First of all, sorry it's been a while. Not much has happened here since my trip to Jerash (which is actually Greek, as I was made aware of, but it's not my fault the Ministry of Antiquities messed up...). We successfully got internet in our apartment, so I no longer have to fight the sound of the coffee grinder when I Skype my family. We had a Valentine's party, all singles of course, complete with chili, chocolate, strawberries, and cherry tarts. Other than that, my life has just about revolved around school. Oh, and I've finished all the seasons of the Unit, and am caught up to where it is currently in the States (that's 3 and a half seasons...).
Anyways, we had a long weekend this past weekend. Kelsey gave us Saturday off, and Monday was apparently Mohammed's birthday, so we had a 4 day weekend. A few weeks ago, I decided that the best way for me to spend this free time was to travel to Israel and the West Bank with my friend and former classmate, Brenda. So we left early Thursday morning for the Northern Border. We got through pretty much without any issues, took the bus across the border, then grabbed a taxi to Jerusalem, where we would pick up our rental car. [Now I was recently informed that the day I was going into Jerusalem, there was an attempted attack. We were at the border two hours away when this happened, so no need to worry.] Once in Jerusalem, we only had about half an hour before we needed to get out of the city to avoid crazy weekend traffic, so we took a quick drive through the Old City. Then we headed out of the city to Ariel, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank where we would be staying. The weather there was awesome - it was warm and sunny, with beautiful sunsets, a welcome break from the cold and wet of Amman. Brenda had lived in Ariel for a while before coming to Kelsey, so she had an apartment there, and knew a lot of people there as well. I got to meet a bunch of them our first night there. One group of people included some of the Waller family, who are an amazing people. (You can read more about what they do at www.hayovel.com) They were there with 10 or so other people to work in the vineyards for a month.
On Friday, we were going to go to Tel Aviv, but we found out that the Wallers and Co. were headed out past Nablus to see Mt. Geraziim and other Biblical antiquities. So we jumped in the car and followed suit after a breakfast of champions - fresh pastries from a local bakery and some good coffee. It was a clear day, and you could see for miles. Since the past week or so has been full of rain, we got up to the top of the hill, and found it covered with beautiful wildflowers and grass. Put my allergies through the ringer, but I loved it nonetheless. Friday night is the beginning of Shabbat, so we grabbed some wine and headed over to the Wallers and hung out for a couple hours before going to another family's house for Shabbat dinner. It was really cool to see how Shabbat works - the blessing of the wine, bread, people, the Shabbat song, and then there's this big horn that gets played. We had fresh, homemade xhalla bread too. It was delicious. After dinner, we played Dilemma (it's some intellectual game that I got whomped at...) before heading to bed.
On Saturday, we went into Tel Aviv for church. After church, I met a group of students from a Bible college in Jerusalem that were heading to the beach for the afternoon, so I joined them. It was a beautiful day to be at the beach. I was particularly excited because I finally could wear shorts - they're acceptable in Tel Aviv... The water was pretty warm, so we swam for a bit, listened to music, and played some volleyball. After several relaxing hours, I met up with Brenda again, and we went out to Jaffa for dinner and ice cream. We drove back to Ariel that night, because I was going to have a long day ahead of me. And we got the coolest chocolate ever - it has pop rocks in it! Definitely kept me amused for a while...
Then came Sunday. I got up around 6, and headed over to the Waller's at 730. The girls and one of the families were going to Jerusalem (since it was their last day), but the guys were all going to Shiloh to help plant some trees and clear out a ton of thorny brier bushes at this guy's farm. And I was going with them to work. Brenda had a bunch of things to do and people to see, so I was perfectly happy to help the Wallers and Co. I was the only girl there, so the guys joked that they'd have to watch their language, and that they would be sitting around drinking coffee while I did the heavy lifting. We got to work around 830, pulling out big bushes and replanting some of the newer trees. We kept at it for more than 6 hours, stopping for brief water/food breaks. We ended up clearing out huge amounts of brier bushes, and I left the field with a bunch of thorny splinters and a farmer's burn. Regardless, it was an awesome way to spend most of the day. We went back to the apartment, had chili, rice, and salad for dinner, and saw off one of the families. We then went to see Ami, a teenager who survived a pipe bomb explosion a year ago, play in a local basketball game. His team lost by ten, but it was still a good game to watch.
We left for the border early Monday morning, stopping in Jerusalem to meet another of Brenda's friends. One of the guards at the border was actually from Cherry Hill, near where we lived in New Jersey, which was a fun coincidence. We had to wait a while for the bus across the border, but other than that, we got across with ease. We were in a taxi on the way back to Amman by 2, so we only had a few more hours before we would be back. The taxi driver took us up a newly paved road, which was ridiculously steep, and we almost didn't make it up. But it was a beautiful scenic route, the hills covered in new grass and wildflowers. I was sad to leave.
The journey was long and tiring. But it was definitely worth it. I met some of the coolest people, experience traditions from another culture, and got to see some awesome places. I really hope I can go back again soon, because long weekends like this were made for gallivanting.
Coming up - more visitations, movies, vocab, better weather, and my mother gets here in 39 days!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Columns, football, and way too much vocab
Let me start by saying that Roman ruins are pretty cool. **as I'm reposting this, there were a lot of comments about this being greek. while it may have been, the romans were still in jordan, and i have photographic evidence.** Walking through them is always interesting, seeing how people lived thousands of years ago. Very cool.
So I went to Jerash, one of largest sites of Roman ruins in Jordan, with my friend Amanda on my first day off after school started. I have wanted to take this trip since I got here, but haven't been able to up until now. We took a public bus, which took about a hour. Amanda had residency, so she got in for dirt cheap, while I got to pay through the nose. Being a foreigner is not always a good thing, especially when it comes to tourist sites. It was a beautiful day, and it was chilly, so there were hardly any people there. The first thing you notice - the columns don't end. They're everywhere. We were able to walk through a couple amphitheaters, down cobbled roads, and we got to move columns. That's right. There are moving columns. They don't move much, but just enough to keep them from falling apart in an earthquake. It was way cool. We were followed around by Arab kids willing to part with "insiderknowledge" of the place, should we care to part with our money. We even had a kid follow us, even when we declined, and after he talked at us for 10 minutes or so, we gave him a dinar so he would leave. He then had the audacity to tell us it was a bad tip, and that we should give him more for the service we didn't ask for. And then yelled at us, and used some foul language when we politely refused. So we told him if he didn't shut it and be happy with what he got, we'd take it back. So he left us alone. We wandered through the site for several more hours, taking loads of photos, going wherever we pleased. After we had been through the site, we learned how the funky sand art with the pretty camels and mountains was done, and went to eat at a restaurant outside the gates, which was highly recommended. We ate, then headed back to where the bus was supposed to pick people up to head back to Amman, only to find that there wasn't going to be another bus to Amman that day. We honestly guessed that this would be the case, the day had gone so smoothly thus far, and both of us have a habit of attracting all sorts of "adventures." So we got a sirviis to take us to the edge of Amman, where we had to try to find a bus going into the city to get anywhere near where we lived. It took us a while, but we finally found one. After about half an hour, we were instructed to get off the bus at the side of the road and walk somewhere to another bus station to get further into the city. By this time, we were tired, so we simply flagged a taxi and went home, which only cost about a dinar more. Overall, it was a good trip. It was my first time taking a bus, too, so I was pretty happy that we didn't die.
That same weekend was Superbowl 43. We go all out for stuff like this. Kick-off was at 1:30 am, so we all went over around 10:30 the night before, bringing plenty of junk food, as is traditional. We hung out, pigged out, and trash talked the teams (because it should've been the Eagles, for serious. Because they're amazing). We even had the game projected on the wall - the biggest screen showing the game in Jordan. It was a pretty big group, and we tore through soda, chips, awesome homemade dips, sausage balls, and coffee. Lots of coffee. And it was actually a decent game. I was in a pickle though, I couldn't root for the Steelers, being a die-hard Eagles fan and all, and I certainly couldn't root for the Cardinals, they weren't even supposed to be there. So in the end I rooted for no one, accurately predicting a Steelers win, as much as I hated it, and simply enjoyed a good game. We wrapped up and headed home after 5 that morning. I was supposed to get up 2 hours later for school, but I may have accidentally turned off my alarm clock and slept until noon. I felt like a trainwreck, but the experience was definitely worth it.
About school. It's tough. I'm keeping up, but there is a ridiculous amount of vocabulary involved. Most of my homework is memorizing vocab. My brain is already full and overflowing, and I still have around 70 new terms to memorize tonight for tomorrow's classes. So it's a lot. But the classes are interesting (except grammar, I could really do without classical grammar classes), and it's really fun to be able to say more and more as the days pass. We've also switched to Arabic script from transliteration, and all of our written assignments are expected to be in script. This certainly isn't easy, but I love it. Writing is my favorite part. I"ve also gotten better at visiting with Arab families here - I've been tutoring some Iraqi kids with a classmate, and visiting teachers from last semester after school.
A quick update on my time-wasting skills: I can know do my Cube in 3 minutes, 45 seconds. I can also make vegetable stew, I've finished the 1st season of The Unit, just started the second, and The Secret Life of Bees is a truly excellent film.
Coming up: I attempt to watch the UNC Duke men's game on thursday, but we don't know if it'll be broadcasted here yet, more conversational visits, an epic game night, and we are FINALLY getting internet in the apartment. Again. Maybe this time it'll actually work... Oh the joys of Jordan.
So I went to Jerash, one of largest sites of Roman ruins in Jordan, with my friend Amanda on my first day off after school started. I have wanted to take this trip since I got here, but haven't been able to up until now. We took a public bus, which took about a hour. Amanda had residency, so she got in for dirt cheap, while I got to pay through the nose. Being a foreigner is not always a good thing, especially when it comes to tourist sites. It was a beautiful day, and it was chilly, so there were hardly any people there. The first thing you notice - the columns don't end. They're everywhere. We were able to walk through a couple amphitheaters, down cobbled roads, and we got to move columns. That's right. There are moving columns. They don't move much, but just enough to keep them from falling apart in an earthquake. It was way cool. We were followed around by Arab kids willing to part with "insiderknowledge" of the place, should we care to part with our money. We even had a kid follow us, even when we declined, and after he talked at us for 10 minutes or so, we gave him a dinar so he would leave. He then had the audacity to tell us it was a bad tip, and that we should give him more for the service we didn't ask for. And then yelled at us, and used some foul language when we politely refused. So we told him if he didn't shut it and be happy with what he got, we'd take it back. So he left us alone. We wandered through the site for several more hours, taking loads of photos, going wherever we pleased. After we had been through the site, we learned how the funky sand art with the pretty camels and mountains was done, and went to eat at a restaurant outside the gates, which was highly recommended. We ate, then headed back to where the bus was supposed to pick people up to head back to Amman, only to find that there wasn't going to be another bus to Amman that day. We honestly guessed that this would be the case, the day had gone so smoothly thus far, and both of us have a habit of attracting all sorts of "adventures." So we got a sirviis to take us to the edge of Amman, where we had to try to find a bus going into the city to get anywhere near where we lived. It took us a while, but we finally found one. After about half an hour, we were instructed to get off the bus at the side of the road and walk somewhere to another bus station to get further into the city. By this time, we were tired, so we simply flagged a taxi and went home, which only cost about a dinar more. Overall, it was a good trip. It was my first time taking a bus, too, so I was pretty happy that we didn't die.
That same weekend was Superbowl 43. We go all out for stuff like this. Kick-off was at 1:30 am, so we all went over around 10:30 the night before, bringing plenty of junk food, as is traditional. We hung out, pigged out, and trash talked the teams (because it should've been the Eagles, for serious. Because they're amazing). We even had the game projected on the wall - the biggest screen showing the game in Jordan. It was a pretty big group, and we tore through soda, chips, awesome homemade dips, sausage balls, and coffee. Lots of coffee. And it was actually a decent game. I was in a pickle though, I couldn't root for the Steelers, being a die-hard Eagles fan and all, and I certainly couldn't root for the Cardinals, they weren't even supposed to be there. So in the end I rooted for no one, accurately predicting a Steelers win, as much as I hated it, and simply enjoyed a good game. We wrapped up and headed home after 5 that morning. I was supposed to get up 2 hours later for school, but I may have accidentally turned off my alarm clock and slept until noon. I felt like a trainwreck, but the experience was definitely worth it.
About school. It's tough. I'm keeping up, but there is a ridiculous amount of vocabulary involved. Most of my homework is memorizing vocab. My brain is already full and overflowing, and I still have around 70 new terms to memorize tonight for tomorrow's classes. So it's a lot. But the classes are interesting (except grammar, I could really do without classical grammar classes), and it's really fun to be able to say more and more as the days pass. We've also switched to Arabic script from transliteration, and all of our written assignments are expected to be in script. This certainly isn't easy, but I love it. Writing is my favorite part. I"ve also gotten better at visiting with Arab families here - I've been tutoring some Iraqi kids with a classmate, and visiting teachers from last semester after school.
A quick update on my time-wasting skills: I can know do my Cube in 3 minutes, 45 seconds. I can also make vegetable stew, I've finished the 1st season of The Unit, just started the second, and The Secret Life of Bees is a truly excellent film.
Coming up: I attempt to watch the UNC Duke men's game on thursday, but we don't know if it'll be broadcasted here yet, more conversational visits, an epic game night, and we are FINALLY getting internet in the apartment. Again. Maybe this time it'll actually work... Oh the joys of Jordan.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
New Year, New Experiences
Almost two weeks ago, I arrived back in Amman, ready for the new experiences this semester would bring me.
A quick overview of my somewhat eventful holiday: I spent a week up North visiting family and friends, then jetted home to my family and my car, both of which I missed very much. (Obviously I missed my family a whole lot more, but I hadn't driven in 7 months at that point, a real tragedy...) We flew out to Utah for a week of snow, mountains, skiing, and of course, more awesome family. I got sick, spent some time in the hospital after my tonsils got ridiculously swollen and blocked off most of my throat, and found out that I had mono. This definitely dampened my mood, it meant that I would be tired all the time, I couldn't go snowboarding, or play ultimate, or volleyball, or go ice skating. Too risky. I did not want to be back in the hospital with a ruptured spleen. We had a lovely Christmas, filled with awesome USC gear, sticky buns, eggs benedict, and laughter at the hijab I got Aisling to wear, straight from Jordan. We had a quiet New Year's as well - we watched old Bond films, hung out with a couple friends, and had the whole family there to watch the ball drop (props to tivo, pausing live tv for 10 minutes totally saved the evening). I took a little roadtrip up to Virginia to visit a few friends, stopping along the way to visit Kirsten, my very-pregnant cousin, and her husband, Caleb. I spent the remainder of my time at home with my family, visiting local friends, watching basketball games at my former high school, and spending some time with the Autistic kids I worked with last year. I bought plenty of EasyMac and hot chocolate and packed a lot of warm clothing, making sure i was prepared to survive for a couple months where it's colder inside than it is outside. Then I headed to the airport, sad to leave, but excited for the new semester.
My trip here was relatively uneventful. We were a bit delayed leaving RDU, but I had a long layover at JFK, so it didn't bother me much. I got on my flight, and managed to convince the stewardess to give me 4 seats to myself so I could stretch out and sleep. I fell asleep not long after takeoff, not waking again until almost before landing. Some friends of mine from small group picked me up from the airport and took me back to my apartment.
Most of that week I spent getting over jetlag and catching up on some much needed sleep. I saw most of my friends from small group, registered for classes, and watched quite a few movies, including Slumdog Millionaire, which is amazing, by the way. I highly recommend it.
Two big things happened this past week. The first, I started second semester. I was placed in an advanced class, which unfortunately meant a whole lot more work. Turns out mono does not get along with getting up early and trying to cram a whole bunch of complicated information into my head. But that's what I'm doing. And although it's a lot of work, it's interesting. Plus I'm pretty sure I could use an academic challenge, after all, I definitely perfected cruising through classes without doing any work.
The second big thing was a huge milestone for me. Not only was I the first to complete this challenge, but I did it withsuch beastly skills that my time will not be matched for a long while. By which time, I might add, I will have completely destroyed all competition. So what, you ask, did I accomplish? The Rubik's Cube. Oh yes. And I did it in 12 minutes. I was never any good with things like this, it was complicated and I didn't like it. But last Christmas I wanted one to play with, and couldn't find one anywhere. Then this Christmas, Helena (my younger sister) surprised me with my very own Rubik's Cube. My first week back in Jordan I was so tired, and I didn't have the energy to be social, so I started working on the cube. I got closer and closer until I had it almost completely solved, just one square to flip. Then I turned it wrong, and messed the whole thing up. I was not happy. So I continued to work on it until I finally solved the Rubik's Cube. The first time I solved it took just under 15 minutes, I was so excited! Since then, I have been working on improving my time. Hence the 12 minutes. Yes, it seems like a small, unimportant feat, but to me, this was a massive victory.
So back to reality here - I got a change in medications while I was home, and it seems to be working nicely. Jetlag and increase in focus time have set my head off before, but it was manageable these past two weeks. So I am grateful that the meds are helping. It's the first daily medication that has helped at all. It certainly makes the load a little easier.
Coming up: girls night in, a day trip to Jerash, and Superbowl 43 - kick off here is at 1:30 am, and yes, I will be watching it.
A quick overview of my somewhat eventful holiday: I spent a week up North visiting family and friends, then jetted home to my family and my car, both of which I missed very much. (Obviously I missed my family a whole lot more, but I hadn't driven in 7 months at that point, a real tragedy...) We flew out to Utah for a week of snow, mountains, skiing, and of course, more awesome family. I got sick, spent some time in the hospital after my tonsils got ridiculously swollen and blocked off most of my throat, and found out that I had mono. This definitely dampened my mood, it meant that I would be tired all the time, I couldn't go snowboarding, or play ultimate, or volleyball, or go ice skating. Too risky. I did not want to be back in the hospital with a ruptured spleen. We had a lovely Christmas, filled with awesome USC gear, sticky buns, eggs benedict, and laughter at the hijab I got Aisling to wear, straight from Jordan. We had a quiet New Year's as well - we watched old Bond films, hung out with a couple friends, and had the whole family there to watch the ball drop (props to tivo, pausing live tv for 10 minutes totally saved the evening). I took a little roadtrip up to Virginia to visit a few friends, stopping along the way to visit Kirsten, my very-pregnant cousin, and her husband, Caleb. I spent the remainder of my time at home with my family, visiting local friends, watching basketball games at my former high school, and spending some time with the Autistic kids I worked with last year. I bought plenty of EasyMac and hot chocolate and packed a lot of warm clothing, making sure i was prepared to survive for a couple months where it's colder inside than it is outside. Then I headed to the airport, sad to leave, but excited for the new semester.
My trip here was relatively uneventful. We were a bit delayed leaving RDU, but I had a long layover at JFK, so it didn't bother me much. I got on my flight, and managed to convince the stewardess to give me 4 seats to myself so I could stretch out and sleep. I fell asleep not long after takeoff, not waking again until almost before landing. Some friends of mine from small group picked me up from the airport and took me back to my apartment.
Most of that week I spent getting over jetlag and catching up on some much needed sleep. I saw most of my friends from small group, registered for classes, and watched quite a few movies, including Slumdog Millionaire, which is amazing, by the way. I highly recommend it.
Two big things happened this past week. The first, I started second semester. I was placed in an advanced class, which unfortunately meant a whole lot more work. Turns out mono does not get along with getting up early and trying to cram a whole bunch of complicated information into my head. But that's what I'm doing. And although it's a lot of work, it's interesting. Plus I'm pretty sure I could use an academic challenge, after all, I definitely perfected cruising through classes without doing any work.
The second big thing was a huge milestone for me. Not only was I the first to complete this challenge, but I did it withsuch beastly skills that my time will not be matched for a long while. By which time, I might add, I will have completely destroyed all competition. So what, you ask, did I accomplish? The Rubik's Cube. Oh yes. And I did it in 12 minutes. I was never any good with things like this, it was complicated and I didn't like it. But last Christmas I wanted one to play with, and couldn't find one anywhere. Then this Christmas, Helena (my younger sister) surprised me with my very own Rubik's Cube. My first week back in Jordan I was so tired, and I didn't have the energy to be social, so I started working on the cube. I got closer and closer until I had it almost completely solved, just one square to flip. Then I turned it wrong, and messed the whole thing up. I was not happy. So I continued to work on it until I finally solved the Rubik's Cube. The first time I solved it took just under 15 minutes, I was so excited! Since then, I have been working on improving my time. Hence the 12 minutes. Yes, it seems like a small, unimportant feat, but to me, this was a massive victory.
So back to reality here - I got a change in medications while I was home, and it seems to be working nicely. Jetlag and increase in focus time have set my head off before, but it was manageable these past two weeks. So I am grateful that the meds are helping. It's the first daily medication that has helped at all. It certainly makes the load a little easier.
Coming up: girls night in, a day trip to Jerash, and Superbowl 43 - kick off here is at 1:30 am, and yes, I will be watching it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)