Trip to Wadi Rum and Petra 9/13 - 14

Qasid, (like Q-aah -sid) planned a trip for the weekend to Wadi Rum and Petra. Wadi Rum is a protected desert natural area with amazing rock formations. The bus ride was about 5 hours to the very south of Jordan, not far from the Saudi border. Several of the Qasid staff went along, but there was one new face - a former professor at the school, Amer who came back for the trip. This guy was a real character - I'm sure in school he was constantly getting in trouble for talking in class and being the class clown. There was a microphone on the bus, and he was constantly using it to relay some fact, play a game, or harass one of the other staff members, Ayman. Every time Ayman would try to respond, Amer would hush him. Amer made everyone come to the front of the bus and introduce themselves in Arabic. Later on, he gave everyone a slip of paper and told half of us to write a question in Arabic, and the other half to write an answer in Arabic. Then he would draw a question and then a random answer and read it aloud. We got to Wadi Rum around 4:30 and then took a ride in the back of pickup trucks to different rock formations in the area. We took our shoes off and climbed the rocks and sand dune to the top of one formation, and then went to another spot where we watched the sun set over the desert. After that, the Bedouins took us back to their campsite. I was expecting to really be roughing it, but there were tents with electricity and beds, and a nice bathroom area. They showed us how they buried food under the sand on a special tiered container in the morning to cook it, and in the evening they would come back to have their dinner ready. One of the men played music on an electric Oud (guitar-like instrument) while we ate the chicken and (I think?) lamb cooked in that method along with different salads and hummus. At around 10:30 we went on a desert walk. Along the way, we gathered brush to make a fire. The plan was to look at the stars away from the lights, but the moon was over half full and was so bright that you couldn't see as many stars, but it was still really cool! There had been a scorpion earlier at the camp site, and everyone was a bit wary to sit down in the sand in the dark. Again Amer was the star of the show as we sat under the stars. They asked for everyone to be quiet for ten minutes, and amazingly, he (mostly) complied. But after that he was telling jokes and stories and trying to get others in the group to do the same. Walking back to the campsite through the sand, even at a small incline, was a workout. I couldn't imagine living in the desert and always having to walk through the sand. The next morning there was breakfast and a camel ride, and then we headed back north to go to Petra. We had a tour guide for the walk through Petra. A bit of the history of Petra: It was from Petra that the Nabataeans, a community of master builders whose skills included hydraulic engineering, iron production and copper refining, commanded the trade routes from Damascus to Arabia, profiting by the taxes paid on the caravans that passed through Nabataean territory. An earthquake in AD 555 is the most likely cause of the city's demise, but thankfully many of Petra's most impressive structures remain intact, making it a treasure trove of architectural surprises, hidden along hiking trails of various lengths and difficulties. The Ancient City is approached through the 1.2km-long, high-walled Siq – a crack in the rock, torn apart by tectonic forces. Just as you start to think there’s no end to the Siq, you catch breathtaking glimpses ahead of the most impressive of Petra’s sights, the Treasury, known locally as Al Khazneh. Carved out of iron-laden sandstone to serve as a tomb, the Treasury gets its name from the misguided local belief that an Egyptian pharaoh hid his treasure in the top urn. The Greek-style pillars, alcoves and plinths are truly masterpieces of masonry work. From the Treasury, the way broadens into the Outer Siq, riddled by more than 40 tombs known collectively as the Street of Facades. Just before you reach the weather-worn 7000-seat Theatre, notice a set of steps on the left. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/jordan/petra/attractions/petra/a/poi-sig/1457302/1001785 We walked through the bottom of a narrow canyon between high stone walls. Along the way we saw the remains of the channels built to bring water to Petra. We also saw carvings for their ancient gods and goddesses. Finally, there is a narrow crack, and you can just see the top of the Treasury, the best-known part of Petra. You've seen in in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. As you continue walking, the canyon opens up, and you are surprised by facade of the Treasury, cut out of the rock face. The guide told us that although it is called the Treasury, it was actually built as a tomb. And because of this, the room is very shallow, and you cannot go inside. As we left the treasury, we could see the paved roads that the Romans built after they took over Petra from the Nabateans. Our guide told us that anything carved into the rock was Nabatean, while anything built into or out of the rock was Roman. As we left, we passed through ruins of ancient temples and an amphitheater. And there was still more to Petra; Ayman told us it takes three days to fully see everything there. We left Petra and Ayman was concerned that we wouldn't make it to the restaurant for lunch before it closed at 4! Thankfully, we made it there around 3:30, and we were all very hungry after walking in the sun. There was a big buffet with many different salads - a cauliflower salad was especially good. Then there was pasta with caramelized onions, a stew with meatballs, and a big spread with desserts. There were several types of small cookies, squares of gelatin-y/pudding-y dessert colored pink and yellow. My favorite was in a big, fancy gold dish with a lid. It tasted better than it looked as it was a runny pudding of milk, sugar, and bread. On the trip home, we could here Ayman and Amer in front of us singing songs for Mawlid, the Prophet's birthday which was the next day. Later on, Amer passed out a balloon to everyone on the bus and asked trivia questions about Petra and Wadi Rum. In the beginning, you had to pop your balloon, but later on, he began to ask other questions in Arabic, and then if you got them wrong you had to pop the balloon. I'm sure the bus driver wasn't happy with this game! Finally, we arrived home around 9:30. We were exhausted after the weekend, and we still had to go to class the next day!

late,

Weekend in Amman 9/5 -6

An interesting difference in Jordan is that because Friday is the main day of worship in Islam, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, not Saturday/Sunday. Thursday evening, Tamara and I decided to go out to dinner. Her friend suggested Paris Square, so we took at Uber there. So far an Uber has cost around 2-4 JOD (Jordanian Dinar) with the exchange rate at 1 JOD to 1.4 USD. We walked along the streets, and there were lots of restaurants, coffee shops, vape shops, and other boutiques. We found a board game/anime shop and as the owner spoke English, he and Tamara talked about board gaming. We also found a beautiful souvernir shop with Middle Eastern pottery, lanterns, jewelry, handbagsv- miraculoulsly I held off from buying something. We stopped at a restaurant with a nice patio area. I ordered fried pieces of halloumi cheese and per the menu "meat pottery" which was a creamy meat stew with broccoli, onions, and carrots with rice to serve it over. Afterwards, we smoked a hookah which goes by different names depending on which country you are in. Here it looks like they call in shisha or argilah. The next day we relaxed in the apartment most of the day. In the evening, we met some of the other Boren scholar/fellows here in Amman for dinner at Beb El-Yemen. Many of them I had met at the orientation in DC in May, some I hadn't. There were about 7 of us, (4 of us studying at Qasid) along with my roomate and a Belgian friend of ours we met at Qasid. The restaurant was really busy with people waiting everywhere for a table while servers wound their way through to take food to people. We ordered several different dishes to share with everyone, accompanied by huge flat bread. We ended our meal with spiced tea with milk, very similar to masala chai in India, and we also ordered several deserts. It was a fun night, and it's nice to have more people you know here!

Orientation at Qasid 9/1/24

Today we had orientation at Qasid. They gave us a lot of information about living here and housekeeping type information. Omar, the man presenting to us, is from the US, and studied at George Washington University in D.C. so that was pretty cool. He's been in Jordan for 20 years, and he was a great speaker. In the second half, he talked about learning Arabic, the differences between classical, modern standard, and the dialects of Arabic. His knowledge on the history of the language was really impressive and interesting. Everyone at the school is so nice and welcoming. There's a small coffee shop in the school. I met some of the other students and everyone seemed cool. I met a woman from the UK whose family is from Gujarat, so we had a nice talk about that. There was a big lunch with many different Arab dishes, chicken and rice, salads, flat breads, stuffed grape leaves. I also paid my bill for the semester - for the basic modern standards Arabic class, 3 hours a day/5 days a week, the dialect (ammiya) class - another three hours of class per week, and my apartment rent for the semester, it was around 4,300 JOD. They said that if we needed to go to the doctor, they could take us. Since my eye was still not better, I asked them about it, and they said they could take me after the orientation. The man who drove me to my apartment the first day, Bi'lled (not sure how to spell it) said his brother, Ayman would take me. When he took me to him, he introduced him as Ayman, but I said I thought that guy was Ayman?? He said there's two Bi'lleds and two Aymans here! Ayman took me to the ATM to get some cash, and then to the doctor. The doctor spoke English and wrote me a prescription. The visit cost only 10 JOD. Afterwards Ayman took me to the pharmacy (صيدلية), and then dropped me off at home. I have lived in several countries now and have never had this level of help! They really have made things easier to acclimate to the country. I almost feel a little guilty not having to figure these things out for myself. But overall, I'm really impressed with Qasid and their attention to detail and the service they provide to the students. Later that evening, Tamara and I walked to the grocery store, and I bought a number of things - some vegetables, lentils, beans, chicken, and more for 22 JOD. Then we had to walk back home up the hill with everything. Luckily, Tamara had already bought a cart with wheels, "shopping porsche" she said they call them in Austria, so that made it easier. But I was huffing and puffing by the time we got home.

Trip to Ajloun Castle 9/2/24

We had a trip today before our first day of class to Ajloun Castle in north-west Jordan, about an hour and a half away. It's a 12th century Muslim castle that was built on the site of a monastery in order to protect the area from Crusaders. Online it says that little of the original building remains, so I'm not sure when it was rebuilt. There wasn't really a guide to give much information, and the signage didn't explain very much, so mostly we just walked around and looked at the nice views. We had a huge feast for lunch on the way back at a restaurant called the Lebanese House (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293988-d1644556-Reviews-Lebanese_House-Jerash_Jerash_Governorate.html). They just kept bringing out more and more food! Hummous, fattoush, kebab, grilled chicken, bread, stuffed grape leaves, kebbeh, fried cheese rolls, and ashta, a puddling like dessert. It was a nice day to see some of Jordan, the countryside, and the meal was amazing.