Yalla Bye

My last week in Jordan. Work was very slow this week, and up until wednesday the week was slowly creeping along, but when wednesday arrived, I had no idea where the week had gone. I spent the end of the week going through an extensive closing procedures, where I had to run back and forth to various departments to get signatures making sure that I didn’t have overdue books, or that I wasn’t trying to take my bed with me. It was weird making my departure so official. Today in my Middle East Seminar class one of the English teachers brought me a cake to say good bye, and during school meeting one of the counselors made an announcement about how sad they are to see me leave, but how wonderful it was having me in the office. I can’t get over how lucky I was to be in such a great office. Packing went by very smoothly, and everything fits in my luggage, rug and all. My day was full of goodbyes, and anxiety. I ended my day in the café in Madaba, the one where I spent my first weekend here. 

I’m flying out soon, but I wanted to get one last post in Jordan before I return home. I’m starting it out with a short list of the various things that I will miss and love about Jordan, and the Middle East in no particular order. I haven’t quite figured out how this post will end yet. 

1. Kanafeh - These amazing mouthwatering sweets made from shredded phyllo dough, wrapped around melted goats cheese, covered in honey based syrup and topped with chopped pistachios. I can’t get enough of them.
2. Labaneh - Fresh, savory yoghurt served with lots and lots of olive oil, sometimes red pepper, and eaten with fresh pita bread. 
3. Jordanians - All of the people that I have met here have been wonderful, even if there is a language barrier at times, the people will try so hard to communicate with you, and help you with whatever you need. The people are friendly and warm, and will immediately strike up a conversation with you. 
4. My Office, and Other Faculty at King’s - I was so lucky to be placed in an office with such amazing co-workers. The work can often be boring, but the people make it enjoyable. I’ve learned so much just from talking with them, about the region, the language, places to go, people to meet, songs to listen to, articles to read, and food to eat. I’m truly going to miss each and everyone of them, it’s because of them, among other people that my experience here was so enjoyable. I met so many great people, and made many great friends here.
5. Prayer Time in a Muslim City - No matter what time of day, or how busy the souk is, the moment the prayer is broadcasted it feels as though the whole area slows down just one notch. People don’t thrown everything down and begin praying on the ground, it just feels as though everyone becomes a bit more aware. From the souk downtown, King’s Academy at night, or when walking through ruins in the region, the melodic prayer makes the whole scene feel like walking through a dream. 
6. Cinema Review on Tele Monde 5 - On wednesday nights I would go over to a co-workers house and we would watch a French TV show that reviewed interesting movies. It was simple things like this that made my work week more interesting. 
7. The Region - Vast, historical, modern and conservative, a constant struggle towards becoming more like the west, while maintaining conservative Islamic, Christian and Jewish values. Endless ruins, breathtaking landscapes, delicious food, revolution, and the friendliest people ever, the Middle East is unlike anywhere else in the world. The countries change from border to boarder, Jordan, young and struggling towards a more open, democratic society, Syria, home to the oldest cities in the world, and currently plagued with a bloody uprising, Lebanon, full of bustling metropolitan cities, modern and old molded into one, and in the middle of so much reconstruction in hopes of recapturing its former title as the “Paris of the East”, and all of the issues in Israel/Palestine. 

This list can go on forever, in truth, there are very few things that I won’t miss, or look back on fondly about the Middle East; the bright blue cloudless skies, the harsh winds, the smell of Arab sweets, hummus, falafel, endless Roman ruins, the warm people, the faculty at King’s, the Dead Sea, the red desert, olive trees, citrus fruit, strong, muddy Arab coffee in the morning, and the sweetest hot tea after dinner.

I don’t know that I did anything that surprised me about myself, except for maybe my lack of “culture shock” when I came to the Middle East. I do know that I made sure to do everything that I could possibly do to get the richest experience out my semester here; I ran a half marathon from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, took each and every opportunity to travel in Jordan, and saw just about everything worth seeing, because of this, I am leaving with no regrets, nothing that I should have done, or should not have done, because I tried to get out as much as I could, and if something didn’t live up to my expectations, it wouldn’t phase me. I think that is why I enjoyed myself as much as I did, because I didn’t allow negativity into my time here. I was here to learn, to live, and to experience life, I had no time to complain, and for that matter, absolutely nothing to complain about. I don’t like to admit this to myself, but when my family moved to Italy in middle school, I was not happy about it. Most of my time there, although I was secretly enjoying myself, I wouldn’t confess to it, because I wanted to be back in the states, playing with my oh so important 5^th grade friends, whom I haven’t seen for years. Like the saying goes “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”,  well it’s true. I think it’s because of that, I made sure to appreciate every little thing here, because I didn’t want to look back thinking, “if only I knew how much I would appreciate this experience later on”. 

My bags are packed, and I’m leaving for the airport soon, my room is empty, all but my laptop opened to pictures of my journey as I reminisce over the past four and a half months. I’ve said my goodbyes to most all of the wonderful people I’ve met. I’m currently trying to figure out the best way to type the way that I am feeling right now. I’m just a mix of emotions, anxious to leave, and almost excited to get home, sad to leave new friends, and happy to see old ones, which I guess is a good sign, after all, only wonderful things await me when I get back home - family, friends, graduation, summer, and I’m going to a college that I am in love with for the next four years. I’m ready to go, I’ve accomplished everything that I set out to do, and yet I’m hesitant to actually leave, I had it good...no, I had it great. I’ve had the experience of a lifetime, and I know this is just the beginning. I’ll be back to the region, hopefully sooner than later; there are people that I need to see again, and I have Syria and Palestine to visit still. I’m overwhelmed with nostalgia, and I haven’t even left, and yet, I have a sentimental longing, and affection for what the future will bring. My walkabout is actually over. 

I wonder how the Australian Aboriginals felt at the end of their walkabout, was it hard for them to return, did they feel nostalgic when they reminisced on their time spent in the outback, where they excited about returning to the village a “man” or scared to think that life would never quite be the same as it was? I'd like to think that the two of us shared some common experiences, at least in what we saw in ourselves, pushing our limits, experiencing life in unfamiliar territory. I think the Aboriginal and I both discovered the same thing on our walkabouts - it doesn't actually end when we return home, it never actually ends.

Aqaba, and Five Days Left

I didn’t have much work in the office this week because I’ve done most of the filing for the incoming seniors, and the seniors have just about nothing left to do in the University Counseling Office. We had Sunday off, and then I stayed in my room on Monday because a cold that I had been escaping in Lebanon finally caught up with me, and I’m allergic to something in Jordan so my allergies were bad as well. With only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for work, the time went by fairly quickly. There was one major highlight of my work week however, his majesty King Abdullah II paid King’s Academy a visit to address some of the issues in happening Jordan and the instability in the region. His visit was brief, but it was great to listen to him speak, because I learned more about the government and politics in Jordan. 

After school on Thursday, the Junior Fellow group boarded a bus, and drove south to Aqaba for a mini-vacation at the beach. Aqaba is a medium sized city in the southern most part of Jordan, and the only port city of Jordan. Medium sized beige, rocky, jagged mountains surround the city, and run parallel all around the coast. From Aqaba you can clearly see that Israeli city of Eilat right around the corner of the sea, down the coast are the mountains of eastern Egypt, and over the mountains just south of Aqaba is Saudi Arabia. What I love about that area is that everything, the mountains and the desert are different shades of beige and brown, but then the Red Sea is a rich, glittering dark blue. 

We spent our weekend relaxing at the Red Sea,  walking around Aqaba, and soaking/burning in the hot sun. 

So, It’s nighttime on Saturday the 7^th, I have work in the morning, and then in the afternoon I’m going into Madaba to pick up some scarves for my sister, and some things for me. I’m going to work for the whole week, since my flight home isn’t until Thursday night at 11:55, and I’ll probably start packing Tuesday or Wednesday night since I have so much to pack. It’s still a bit surreal that I am actually leaving this week. I feel like I have been here for so long, and yet my time here flew by. I’m anxious to get back home, see family and friends, catch up on all the little things that I’ve missed, but at the same time I’m a bit anxious to leave; my whole high school career I’ve been making steps to prepare for my walkabout, and now it’s over. I guess when I was leaving Columbus I was feeling very similar, anxious to get here, and just as anxious to actually leave. This walkabout that took years to dream up, countless advisories to understand, months to prepare for, a week to freak out about, and two days to get to, felt like it went by in a matter of minutes. Longest walkabout ever is just about over.

Lebanon

Downtown Beirut

 So, I’m back from Lebanon, my bags are unpacked, and I am on my normal weekly schedule. The break went by so quickly, and now I have about ten days until I leave Jordan and fly back to the states. It’s so surreal to think that I will be back in Columbus. Before going on spring break I didn’t feel that I was ready to go home at all because there was so much left to do. But now that I got to see and experience another country, and so much of it, I think I can go home without feeling that I left without accomplishing something. It’s still a bit bitter sweet, I’m excited to see my family and friends, and even though my work week here isn’t particularly exciting, it’s still exciting to live in another country, and experience another culture, but now after such an amazing vacation in Lebanon, my feelings about going home are leaning towards sweet. 

Downtown

Now, about my nine days in Lebanon. It was amazing. Beirut truly is the Paris of the East, a modern people and a historic city. I got to see so much of the country, 5 cities to be exact. Beirut is a beautiful city, with a vibrant life, stunning architecture, a gorgeous beach, the friendliest people I have ever encountered, but with a very rough history, which is very evident when walking by ruins of bombed colonial buildings, facades, and sculptures riddled by bullet holes. It’s amazing though to see how much progress has been made in that city, I was looking through a book at a museum showing before and after pictures of the reconstruction of the historic downtown. After the war, the facades were filled with bullet holes, streets cracked and filled with overgrown plants and trees consuming the buildings, it looked like a post-apocalyptic Paris. That same area today is breathtaking, and looks just as it did, if not better than before the war. 

Main square downtown

Another thing to that I was amazed about Lebanon is how well things appear to be running. For a country that doesn’t really have a government right now, or is in between administrations, everything seems to be fine, there are friendly army and police men watching the streets, workers cleaning trash keeping the downtown spotless, and more importantly, the Lebanese seem to have a huge love for life, even if there is instability in the government, they continue enjoying themselves. 

Maronite Cathedral and the Main Mosque

We arrived in Beirut on Friday night, checked into the hotel which is on a lively street near the American University of Beirut, so the area is filled with cafés, and shops. After checking in we went out for dinner and to explore the area a bit. The next day we got up fairly early to do a walking tour of the city, we went to the gorgeous green, tree filled AUB campus that overlooks the Mediterranean sea, down to Gemmayze, an area filled with beautiful old buildings. The old architecture in Beirut is beautiful, it’s heavily influenced by 18th century Italian architecture, like many of the buildings found in Rome, painted in pastels, with white trim, but them mixed with classic Arab architecture, with high pointed-arched windows and doors, and stained glass, enclosed balconies, other Arab motifs. We took a stroll to the historic down down where the architectural style changes a bit, featuring large, imposing beige  Arab buildings, with pointed arches covering the walkway, medieval mosques and churches standing side by side, Roman ruins, a large clock tower in the center square, a newly constructed souk, and every store that is way out of my budget. We walked over to the Place des Martyrs, a once grand central square that is under heavy restoration, at the center of which is large bullet riddled sculpture from the early nineteen hundreds commemorating the Lebanese Martyrs that were hung by the Ottoman Empire in WWI. 

Building in Gemmayze - Beirut

I really want to see Beirut in 15 years, there are only a couple of dozen or so buildings in the downtown that are still heavily damaged from the war, but most all of them have signs saying that they are going under reconstruction to become museums, art centers, or government buildings, and in addition there is so much new construction that is happening right now, high-rises, parks, and squares. 

Place des Martyrs

On Sunday we finished up our tour of Beirut, taking it a bit slower, visiting Pigeons Rock, a large rock formation off the coast, and seeing a few other sites. On Monday we took a bus to Balbaak, a city with impressive Roman ruins, in eastern Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley. The ruins were beautiful and in great shape in comparison so many other ruins I’ve seen. We spent our day there, and then went back to Beirut for the night. Tuesday morning we took another day trip to Byblos and the Jeitta Grotto. We first stopped at the Jeitta Grotto, an impressive series of caves featuring an upper level cave, and a lower level which included a boat ride. After the caves we went to Byblos to explore the old city, which claims to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, though Damascus actually holds the title, nevertheless, Byblos is very old. The old downtown is close to the coast, and consists of old short stone buildings, olive and palm trees lining the cobble stone roads creating canopies, medieval cathedrals and mosques, nunneries, gardens, and extensive Roman ruins and a large Crusader castle, it’s adorable. We walked around the restored castle, through the gardens of the cathedral, and relaxed on the coast. The souk was colorful, though very touristy, selling cliché Middle Eastern gifts, and pricey cafés. After exploring the rest of the old city we went back to stay the night in Beirut again.

Bombed building in Gemmayze

Ruins of Balbaak

The next day we packed our bags to head north to Tripoli, the second largest city in Lebanon, which is mainly Muslim and much more conservative than Beirut. The newer city is really unattractive, but the historic city is very nice, and was mainly built in the 14^th and 15^th century (I think it’s a trend in the Middle East to have a beautiful old city in the center, and then surround it with ugly cement buildings that look like prisons). The old downtown is literally a maze, there is a huge souk, with dozens of mosques, tiny arched alleyways, small squares, cobble stone buildings and streets, large wooden doors and overhangs, connected by draping fabrics. The souk consists of many sections that sell anything you need, meat, fruit, clothing, scarves, shoes, hand made soap, gold, and trinkets. They are all connected to each other, the fruit souk ends becoming the textile souk, or one leads through a low archway becoming the soap souk. Once you get in the souk it’s very difficult to find your way out. The gold souk was by far the prettiest, it was particularly clean, draped fabric blocking the sun, polished dark wood doors, and merchants displaying their tiny shops filled with beautiful gold. Next up was the soap souk, which smelled wonderful. Apparently Tripoli has an ancient tradition of soap making, and in the 18^th and 19^th century, anybody who was anybody in Europe bought only the finest soap which was all made in Tripoli. For the most part they still make the soap the same way as they always have, which was demonstrated to us by a young kid who talked a lot. We next went to the old citadel of Tripoli which was the historic city in the 1st century, and then became a crusader citadel to lay siege to the city later in History. That night we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast which was in an old house, and there was an old grandmother that would walk around and lounge in the living room. The family was very kind, and breakfast in the morning was very good, consisting of fresh croissants and coffee. 

Street in Byblos

At around ten in the morning we got our bags on the bus, and went to a small town way up in the mountains in western Lebanon in the Qadisha Valley, famous for the Lebanese Cedars that grow in the area. We stayed in a small town by the name of Bcharré, saw some of the sites around the city which included a Phoenician obelisk, and numerous churches, The day was very relaxing, and the location was breathtaking, situated right on the top of a huge green valley with waterfalls all around, and large snow-capped mountains in the distance. 

We made our way back to Beirut on Friday to see the Nation Museum of Beirut which was closed all weekend because of Easter, and to go to another area of downtown which we had not previously seen. It’s a beautifully restored French colonial arts district of Beirut, which was apparently heavily damaged after the war, but no one would ever know by seeing it, small windy roads, large colonial buildings, boutiques and cafés, it looked just like Paris. 

Souk in Byblos

We flew out on Saturday afternoon, and I was a bit disappointed when I saw the desert again, I didn’t realize how much I missed greenery, which central Jordan does not have a lot of. It was a wonderful vacation in Lebanon, and I loved seeing another side of the Middle East, a more modern, yet more historical side. Like I mentioned, I only have ten days left in Jordan, this weekend the Junior Fellows are going to Aqaba, and then I leave the following Thursday. I feel like I’m reading the final chapter of a long book that I somehow rushed through. 

Crusader Castle in Byblos

Byblos Cathedral 

Bekaa Valley

Tripoli Citadel

Gold Souk in Tripoli

Old House in Tripoli

Mosque in old Tripoli

Phoenician Obelisk in Bchaaré

Bcharré

Restored arts quarter in Beirut

Spring Break is Here!

My bags are packed and now I’m waiting for the car to come pick us up and take us to the airport. I’ve mentioned it in my past few posts because I’m so excited, but just incase you missed it, I am heading off to Lebanon with the Junior Fellow Program for our spring break! We are going to spend a few days exploring Beirut, then heading north to Byblos, possibly going further north to a seaside city Tripoli, and then going east into the Bekaa Valley to go to some small cities and wrapping it back up in Beirut for another night. 

I am so excited to get out of Jordan and see another country. I love Jordan, but I’ve done just about all that there is to do. I’ve been to the major cities, seen countless ruins, ancient cities, went to the desert, and just about all of the historic/must see sites that Jordan has to offer. I’m ready to see what else the Middle East has to offer me. I’m particularly interested in Lebanon, a mix of east meets west, different cultures combining, sometimes colliding. I’ve heard only wonderful things about Lebanon, Beirut, and the Lebanese, from the food, to the people, to the cities, the beach, and architecture, it’s supposed to be fantastic, after all it was dubbed the “Paris of the East” plus, I get to speak French, which means I will be able to get around much easier, and I love when I am able to use my French. 

Anyways, this is a very short post, but I just wanted to do a quick update. I won’t be bringing my computer with me so I won’t be able to do any posts while I am there, but I’ll obviously be doing a presumably lengthy post about my vacation in Lebanon. 

Till then!

Accreditation, the basalt ruins of Umm Qais, an Arab wedding, the ancient citadel of Philadelphia, and what may have been my last weekend in Amman.

An accreditation team from the states or Europe or something were here this week to spy on us as we worked to make sure everything was as it should be, so that the school could get accredited again, or for the first time. I didn’t really know the details, all I was told was to smile, look busy, and if they asked me anything I was to tell them that I am an intern and direct them to somebody who could answer their questions. I didn’t actually deal with them much at all. I wore a little plastic name tag around my neck that would snap in pieces on contact with any hard surface, and did my work as usual. I did run into the head of the team once when I was walking out of the library after my Arabic class, and in a funny accent (he’s Scot-Swiss) asked me where the international section of the library was. I thought I was being tested and froze, I stumbled to think of the international room, and I had no idea where it was. I smiled nervously and pointed to the librarian who helped him find the room. I snuck out of the library and briskly walked back to work. 

Black Columns at Umm Qais

I asked for a trip to be arranged for the Junior Fellows to go to Umm Qais, an old Roman in northern Jordan right on the edge of the Syrian/Israeli border, and so we went on Friday morning. It’s about a two and a half hour drive to Umm Qais. I love staring at the landscape when I go on long drives in Jordan. Driving south, vegetation slowly disappears, and massive jagged mountains and red sand appear. But drive north, and large green mountains covered in olive trees, and low valleys line with palm trees appear, as well as snow capped mountains in the distance. We got off the bus at Umm Qais, and were immediately surrounded by young kids selling random items, and welcoming us to Jordan. It was cute three and a half months ago when I first got here that random people would yell “Welcome to Jordan!” with a big smile on their face, but now it’s almost getting annoying, but with my broken Arabic I am no where near being able to respond with “Thanks, I live in Madaba, and have been for almost four months, I know Jordan very well.” So we responded to the kids with a simple “la shukran” which means “no thank you” and after we obviously showed no interest in purchasing whistles, flower necklaces, or fresh almonds, they drifted away to await the next group of tourists. The ruins of Umm Qais mainly consist of the Roman city, but also of a small Ottoman city on the outskirts that was abandoned a couple of centuries or so ago. What makes Umm Qais different from the many other Roman ruins that I have been to, is the rock that the city is carved out of. Unlike the beige stone that the ruins are usually made out of, Umm Qais was built using basalt, and there for all of the columns, buildings, and roads are black, with the exception of a few columns carved out of the typical beige stone. Not only are the ruins beautiful, but the location is stunning, especially in the spring. The mountains are covered in yellow and white flowers, olive trees dot the sides,  and the roads are lined with palm trees. From Umm Qais, looking north, you see the Sea of Galilee in Palestine on the left, the Golan Heights of Syria in front of you, and the  snowcapped mountains of Lebanon behind the sliver of Syria. After walking around the ruins for a while we went to a restaurant up a hill from Umm Qais and sat underneath the shade of some stone arches overlooking the ruins and the mountains of the neighboring countries. 

View of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon from Umm Qais

The Wedding

The Roman Amphitheater in Downton Amman

When I arrived back on campus I was pressed for time as I hurried to get a haircut and get ready for the wedding. As I have probably mentioned in past blogs, my co-worker Ala’a was engaged and invited me to her wedding a while ago, and this past Friday was finally the day. We got a cab at around 8:30pm but got lost on our way so it ended up taking us about an hour to get there. I think we were the last ones to show up, but there were hundreds of people so we were able to sneak in un-noticed. Muslims usually have the religious ceremony weeks, sometimes months before the reception, so the couple is legally married, but they don’t actually get the rings or move in with each other until after the wedding reception. So unlike Christian weddings, there is no long ceremony to wait through, instead it is only a celebration. When we got there the Arabic music was blasting and many people were on the dance platform dancing surrounding the newlyweds. There were cycles of dancing, sitting and eating, and after the eating a group of twenty or so men, presumably from the husbands tribe walked to the center of the room dressed in the traditional white dresses that the men wear, with Jordanian scarves on their heads, and swords on their belts. The men formed a line through which the couple walked though, with the swords forming an overhead passageway, and once the couple reached the end, the men surrounded them in a circle, clapping, singing and dancing to the music. The bride eventually stepped into the circle as the group surrounded the groom, picking him up and throwing him into the air. After a few short hours we left the reception and headed back home. Although I would have liked to stay longer, the wedding most likely lasted until two am, at which point taxis are harder to find to take us back to school. 

Saturday was a parent visit day so I had to go into work to greet parents, and hold down the fort I guess. There wasn’t actually any real work for me to do, because all of the counselors were meeting with parents, and the head counselor was out on vacation, so I spent my time reading up on extra details for Beirut. Today I took a trip down to Al-Balad, the old center of Amman, and walked the never ending steps to the old Roman citadel of Philadelphia located on the top of a hill in the center of Amman, overlooking the whole city, and the ancient Roman amphitheater. Though beautiful, the Roman ruins weren’t particularly impressive because they weren’t in very good shape, but another part of the citadel were the Umayyad ruins, which had an amazing old mosque that was opened to tourists. I’m glad I finally got to see these sites in the city, because I think this was the last time that I would be able to make it out to Amman. I head out to Beirut next Friday for 9 days, then the weekend after I head south to the King’s beach resort in Aqaba, for a mini Junior Fellow vacation, and I leave the following Thursday. My time in the Middle East is coming to an end. 

At the Jordanian Archaeological Museum

Dome of the Mosque

The Umayyad Era Mosque

Citadel Hill

Lots and Lots of Planning

This past week wasn’t extremely exciting, work is really slow now that all of the students have gotten their acceptances or rejections from colleges, I’ve finished the major project that I was working on, and I haven’t gotten a new one yet. I think everybody is in need of a break. Luckily, spring break starts on the 21st, and I’ve been occupying my down time by looking at flights, cheap hotels, (which are not easy to find in Beirut) and worrying about all of the millions of little details that you have to take into account when traveling on your own. 

I can’t wait to get to travel to another country, especially since it’s Lebanon. I love Jordan, and Amman has a lot of things I like about it, but it’s not particularly pretty, it was most built in the 50’s with some older building in the old city, and many new constructions going up, and there isn’t that much to see in the city. So I can’t wait to go to a truly historical city, with lot’s to see and even more to do. It will be great to see another country, especially one with such an interesting history. My only concern is that I there are so many other places in the region that I want to see as well, however given the current political situations in most of the surrounding countries, I think I’ll have to make my way to Syria, or Egypt another time.

This weekend my boss had the office over to her house for dinner in celebration of my co-worker who is getting married on the 15th. It’s great to feel like the people who you work with genuinely like you, even if they are older. I can’t even express how lucky I was to end up in a fun office, with people I enjoy working with, and who make 40 hours a week of office work interesting. So the dinner was great, even though I felt a bit out of place because my office is made up of all women, and the dinner was for my co-workers impending wedding, so the night consisted of a lot of “how did you meet your husband?” and various wedding, dating, marriage, and family stories, though they were all very entertaining to listen to. 

I didn’t go out much this weekend because I need to save a lot for Beirut, however on Saturday I made my way to my favorite hangout spot in Amman. I discovered it a few weeks ago, and I’ve been going every time I’m in the area. It’s a cozy, modern, artsy tea/coffee joint, in the arts district of Amman. It reminds me of a tiny Northstar, with young Jordanians, who probably write interesting blogs, a lot of expats, and a lot of European and American college students who are most likely doing a study abroad in Jordan. So I spent a few hours there relaxing on Saturday, enjoying an iced coffee with friends. 

This week, I plan to spend my time frantically looking for cheap places to stay, buying plane tickets, planning my stay there, and figuring out any last things that I need to see before I leave Jordan next month. Time is running out really quickly. When people told me that walkabout goes by quickly, they were not exaggerating. 

Floating in the Dead Sea

I can’t believe that I have just over a month left. It’s really weird to think about coming home, because when I do I will have a few weeks until graduation, and then a few short months until college. I am not dreading coming home at all even though I am loving my time here. I’m very excited to see my family and friends again, I just feel like it’s going to be a bit weird. Even though I’m working about 40 hours a week, and it gets a bit boring, and even though Amman isn’t a bustling metropolitan city, it’s s going to be odd to go back to my normal routine having come from something so different. 

I’m not really sure what to make of the political situation in Jordan right now. Al Jazeera tells me one thing about the protests, The Huffington Post says another, and The New York Times either distorts the truth, or has useless, poorly written and researched articles that feel so distant from Jordan. This is probably because I am a foreigner, but when I walk in Amman, I don’t feel any tension, or unsafe. Everyone I talk to has different opinions, but they are all in support of the King, some wanting governmental reform, and others not. What I thought was a very interesting decision of the King to do, was to ban pro-government demonstrations in the city, that way the two groups won’t clash, as seemingly happened last week. 

I’m expecting that my internship at University Counseling will start to get very slow now that all of the acceptances have come out, and I just finished my big project on the university tour that my boss is hosting this summer. But I should be able to fill any little free time during the day that I might have by getting my spring break plans in order. It’s looking like Lebanon and Turkey with the Junior Fellow program. I so excited to be able to travel around the region, outside of Jordan, and to go to large, historic cities. 

I also need to make sure to plan my remaining weekends very well because I don’t want to miss out on anything. This weekend I crossed another ‘to-do’ off my list - the Dead Sea. On Friday morning I went to a day resort on the Dead Sea with two other Junior Fellows. The Dead Sea is one of those things, at least for me, that you hear about second grade, and your whole life you have some sort of expectation of what it’s like to float in a body of water. The Dead Sea does not disappoint. The floor of the sea is made of sharp, white, crystalized, sea salt covered rocks. Floating in the sky-blue sea is an amazing experience, and the salt of the sea leaves your skin so smooth. I also covered my body in Dead Sea mud, which is this black, smooth mud known for its rich mineral content that is really good for your skin. The resort that we were at was like out of a movie, cabanas, an infinity-pool that overlooked the sea, loud music was playing, everyone there was really attractive, and the couples were kissing and holding hands, which is NEVER seen in Jordan, it was like another world, needless to say, I enjoyed the day quite a bit, the weather was warm, and the sea was relaxing, and in addition to all of that King’s Academy gets a discount or 15 JD entry fee. Day, and money well spent. 

The infinity pool looking over the Dead Sea at sunset

Time is Flying By

My boss was gone all week at a conference in Ireland, so although it’s great to work with her in the office, it was nice to be able focus on my project for the college tour this summer without having to worry about the other odd jobs that she gives me when she is here. This project is the project that keeps on giving. Every time I think that I am finally finished with it, something didn’t save, or I didn’t include something, or some information was incorrect. This project took forever, and although I have finally finished creating the profiles for each college, I still have to create the rest of the booklet, which shouldn’t take too long because it’s just the cover, index, layout, and map of the tour. Also, for my new co-curricular this term I am helping out with the photography club, which has been great to far to help with something that I really love. 

My weekend was pretty quite, and on Saturday I took a shuttle to Amman to a coffee shop that I love going to for some real coffee. They only have Nescafe on the campus, and I’ve found that I’m getting weirdly addicted to instant coffee. So I had some real coffee on Saturday morning, and instead of taking that shuttle back to the school, I stuck around Amman to wait for another shuttle that was taking students to the downtown. I was really proud of myself because I was able to find my way from the coffee shop to the downtown to get picked up. It’s not very far, but I was really happy because Amman is not the easiest city to navigate, it does not run on a grid like most American cities, instead it is a maze of windy streets that go up and down hills and valleys with a ridiculous amount of traffic circles. So I found my way to the old downtown, bought a few trinkets and movies, and made my way back to campus that afternoon. 

On Sunday, my moms good friend who set me up with the Junior Fellow program stopped at King’s for the bi-annual university fair that the company organizes at schools around the Middle East. It was really strange because before I left, she told me that she was going to go to Jordan at the end of March, and before I left in early January, that seemed like forever. I cannot believe how quickly my time has gone by here, I have six weekends left, so I really have to plan each one thoroughly so that I don’t miss out on any little thing. 

My office let me take the day off, and I went around with my moms friend to two other high schools in Amman where she was having a fair, and later a hotel downtown for a larger fair open to high school students of Amman interested in attending American universities. The fair finished at around nine pm, and before ten her aunt and cousin who live in Amman came to pick us up and we went out to dinner at restaurant in an old large house downtown, with the dinning hall on the top floor with glass walls overlooking a sparkling hillside of downtown Amman. At around 11:30 we finished dinner and said good bye, because she was leaving in the morning for Kuwait for the next fair. It was absolutely wonderful to see a family friend from home, and to spend time with a family in general, because you really don’t have that at a boarding school.  

Wadi Rum

We had a shortened work week last week because it was the end of the semester, and students were taking exams. I’ve been working on this project for over two weeks now, and I am getting really frustrated with it because it’s taking so much longer than I thought it would. Basically, my boss is running a college tour over the summer for college counselors from international schools all over the world, and I am putting together the booklet that goes with the tour. This booklet includes an in depth profile of every university the tour will be visiting, as well as a schedule, map, and trying to find a charter bus to take the group around. The more I work on this the project the more bored I get, and so it’s taking me a lot of time to finish it. 

Finally the week ended on Wednesday, and I headed back to my room to pack for the long weekend. I had a good night of sleep and Thursday morning I boarded the bus and set off for Wadi Rum - a mountainous desert of Southern Jordan inhabited by Bedouins. Along with a small group, we were off to spend the weekend there in a Bedouin camp. It was almost a 4 hour drive south down a single highway. It’s very interesting to watch as the landscape drastically changes the further south you go. From Madaba it’s pretty green, with dark red soil, olive trees, and farm land, you drive a little south towards Mt. Nebo, and the rocky mountains came into view, the land at this point is very rocky, with large bouldery mountains. Further south again the boulders become less frequent, and sand drifts over the mountains. Later on the sand changes to a terra cotta color, and massive jagged mountains spring up in the distance. We finally arrived at Wadi Rum in the afternoon. We passed a small village, and turned left onto a path leading into the desert towards the mountains. 

The landscape of Wadi Rum is breathtaking, it’s unlike any other mountainous area that I have ever seen. It is not a mountain range, that is to say, the mountains are not connected by high ground to one another, instead, the desert is all at ground level, with slow sloping dunes of red sand, and then massive jagged mountains rise at extraordinary heights in random spots in the desert. 

We got off the bus at the camp that sits right underneath a mountain and went straight to an open air tent. The tents in the camp are all made of black wool with one large, and two thin horizontal stripes of white. The open air tent had many layers of thick, colorful rugs and many stiff patterned red pillows of woven red wool centered around a metal fire pit. We sat there and met an American woman who helps oversee tourists at the camp, and she used to work at King’s as well. We were served typical, delicious Arabic sweet tea with a hint of cinnamon for the winter. We quickly picked our tents for the weekends, and went off to walk around the desert to find a spot to watch the sunset. I walked barefoot through the sand, it was like walking through silk. A few of us climbed up to a ledge on the side of a smaller mountain and sat there, waiting for the sun to set behind the mountains. Shadows began to creep onto the mountainsides, and twilight dyed the mountains red. Before it got to dark we headed back for the camp to eat dinner. It was absolutely freezing when we went to bed at night. The desert is so cold when there is no sun! We only had one blanket each because we didn’t think to grab more before we went to bed. I slept horribly that night. The next morning we got up and had breakfast, and shortly after along with a teacher who was on the trip as well, I got on a camel for a two hour ride through the desert led by an old Bedouin. After an hour we stopped the camels, and the sat in the middle of the desert, at which point the Bedouin began to dig a shallow hole into the sand and place sticks which he had collected on the way. He made a small fire in the sand, put water in an old metal teakettle and made us tea, right there in the middle of the desert, it was wonderful. When he poured the tea, and the ashes were still hot, he placed to pieces of pita and warmed them up for us as well. He spoke only a few words of English, and often said “Bedouin!” and smiled. However, with his few words of English, and my broken Arabic,  we all managed to have a conversation. Surprisingly, he knew all of the U.S. presidents in order since Eisenhower, and after he said each name we would all do a thumbs up if we liked the president or didn’t. “Kennedy!” we all put our thumbs up, “Nixon!” we all said “Noooo!”. It was unreal, there I was in the middle of the Jordanian desert, talking U.S. presidents with a Bedouin. We saddled up once again and rode back to the camp. 

For lunch we met with some young boys from the village to discuss some potential community service projects between King’s Academy and their school (the purpose of this trip was actually for students to form a link with the school in the village and start some community service projects, but I was just there to enjoy Wadi Rum and “supervise” a bit since I am technically a faculty member). In the afternoon we drove to Aqaba to spend some time at the beach, which was filthy. The first time I went to the beach we I was at a resort, so it was beautiful, but this was a public beach, and it was just gross, and a fight broke out at one point as well. 

We were off in the car once again back to the camp for the night, this time we grabbed plenty of blankets so that we would not freeze again. We played games under the moonlight, and relaxed in the cool, grey sand. We woke up early the next morning, and boarded the bus for King’s once again.