Wadi Rum

This past weekend was fan-bloodytastic. Thursday evening we went to this sweet chill spot called books café, it attracts a more westernized more liberal crowd and it was overpriced, but it was sick spot. We spent a few hours there. The entire first floor of this place is a book store and then the next two floors are a restaurant/ lounge area. We sat on the rooftop, it was a really nice atmosphere, they had great food, argila, red lamps that set the mood and a wide range of music to top it all off.
By 8:30 Friday morning we were on the road to Wadi Rum in another festive bus with blaring Arab music haha. Wadi Rum is in South Jordan, it took 4 hours to get there. The director of our trip gave us all halls cough drops on the bus ride….. so random. The desert was just as I expected except there were a lot more mountains in the area than I thought there would be. We got to our Bedouin camp site and it was gorgeous, around 30 small tents lined up in four rows. There was a circular area in the middle of the camp site where people can chill and dance later at night with a fire pit it the center. There was giant tent-like area with chairs and tables where we went for all of our meals. The first thing we did when we got there was eat! We climbed the mountain that was closest to our camp site right after. It was cool seeing the desert from that elevated point of view.
When we were done climbing we got into the back of this truck. I was in 1 of 3 trucks that left the camp site, and we spent the rest of the day cruising through the desert. It was unbelievably exciting and gorgeous. We would flyyy down sand dunes, I can’t even count the number of times I thought our truck was going to tip over and we were all going to die. We would stop at different spots every 20 or so minutes. At one point we all climbed up a giant sand mountain. Half way through I thought my lungs were going to explode…. The cause… argila?? Pshh NO. For every two steps you take in sand you take one back, oh my gosh it was exhausting. We stopped at another Bedouin site. It belonged to a small family that lived out in the desert in a tent. The older guy that lived there made us coffee and tea, it was delicious. Across from his tent there was a mountain with ancient carvings from who the hell knows when. Toward sunset we climbed a small mountain that smelled like death. I looked down and there was a pile of dead sheep just laying there. Appetizing. The smell was out of this world *upchuck
We were back at the camp site by sunset, it was so serene, and I knew the night was only going to get better from this point on. By 8:00pm the party was already starting. There were other families who had come in from around Jordan to spend time at the site that we were at. Most of them didn’t sleep over, they were stopping in for dinner and dancing and then went their separate ways. After dinner we danced all night until one in the morning. At one point the “DJ” played a song in remembrance of Michael Jackson… we were all waiting for thriller to come on and the Macarena started playing. Bahahaha. I started talking to this one girl named Safa’a, I asked her to teach me the Dabkah (a traditional Arab dance). From that point on we were chatting it up and dancing like crazzzaay. Everyone went back to there own tents.
I met up with a few friends later and headed out to the open desert to look at the stars. Me and 4 other friends climbed this mountain and watched the stars from there. I have never seen so many stars in my entire life. The milky way and all the constellation were unbelievable. We climbed down the mountain and were back in the open desert when all the lights from the camp sight went out at 2am. It was pitch black out. We laid in the sand just looking up at the stars for almost an hour. We entertained ourselves with a genius game called “star spinning.” You look up and focus on one star and spin around as much as you can and then try to find someone and give them a high five. It was beyond hilarious. I haven’t laughed that hard for that long of a time in sooo long.
When I was back in my tent lying in bed I realized it was clearly one of the best nights of my life.
Things couldn’t have been more perfect.

Dead Sea

So, I’ve been in Amman for over a week now. Classes are hard as hell. I have class from 1-6 with like two 5 minute breaks inbetween. Our professors are hard core!! But they are amazing teachers. I think I’m just starting to realize just how freaking hard this language is. I come home from class and feel like it’s impossible to ever get fluent in this language!
I saw the ancient Roman theatre in old Amman a few days ago. It was pretty sweet. I walked all the way to the top of the theatre and thought my lungs were going to collapse.
The night after, we went to this fancy outdoor restaurant called Jennah (which means Paradise) for dinner a couple nights ago…. I had a greaaat time ;) They had the cleanest bathrooms I have seen in Amman. By the way the bathrooms here are pretty gross. No toilet paper and usually no toilet seats… haha just the bowl and lid, YESSS!!!
There really isn’t much to do in Amman itself. We got a hookah for our place. We smoke Argila/ hubbly bubbly twice a day. Haha It’s so funny that they call Shisha hubbly bubbly here.
I have two greaaat roommates… all we do is laugh together. We crack up at the stupidest stuff. We get along great and spend loads of time together.
Yesterday was a jam packed day of sight seeing.
In the morning we went to the city of Madaba in Jordan. It’s one of the oldest cities in the country. We went to this Greek Orthodox that has this one mosaic piece on the floor of the Church from the 6th century. The Mosaic is a map of all the religious sites that were in Jerusalem at the time. After that we went to the Virgin Mary Church which had some old Mosaics in it too. They were pretty awesome.
In the afternoon we went to Mt.Nebo. That’s were some believe Moses is buried. The view from that point was gorgeous. You could see the Dead Sea from there in the distance.
By late afternoon we were driving down the mountain through the desert in a festive bus full of 11 other students, with blaring Arab music. Our driver Abu Muhammad is one of the funniest people I have ever encountered. He’s a very round cute hairy man. I’m in love. Anyways we saw some Bedouin (nomadic Arabs that live in the desert) tents on the drive down to the Dead Sea and a bunch of camels. Abu Muhammad stopped on the side of the road and started chasing after one. It was beyond hilarious.
We got to the Dead Sea and went to a more private part of the beach. We ran into the water and it was sooo weird. The salt water content in the sea is so high that you just float. You could be out in waters that are hundreds of ft deep and you just sit there and effortlessly end up floating! Even if you try to keep your body vertical you flop over on your back or stomach. It was awesome. So I was pretty much just laying out in the water and gliding around for a couple hours. Then we bought this black mud that you rub all over your body that’s supposed to be rejuvenating. So we put it on and took it off after about 20 minutes, and our skin was baby soft. It was bloody radical to think that I was on the lowest point of land on the surface of the Earth. On the one side of the sea was Jordan and on the other was the mountains of Palestine. We kept on hearing gun fire off in the distance… but I didn’t really know what that was about…
Anyways I’ve been trying to get my internet to work for hours and finally got it up and running so I could write this post. I’m about to pass out like a baby manatee with cataplexy!

Marhaba

IM IN JORDAN!!!!

My first day was okay.... I guess...NOT!!!
IT WAS BLOODY AWESOME!!!
The flight was almost unbearable, 6 inches of leg room and what seemed like one million arab babies crying in unison (they were soo freaking cute though). It was a 12 hour direct flight, JFK to Amman. I think I slept for 20 minutes total. I stepped off the plane and took a deep breath and what did I smell??? Cigarretes!!! mmmmm. The airport had no smoking signs everywhere, yet you see dudes smokin it up. It was pretty funny. The 45 minute drive to our apartment was awesome. Amman is just desert with random establishments everywhere. We got to our apartment and it was sick, much better than what i expected. We're living on the top most level of our apartment complex (6^th floor). Our living room is surrounded by windows and we have a pretty cool view.
After we got settled our professor took us to his friends place for dinner. His wife made maddd food. 3 giant platters for 12 kids. ENORMOUS plates of rice and yogurt topped with huge pieces lamb meat, it was overwhelmingly delicious. We had mint tea...delicious.... Turkish coffee... delicious... my head was going to explode because my taste buds were on ecstasy.
The people's whose place we were at were all like we're going to eat with our hands. I thought i was about to school everyone with my hand eating skills. I look over and realized I was doing it all wrong! They were straight up rolling big balls of rice and meat the size my fist into their palms and eating them. It was beastly and awesome. So junglee.
We've been hitting up the sheesha place next door to our place like its our job. We're becoming friends with the manager and the waiters, everyone is incredibly friendly.
Everything so far is so much better than what i expected. The least exciting thing so far was my freezing cold shower, but I was too happy about everything so far to even care.
I'm chillin at the sheesha place right now, they have wireless internet here. The waiter has been coming by and teaching us some Arabic. Classes start in two days. Life good.

Some initial thoughts

In less than 48 hours I will be in Jordan. It hasn't hit me at all yet. I'm just chillin in my bed in good old Dayton, OH. The house that I am in has been with me since the day i was born. I don't enjoy change. The furthest move I have ever made was to Oxford, OH haha. When I've traveled outside of the US it has been with family... and close friends if you count spring break. The point is, I have rarely been outside of my comfort zone. This trip is huge for me. Do you smell that? yes yes, that's freedom. Am I....
nervous?... yes
excited?... hell yes
homosexual goat?.... fuck yes
Right now I'm sure I have a pretty inaccurate perception of the way Amman is going to be... I picture India, but replace all the Indians with Arabs, less traffic, less people, more hijabis, a better sounding language, and instead of rikshas there will be flying unicorns.
The fact that Jordan is a Muslim country is also a reason I am so excited to be going on this trip. I will be able to get in touch with the religious side of my roots. I'm not saying Im going to be spending all my time in masjids, I'm just excited for that atmosphere. Hearing that Athan (call to prayer) in the morning, that kind of stuff sends chills up my spine, it's beautiful.
Well..... Until Jordan