I'm alive!

This is long overdue. The last few weeks have been a series of ups and downs, but I’ve definitely found my place here. In an effort to save a little money, my diet has consisted mainly of shwarma and falafel for quite some time now, with the occoasional Mcdonald’s meal, of course.I really wish we had a kitchen in our hotel. It would have been nice to cook some meals every once and while, but oh well.

Since you last heard from me I’ve visisted some of the most amazing sights Jordan has to offer (i.e Petra, Aqaba, and Wadi Rum) and had what I would consider my most important birthday yet: 21! Let’s start there. After class on Monday I skyped with my family. It was nice to see my mom, sister, Dad, and our beloved dog Cocoa. It was early in the States so everyone was getting ready to begin their day. My brother, Adam, was beginning his new venture as a football manager for Madison Central High School so there wasn’t much time to talk with him or my Dad, as he was driving him to the high school that morning. Due to some technical difficulties with my mother’s skype account, she woke up my sister to use her computer then we all talked for a while. It was so nice to hear from everyone and get to see their faces. My family means the world to me and I love and miss them so much. It will be nice to get back to my comfortable home.

After I talked with my parents it was on to the grandparents. It was great to hear from them as well and talk to them about a possible birthday present. I will be going to Voodoo Fest in New Orleans this year because of their generosity. I love them so much. It was the best birthday present they could ever get me. I’m extremely excited. Me and some of my best friends will head down for the festival in late October and spend three days listening to some amazing music and enjoying one of my favorite cities in America. Thanks, Nana and Grandy!

I still haven’t told you about our long weekend trip. So a couple of weeks ago I had a very short three-day week before leaving for the trip. Unfortunately I got sick for the first time the day before we left, but it wasn’t that bad and allowed me to skip a day of school and watch movies, something I can always appreciate. It took me a good minute to get over the stomach problems but it by no means ruined my trip.

We began our trip in Petra, one the “new” Seven Wonders of the World. It’s also where they filmed “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade,” if you’ve seen that movie. The first day we spent lounging around our hotel. There was a nice pool and some of the guys and I went exploring in what was surely a restricted area behind the hotel. But, hey, we didn’t get caught and it was a lot of fun. That night we had a nice dinner at the famous “Cave Bar” in Petra. The name pretty much gives it away, but it’s basically a 2,000 year old Nabataean tomb that has been transformed into a pub. I met some Canadians who were traveling and actually got to plug in my Ipod later in the night and let the Arabs here some real American music. Good times.

The next morning we were all supposed to meet down in the lobby at 6:00 a.m. to begin our tour of Petra, but a few of us decided we needed a couple more hours of sleep. So, after a nice buffet breakfast we headed that way around 10:00 a.m. and actually saw some of the group on their way out as we were headed in. It’s a long walk down the historic Siq before you reach the ruins of Petra. When I turned the corner and had the first ruin in sight it literally took my breath away. This place is amazing! Here’s a picture. It by no means does it justice, but better than nothing.

It was hot that day and being late we didn’t have time to see everything, but I definitely feel like I got my money’s worth. For students it only cost 1JD for a ticket, everyone else pays much more. Student discounts are always much appreciated. I like being a student.

A few ours later we were back on the bus for the short two hour bus ride to a desert named “Wadi Rum” in the midst of a stunning mountain range. We stayed in a traditional Bedouin camp and were served a traditional meal and provided with entertainment in the form of a talented Udd player and traditional dance. There were also Arabic wedding festivities to be had between two of the members of our group. All in good fun, of course, but it was hilarious. I’m getting ahead of myself. Before the night began, we took a trip in the back of a few trucks to a large sand dune below one of the mountains. After much difficulty (sand is not easy to climb!) I made it to the top and the view was spectacular. Also, this sounds weird, but the sand moved like water! It was the strangest thing but because it is so fine grained, it just seemed to flow like a stream. After a couple minutes we were called back down so we woudn’t miss the sunset.Running down the sand dune was so much fun! The sand lessens the impact of your stride and makes it really easy to go full steam ahead. I wish we had had more time and a sand board.How cool would that have been?

A few minutes later we were watching one of the most amazing sunsets I have every seen in my life. I was in a pensive mood and definitely had a moment. I have been blessed with some of the most amazing opprtunities in my life and I hope that I haven’t squandered this one missing all things American. I have learned more about myself and gained more patience than I ever thought was possible. My best friend in the world told me that the frustration is part of the experience, that I will come back so much of a stronger person. I think she is right. I started to gain some perspective sitting there watching the sunset, however fleeting that moment may have been. I digress. We slept in tents that night and I got to enjoy an amazing night sky. It was a simple evening but probably one of the things I will remember most. Here are a few pictures:

The next morning it was off to the beach at Aqaba! We stayed in a five-start resort with an amazing pool, delicious food, and a 10-foot walk to the beach. I was in heaven. Some of the group went snorkeling but a few of us stayed behind to enjoy our new home for the evening. That night we had a little hotel party in one of our rooms and after a while Katharine, Antonia, and I went down to the beach for some good conversation. There’s nothing quite like the beach at night with good company, so relazing and refreshing. I slept like a champ then woke up to room service: real pork bacon (for the first time in over a month!), French toast, and fresh squeezed orange juice. I splurged, what can I say. I was reading on the beach quickly after breakfast and got some sun before we boarded the bus for the long bus ride back to Irbid. Here’s a picture from Aqaba. Try not and be jealous.

What else? Class is going well, although I’ve let my grades slip a bit. I have a solid week of classes left and can hopefully redeem myself on the final exam, but at the end of the day, all is well. I came here to improve my speaking skills and have done just that. It’s like pulling teeth sometimes, as language learning often is, but I feel much, much more comfortable holding a conversation in Arabic and am looking forward to sharing my new vocabulary with my friends who speak Arabic at the Brittany Store in Oxford. I think they are going to be impressed.

Today in class I planned out the rest of my trip. It was therapeutic. Tomorrow I’m going to make my last trip down to Amman to finish up my gift buying, see Inception, and eat some Chinese food. On Saturday I think some of us will visit the ruins at Jerash and the historical Ajlun Castle. Then it will be time to start our last week of school here. It’s only a four-day week because we will be testing all day on Thursday. Please keep me in your prayers on Thursday. It will surely be a rough day. After the test, though, my friend Sarah and I will travel to Tel Aviv then Jerusalem for the weekend. I’m excited about getting in some last miunte beach time on the Mediterranean and staying at a roof-top hostel in the old city of Jerusalem. When I get back from my weekend trip, it will be time to pack the bags and get on a flight back to America. For all who are curious, my flight leaves at 2:55 a.m. the morning of the 10^th and I’ll be arriving in Jackson around 6:00 p.m. that same day.

I made the conscious decision to really focus on my studies this next week and learn all I can before my departure. It will be so nice to be home again, though. I love and miss you all.

Salaam,

-Alex

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. All is well. We returned from an amazing long weekend trip to Petra, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba last evening and I have been swamped with homework today. I promise an extensive update is coming in the next few days.

I miss my family, friends, and good ole Mississippi, but we only have three short weeks left. I'm going to try and savor the experience from here on out.

Until later!

Salaam,

-Alex

Do I look German?!

I must look German. About ten people yesterday asked me if I was from Germany, no kidding. Do I look German?! I also got told that I look Jordanian for the first time yesterday. That was a cool thing to hear.

To be honest, I’ve kind of been avoiding the blog lately due to my negativity. I’ve been homesick and nothing seems to be going my way: was excited to find out we get out of school a week before expected, but there’s no way to find an earlier flight home; class has been rough; I’m sick of not being able to communicate with anyone around me; I’m tired of the feeling ostracized everywhere I go; the town we live in is quite possibly the most boring town in the Middle East; and there are a few issues with our group… enough said. We have a long weekend coming up and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m really excited about the trip to Aqaba, Wadi Rum, and Petra. Also am trying to keep things in perspective. Only 30 days left… I can do 30 days. It sucks I won’t be spending my 21^st birthday in the states but you win some you lose some. I’ll get over it.

I have a lot to catch everyone up on:

First, at the beginning of this week a few of us went and helped in a kid’s camp sponsored by the Catholic Church with the priest we met last week. It was an extremely fun and rewarding experience. I cannot remember the priest’s name for the life of me because I never really picked up on what to call him. It seems like a simple thing but he had like five different names: one the kids called him, one the adults called him, the name for priest in Arabic, and I think the name for father in Arabic. Very confusing for an American, so we’re just going to call him “Father Abu” from now on. So, Father Abu picked us up at the hotel right after class on Tuesday and we headed to a small, Christian village about 5km outside of Irbid. I was really impressed with the facilities when we got there. Father Abu explained that it was his second parish, so he converted it into a campus for kid’s activities, camps, and the like. This was the first of three camps he would be hosting and was for the younger children, 7-11 to be exact. We ate our second lunch when we got there and were introduced to the two guys we’d be working with the rest of the afternoon. They were around our age and seemed to be part of the Jordanian equivalent of the Boy Scouts. Our first task was to organize some water games for the kids. We filled up water balloons and tossed around ideas on easy games. After some misunderstanding we settled on a game and formulated a plan to secretly barrage the kids with water balloons from the roof. All went off without a hitch and the kids had a blast!

After that, we were put in charge of the game station in their afternoon rotation. It tooks some trial and error (“Duck Duck Goose” failed miserably and dancing the “Macarena” was awkward) but we found a few games the kids seemed to enjoy. Before we left, Father Abu wanted to take all of the kids on a walk up the mountain to get them tired before bed. So off we went, all 100 something kids and only a few adult chaperones. No counting, no lines, but a mad rush up a windy road to the top. I don’t think this would have gone over well in the States. I made a few friends and learned a lot from the conversations I had with kids. They are much more understanding than adults and don’t ask hard questions, so it’s always encouraging. Father Abu gave us a gift of Holy Water Olive Oil from Jerusalem before we left. It was a nice gesture, to say the least.

We had two extremely difficult tests yesterday and I didn’t do so well… that’s all I’m going to say. So after school I was excited about taking a trip to Amman to see a movie. I’m juts going to go ahead and come clean: I went to see Twilight, don’t judge me. What can I say? It’s boring here and it seemed like my best option. Plus if you didn’t know, I read the books. Once again, all of you haters can back off. Seeing this movie in Jordan reaffirmed the simple fact that Jordanians are, on the whole, completely more immature than Americans. It has to do with the culture here and the separation of the sexes, as my friends and I were discussing earlier this week, but in every single kissing scene during the movie the theatre erupted into laughter, with whistles and catcalls going on for minutes after the scene had ended. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a a theatre full of 12-year old girls, but most people I saw had to be at least 20. I was annoyed. It was kind of entertaining at the same time, though.

When I left the theatre I came to the startling realization that the buses back to Irbid had stopped running. I asked a cab driver how much for a ride back to Irbid and he said 50JD! I felt lost. There was no way I was paying that much. It should only cost about 1JD to get back to Irbid, max 3JD. There for a second I felt really stranded and started to worry. No one around me spoke good enough English to understand my question and my phone was about to die… what to do?! I sat around twiddling my thumbs for a while contemplating my predicament before deciding to head back inside on a hunt for someone who spoke English. My saving grace came at a coffee shop. His name was Alazim and he just so happened to be an Arabic Instructor during the school year and knew exactly how to help. So off I went, following a complete stranger, hopping into a random bus, getting off at a random stop and following another stranger, then hopping into a random cab with the hopes I would make it back to Irbid. Long story short, I made it home safely and met some nice people along the way. We got back in about 35 minutes. It usually takes about an hour and a half. As scary as the ride was, I was happy to get back quickly.

I really like Amman. It’s so refreshingly western. Significantly more women are uncovered than covered and society seems to be a bit more liberal and free-thinking. I wish we were studying there. So, a man who was riding with me in the cab asked me an interesting question on the way back last night. To paraphrase, he asked me how my time in Jordan so far has changed my impressions of the Middle East. I’m still thinking about that. I think I’ll have an answer later this week.

Salaam,

-Alex

All is Well

Tonight was incredibly refreshing. The girls and I went to the 6 o’clock catholic mass in a village near Irbid and met up with the priest who has arranged for us to assist in a kid’s camps sponsored by the church. After an awkward introduction (long story), we attended mass. The church was beautiful. We had no clue what was going on during the service, save for a few words here and there and the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic, but I thoroughly enjoyed the hymn singing. It was all a cappella and led by one of the nuns. I picked up on the melodies as best I could and actually was able to follow along in the Arabic hymnals (no notes, just words) with some help finding the page numbers.

After the service, we were invited to dinner with the priest and a few members of the church. The food was amazing: spaghetti, fettuccini, fish and vegetables, cream corn, and a nice bottle of red wine. They also had salt, pepper, and fresh Parmesan on the table, things usually missing from Arabic meals. The conversation was enlightening and we had an opportunity to work out the details on our role in the kid’s camp. Basically, tomorrow we’re going to help prepare for the camp and work through some American children’s songs that we’ll teach to the children. I’m very excited.

All is well. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Independence Day. We’re trying to hunt down some fireworks at the moment. Wish us luck.

Salaam,

-Alex

The Honking Continues...

Let me apologize to those World Cup fanatics who may be reading, but I am just about sick of this world-wide competition. It would be fine if I was in America and could sit peacefully in my condo and avoid the pointless screaming and fighting over the wins or loses of each person's favored country. Instead, I am in a country where there is nothing to do, absolutely nothing, except for watch the World Cup at cafes all around the city. There's simply no escaping the madness. Hours and hours after the games crazy people scream and honk while hanging out of their windows waving the flag of the team who reigned victorious on any particular day. It just gets old...

Today I went to Amman with a fellow classmate of mine from Taiwan. His name is Nathan. I really wanted to see "Prince of Persia" but it wasn't playing so we had to settle for the new Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz movie "Knight and Day." The plot was ridiculous and the acting sub-par, but I've been bored and love the movies so we had a good time. After the movie we had some lunch then headed back to Irbid. I need to do some homework tonight and get organized for the week but not really in the mood.

Tomorrow we begin our fourth week of classes and I feel like I'm finally in a groove with the whole school thing. Our tests are difficult and the grammar is frustrating but I'm learning. It's also nice to get to practice everyday on the streets, as frustrating as it can be sometimes.

Cultural notes: A large majority of taxi drivers play Qu'ranic recitation in their cabs. It can be eerie at times, to be honest. Opportunities in music education are virtually non-existent except at the University level. It breaks my heart to think about all the kids who have had no opportunity to study music in this country. Arabic music uses quarter-tones a lot, which makes the piano kind of obsolete. And I learned three of the main scales they use. All very interesting.

I think I told y'all that I was looking for some community service to do while I was here. Well, today while I was in Amman the guy I wrote my interest letter to called me at the hotel. I'm about to call him back. I really hope something works out!

Happy Fourth to everyone back home. Party hard for us. We'll be in class...

Salaam,

-Alex

The Good Life

Life in Jordan is growing on me. I have thoroughly enjoyed the weekend so far and may make a trip to Amman tomorrow for lunch and a movie. Prince of Persia, perhaps?

Last night we met up with a friend of ours from Yale, Jesse, who is teaching applied-English at one of the local colleges for the summer. After dinner (lamb kebabs, grilled onions and tomatoes, pita, hummus, and two random bowls of what seemed to be salsa), Jesse invited us over to his friend’s house. She is an American teaching English, as well. We had an incredible time, to say the least: met some really cool locals who spoke good English (including my first set of Arab twins), learned some new words, and enjoyed a few games of beer pong.

We spent today at one of our professor’s homes in the village of Sum. Their hospitality was incredible. If anything unites Southern American culture and Jordanian culture, it’s the hospitality. We arrived at her home and we’re introduced to the family. Shortly thereafter, her husband served us shots of Arabic coffee. I’m still wired, as that was the first of many times I got served the incredibly strong coffee. After an hour of sitting around chatting we sat down for lunch: chicken mansaf. It was delicious but I mistakenly drank the warm laban (fermented yogurt/milk-like sauce) thinking it was my water and have yet to fully recover. The thought of it makes me feel sick. Disgusting. After lunch, we were served hot tea with sugar and mint then brought a large platter of assorted fresh fruits including apples, bananas, oranges, and cucumbers (?!). More tea after the fruit then we moved into the sitting room for a few rounds of apple-flavored Argeela (aka sheesha/hookah/hubbly bubbly). This room was made for some mad chill-time. There was a table for the coals in the center with floor cushions/couches on every wall. Juice and desert came about half an hour later. We were stuffed. Somehow or another we got on the topic of music and the husband insisted that one of the other guys who plays the guitar and I take a shot at the Udd. We failed miserably, but it wasn’t completely our fault. The instrument was way out of tune and neither one of us had any clue how a Udd is supposed to be tuned. It was interesting, though. A few of us, me included, took a quick nap before heading to a traditional Arabic engagement/wedding celebration, which was the purpose of our trip in the first place. From what I understand, we attended the public announcement of the couple’s engagement at which the two families grant blessing upon the relationship. When we walked up, the girls went with our professor into a building for dancing and the guys stayed outside with the husband to observe the “ceremony.” We were served more food, a local favorite called "kinafa" (basically bread with cheese and honey) and more coffee while at the party. The engagement period is for the bride and groom to become better acquainted with eachother and work any problems out before the actually marriage, which usually occurs about a year later. They do not live with eachother during this time but are actually recognized as a couple by their religion. At least that’s what I understood but could be completely wrong. Let’s just say that the marriage process is, like most things, much different here. When we got back to our professor’s house we were served our final course: honeydew and watermelon. One of the guys in our group asked for salt to put on his watermelon and the entire family thought we were all so strange.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at the café near or hotel, where I am now actually, because the Internet is so much faster than the hotel. They always bring you a water bottle when you sit down, too. I like that. It’s incredibly loud at the moment due to the World Cup game between Ghana and Uruguay, go figure.

A few more cultural notes: Toilet paper is elusive and it’s a real problem. I just can’t get into the bidets. Too much information? Hope not. A large majority of cars and all of the taxis here are manual. And have I told you they use their horns incessantly? It’s very normal to see guys showing affection to one another: holding hands, locking arms, greeting each other with alternating kisses to each cheek three times, etc. Girls marry young, like 17 young. Families usually leave rebar sticking out on the top of their houses to avoid paying taxes on the property, as it’s considered “under construction.” Quite clever if you ask me. More to come later…

Miss y’all.

-Alex