I could see the Holly Land!

So, several exciting things have transpired since my last post. This past weekend, I took a trip to Jerash and Ajloun and Irbid and Umm Qais. It was filled with many Roman ruins, castles, and rocks of all shapes and sizes. Our trip was also characterized by interesting bus trips. Regrettably, I was not involved in the planning of my rather sudden and chaotic leaving for the weekend. We left bright and early on Friday morning on a bus, which only cost 70 cents for the hour long ride to Jerash. Of course, I had to figure out that the old bus station closed and there was a new one and the buses don’t pull up to the signs that say the names of the destinations and that the service taxis try to convince you on the nonexistence of the bus and charge you to drive you there. After that was all straightened out, we embarked on the journey. We easily found the ruins and walked through them for a few hours. It was interesting to just look past the ruins and see the city of Jerash so close by. At the end, we went to see a chariot race, which featured a guy explaining the excitement of the chariots and Roman soldier in awkward English. After finding lunch for a decent price at a nearby restaurant, the waiter told us that we could catch a bus to Ajloun, our next destination, by walking down the main road. Of course there was no bus station or clearly marked stops. Several people along the way tried to invite us into their cars for an overpriced ride to Ajloun. Eventually, a nice little van with no windows in the back pulled up next to us to kindly offer a ride for the low price of ten dinars. Instead of completely ignoring him, as all girls have learned to do by now, the guys decided to negotiate with them and then when they decided to turn down their not so generous offer altogether, the van decided to follow us. I might add that two cars with men in them stopped with the van as it stalked us down the road. Eventually the bus which so many people told us didn’t exist showed up, and we had our ride to Ajloun for 50 cents. Ajloun had a gorgeous castle on the top of a mountain, which we walked through and eventually got a great view of the surrounding city and mountains from the top of the castle. We then pressed on the Irbid for the night, which was mostly unremarkable, but it was a Friday, so most things were closed. In the morning, we headed to Umm Qais, where we found some tombs, more ruins of assorted rocks (including marble and a Roman theater interesting constructed from black rocks), and a great view of the Sea of Galilee, Israel, Mount Hebron, and the Syrian border, as we were in northern Jordan. We hung out for a little while with some lovely Jordanians we met on the bus and a random hiker showed us how to bypass the barbed wire fence for a better view of the Sea of Galilee. But then the road was blocked by cows, so we had to turn back. Overall, an exciting trip, but quite tiring.

Sidenote: It is a wonderful thing to travel with boys. For one thing, the harassment from people on the streets is limited to lewd stares and the occasional honking and whistling or comments I don’t understand anyway. So, it was great for me. But because we have girls, everyone is super helpful and nice to us, which is something the guys aren’t quite used to here. It is really a win-win situation. Also the boys earn the protection of our wonderful awareness skills and they are slowly learning how to ignore people from us.

Sunday, I started my internship with Oxford Business Group. When I got there, they called down to the main desk of the Chamber of Commerce, and within two minutes, two men carried a desk into the room for me and left. When my supervisors took their next smoke break in the hallway, they realized that the men had taken the security guard’s desk and left the guard’s belongings, which were mostly newspapers, on the floor in the hallway. It was definitely interesting, but not completely surprising. I learned a few interesting things from my market research, which involves me searching the archives of Jordanian news sources in English for information relevant to the company. For example, I learned that people eat camels. In the form of burgers. Apparently, they are fat-free and quite healthy, but also expensive. I also learned that the few hours of cold rain slash slush that shut down Amman for two days was referred to in the news as a “blizzard”. The internet decided to stop functioning at 4:50 p.m., which probably wasn’t an issue for anyone else in the building, since most office close at 3:30 p.m.

High point: Getting a 100% on my first Arabic quiz!
Low point: People trying to feel you up on the bus.

عندي أسرة!

So, I moved into my homestay family this week and they are awesome! They are quite multilingual and speak English, Spanish, Arabic, and a bit of French. The mother is from Spain and they have spent a few years in France, as the father was a general in the Jordanian military, and travelled a lot. They have been very nice and welcoming, and maybe a little bit crazy too. I’m not sure what I expected from my couple of days at my homestay family, and this was definitely not it, but it has been great! Today, we drove to السلط and basically climbed down and mountain and then back up to hunt small birds. On our drive, you could see Palestine from across the reservoir. It was very rocky terrain, and I was clearly not dressed for the occasion, but it was well worth the effort. Never before have I shot a gun or ate a little bird, but I guess I will be having quite a few firsts here.

In other news, I have encountered the range of the wonderfully dependable Amman bus system. And when I say system, I mean that there is no system. Sometimes they remember to stop, and sometimes they just don’t. However, it is a nice way to save some نقود.

Interesting Observation 1: Probably about 95% of the women at the university wear hijabs, which is not consistent with the rest of the population. My host sister works at another university and said that she is one of two women on the campus that does not wear a hijab. I’m not sure if this means that more religious or traditional women are educated, or if it has something to do with a more structured personality type that is more likely to pursue higher education, or some other reason altogether. I’ll have to do some investigation.

Interesting Observation 2: If it snows, or it might snow, or someone thinks it might snow, the entire city shuts down. Today, classes were cancelled because they were calling for snow. When my roommate took a taxi back from her interview, her driver exclaimed that the city would be white all week! So, I get excited and start to make plans of hot chocolate making and cake baking and sledding and then I look at the weather. Turns out it is 39 degrees with a high of 51 degrees, with a forecast of rain. Oh well, we still got out of class today, so it is a three day weekend!

High Point: Our snow day!
Low Point: Having 8 am class.

Day Three

Day Three:

Today, I was in my first car accident. It was pretty uneventful. Our coach bus decided to back up in the middle of a busy road and hit the taxi behind it, crushing the taxi’s hood. But not to worry, two “Accident Investigation” vans were on the scene in a jiffy! To add to the five children dying each week from automobile accidents in Jordan, apparently a Jordanian dies every nine minutes from an automobile accident. It is hard to tell why exactly this happens, since Arabs aren’t exactly known for their punctuality. Our director hinted at some other reasons involving a certain amount of “frustration”. The lanes are even made widely (where there are marked lanes, of course) so that a few cars can almost squeeze into the lane. Miraculously, it seems that people do stop for red lights, but all other driving rules go out the window.

We also had a fascinating safety lesson for about two hours. We learned that the secret police are our friends, but that stalkers try to pretend to be the secret police, because they are so ubiquitous. I also learned a thing or two about taxi fare negotiation and legitimacy. I got a small chance tonight, but I can’t wait to put that into play!

Later, we saw a wedding reception ceremony in the hotel of our restaurant. The bride was of course covered, but had on a very large white dress. There were musicians and dancers and guests dancing around the happy couple, which didn’t actually look so happy, and looked very serious.

High Point: Registering for a free internet spot right across the street from campus!
Low Point: Oral Arabic interviews

Week 1

Day One:

Got to Jordan alive. It was raining when I left DC and it was raining in Amman when I arrived. Apparently that is a miracle here. It was a short day since I lost about 7 hours, but long enough to be completely overwhelmed by the amount orientation materials reading to do. More tomorrow after the Dead Sea!

High Point: Having an entire row to myself from DC to Paris.
Low Point: Utter lack of internet that functions.

Day Two:

Today we sat through some not-so-exciting presentations about things that we shouldn’t do and life in Jordan. It turns out that the number two cause of death in Jordan is car accidents, and 5 children die nationally each week from car accidents. It was never mentioned what the number one cause is, but my guess is lung cancer. One of the resident assistants rattled off that in his three years living here, he has been in eight or nine car accidents, but he couldn’t remember. I don’t think my parents were worried about the prospect of me dying in a car accident here, but I guess you never know.

The Dead Sea turned out to be pretty awesome. It is shocking that the water level drops by 92 cm each year, which is a pretty significant amount. With Jordan being the 4th most water poor nation in the world, I guess it is no small wonder that they started collecting all the rain water running down the valleys of the mountains to use, instead of letting it drain into the Dead Sea. Our tour guide mentioned a Dead Sea – Red Sea project to create electricity that works as a collaboration of Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. It is an effort to save the Dead Sea, create an energy source, and foster community growth in the surrounding area. If I actually had internet, I could probably find out some more information, but I guess that will be saved for another day. Even though it was a little cool today, I went in the Dead Sea, which is about has about 33% salinity. I guess I didn’t believe that it was actually possible to “walk on water”, but as it turns out you have to do no work to stay afloat and I don’t think it is possible to drown as you can’t go underwater. Definitely an interesting experience trying to swim there.

High Point: Floating in the Dead Sea
Low Point: Technically, the lowest point in the world is the Dead Sea, so I guess that counts for the low and the high point of my day.