he wanted to go.

Until next time, Inshallah.

Guest Blog!

                       

           

          Hello! My name is Eden. I am a junior at Wellesley College and currently studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan with Middlebury. First, I would like to thank Zack for asking me to post a guest blog, hopefully I don’t disappoint. I have read his blog and I think he has been doing a great job giving you an idea of what it is like here in Jordan. Obviously, the one thing that he can’t tell you is what it is like to study here as a girl. I can’t speak for every girl visiting here, or for what it is like in all of Jordan, but I thought I would share a few of my experiences in Amman thus far. Here is a list of some things that I have come to expect while living here.

           

            • Particularly near the university, I know that no matter who I am or what I am wearing, there will be random guys unapologetically staring.

            • These same guys will then proceed to cat call and then sometimes literally call to me as if I were a cat.

            • I have come to expect that no matter how covered up I am this behavior does not change.

            • I will never walk to school in the morning without being bombarded by car horns.

            • I have been told the streets near my apartment are known for prostitution and that some guys will assume that all foreign girls are either prostitutes or easy, which is why they honk and drive slowly past to see if I will just jump into a car with them.

            • Every once in a while on the way to the university, a car will follow me with the windows down and matching my walking speed as I speed up, or slow down. Incredibly creepy.

            • Unlike in the US, I do not have the words and the vocabulary I need to tell these men off as they deserve. But, I have learned some new phrases. My favorite is: If your hands come near me, I will break them.

            • I have moments when I think I hate all men and then quickly remind myself of the really cool, appropriate, and nice guys I have met here, who do not act like that, do not put up with those actions from other guys, and who are all around awesome.

            • I have met some really neat girls and am able to have closer friendships with them than my male counterparts can.

            • The program here is very supportive and I know that I am not alone in experiencing these things.

            • There are many places that are just for women, which are comfortable and safe environments such as all-women’s gyms and Turkish baths.

           

          For the most part though, any negative moments have ended up being a very small part of my experience here. I am not here to just improve my Arabic, I am also here to learn and experience a new culture. I think all study abroad experiences have their good and bad parts to them. I am learning to ignore the negative here, because as you know by reading Zack’s blog, studying abroad in Amman, Jordan is a fantastic experience.

           

            Thanks for reading!

            Sincerely,

           

            Eden

Women's Rights in Morocco

I just saw this on aj-Jazeera, and thought I'd pass it along.  It's not very pleasant, but is a sad testimony to the status of women in much of the Arab world.  It caught my eye because I wrote an essay this fall on constitutional reform in Morocco, and cited the family law mentioned as a sign of progress.  Looks like it wasn't enough. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/03/20123171132404140.html

More to come soon, I hope.

Fiiiiiight! Fiiiiiiight!

There's been a little bit of unrest on campus these last few days.  Basically, a kid from one tribe (the Capulets) was talking to a girl from another tribe (the Montagues), and the result was a large fight on two consecutive days.  I didn't see or hear any of this, except from my mother who was peppering me with new articles about the outbreaks.  The tribes were apparently throwing rocks at each other and hitting each other with sticks.  There has been heightened security around campus, and a visible police presence at the entry/exit points, which is good.  I have felt safe the entire time.  The main result was 16 expulsions, you can read more here if you want http://jordantimes.com/University+of+Jordan+expels+16+students+over+violence-45998 but I thought I'd just keep everyone updated and let everyone know I'm OK.

UPDATE: P.S. I forgot to add this earlier, but we just reached 1000 views all-time!  Woooo!  Go team!

Snow to Sunburnt

Soul Food

When we last chatted, the weather was miserable and I was stuck inside with nothing to do.  Yesterday, I had to buy aloe vera for a sunburn I got.  To say the weather has improved would be a drastic understatement.

I'm sure someone had a pool going for how long it would take me to find a soccer game, so if you had money on last Tuesday, you'd be correct.  First off, after class some friends and I found a Waffle House, and had breakfast for lunch.  That was absolutely a great decision.  God it was amazing.  Nutella and banana pancakes... out of this world.  Great way to spend the first part of an afternoon.  Then we went to the game!

Pretty darn close to the field,
which was cool.

I found out about the game because it was at Amman International Stadium, which is in the Sports City where I go to the gym.  As I walked in on Monday night, the floodlights in the stadium were on so I of course asked the guy at the gate what the lights were about, and he said there was a game the next day.  Obviously I had to go, especially when he further informed me that it was between Syria and Jordan.  I got that last part wrong (as well as the time of the game, but I'm still happy I found out there was a game). It was between a Syrian team, al-Ittihad, and a Jordanian team, al-Faysali.  Not the national teams, but still cool because it was an Asian Federations Cup game (best teams from the leagues all across Asia).  

Notice the security guard between
us and the crazy fans

There are two big Jordanian teams here, and you should know that Arabs care deeply about their heritage.  There is a significant Palestinian-Jordanian population here.  As you may have guessed, one team is supported by the Jordanian Jordanians (al-Faysali, the team we saw), and the other by the Palestinian Jordanians.  Jordanian Jordanians also wear read headdresses, whereas Palestinian Jordanians wear white ones.  Small things, but important nonetheless.  Overall, I was not impressed by the level of play.  If I had more time I'd try to write a full match report, but that wouldn't be of much interest to too many people, I would think.  Basically, the game ended in a 1-1 tie.  Faysali dominated much of the game and scored in the first half on a corner kick, and the Syrian team mostly bunkered in and counterattacked, scoring their goal on a dubious penalty kick given at the beginning of the second half.  

Looking down from the Castle

The group was about 20-25 American kids, including many girls.  Not sure what to expect, we were seated in front of the limited number of Faysali supporters (in a completely different section) with basically a wall of security forces between us and the crazy fans.  The security forces also politely suggested we leave about five minutes before the game ended, as we had a bunch of girls with us, which we did.  No need to get caught up in anything we didn't need to be caught up in.  

Wednesday night has become Guys Night (Plus Kelsey and Lily), which is super fun.  For me it's a way to kick back at the end of the school week and get my American fix for the week.  Basically, we get a bunch of Domino's pizzas and watch Game of Thrones, which is an awesome HBO series that someone bought here bootleg for 3 JD (Arabic subtitles, of course).  Foreign Policy says that watching it is a great way to understand international politics (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/18/realpolitik_in_a_fantasy_world), so it's educational too!

Looking up at the Castle

Soap Everywhere

Thursday I played some soccer with a bunch of Jordanians, first at the University with our program and then later with a Jordanian friend and his friends at a futsal place about a half hour away from JU.  Quite fun!

Friday, we took a trip to Ajloun, which is in northern Jordan.  This is where I got my sunburn.  We went to an old castle from the 1100s, when Saladin ruled the area and the Crusades were in full swing.  Needless to say, it was pretty cool.  It was at the top of a pretty big hill, which made it a great spot to keep watch of and seemingly hard (or at least tiring) to attack.  Then we went to a soap house where they make soap out of olive oil, and then a calligraphy studio.  All pretty cool locations.  I'll put up more pictures on Facebook in addition to the ones here.

Lunch for Class

Then today, for my Amiyya class, we went to a restaurant for lunch.  Very cool.  My kind of class.

Also, I've been seeing things about Joseph Kony all over Facebook.  After reading this FP editorial I'm pretty disenchanted with Invisible Children.  Oh well, just a thought.  http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things 

Until next time, Inshallah.

P.S. Stay tuned, we may have a guest blogger coming soon to stores near you.

Spoiler Alert - Jordan Is Not a Desert

Well it's raining/snowing/sleeting again.  Started up Tuesday night, with some light rain, and yesterday turned into a full-on snow/sleet storm with a strong wind.  I was at the gym yesterday, and they even closed that because of the weather.  I figured gyms were like Twinkies, that they would survive anything. That even after a nuclear war, you'd still find one roided-out meathead in the gym working out.  I guess not.  I haven't gone outside today other than to squeegee water off of the deck/landing.  It's miserable out.

Well everything is soaking wet here.  2-3 minutes outside and you're drenched.  And I'm woefully ill-prepared for this weather.  It's like a Middlebury March (mud season) without boots or a fully waterproof jacket.  Not a good recipe.  Tyler was supposed to have class today (I wasn't thank God) but that was canceled as well.  Amman has no idea how to deal with this type of weather either.  He said he went down to the major street close to us at one point, and that there was at least a foot of standing water/snow in the streets.  Broken-down cars everywhere.  Almost no functioning cars on the road itself.  At Midd, crappy weather was never an excuse for doing nothing, but here, it completely is.  Also, they don't really have dryers here.  The normal thing is to use a washer and then clotheslines to dry, but in storms like this that doesn't happen, so we just have to put wet stuff on the heaters.  Woof.  I did voyage to a friend's apartment last night, which was quite an experience, and met a very nice taxi driver.  More to come on taxis at a later date.

Before the weather turned for the worse, things were good though!  We even had class outside on Tuesday, which was pretty cool.  Not much to report on classes, they're mostly good and fun, and I like my professors.  Class starts daily at 9:00 AM, so I leave here around 8:15-8:20.  I have about a 2-hour break between classes, so I usually go to a nearby cafe and do work/eat or I go to Teddy's apartment.  We've played chess a few times, which has been quite fun!  He's wicked good, but I'm learning and he even let me win once or twice.

In other news, we spoke with Jamal a little more about his military career.  I'm being completely serious when I say this, but he was absolutely the boss.  He was a Major General, #5 from the top.  He showed us his graduation certificate from his program at Fort Knox, where he graduated with the highest possible marks (Distinguished Graduate).  He completed everything with high marks, and apparently his name is on the wall at Fort Knox with other officers who graduated with the high marks he graduated with.  And he apparently did the same at every other military school/program he attended throughout his career.  Total boss.

Until next time, Inshallah.

And the Family Comes to Dinner

I don't like to blog this much, but dinner last night needs to be blogged about.  Simply put, it was awesome.

Much of Jamal's family lives in the area, and they came over for Saturday dinner.  As the workweek starts Sunday, it was much like Sunday dinner in the US.  So, three of Jamal's sisters and their families came to visit, bringing plenty of delicious food.  I'd say about 15 people total.  I found it interesting that they also brought their servants... much different than America.  We all pitched in in cleaning but they did the dishes and made the tea and stuff like that.

Words can't describe the quality of the food.  This may have been the best meal I've ever eaten (sorry Mom and Dad).  Everything was fresh, homemade, and unbelievably good.  It was simply stunning.  I must have gained 30 pounds in one night.  Unbelievable.  There was everything you could possibly imagine.  Chicken kebabs.  Ground beef kebabs, spiced much like they are in Iranian food.  It tasted just like our favorite local Iranian place, Kolbeh of Kebab.  There was salad.  Tahini.  A salsa-like tomato concoction which was delicious.  Fettucini with shrimp.  God I must have eaten for hours.  Then came dessert.  Turkish delight.  Tea.  Swiss chocolate.  Fruit salad - we'll talk more about the fruit salad later.  Cookies.  Went into a food coma.  It was like Thanksgiving, minus the beer.  I can go on and on, but instead just look at the pictures.  Not great pictures, I know.  Sorry.

Tonight, after dinner and when everyone was at home (everyone pretty much eats on their own schedule), Tyler, Bego, Jamal, and Sharaf (daughter) sat down to eat some of the leftover fruit salad from yesterday, which was huge by the way.  Pomegranate, oranges, kiwis, strawberries, bananas, various other fruits that I don't know the names of... it was delicious.  Then Bego started talking about how it took her an hour and a half, maybe two to make the salad yesterday.  Jamal started kidding around, saying that it was probably just an hour and fifty-five minutes, and that two hours was exaggerating.  I chipped in, saying that an hour 55 is not two hours, while Tyler sided with Bego, saying that two hours is two hours.  Bego subsequently (in good humor of course) told me that tomorrow night, she'll make something absolutely delicious for Tyler, while Jamal and me will have to fend for ourselves.  Jamal and I then agreed that we'd go eat at the family's restaurant.  Not a huge thing but it was a fun interaction and the playfulness of it made me feel more comfortable.  It was fun!

Homework is a drag - I've been doing this same reading all day (should have started over the weekend), and just to add to the fun mentioned that I'd been reading for an hour and 55 minutes, but only gotten through three pages which got a smile and a laugh from Bego and Jamal.


Until next time, Inshallah.  

A New Kind of First Day of School

It’s been a week since I last posted, I’ll try to be a little more consistent and only go 4-5 days without blogging.  A lot has been going on, however, and I’ve been wicked busy.

So I started at Jordan U, officially, last Sunday.  Yes I know that sounds weird but the weekend here is Friday and Saturday (we get Thursday off as well, nice little 3-day weekend).  I’m going to be honest and say that I pretty much failed the proficiency test, which had a lot of grammar concepts that I had learned and subsequently forgotten, but I’m starting here where I left off in the States which is good.  It will be a challenge to say the least, but I’m excited for it!  We actually have a vocab test tomorrow… I should probably start studying.  It’s tough to accept that my mini-break/vacation is over…-[

I have two language classes – 1 in MSA fusha and the other in the local Jordanian dialect.  Both happen to be with the same professor, a very nice woman named Nadia.  My other classes focus on political transformations in the Middle East and the water/environmental situation here (it’s not good by any means, if you were wondering).  They’re going to be a pretty good challenge – I pretty much have to read everything twice – I read the first time without a dictionary and then the second time with dictionary in hand, looking up all the words I couldn’t figure out the first time around.  It’s quite time-consuming, but I’m excited and I’m already learning a lot, but I will say it’s difficult to shift from knowing words in your head to being able to used them in conversation. 

 

I’ve been to the gym every day this week, which feels great (my shoulder feels fine as well!).  I preached last time about how the gym has great showers, but in addition they also have toilet paper.  This may seem like a very mundane thing, but in Jordan toilet paper is rare.  Bidets are preferred.  Not my favorite invention in the world.  Jordanians use them (they are even present in public bathrooms).  I don’t particularly like them.  Half of my motivation to go to the gym comes from showers and toilet paper, half from wanting to work out.  I shower there, I shave there, it all works out.  Strange though. 

While we’re at it, here are a couple pictures of my living accommodations.  I’ve got the bed on the right (yes Mom, I do keep the room clean) and Tyler is on the left.  OK fine, I took the picture after we cleaned, it’s not usually this neat.

Bego and Jamal are still great, and this might give you an idea of breakfast here.  It’s pretty damn good, not going to lie.  I’m trying a lot of foods I don’t usually eat (tomatoes, onions), which is good I guess.  Tomatoes are starting to grow on me, I like them more and more every day.  Mostly I have no clue what the food is, but it gets served so I eat it.  I’m starting slowly to learn names of food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I know what’s in it. 

Family pictures came out again before one meal, and this is a little bit of Jamal’s family tree.  At the top are his paternal grandparents (apparently his grandmother taught herself to read, they were from a bedouin family), followed by his parents, Jamal and Begonia (Jamal is not visible due to the glare, my flaws as a photographer are quite apparent), and then three of their four children (Baker, Othman, and Sharaf). 

Well I’m still getting settled in and adjusted, but I’m starting to get the hang of life here I think!  There’s still a significant language barrier but I’m working on it, it just takes time.  


Until next time, inshallah.

Bullshit

Snow?  Bullshit.

I'm calling bullshit on this one.  It's garbage.  Almost unbelievable.  I'm not happy.  It's got nothing to do with the program, or the food, or the family here.  Nothing to do with being inundated in Arabic.  It's the weather.  This is a desert.  There's not supposed to be rain.  Yet we've had three straight days of rain.  It's been raining cats and dogs.  Rivers running through the streets.  Water dripping down the walls of our room.  Puddles everywhere.  Even the house itself has been leaking.  And it's been cold.  Seriously?  If I wanted it to be cold, I could have stayed in New England.  And to cap it all off, it snowed last night.  Not a lot, but snow nonetheless.  Bullshit.

Language Pledge

Otherwise, things are great!  I took the language pledge last Wednesday, and it's hard to keep but I'm working hard at it.  I'm getting quite good at sign language, but it's hard.  It's frustrating on three levels.  First, I'm not used to the speed of speech here, which was to be expected, but is still frustrating.  That will come with time.  Second, it feels like what I've learned over the last two and a half years is useless.  It's not completely useless, but a ton of the words we use here are completely different.  Oh well.  Third, it's nearly impossible to express myself, which might be the most frustrating at all.  There are things I want to say, but I just don't know the words.  Quite frustrating.

That hasn't stopped the fun though!  After orientation ended on Wednesday, we went to a pretty cool restaurant called Hashem in Wast-al-balad, or the city center.  It was pretty good.  Falafel and hummus are everywhere, and I couldn't be happier about that.  We wandered around a bit afterwards, and found a cool DVD/CD place where Tyler (my roommate) got some CDs.  I'm super excited for those because the language pledge theoretically extends to music as well, so I'm trying to cut back on listening to American music (I haven't really used my iPod since I got here).  Then we went to Rainbow Street and walked around a little more, and got a great view of the rest of Amman.  Our Jordanian friends from the University were with us, and they're fun and awesome to hang around with!.

DVD Hamudeh!

Thursday, I decided to find a gym.  There's one within a half hour (walking) of our house, and it's in the Medina Ryadiah (sports city).  It's a huge complex, with a few soccer fields, the national stadium, tennis courts, pools... really every type of sport imaginable.  However, like I said, it's gigantic.  After asking for directions, I walked directly past the gym and wandered around for about an hour before finding the gym, right next to where I had entered.  Whoops!  The best thing about the gym is that they have showers, and plenty of hot water.  In all seriousness, I'll probably go work out just so that I can shower afterwards.  There's also a sauna which I'm definitely going to make use of.  I met a kid from Amherst there (small world again), who I'm sure I'll see again.  That night a few of us had dinner together, and then stopped by a hookah bar where my friends smoked hookah and I played backgammon (we taught our friends, too).

View from Rainbow Street

Yesterday was a family day.  Sharaf (the daughter) came by for the day with her husband, Said.  We had breakfast and dinner together, and Bego made something delicious involving rice, onions, and lamb or some sort of meat.  So good.  Before dinner, I showed Jamal and Bego the pictures of my family I had brought from home.  They liked them a lot, and then we spent about 45 minutes going through some of Jamal's photos, which was really cool!  He was quite important in the military, and has pictures with dignitaries such as the Emperor of Japan, President of France, various Kuwaiti/Saudi/Qatari sheiks and princes... you get the idea.  We also saw pictures of Jamal and Bego's extended family, wedding, and various family vacations.  I think we bonded, which was really good!  There's definitely still a significant language barrier, though, which will be worn down as time goes on!

Class starts tomorrow.  OH NO!  It'll be tough to get back into the school mindset, but I guess I'll have to shake the dust off my Arabic books and start the semester.

Until next time, Inshallah!

A Farewell to English

Tomorrow, I sign the language pledge.  That means I don't get to speak any more English.  Or French.  Or Spanish.  Ruh-roh.

It's been a fun few days in Amman.  From the Abuesalem's house, I've moved over to my homestay with my new family.  It's been really fun, and the food here has been amazing.  Jamal is the father, and he's extremely nice.  Bego (Begonia) is the mother, and she's a whirlwind of Arabic but means very well and is awesome!  Bego and Jamal own a restaurant in Amman, and she does much of the cooking here at the house... Yum!  Othman, their 22-year-old son, just got a job offer from Dubai so he flew out yesterday (and I have yet to meet him, but I've seen pictures and he looks cool.

Want to visit now Eliza?

We started orientation on Sunday, which is the start of the week here in Jordan.  The directors are awesome, as are all of my fellow students!  We've got people from most of the US, from colleges as far west as Pomona and Wisconsin and as far south as Davidson - it's a pretty good bunch!  I live with another Midd student, Tyler, who was here last semester and has excellent Arabic.  He's been a huge help and I'm not sure I'd be able to get around without him.  He does a lot of translation for me, which will stop tomorrow.  Begonia talks to me, I give Tyler a confused look, and he translates/puts what she said into fusha Arabic.  Fusha is "Modern Standard Arabic" but what they speak here is called "Amiya" or the local Jordanian dialect, which is different in many ways from the Arabic I've learned.  There's a pretty good learning curve there.

Best Grilled Cheese Ever

The first day we all went to City Mall (they have those) and the granddaddy of all Arabian supermarkets, Carrefour.  They had a ton of stuff to offer, but as I'm living with a family I didn't need much.  All I got was a towel (which I forgot to pack.  whoops!).  There were plenty of American stores, and I'm sure my sister will be jealous, a PinkBerry (free samples?  Yum!).  That night, I took a taxi back to some friends' apartment and because of their lack of propane for the stove, we had grilled cheese made with an iron.  Food innovation at it's finest.

We've met some Jordanian students at the University, and they love the fact that I'm Lebanese.  I've already been invited to the Maronite Church here (al-kaneesa marounia) which could be an interesting experience.  We shall see.  There's been a lot going on and I got my first schwarma tonight, after Yemeni food for lunch today and Lebanese food yesterday.  I love it here, and I'm happy and safe.  All is well and I can't wait to be able to do more on my own here (I do feel handicapped by the language barrier, though I can get places in taxis for pretty cheap).


Until next time, inshallah.  I hope all is well in the States!

PS Happy Valentine's day!  My sister's a cutie pie and slipped an awesome present in my suitcase!

On to Jordan

There's a lot to talk about since we last met.  Though I'll admit, some of the craziest things happened today, order prevails and we'll go chronologically.

The pub where J. R. R. Tolkien wrote the
Lord of the Rings trilogy.

That means we're starting with England.  Took the redeye from Logan into Heathrow, and saw Footloose during the flight.  I will say, Virgin Atlantic has excellent amenities.  And the flight was pretty empty, so I had a full row to myself.   Awesome.  So I took a bus out to Oxford, where the wonderful Sabrina Gordon was waiting at the bus station.  It was weird being in England, a) because the weather was worse than in New England and b) because I expected everyone to be speaking a foreign language, and they all spoke English.  I was pretty beat so we got a bite to eat and then took a nap, which was hugely beneficial.  That night we went out to a bar, which was a good time.  We played an olde English version of Catch-phrase, and also briefly saw the Pembroke rugby team drinking and singing together... reminded me a lot of Midd Soccer actually!

Wednesday Sab had a lax game, so I got to spend some quality time with Harrington throwback Emily Sillari, which was really great!  That night, we went to a club, which was a total blast.  My ears are still ringing... 3 days later.  Thursday, Sabrina had a Black Keys concert to go to in London, so I met up with the next great philosopher of our age, Aaron Dockser.  We made dinner with some friends at his apartment and hung out for a while, which was wonderful because we decided that we hadn't seen each other since high school graduation parties... there's something wrong there.  Then it snowed.  Weird that it was snowing in England and not Vermont.  Oh well.

There are very few people who would wake up at 6:30 AM, on 3 hours of sleep, just to make sure that you get to the bus station on time.  Thanks to Sabrina for that one.




Here's another funny airport story for you.  As I'm sitting at the gate, waiting for the plane to Jordan to board, Lisa Coale, a Middlebury girl on the program and in my Arabic class this past fall just happens to walk up - we ended up being 4 rows apart on the same flight.  Then, in the Amman airport, we met another girl (Lily) who was on the flight with us and is doing the same program.  And then the craziness begins.

So, through a long series of connections, I met an extremely nice Jordanian girl who goes to Bryn Mawr named Zaha.  Her family lives about 30km from Amman, and she volunteered her brother to pick me up from the airport.  Jordanians are well known for their hospitality, and I now know why.  Lily, Lisa, and I found Laith (bonus points for unintentional alliteration, "Laith" is Arabic for "lion") at the exit terminal, with a friend Rasha.  Five was to many for a cab, and through a strange series of events, Laith's car had busted both a tire and the spare tire.  We tried various methods of getting away from the airport (trying to board a military-only bus didn't go so well), and eventually Lily and Lisa headed off for their apartments together (I think they live fairly close to each other), while I took off with Laith and Rasha in a cab, searching for an open mechanic who could repair Laith's wheel.

It took a while but we found one, and he then drove us back to Laith's car.  From there we three headed into Amman in search of some falafel, and boy was I happy when we found some.  I've waited a while for authentic falafel - the stuff they call falafel in the US just isn't up to snuff.  I was taught how you're supposed to eat hummus and pita like a Jordanian, which was good!  From there we dropped Rasha off at her car and then headed to Laith's family's home in the city of Salt.  The family was extremely kind to me.  They fed me more food and let me take a shower, which may have been the most refreshing of my life.  It's now 2:15 AM local, and I should probably go to bed because tomorrow (later today?) I move in with my host family.

That's all for now, see you next time.

Stay classy San Diego.

First Leg

I'm writing this from the terminal in Logan Airport, with about an hour to go until I board my flight.  Pretty crazy stuff.  Exciting, yet nerve wracking at the same time.  I can't wait to get going, and I get a few days to transition in lovely (snowy) Britain.  Fish and chips instead of chowdah and Fenway Franks.  

Sometimes it's funny who you meet in an airport.  We randomly met a guy whose daughter is on the Williams women's basketball team - and he was in Middlebury a few weeks ago to watch his daughter score her 1,000th career point, which she did (I was also at that game, weird right?).  He's also related to some Lexington people, including a high school classmate of mine.  Small world.

I'd be remiss not to mention the Super Bowl, which was wholeheartedly disappointing.  It sucked.  Danny Woodhead was the best player on the Pats the whole game, which is not a good thing.  Bring Randy Moss back, he'll open up the field for Gronk and Hernandez.  

I'll touch down at 2:00 AM Boston time, about 7:00 England time so I'll be exhausted.  Goodbye America, see you in a few months.

Hi!

First blog post.  Big moment for me.  Wasn't really sure I was going to start one, but I guess this is the start of it all.  I'm cozily at home, with just a few days left before I head out.  The first leg of the trip starts Monday night, and I'll be on my way to England for a few days.  Friday I head on to Jordan, so it's a pretty quick turnaround.  Laundry is being washed, books being organized, cameras being charged... lots of hustle and bustle around the house.  We're having friends over for the Super Bowl as well so we're preparing for that as well, lots going on around here.

Well that's all there is for now, this is more of a test than anything just so I can get the hang of it.

Go Pats!