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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.