Photos from Alaska!!

Here's trying a new photo sharing tool: Photos!

The good 'ole facebook! I'm going to see if this works, and I'm hoping so. I already do all of my photo editing in iphoto and then upload the edited ones to facebook, but then Picasa grabs up all the photos- edited or not, and puts them into the online photo albums I have been using. Oh technology... how it helps, and hurts us. I'm beginning to believe that Tylenol holds large portions of stock in Apple and Microsoft....

Well, this is a link to some of my favorite photos from Alaska, which means that I have gone, seen, and am now back again!! Even though it has been several days I am still bleary with jet lag and culture shock, that is quickly turning into Harvard shock as classes ramp up to start again. I'm looking forward to a new semester, and you all should be looking forward to some tales of the Wild North!

Empire State of Mind

So I am now safely in New York City hanging out with my friend Lillie from the program! We are having a blast eating EVERYTHING! I swear I've already gained 5 lbs! Guess I'm not fasting during Ramadan... I am loving New York! This is my first time spending more than a couple of hours here and it has been great! I'm in Manhattan on a something-something side just something of Harlem and something else of Central Park (those are Jordanian directions...) So far I've been to the Public Library, Bryant Park, Chinatown, and the Met. I would have pictures but my camera screen cracked just before leaving Jordan, fortunately I was able to post a few more pictures of Irbid and the Ramadan decorations that exploded everywhere in the last couple of days of our visit. I'm way feeling the jet lag hopping the pond this direction- but all and all the return has gone smoothly, now if I can just get to Boston and to my new apartment!

Finito Arabic!

I don't want to say it, but alas my summer of being in the Middle East is coming to an end. I must admit, I'm really sad and kinda awkwardly upset about the whole thing. We took our finals on Sunday and this morning we had a little graduation ceremony. We have a free day tomorrow and then the flight back to the states on Wednesday. I know I will have more time to process this all in the future, and it still feels a little bit crazy all the things I've done this summer. But for now, I really just want to say that I'm sad, and I'm going to miss it.

I have met some absolutely wonderful people on this trip and I've laughed almost the entire time I've been here. These past months have been filled with adventure and friendship. I have experienced a truly unique combination of people and places- and as I really want to treasure what good times I've had, it also makes me sad that in some way I'm losing them. I have become really attached to my little community here and as always when a trip ends you hope to see your friends again, but you know life rolls on and that it probably won't happen. It is an odd combination of holding on to the wonderful memories that you've made and knowing that they are so unique because they will never happen again. I kinda feel like a ball that's been thrown up in the air- I've been soaring upwards all summer and now I'm at the top of the arch, in stillness, looking around and appreciating what's happened, right before I rush downward into the next part of life. I want the people that I've met here to know how much I've enjoyed their company and would love to share it again. For me, a trip like this is defined not only by the places you go and the things you learn, but by the people you spend it with. At HDS I would call it the value of the intersubjective, which means, whatever it is that you are experiencing matters if you value those whom you experience it with. So I want to thank my friends for making this trip a valuable experience for me- together we've explored exotic places and learned a new language, we've formed ridiculous memories, and some really awesome slang. Thanks! I'm really glad that I have met you!

The American Colony of Israelistine

Warning: I'm an opinionated lady (sometimes).

Disclaimer: I do not agree with policy decisions made by the Israeli government, and the US government regarding issues in Israel. This does not make me an anti-semite. I struggle to understand Jewish identity, ethnography, theology, and history. This does not make me an anti-semite. I struggle to understand the Palestinian condition just like I struggle to understand other groups of people, by going to places highly populated by them and drinking their beer.

Borderlands


My Jerusalem weekend-adventure was tackled with Team All We Do Is Win, four strong and ready to take on anything. It began after class on Thursday (TGIخ!) we all rushed to get a taxi and head out to the land-border crossing. Jordan has 3 official border crossings with Israel- The South, Allenby/King Hussein, and the North/Sheik Hussein that border various degrees of Palestine/Israel. On our way to the Northern border, after of course getting caught in a police chase through a small alleyway blocked by a giant bus, we realized that the cabbie was taking us to the wrong border- so after much discussion and a u-turn we actually ended up at the right place.

The border with Israel. Just take a moment and realize the craziness of that statement. Israel was established as a "country" in the late forties and really existed as a colony of Western-Powers in post World War I&II colonization of the Middle East. The territory of Israel expandd through the next decades to include taking over parts of Jordan, known as the West Bank and Gaza. Israel "occupied" these territories removing the Arab Palestinians who were living there. Now, all of this is extremely oversimplified and not in perfect factual order- please go read up on this issue and history from mixed biased sources; but, what I know from people living here is that the Israeli governance came out of no-where and after waves of immigrants and occupations thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homelands into places like Amman and Irbid so that others could establish a homeland. So we crossed the border from Jordan, into occupied Jordan, then into the territory of the Occupier. Thanks to HDS I spent a semester talking about the instability, danger, and chaos of borders and borderlands, but not until I had to cross over into Israel through the West Bank did I fully realize some of the themes of the class.

Through the whole process there was a sense of instability and it seemed as if all the structures were bi-products of intense fear. Crossing land borders is always a bitch. always. But for this one there was even more fear and anxiousness, see- I have stamps from Lebanon and Syria, two counties which do not recognize the sovereignty of Israel and could potentially prevent me from crossing. I also speak Arabic, the language of the enemy, the occupied, the problem, the terrorists, the ones that are in the way- according to Israeli government. The previous week some students from the program were held up close to 5 or 6 hours for having Syrian and Lebanese stamps and speaking Arabic at the border. We went in bright-eyed and acting as much as dumb American tourists as we could- paying off all the questions and constantly pulling the student card. We were afraid to speak Arabic and had to consciously prevent ourselves from using our habitual phrases. Luckily we got through with no big problems and relatively quickly. Another group of our students were held at the border for 4 hours because one of the girls is Palestinian and they were going to Ramallah, a town in the West Bank.

Once across the border we managed to make it into town just in time to catch the last bus to Jerusalem. It was completely full. Which means that we sat on the floor of a tour bus filled with Orthodox Jewish children and teenagers with M16's as we rode through the West Bank for 3 hours. Israel has a mandatory military service for young folk so the place is filled with 18-19 year-olds with giant guns either in uniforms or some just in plain-clothes. It was bizarre to see cute little teenage girls in big groups tossing their rifles around.

al-Quds
We finally got to Jerusalem (al-Quds in Arabic) that night about 8 pm and we were dropped off at a large bus station inside of a mall. We were all starving so you know what we did? That's right. Chinese food. Delicious, delicious kosher Chinese food. We then had to find our hostel- a 700 year old building in the Old City, the same part of town as all the holy sites. We magically went out of the mall and saw the bus we were supposed to take and managed to get off at the right side of town. We got a little lost and after following several different directions of "down and to the left" we ended up in a big circle and finding our Hogwarts'esqe little hobby hostel in an alleyway.

Our next adventure was to find a bar, being that we are in fact all college students and there is no alcohol in Irbid, finding bars is a usual adventure on the weekend. We found a place with an Arab atmosphere right outside of the Jaffa gate and drake Taybeh, a Palestinian beer, while we watched Arab and American music videos on a big screen. As the place was closing up the owner came out talk with us, being a Palestinian himself hew as excited to have a table full of Arabic-speaking white kids in his bar in Jerusalem. We were excited to be speaking in Arabic again and we causally talked about issues of cultural clash in Israel like people, and money, and language. The owner at getting our change picks up a sheckle- the Israeli one-piece about the size of your pinky-finger nail and says: "You see this! This is fake money! I through it on the ground sometimes because it makes me angry that it is so fake!" We talked to him until about 2am and went back to our hobby hostel for a few hours of sleep before an early sight seeing trip.

Culture
Culturally Jerusalem is just kinda bizarre, well, compared to the rest of the Arab World. You have to understand that I've been spending the past two months immersed in Arab culture and Arab towns- only venturing to a few Westernized places. Israel is incredibly Western, and not to mention Hebrew is dramatically different than Arabic. Most of the Jewish immigrants are from Eastern Europe and there is a huge portion of Russians and Americans living there. English goes very far, and our Arabic skills were mostly useless. We walked through an outdoor mall and all the stores were American chains. We honestly all felt like we had gone back to America. Even in the Old City, the only part of town that felt Arab, it was still more on the touristy-Western side as shop merchants catered to English speaking tourists. It was very strange, but I felt way more comfortable in the Muslim quarter or in the Palestinian bar because it was the kind of foreign that I am used to.

Getting used to Hebrew was the hardest part, it almost sounded like an Arabic dialect (like in Egypt) but everything felt off about it. A funny bit of translation: the town of Bethlehem, in the West Bank, is Beit Laham in Arabic, which directly translates into "house of meat," apparently the Hebrew is "house of bread," but all I hear is House of Meat. The money was also odd, the sheckle, as stated earlier is damn small to mess with and most of the bills were plastic and garish colors. Don't get me wrong, America needs to step it waaay up on the colorful currency issue, but it doesn't need to look fake.

Religion
Wow, now this could be a book in itself- you know it's kind of my thing. So on Friday morning we wake up to church bells and head out to the Old City to see the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, and the Holy Sepulcher. My general impression was that we were at some kind of religious theme park where solemnity and sanctity were peddled in alleyways and propagated for political gain by multiple buyers and sellers. Jerusalem is not holy. There are some beautiful buildings, beautiful art, interesting co-habitation, and interesting symbols. Jerusalem is worth going to, but I don't think Jerusalem is worth believing in. If Abraham, or Christ, or Muhammad really ever walked those streets it was certainly a different time and place. Most of the monuments and markers just don't make any logical sense. I like the idea that people and places can be come sanctified, but wake up people, God isn't a voodoo doll and the most important place God should ever be in in your heart and mind. Quit killing God's creation because of this mole hill or that pile of stones, God's temple is in YOU- so quit being assholes. If Jerusalem gets nuked into space, God won't be killed- just bitter territorialists too blind by sanctity to see what they really have: a genuine opportunity to create peace in the Holy City. That's what really pisses me off- Jerusalem is supposed to be holy, but I think only suffering comes from it because instead of bolstering communication it bolsters entitlement. #soapboxoff.

After roaming around the Old City we headed out to the Holocaust Museum. It was a beautiful monument to a tragic event, but I couldn't help but catch some ironies. What the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinians- especially in Gaza Strip is exactly what happened to the Jews at the beginning of the Holocaust. Swooping statement I know, but Israel is creating Palestinian ghettos. Sure it lacks the pure hatred of Third Reich antisemitism, but there is a strong feeling that history is in some way repeating itself. By no means do I want to lessen the tragedy of the Holocaust, but it also seems to me that I cannot think of an ethnic group in America who's past isn't riddled with suffering, torture, diaspora, and even slaughter. The most common argument for an Israeli state "on the street" always seems to boil down to "we should feel bad for the Jews because of the Holocaust." Sure, but then where is the Native American Nation? Decedents of Slaves Nation? Suffering in one's past does not give justification to cause the suffering of another. Israel, quit bombing Palestinian children that you keep locked-down in walled-off neighborhoods. Palestine, quit bombing Israelis because you too have suffered encampment. When they came for me, there was no one left...

Getting Back
Well, after the Holocaust Museum and arguing with a taxi driver that called us all children and bad people, we definitely went back to the bust station and ate more Chinese food. Sweet, sweet Chinese food. At this point we thought we should check on the buses for the next day and realized that on Saturday the only bus left at 8:40 pm putting us into the border at midnight= no good. The only other option was to leave on Friday at 3:30pm, it was 2:30. The race was on! Find the bus! Rush to hobby hostel! Grab stuff! Find crazy taxi driver! Speed to bus station! Get on bus as it is leaving!! WIN! If you were counting, we were in Israel right around 24 hours, and yes, all we ate was Chinese food, and yes, eating Chinese food saved our lives getting out of Israel. Best Weekend Ever.

AAAAAAMMAN
Crossing back into Jordan was easy-peasy. We took a servicee taxi back to Amman making up a rap song about our Israelistine adventure in the style of R. Kelly along the way cracking our driver up.

We roll into Amman to luckily find 4 beds in our go-to hostel and we grabbed a bite to eat at one our favorite Arab places, Hashims. We then decided to go to bar in Amman to meet on of our friends, Shehab who's name means Shooting Star in Arabic. After the bar closed we went with Shooting Star to a house party. We definitely jumped into a car with some random Arabs to drive out to Western Amman to dance party in some person's house. Good idea? I think so! It was a blast! major dancing and major fun! Western Amman is the well, Westernized part of the city and the apartment we went too looked like Ikea. We managed to get back to the hostel at 2am after lots of dancing and sweating.

Sleeping in! Saturday morning we decided to just take it easy and head out to the big mall to catch a movie. We ended up seeing "Inception," which strangely explained how our weekend went... We stayed for about 7 hours in the mall waiting for the movie, movie, and then dinner. It was like a day in America- but with more hijabs and Arabic. We had cinnamon buns and bought Arab music cd's and for dinner we ate at Fridays. Yes, TGI Fridays filled with American kitchy crap and waiters with flash and cowboy hats. Amazing. Can you say, "soft power"?

Best Weekend Ever. and I owe it all to my TEAM.

And now for the rest of the story...

So if anyone hasn’t noticed, I work too much on Arabic and should definitely spend more time watching dubbed Harry Potter movies and Futurama clips of Zoidberg and writing for my blag… This is our last full weeks of classes and it is absolutely crazy to think that soon I will be leaving the Hashemite Kingdom for the kingdom of Starbucks and McDonalds. I am beginning to fear some reverse culture shock, but luckily I have another trip planed to Alaska right when I get back- so no real world for me!!

Tutting it up!

So I left off with the first day of my Cairo adventure, and after that we had two more full days of deliciousness to explore- and delicious it was!. We got some much-needed sleep and explored around the city going over to American University of Cairo’s campus and going to bookstores. WE also hit a bunch of shopping in the real Kahn al-Kalili souk- a bustling street full of vendors and the bright colors of scarves and prayer rugs and the smell of spices and tea. We also spend some time in Zemmalek- the Western, modern part of Cairo situated on an island in the middle of the Nile. We had some lovely Italian food there and also bought some Egyptian beer at one of the few liquor stores. We stopped off one evening at the citadel- an ancient fortification on one of Cairo’s highest places. It is also where the Muhammad Ali Mosque is located- one of the largest in Cairo. It was a gorgeous building filled with all kinds of ornate artwork and glass light-fixtures. It was really a peaceful place. You could also go out on the walkway and see all of Cairo before you- a mass of buildings and lights.

We attempted to master the metro- a feat! So we went looking again for the Kahn al-Kalili souk which was by al-Azhar Mosque and University- the oldest degree granting university in the world. So the al-Azhar stop is on the metro map, except in one station the line is yellow, in another the line is green, and in another the line is red. There are two other lines on the metro, making the one we want the third line of ambiguous color. Guess what? The “third line” isn’t going to be built until 2014 or something like that, so all of our questions about the “third line” only garnered blank looks or strangely enough, directions to a place that doesn’t exist (man motioning to the right, “so you take a left and then another left”). So after figuring out the places that we could get to, the next obstacle was that in times of heavy traffic the cars are divided into women-only and men-only. We were a group of three gents and two ladies and dividing groups has proven to be the worst travel decision of all time, so in order to make it though the metro the gents would put us ladies in the center of a circle and try to act normal in a packed in subway car that felt to be about 150 degrees. Magic! At least it was a bit better than overpaying to cram 4 people into the back of a taxi, and much better than cramming 4 people into the back of taxi that is still moving… oh Cairo transportation!

We did manage to make it out to Coptic Cairo- the Christian corner of town. Everything looked about the same, but instead of minarets there are church bells, and instead of moons there are crosses, and instead of hijabs there are rosaries. There is also one synagogue still left in the city and we visited that too. It was surprising how similar all the buildings were on the inside- they all had the same basic features and were all built from the same materials by the same culture. I’m really interested in learning more about “Arab Christians,” but the Copts are the best examples that I am aware of. They are basically the same as Greek Orthodox but they operate in a different language (although it looks like Greek). The Coptic museum was filled with beautiful art and relics from really early on, but the downside was that this museum was also without air conditioning. Did I mention that Cairo is hot?

I did mention that it was delicious- rightfully so. We managed to find an Arab bakery that some of the most delicious chocolate croissants that I’ve ever had, and it was packed every time we went there- whether it was in the hot afternoon or at midnight. We used the metro to find a little hole in the wall restaurant, there must have been holes because the floor of the whole place was covered in sawdust. We went there to get Kushari and this sweet rice desert- both were delicious! Kushari is a dish that looks like vomit, but is mighty tasty. It has rice and noodles topped with lentils, chickpeas, fried onions and a tomato based sauce. The rice desert was very similar to other rice deserts I’ve had- rice, yogurt, sugar, the tears of unicorns. I also enjoyed the cheap little street sandwiches and of course my lemon and mint drink (soooo planning a ton of mint when I get back to Boston)!

I loved my time in Cairo- it was really crazy, but I would love to go back, at least when it is cooler! I still feel romanced by Egyptian culture and history and I would love to make it back to Alexandria and Luxor.

Bombed!

Go read this article from al-Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108264751402856.html

We stayed at that Intercontinental a few weeks ago. I stood on that street to get taxis. That could have been me. But they wanted it to be Israel. The rockets probably came from the uncontrollable and rogue area of the Sinai and sent to antagonize Israel, or retaliate after bombings in Gaza. Why can't these children play nice?

No, really, there are Pyramids, right over there!

Pre-Party.

So just to explain some of the photos in the album, the first several are not of Cairo- sitting in a restaurant in Irbid and the blue Mosque is the King Hussein Mosque in Amman. We have to take a 1.5 hour bus to Amman to get to the airport so we usually leave early and go to some things in Amman before grabbing flights. The ones of my bloody foot, is well, my bloody foot. Two days before we left for Cairo I ran into some jagged metal in the middle of the street and took a chunk out of my foot- awesome! Good thing I had those tetanus shots...

Dark Sacred Night

Well we finally land in Cairo at about 9pm and my favorite news was hearing that the outside temperature was still 90 degrees. Feels soooo good... We jumped into a taxi- an Arabic word for "death trap" and managed to arrive in our area without either dying or vomiting all over the back-seat. Then came the interesting part, finding the hostel. You see, we are all Arabic students, in theory, but the local Egyptian dialect is so far off of the formal Arabic that we are learning it might as well be a different language. Whole summer of learning Arabic + Cairo Streets = Useless. After convincing some people the hostel existed, others that we didn't want to buy designer jeans or drink coffee, and others that we didn't want to stay in their hotel instead- we found the little door with the little sign in the back alley that took us to the best thing ever: air conditioning. Now, I'm not a prissy girl- I can take the heat in the kitchen, but when it is the middle of the day in a desert city filled with incubating smog- air conditioning will save your life. We had a nice room with 5 beds and a bathroom and the place had free breakfast for all of $10 US a night. Not bad for a good night's sleep.

Bright Blessed Day One

The first sday we were off the the Museum of Antiquities which basically holds all the cool stuff that has been taken out of pyramids and tombs. On the way we ran into a man who looked at Hanna and insisted she looked exactly like his daughter, who was getting married the next day. We all laughed because Hanna, being from Bangladesh, was a brown girl, an ya know, all brown people look the same... He was so excited about his daughters wedding that he invited us over to his perfume shop where he showed us pictures of Princess Diana buying perfume from him and served us tea. We told him about our language studies and explained to him again that Hanna wasn't Egyptian even though she is brown and knows some Arabic. We had a nice little chat and he taught us some phrases in Egyptian, and then when it was time to go his old uncle went with us to walk across the street to the museum. Remember, the streets are crazy and people just fly through them whether on foot, bike, bus, or car. This little man held up both his hands to stop traffic so the white kids could cross the street, oh buddy.

Big touristy spots, like in Beirut or in Petra, are the only places that we get to be around other groups of Westerners/Europeans and the groups we encountered in Cairo were the biggest yet. Just being around groups of Westerners we were all experiencing some reverse culture-shock even though we've only been away for about 8 weeks, but I guess Euro-trash will do that to anyone!

We made our way through the Museum of Antiquities, in which many exhibits were under construction so the collection was a bit cramped. An understatement considering it was a huge building stacked floor to ceiling with amazing treasures from statues to tiny beads, sarcophagi, conoptic jars, boat figures, tomb furniture, tablets of hieroglyphics and Ancient Greek, and everything in between. We got to see the contents of the boy-king Tut, and I always find it a crazy experience seeing something up close that you've read about in books your whole life. My other favorite room was filled with statues of the time period of Queen Nefertiti because the statues were the most stylistically different than any of the other faces in the museum. The Queen Nefertiti art looked like real faces of real women from Africa and the Middle East, even if they were a stylized form of beauty, they didn't look like all of the other cookie-cutter images of women. At any rate, the artifacts and the art was beautiful. I got to see some of the most beautiful turquoise and blue figures of scarabs and the Eye of Horus and Lotus.

After the museum, at around noon, we decided to head off to Giza in order to head off Team Crazy so I could go to Luxor with them. As we are riding around in the taxi, in between Johnathan's gasps and car horns we look off to the side and low and behold- Pyramids!! Rising right up out of the city! Looming tall and picturesque. You pay an entrance fee (thank goodness we have Arabic student ID cards!) to get into the "pyramid park" and walk around them in the desert. You can pay to ride camels or horses around be we all decided against it because the animals didn't seem to be that well taken care of and the pyramids were a huge tourist trap. We saw so many trashy tourists there too- waaaay to many ass-cheeks and uncovered parts! Bless her heart, she doesn't realize that scarf needs to cover her ass instead of her head! Other than that it was kind of magical to walk around the pyramids and get up and personal with such an iconic image. We also got to walk down to the Spinx and hang out with him for a bit.

Over heated and a bit worn out from walking around in the desert we went back to the hostel for a nap in the luscious cold. After that we went off on an adventure to find the Kan al-Kahlili souk, a large outdoor shopping center for touristy stuff. Well, we get over to the area whereabouts it should be, but instead of finding the touristy souk we found the native one. By native, I mean the place where crazy, over crowded Cairenes buy clothing. We ended up walking for what seemed like miles down a narrow path about two or so people wide with two stories of clothing hanging above us and piles of clothing on tables to the side of us. Of course, when a path is two-people wide you shove 4 people in it and huge carts full of goods and then you have other people stand on the sides yelling to try and get you to buy their stuff. In Cairo there are also a slew of non-word verbal communications, for instance if you want someone to move in front of you, you hiss at them and if you want to say no you make a clicking noise and if you want to hit on a girl you make a "bis"ing noise. So we were getting bumped, pushed, run over, hit, yelled at, clicked, hissed, and bissed. I felt like I had touched everyone in Cairo at the same time!

After getting out of the exhausting maze and finding a cafe to sit at and have some limone and mint (my new favorite drink! think lemonade with crushed mint!) we all managed to laugh at our little adventure and appreciate our experience. Well, we had found the souk we were looking for but we were too tired to shopping so we retreated back to the hostel to find out what happened to Team Crazy. We had lost communication with them about three in the afternoon and it was into the evening when we got back to the hostel to find Robin hanging out there and that the other two morons had left Cairo in a bit of frustration to go to Tel Aviv. Luckily we had an extra bed in our room so Robin moved in and we got ready for the next day of craziness.

Oh hey, look over there, Pyramids!

Cairo.

Might as well just call it the center of the world.

I mean, really, what other city has captured the world's imagination and sense of adventure for the past, oh say, THOUSANDS of years. I'm talking from the very oldest of the old- humanity has been in awe of Egypt and it's great cities, Memphis, Giza, Alexandria, Luxor, etc. Cairo is arguably the center of the modern Arab World in terms of stability, government, finances, and modernity. In class you learn that Arabic word for Egypt is Misr and the Arabic word for Cairo is al-Qahira, but in reality everyone in Egypt calls Cairo by Misr. Literally Cairo is Egypt. It's ancient history is what we all dream about when we thing of Egypt, pyramids, King Tut (always as Steve Martin), Cleopatra, hieroglyphics... It's modern history begins in 1798 when Napoleon invaded Egypt and took control of Cairo. Since then the country has been through rounds of revolutions and reforms, British occupation and colonization, and a fight for national independence. A lot of the history has to do with control of the Suez Canal (I flew over the Suez!), re-iterating Egypt's roll as a passageway between worlds.

Team Cairo.

Well, our program gave us a four-day holiday right before the home stretch of exams. Naturally I decided to go someplace awesome. Although, I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to do. I had two sets of friends going to Cairo and I wanted to visit Egypt with both of them! One group was going to spend the whole time in Cairo soaking up the Arab culture and the other was on an ambitious tour de Egypt consisting of running up to Alexandria, going down to Giza, then Luxor, and then back up the Nile (actually down) to Cairo. So the plan was to Barney Rubble it (be two places at once). I was going to spend the first day with Team Cairo and meet up with Team Crazy in Giza and then go down to Luxor with them and then meet back up with Team Cairo for the last days. Team Cairo was my roommate Hanna and our friends Johnathan and Curtis, a good team despite the fact that Curtis and Hanna go to UNC (don't hate them Dad!). Team Crazy included my travel buddies from Beirut: Meilakh, Austin, and Robin. Well, Team Crazy failed big time. Their connecting flight to Alexandria was delayed 3 hours and once they finally got there at 3 am they couldn't find their hotel, and then after coming back down to Cairo and huge communication blunder there were no train tickets to Luxor. So, Meilakh and Austin left Egypt the second day for Israel (morons...) and Robin wandered around the city until he found Team Cairo at our hostel (smart move). Needless to say, I didn't go to Luxor, oh and, best laid plans of mice and men... The superiority of Team Cairo now confirmed, our trip was a blast!!

A Glimpse.

The necessary things to know about Cairo is that it is monstrous. Huge. Giant. It is a city filled to the brim with people, and everything is all kind of stacked and stuffed. It's not like New York or Paris, it's really only just like Cairo. It is also a very hot place, getting up to 120 sometimes in the streets because of all the people and smog and cars. Speaking of cars, they drive crazy, as in really crazy, as in Johnathan was white-knuckling the chair in front of him every time he was in a taxi kind of crazy. Oh yeah, and crossing the street is exactly like Frogger- people just jump through high speed traffic like a Sunday afternoon stroll. Oh and the whole buses should stop to let people on them, that doesn't happen either- instead, people run off and on the buses as they slow down a bit at the street corners.

Cairo is a very Arab city filled with Arab cultural aspects that I've seen in places like Irbid and Amman, but it also has this hint of Egypt-ness that is really unique. Our hostel was on a little alleyway that will filled with cars during the day, but at night would explode with people from the cafes that lined the street. The tables were filled with men and women drinking tea and smoking shisha and playing Backgammon. The streets were lively well into the night with families out shopping in the cooler evening hours, people eating street food or getting sweets, bars and cafes, and a lot of socializing. Street food included foul (think re-fried beans), roasted corn, hummus, tabouleh, pita, and shawarma. Egypt is also a Muslim city, with large, gorgeous mosques dotting the city with the green lights of the minarets. You can measure the hours of the day by the call to prayer, and see the marks on foreheads of men from bowing on their prayer rugs. Women could be seen in average western looking clothing or in progressive stages of the hijab and the veil. In general, people are friendly- hospitality is a huge value in Arab culture and it is very insulting to either not offer or to not accept hospitality. We just had to be careful about hospitality being a front for a con, but we didn't run into any.

Update!

Just posted photos from my trip to Damascus in Syria last weekend! Also, just got back from my week off in CAIRO!! I was in AFRICA and I saw PYRAMIDS!!! Lots of story to follow! Alas, the homework begins again and it is amazing to think I only have about two more weeks here in the Middle East. I'm going to miss it!!!!!

Petra and Aqaba

This is just a warning, you may danger yourself with the amount of jealousy that will ensue: I went to the place where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail. Bam! Ok, are you still breathing? I think everything is going to be ok...

That's right folks Petra, the site of the ancient Nebatean city carved right into the Jordanian mountains- complete with tombs, treasury, monastery, and of course camels (pronounced in Arabic something like "jamaal," or as we like to say "jamel"). Today it is one of Jordan's largest tourism pulls and a place for a lot of Bedouin business. We drove for hours through the desert after classes and ended up in the city of Wadi Mujib on Thursday night. We had dinner at lovely little place that served gamiya, which is a Bedouin stew type of stuff that was delicious! We also wend swimming in the hotel pool which felt like a bath tub, mmmm! We heard of this place close to our hotel that is supposed to be the oldest bar in the world- naturally we had to go! Cave Bar, was, as the name implies, a bar in a cave- which was really a carved out building, but cool none-the-less. I had Mt. Nebo wine, made from the famous site in Jordan.

The next morning we headed out to the ruins bright and early, a blessing in disguise as we were heading out by the time the sun was killer and the narrow way filled with tourists and donkeys. The way into the mountains is through a narrow pass that makes for a gorgeous hike! Once you get into the ruins site it is just filled with buildings and columns and dust and Bedouins selling goods. My group hiked up to the top- a crazy hike! We went up to the Monastery and also over to a look-out spot called "The End of the World" and we were so high it literally looked like the world just ended off in the distance. No wonder folks used to think the world was flat! I loved the morning hiking around and I got to see some amazing things. I also stopped off and bought some souvenirs from the Bedouins, some jewelry made through the Queen Noor foundation established to help increase revenue for the Bedouin women and also increase Jordanian crafts.

After Petra our group jumped back into the dusty hot tour bus and drove out to Aqaba- a resort town at the coast of the Red Sea. It was beautiful! We stayed at a 5-star hotel right on the beach and spent the whole afternoon going back and forth between the pools and the beach. It was wonderful! Some friends and I went out to have dinner and I ate fish from this fun little balcony filled with fountains. The next day we tried to go snorkeling- I've heard the Red Sea has some of the best, but the waves were too choppy so we went back to our beach. It was so nice! The water was clear and the water was a bit saltier than normal so it was easy to float around. I could definitely go back there! The weekend was the perfect mix of physical activity and adventure mixed with relaxing laziness!

It's been a long time coming...

Alas my trusty friends! IT has been far too long since the last post- my apologies. I really think it is that jet lag kicking around, or whatever the equivalent may be of homework: study lag? mumkin... It has been about two weeks so there is a lot of catching up to do, that being said let's start off with some wonderful Jordanian culture: Mansaf.

A couple of Mondays ago, right after getting back from Beirut our program hosted a Mansaf feast. Mansaf is the traditional meal of Jordan and it comes from the Bedouins. Mansaf is a big community style meal that some Jordanians eat every week, think of it as Grandma's Sunday Lunch. It is a big pile of rice with lamb on top that they cover in a sauce made of yogurt. Everyone stands around and you eat it with your hands, which basically consists of crafting little rice balls and then popping them into your mouth. Needless to say the less graceful of us ended up with rice everywhere and a huge mess. Being a whole 5 foot nothing my other problem was standing next to my tall friend Patrick who was really good at elbowing me in the face as he tried to manage the rice eating. The food was really tasty but what made the event was definitely the food handling.

Jump ahead a to the next Sunday and we come to the epicness that was, was, and will be, the WORLD CUP FINAL!! whoop! This was an epic battle of brawn, brain, hot guys in futbol uniforms, and grown men who cry. I of course, the soccer expert, was going for the Netherlands team, because really, why Spain? So what if a magical octopus said they were going to win? Oh wait, they did win, annnnd I was bested by an octopus... Whatever, soccer genius he may be, but Paul didn't get to watch the game in a lovely little Arab cafe with his friends smoking shisha. We went clad as fan warriors with funny glasses and vevuzelas in hand. Now, there may be a fatwa against vevuzelas, but I know something fun to do with them: blowing shisha smoke through them! It was hilarious and photo is definitely forthcoming. I'm not sure what was more fun- me yelling in Arabic at the match, my Puerto Rican friend getting so excited he could only speak in Spanish, or the sports announcer repeating "World Cup" about a million times in one second. Oh language, how it beats us all... Alas Spain did win, but I'm not bitter... No, what was worse was the vevuzela, car horn, and yelling party that moved through the streets of Irbid, complete with fireworks, for the next several hours. America: you really need to step up your celebration frenzy! Jordanians have this down!

More to come on Aqaba and Petra!

Interesting lil'video

Here is an interesting little video from al-Jazeera about a street artist in Paris who paints Hijab's onto subway advertisements. She says some interesting things about culture and Hijab.

What happens in Beirut stays in Beirut: Day Two

****
Waking up in a room is such a nice feeling, especially when you can take a shower and eat a little French-ish breakfast on a beautiful morning out on a patio looking out to the Mediterranean. Its the little things in life that make it so sweet, like the green shutters on the building next door, or the taste of orange juice when you wake up thirsty, or the smile on a friend's face when you just made him laugh.

****
Walking around the city it was like walking through different worlds, on this block I swear I was in France again and on the next I thought I was in Amman, and then the next you thing you know I would be in "Old San Juan." Roaming around we would stop and have a conversation that would pass through English, Spanish, French, and Arabic. Shawarma and French pastries with gellato and McDonalds. Worlds colliding. In academia we call it the "clash of civilizations," but in Beirut it is called life. Pick through any history of the country and civil war and strife are almost synonymous, and even my parents only envision violence. But where there are people with difference, those differences will lash out at one another until equilibrium is found again. I was lucky enough to be in this great city in a time of equilibrium (more or less), and I am still in awe of all that mess of difference jiving together on a daily basis.

****
We walked around town and along the beach front. We passed through American University and Martyr's Square. Giant mosques and Orthodox churches dotted the streets together, such beautiful sacred places. There were Roman baths and ruins, with large gardens and modern business areas. Tourist districts with towering hotels and palm trees and night clubs blaring music and flashing lights. The World Cup filled every bar and restaurant and the streets were covered with flags from every country. Signs came in English, French, and Arabic, but the taxis only came in crazy. Every 10 minutes some ridiculous sports car would be spotted from Audi's to BMW's to Porches and one beautiful yellow Lamborghini. We went to the beach front and climbed over the rocks and swam in the Mediterranean and met a very nice Arab guy who told us a lot about Lebanon and the Middle East. We also went to the National Museum of Beirut that houses ancient artifacts from the area that cover everything from Coptic, to Latin, to Greek, to ancient Arabic. They also had remnants of their collection that had been destroyed and fused together during a bombing in the Lebanese Civil War, creating a whole new artifact of their history. We ate dinner at a traditional Lebanese restaurant which was sooo delicious! One of my favorite things was getting to sit at a cafe overlooking the sea and the large rock formations at sunset while we had coffee and shiisha. It was gorgeous and simple and such a wonderful time to learn more about my friends and engage in my favorite Middle Eastern hobby: laughing. We topped the night off by drinking in some bars and taking in some more World Cup. We met people from all over the world and became instant friends over yelling at sports and dancing to music. I got some free Arabic lessons and a huge dose of culture.

I loved my time in Lebanon, and I cannot wait until I go back!!

What happens in Beirut, stays in Beirut: Day One

****
The taxi merges into traffic on a busy, dusty street in Amman. People are moving about everywhere, shopkeepers displaying their goods, and children running around. The air is hot and busy and moves through the open windows swirling my hair around my face. Just having taken a bus to Amman after class my friend Robin and I grabbed some dinner in the center of town. We spent the whole time laughing and talking and as the taxi drove off to the airport, and as I was surrounded by this city a feeling washed over me that I was truly at the center of the world. I felt as if I was at the true center of humanity, and that I was connected to everyone and everything, that there was something remarkably common in the world and I had found it. I smiled as the wind whipped my hair and the sun made everything too hot to stand.

****
Thousands of miles in the air, we flew through the night sky across the Middle East. I saw Amman and Damascus spread out in intricate designs of streets and circles. The glittering pop of fireworks covered the ground as wedding celebrations took place. Even the areas between the cities, which normally look like empty desert, were dotted with lights and the evidence of people. The land was anything but empty. As we came upon Beirut the plane moves out across the Mediterranean and flies in low along the city. Skyscrapers and high-rise hotels cover the coast line as the city races into the mountains going up, up up. Again, fireworks everywhere and more signs of celebration. Colored lights everywhere. Even in the darkness of night I could tell this was a vibrant city, and one that I was already falling in love with.

****
The first night was a borderline tourist nightmare, which means it turned out fabulous and very memorable. As Robin and I flew into the city our companions Austin and Meilakh were driving in from Syria and we were to meet them at our hotel that we had reserved. As soon as Robin and I land we went to go grab some Lebanese pounds or livers and go to the hotel. Problem one: we have no idea what the exchange rate is, so when I popped my card into the ATM my options were given to me in the the thousands, and let me tell you- nothing is more nerve racking then taking 300,000 out of an ATM!! Quote of the night, "I don't know what the hell a livers is but I have hundreds of thousands of them now!!" Problem 2: Besides the crazy taxi driver that I thought would kill us on the way to the hotel, the hotel didn't have any rooms for us. It turns out our friend had forgotten to confirm the reservation. Problem 3: Austin and Meilakh were still driving and had not met us yet, and there was no way of telling when they would get in because of the land borders, so we tried calling them up. Our phones didn't work in Lebanon. So, off the Plan B: another hotel we looked up called the Mayflower. Problem 4: Plan B doesn't work. The Mayflower doesn't have any rooms available, and the very nice concierge guy called all of the ones in the area and everything was booked. He could get us a room for the next night starting early in the morning so he let us lock our things up there and told us to "go out and celebrate" and come back in the morning. By this point Robin and I figured we were never going to find Meilakh and Austin and that we were on our own, and that once they arrived in town would come to the same conclusion as well. So what do you do in a situation like this? Go to a bar and drink whiskey.

Luckily after the whiskey I decided to check my phone (see the whiskey helped!!) and alas text messages work even when calls fail (anyone care to explain?). Now, just in case you ever have to coordinate a cross-town hotel-meet-up in a foreign place when you have no idea what you are doing, do what we did and laugh a lot and in sha allah everything will work out. Alas we rested up the night in Port View hotel and I only woke up once wondering where the hell I was and who are these people I'm surrounded by? And falling back asleep I couldn't be happier to be in such a wonderful place with some amazing new friends.

*In the photo: Me, Austin, Meilakh, and Robin

Independence Day

In Jordan it is still America's Independence Day for another hour, and thusly will conclude my first Fourth of July outside of America- and let me tell you, it was good! Of course it is the morning of (and I hope you all remember that in Jordan, Sunday is the new Monday- so we were in class) and nothing had been planned for our group in terms of party-like-it's-1999. So, of course, I decided to put myself in charge and plan a party! Who would of thought I would plan an event? Really? Me? and "organizer"? Pshaw... (I'm not sure how much sarcasm this blog can take....) So I threw together some pot-luck and grilling (thanks to some wonderful gentleman who tended the fire not unlike cave men, but I love them!). We had all kinds of Middle Eastern salads and hummos and pita and Kunafa, oh and hamburgers and hot dogs. We played music and watched the sunset on a patio in front of our classroom building. Ahh, sweet sweet American party! This was my first 4th without fireworks and booze, well fireworks for the 4th. You see, Jordanians know how to celebrate! Every night the streets are alive with honking horns covered in flowers that celebrate weddings followed by fireworks all over the place. There are always people yelling and gathered in groups for weddings or graduations. EVERY. NIGHT. We smoke shiisha in a cafe on the 6th floor of a building that looks out over the whole city and I love going up there and see the fireworks across town, and even flying over the Middle East en rout to Beirut you could see the pops of bright colors all over the place. Jordanians know how to celebrate, and we had to show them that Americans can too!

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Just remember that American wasn't always America, that we had to grow into a country, into an economy, and into a society, so that you can remember what it means to be a developing country.
Remember the great things that we have done as a people, like taking in immigrants and refugees, but don't hide the awful things that we have done, like creating immigrants and refugees.
A nation is more than borders, and independence is more than a piece of paper, but that borders and papers can kill a person's nationality and freedom.
Everyday I am learning to love the American flag more and more, because I understand more and more what part of my identity is "American" and how I'm connected to the rest of the world because of and in spite of it.

So, God Bless America (and everyone else!!)!

Standing in an Ancient Temple

Oh if walls could talk...
If the stones would tremble
break free of their silence

to tell me their secrets

Oh to be a stone in the wall.
To have ancient ears.

Was this where they poured the oil
for Zeus, the king of the Gods?

Is this the step they used
to kneel and pray?

Was this spot where you could see
the tents of the Hebrews?

Did they worry when new Gods appeared
to bring a new truth?

Oh to be a stone in the wall.
To have ancient eyes.

Is this where they brought the Christians
to question and condemn?

Is this where the Hebrews cried
when they remembered their slavery?

Is this the way that the Muslims came
from lands far away?

How did their faces look when they
saw such a pagan place?

Oh to be a stone in the wall.
To have ancient mouths.

What were the songs of the children
singing to their Gods?

What were the ancient sounds of the Hebrew people
now lost in history?

Did the Christians pray the same prayers
we offer today?

How many times have your heard the beauty
of the Holy Quran?

Oh to be a stone in the wall.

Futbol!!

Regardless of the recent New York Post headline soccer isn't just for five year-olds and suburban high school girls, in fact, soccer is the World's Game. Take that baseball ball... The WORLD Cup actually has teams from all around the WORLD... odd how that makes sense... Team America had an awesome showing this year, making it out of the Group level for the first time- sadly they are out, but hopefully this game has sparked some soccer fever. I know I have a fever, and the only prescription: more soccer!

Everywhere I've been in Jordan in the past weeks has been filled with all kinds of sport-pride, and Jordan doesn't even have a team in tournament. Each night the cafes are filled with groups of friends smoking shiisha and yelling at TV's. When I was in Amman there was a whole group of international strangers huddled around a set soaking it all in. Millions upon millions of people are joined together in fandom- and just as appropriately in rivalry. Sure there is a lot of violence associated with some soccer fans and in large sporting events in general, but you have to agree- there is something strange in how competition can bring so many people together.

The lovely students of the UVA-Yarmouk Program recently found this out... We had been gathering together slowly- first three, then five, then six, just to kick the ball around so to say. We finally got enough to form a little team and play against each other. One night out on the pitch there was a group of guys playing on the other half of the field, so they came over and offered a game- Americans vs. The Gulf National Team (plus Syria and Palestine). We all spoke a little English and a little Arabic- but we all knew that one common language: GOAL!!! Of course, they beat us- but they didn't cream us, only 6-2 (whad up Korea!). We did get a, "you are not bad for girls," which made me wonder if any of those guys, who had been playing soccer all their lives, had played against girls- or at least American girls who are used to playing hard. All we had was a field, some nets, and a crappy ball- but we managed to break the language barrier, the gender barrier, cultural barriers, and in some way, a political barrier. Those boys came from places our country has bombed the shit out of or helped someone else bomb the shit out of it- but we were not enemies- just opponents in a game. We lost, but I had a GREAT time.

Competition isn't always a bad thing and it doesn't always have to split people apart. Sometimes, like in our case, it can bring people together like no act I have ever seen before. I have decided to love soccer, not because of any particular team, but because of all of them- and what they can give this world in terms of hope and joy, and yes, even competition.

Holy Weekend Batman! Ker-POW!

This weekend our hero, Arabic Girl, fought all of the forces of Eeeevil in not one, but six sites of ancient-city-Holy-God-salty kind of places!! We last left our caped crusader (not such a good term around here, doh!) diligently scribbling away at hours of Arabic homework. Yet, alas, the call for adventure rang and our hero valiantly answered that call by taking a long nap on the tour bus.

Friday... wa-wa-wa....

The first stop for historical ass-kicking took place at Umm Qais, also known as the place Jesus cast out a legion of demons an sent them into flying pigs... or something like that. Not wanting to be stood up by Jesus, Arabic Girl tried to cast some demons out of her fellow travelers but only ended up taking some really awesome pictures of columns and the view of the Sea of Galilee with Israel and Syria int he background.

Off to Ajloun next, a medieval fortification of Crusader-Castle-in-the-Desert-Goodenss, where our hero felt what it would be like to fend off the Holy Land from the likes of the Joker, Magneto, and the Tea Party (or read "BP") all at once! Never Fear! Ajloun is on the high ground with a moat and archer's windows, it was a lovely place but could probably use some Martha Stewart K-mart Collection.

After feasting on plates of roast beast and critter with breads galore, Arabic Girl met her biggest match of the day: Jaresh. This towering monster of thousands of years holds the One Ring and the necklace from Titanic (or you could read "unobtain-ium"), or at least the best Roman ruins outside of Italy. Colossal pillars, theaters, and temples to Zeus cover this site. Luckily Arabic Girl is in fact faster than a speeding bullet and had no problem wining all of the races in the Hippodrome.

Back to the Bat-Cave for the night complete with an Arabic training montage.

Saturday... BAM!

Not wanting to be one of those boring, heathen types Arabic Girl abandons her studies to run off to save the Holy Land from tourists in matching neon t-shirts and Micky Mouse Hats.

First Stop: Mount Nebo. The place that God took Moses to see the Promised Land, but Moses had a bad habit of cutting people off in traffic with his camel so God didn't let Moses actually go to the Promised Land. Good thing Arabic Girl doesn't have road rage.

Nest Stop: B-B-Bethany B-B-Beyond the Jordan. Where Jesus was thrown into the Jordan river by a crazy man in a bear suit who ate bugs and lived in the caves (really not making that one up). Arabic Girl was ready and willing and definitely laid some knowledge of the Biblios on some fellow hajj-ers (hajj = pilgrimage).

Stop Three: The Sea of Dead. Watch out, if you have a cut you WILL find it. Immediately. Arabic Girl's kryptonite is not salt, or else she would have died by merely looking at the Sea of Dead (in fact it is actual kryptonite). Jesus might have walked on water, but everyone in the Sea of Dead can float on water- just try and drown, try it! Buoyancy is one of Arabic Girl's super powers. Fact. Vanquishing evil at the Sea of Dead was very difficult: after the swimming and mud bath and exfoliation and more swimming and eating ice cream there wasn't very much evil to vanquish.

Alas, join us next time for Arabic Girl's adventures in international soccer games!!!

AAAAmman!

Ah dear friends it seems that I have left you in a bout of suspense as to my whereabouts last weekend... No more! Me and my 10 closest friends (or so) traveled to Amman. We began early in the morning on Friday (the new Saturday) and walked down to the bus stop- sun already beating overhead, and sweat already beading down. Luckily there was a big sign for the bus tickets and a large label for Amman that even my limited Arabic skills could figure out the tickets. A couple of dinars and two hours of air-conditioned bus ride later and we were dropped off on the edge of Amman.

Amman is the capitol of Jordan, the home of the King and Queen, and an ancient city to boot. This modern city of 2.5 million was once the ancient Roman city of Philadelphia. Leaving the bus station behind, three taxied carried our team into the old City Center a buzzing hubbub of shops, people, and food. We walked our way around to the Roman Amphitheater: a giant three-tiered stadium of seats rising into the rock-face of the hills with all attention focused on the center stage. This was the ancient place of theater, of tragedy and comedy, politics and culture, people of status and no status. This is the modern place of tourism and culture, of discovery and adventure, and of some really awesome pictures. From the top of the Amphitheater one can look out into the City Center and watch the modern world turn from an ancient step. It makes me wonder how much humans have changed. We could also glimpse some of the ruins from atop the Citadel and decided to go there next.

Grabbing some falafal sandwiches (should have named the blog falafal instead of shawarma!) we marched up the switched-back roads and paths to make it to the top of the Citadel. Amman is a city of hills and the whole city is spread out among dips and rises, rolling into the Jordanian desert. After what felt like climbing a mountain we managed to reach the back entrance of the site. We passed along a group of men bunched beneath a tree to have lunch in the shade. As soon as they saw us coming they began handing out large pieces of bread and hummus and would certainly not take no for an answer. After they were satisfied that everyone had something to eat they sat some of us down and began talking to us for a bit. There must have been at least 7 of them and were 11 in number- a small army to feed on the fly! Such hospitality I have never seen before- sudden and with gusto!

The Citadel preserves bits of all the ancient and modern history of this region. Being the highest place in Amman, the Citadel has housed fortifications for thousands of years from the Bronze Age to include a Roman temple to Hercules and a Umayyad Palace. From this vantage point we could see the whole city, and even the whole world. There were people and buildings as far as the eye could see from King Hussein Mosque to the Royal complexes to office buildings and rows upon rows of low income housing. All of this heat and dust have been a part of the human condition for a long time.

Exhausted, we climbed back down and moved our way through the shops and the jewelry district to our little hostel/hotel. I snuck in a bit of a nap before we began wandering around the shops again (I'm searching for scarves!). Everything was sold on the streets and the only thing that stopped the streets was the noon prayer. When we were in the square earlier in the day it was filled with men and prayer mats submitting themselves to the Will of God for Friday noon prayer. After the prayer as the crowd was dispersing we got swept up into a crowd moving through the fresh produce market. It was a bee-hive of shouting, moving, the bright colors of the the fruits and vegetables, and the sweet smell of cherries and peaches. Needing a snack we found ourselves nothing short of what was the best Kunafa and Baklava stand in the neighborhood and we definitely put back the platefuls!

Another break before a night on the town had us back in the hostel watching the US team in the World Cup. Eventually the little lobby room was filled with tourists and travels from all over cheering and jeering (the US *totally* had that third goal!)- and that's when I realized the globalism of the World Cup. A crowded room in a hobble in Amman, Jordan. Sweaty Americans, Brits, and Arabs. One universal language: GOAL!!!

Our night in Amman began at he Iraqi Embassy, and luckily didn't end up in jail. We roamed around and after almost killing each other over where to eat we ended up in a mediocre Italian restaurant in a hotel. It was followed up with a nice little bar behind the Iraqi Embassy. Drink of choice for my first week in the Middle East and in Islamic culture? Long Island Ice Tea. Mumtaz! We continued to enjoy each others company laughing and talking. The night ended with blissful sleep and maybe a little sunburn. The next morning we jumped a bus back to Irbid and back to laundry and homework.

Thursday is the new Friday

Well folks, for those who don't know in the Islamic world the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Friday is the holy day and Muslims gather together at the local mosque (which literally means "gathering") or prayer center at noon for prayers and a hutbah, "sermon." In most settings the men pray at mosque and women pray at the household. In Islam, there are five ritual prayers a day: one just before sunrise, at noon, in the afternoon, at dusk, and at night. The ritual prayers involve sets of phrases and movements- a lot like the Rosary or Orthodox prayer rituals.

So you know what this means? Yup, Thursday is the new Friday, and Sunday is the new Monday, and Allison gets woken up at 4am by the call to prayer...

This Thursday (Hkamiis) was our first official weekend debut in Irbid, which was a much needed break from our grueling class schedule. I have 6 classes that meet on and off for 5 hours every day. 5 hours of Arabic class. a. day. Back at good 'ole Harvie we would take 5 hours of Arabic class a week. a. week. So I'm taking a week's worth of instruction in a single day, multiplied over the week, over the month, over the summer. Oh, yeah, and did I mention it is all taught in Arabic? haha, haha. Hello Arabic Boot Camp! Sir, yes, Sir! or rather: Saiid, nam, saiid!! Instead of giving us a full metal jacket and matching BDU's I have 5 new Arabic books and some awesome long skirts.

What does a group of haggard first year Arabic students do after absorbing 5 hours of instruction? Search for kunafa. Kunafa you say? What's that you say? Well, here in the West we call it "heaven," and in Jordan it is a doughy, sweet-cheesy, crunchy-pastry, covered-in-sweet-sweet-nothing syrup, all-on-one-plate GOODNESS. We went to a fancy sweets shop (Jordanians love their sweets) and just ordered up a whole mess of the stuff after class- not quite sure what were going to get, but greatly delighted when the little man brought Heaven-on-a-plate to our table. Somehow I feel this will be a regular occurrence...

The second pastime of Jordanians is gathering with friends and family, going out on the town, finding a nice cafe, throwing on some World Cup (K'as al-All'm), and smoking hashish. Walking down the streets in the cool evenings wafts of sweet peach or mint flavor smoke tumbles out of the cafes and fills the air like a perfume. It is the smell of relaxation, of friends, and of taking some time off. On Thursday night we joined this tradition and enjoyed an evening of friendship, and most importantly- no Arabic class!

Look in the new pictures for The Great Kunafa Adventure and The Great Amman Adventure (beta coming soon)!

reflections on an opinion of someone else

.Israel
_______is
_________just
___________like
_____________Hitler

what?

Surely you cannot be saying that?

Hitler was
__________________evil.

The Holocaust was
__________________evil.

Israel...

such a small country
made of a people of past painful

Jordanians afraid?
Jordan is Palestine?
Palestine is Jordan?

more people jobless,__homeless,____lost,
__________________________________in pain.

Who's land?
Who's space?
Who's place?
_________is it to say who's is who's or where is where?

Where is the love for neighbor?
Where is the peace?

Is there a place for forgiveness?
______a nation is but a line in the sand.
__________forgiveness is just a word spoken.
but... just... these are the things that hate is made of.

what are the things that peace is made of?
________who is the one that peace will make?
______________________________________be made by, for, with

Is Israel evil?
Is Palestine evil?

Are you evil?
__when you lie to your children?
____when you gossip about the lady in the ugly hat at church?
_____when you swear in traffic?

the greater than the lesser of

we are the agents of war and peace

we
___are
______Hitler

_________but

we
___are
_______peace

too

a people of a past painful, too. lost, too. homeless, too. jobless, too.
angryupsetscaredconfusedworried, too.

don't forget your humanity
don't forget you're humanity

Oh man, I'm behind!

Oh boy, I have some catching up to do!

On Friday afternoon I finally met the other participants of the UVA-Yarmouk program in NYC- 32 in all from universities all across America with large groups from Harvard and UVA. I am one of two graduate students, and everyone is very nice and we all seem to get along great. After a few hours of orientation and a lovely dinner we hopped on Royal Jordanian and buckled up for the next 11 hours. Take off was a bit sketch, I didn't think we would get the bird in the air! After that though the flight was good, well, as good as sitting through the night in a little chair throttling through the sky can be.

Anddd TOUCHDOWN!! Complete with game-winning applause we graced the land of Jordan at the Amman airport. Coming down my face was glued to the window to watch the parch desert unfold into in patches of watered groves and orchards, small villages, and larger communities surviving in the land of the ancients. Thankfully the airport was on the modern side (complete with a Starbucks!) and we were welcomed by a 55 passenger bus that took us the 2 hours to Irbid. We stopped off at a Cozmo grocery store to grab some things and change money, which means I now own Arabic shampoo. We rolled into Irbid at about 9:00 in the evening on Saturday and right into our assigned apartments. I share a nice sized apartment with a junior at UNC Chapel Hill. We have a big living room, a small kitchen, a small bedroom, and a bathroom with a washer(!). WE began to set up residence...

A few power converters and plug adapters later Hana, my roommate, and I realized we didn't have the right set up to get all of our electronics working. We went off with a couple of other folks basically going from shop to shop in about a mile distance asking every clerk in our broken Arabic/English for the correct plug we need. Alas! We did not give up and the fruit of our victory is what is allowing me update the blag!

Buying groceries has been fun- the stores are filled with strange things and with strange labels. Canned meat next to the Nutela with 8 different kinds of tomato paste but only one kind of cheese with "American style" cookies and Indian spice boxes. Needless to say we've managed to feed ourselves, in part to the sandwich shop across the street that sells falafal or dejaj (chicken) for .5 JD and operated by a very friendly guy, Saiid, who has quickly become everyone's friend.

I haven't spent much time in the restaurants around here, but I did go to a Western-style place to watch the World Cup Italy match. I was surprised to see on University St. a McDonalds, Popeye's, Papa John's, and Pizza Hut.

On Sunday we took a tour of Irbid and also went to a Museum downtown on the archeological finds of the area- from ancient settlers, to Rome, to Islamic Dynasties, to the Ottomans. We also had a tour of the campus which is modern, yet simple. On Monday we had our placement exam, which was basically 2 hours of staring at the test and wondering if I had actually taken Arabic the year before if all of this was my imagination. Luckily, everyone felt the same way so we will all be going through Arabic Boot-Camp clueless. Ahh, and today (Tuesday) was the first day of classes... but enough of that for now!

I have to get back to the grind- so much Arabic so little time!

Ma Salama!

Oh be sure to check out the pictures I posted!!

Update!

Just to let everyone know, I survived Royal Jordanian and am now safe at home in my little apartment at Yarmouk University!

Just the beginning of the jet lag... more shawarma to come!

Pre-Departure

Good Morning!!

Well I have made it as far as New York City, and I am resting in the hotel before we have orientation. I am very excited! But, I am also wishing I had studied more Arabic!! Ahh summertime-laziness, you got the best of me again! I already have a few meetings lined up in Jordan- friends and colleagues from McMurry and Harvard and some friends-of-friends. I have by in-flight reading material lined up: "Leap of Faith" by Queen Noor. All I have to do now is hurry up and wait until I get there!

With Anticipation,
Allie

This isn't the greatest blog in the world, it's only a tribute.