Roman castles, beer pong, and stomach bugs

Last Saturday a large group of us CIEE kids piled into a tour bus to explore the Eastern Desert of Jordan, starting with a Roman caravan station called Halabat and ending at the Jordanian "wetlands" where the country apparently gets 1/4 of its water. Judging by the fact that the wetlands consisted of about 3 ponds (and that's being generous) I can now understand why long showers are a no-no. Overall the trip was quite enjoyable. The highest temperature that day was about 70 degrees and the castles were absolutely beautiful. Because Jordan has so much history to show off (and apparently very little legal problems) they have no problem with visitors climbing all over everything. It's a shame that this means the castles will eventually crumble to dust, but now its so much fun to be that close to something so ancient.

I've had some more time to explore Jordanian night life this week. On Tuesday we went to a hookah restaurant called Jaffra with really authentic live music. On wednesday, we found a nice little bar after a free jazz concert at a nearby hotel. And I found, wherever you may be in the world, beer pong is never impossible to find.

On a more serious note, the region is more in turmoil than ever before. As I was sitting in my archaeology class the other day we heard what sounded like explosions, our teacher assured us it must just be a nearby quarry. I found out later it was actually the Israeli army setting off bombs at a training camp for no apparent reason. Although this means nothing bad for Jordan at the moment, I've now had to accept that crazy shit is going on around here. My roommates and I have been sitting in front of the tv horrified about what's going on in Libya. My optimistic side hopes the Gaddafi will step down soon, but my rational side believes the people of Libya unfortunately have a long and bloody trial before them, but I hope everything gets better soon.

I'm sitting around writing this right now because I'm stuck at home as a cause of the inevitable stomach bug that I expected to eventually get when travelling to the Middle East. It's much better than yesterday thanks to a lot of rest and water!

For those of you who don't have a fb page here's some pics of the eastern desert

Apparently here it rains cats, but not dogs

The past week has been somewhat uneventful relative to the first two. Now that classes and the apartment are all settled life feels less hectic, but now I've had time to discover the many odd/awesome things Jordan has to offer. I found out that Jordan does not believe in animal control, so there are cats EVERYWHERE, and unfortunately one decided to die and/or be in heat outside my bedroom window. The noise has, as of now, stopped so I hope she has either moved on or improved her life in some way. I've also found lots of amazing food places around the apartment, including a place the sells amazing baklava and few cute little shawarma/falafel restaurants. They are surprisingly much cheaper than any American fast food chain that you will find, which are apparently considered fancy dining around here because they are the cleanest buildings you will find in the city.

I've worked two days at the archaeology library now and, although it is quite boring sorting pottery for 4 hours, the lunches they feed us are extremely fantastic and I've met some super interesting (although somewhat socially awkward) archaeologists.

Tomorrow I'm going on a CIEE sponsored trip to the Eastern Desert to check out some awesome castles starting at 8 am because, apparently, CIEE hates sleep.

"Belt your seat, we go in helicopter"

My life in Jordan is starting to feel much more stable because (finally!) I have a final class list. I tested into language intermediate II which is awesome because now I won't have to argue with Pitt advisors about credits, but may possibly be much harder than I think I can handle...I'm for sure in Archaeology of Jordan and Political Islam. Given the above quote is from my arch prof, I think this going to be quite the (interesting?) class, but slightly confusing since he doesn't really speak English. Political Islam is officially a shit ton of reading, but it looks like I'll learn a lot.

Along with my course load I've managed to secure a volunteer job at Amman's archaeology center, where anthropologists from around the world conduct their research on finds they've dug up in the region. I'll just be sorting pottery shards that a previous intern that apparently has zero organization skills. So the job is essentially pointless, but you have to start somewhere, right? (And I get a free lunch three times a week :-))

Us apartment kids are all starting to come together as a group, in the best and worst ways. We went out to a very expensive club last night, where we learned that Jordanians love to make fun of George W. Bush and that an American man should NEVER hit on a Jordanian woman under any circumstances. Surprisingly, we all made it out alive, most of us happy despite a few minor blood stains. As bad as that sounds, it really wasn't as bad as it was an interesting learning experience.

Tomorrow is our peer tutor orientation that begins bright and early at 8:30 am. It's supposedly super painful, so hopefully I'll get a great partner out of it.

Watching the superbowl, eating at McDonald's, and other such Jordanian things

On Sunday night/ Monday morning at 1:30 am 8 of us crazy CIEE students went to the nearby Marriott to watch the Steelers lose miserably and drink a lot of very overpriced beer. Despite these two set-backs it was definitely worth it and we all had a great time, especially when the delirium set in around 4 am. It was a great little taste of America in a city so much different from anything I'm used to. There was loud shouting from every part of the bar, TVs everywhere, and plenty of crappy beer. I felt like I had transported back to the US for those 4 hours, and felt very disoriented when I walked out into a very dark and very quiet Amman. The taxi drivers were quite annoyed at us crazy Americans who apparently have too much fun (even though at this point we were fully sober zombies). My roommate and I shuffled into the apartment at about 5:30 am, crashed quickly and went off to class at 9 am.

I was in a total haze that whole next day, but not so much that I didn't fully enjoy my area studies courses. My political islam is gonna be amazing. The teacher does a lot of research on feminism in the Middle East and has a fully secular point of view. The archaeology teacher, on the other hand, is slightly more biased. But I hoped to have a teacher that would let me see how teachers are different at the University of Jordan as compared to Pitt.

I ate at the McDonald's near the university this afternoon just for comparison sake, and found it to be exactly the same. I'm glad I have another resource when I'm feeling homesick. There is certainly not a lack of American culture around here, albeit slightly outdated, especially when it comes to music. Jordanians seem to think that N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys are still whats hip in the US. Fortunately, the Jordanian pop music is very entertaining, and I would rather listen to that in cabs any day.

Jordan is not a melting pot

Today was my first day of class at the University of Jordan. I had in my head all these images of what a traditional college campus looks like. I realized very quickly when I arrived that you can never make presumptions about Jordanian culture. I thought, "hey, these kids are my age, they're gonna be excited to meet international students and help us if we get lost." Problem number one: No one seems to know where everything is on campus, even if they're a full time student. The few girls that I did ask did seem like they wanted to help but, unfortunately, barely spoke English. Problem number two: the separation of gender and religion. Almost everyone was split into groups of two or three very social gatherings, but were only between people of the same sex and level of religious conservatism. There seemed to be an invisible wall between men and women that shocked me in an unpleasant way. This was the first time I really noticed I was in a completely different world from my own. I understand why the men here look at us American women differently, but to blatantly ignore people from your own country seemed so bizarre to me. Despite the difficulty of not being able to speak to anyone on campus, I eventually found my own way to the classroom 10 minutes late. On the bright side, I think I will survive my language course and I have a really great teacher.

My roommates and I went exploring after we got back from the University. We finally got our phones working, which is great considering how easy it is to get lost in a place with no maps. We also found some amazing bakeries (with baklava yummm) that we definitely be visiting very often.

Week 1: Taxi drivers don't speak English

So, I've almost officially made it one week in Jordan. I've still yet to get hit by a car, or trampled by the (supposedly) insane riots going on in the streets. But I have managed to get lost trying to find my way home in a taxi driven by an Arab who speaks NO english. We went around asking about five different extremely nice people for directions. About 5 JDs and 30 minutes later we did manage to stumble into our apartment with ten billion Carrefour bags. On the bright side, the apartment is bangin'!! We have two sitting rooms, a dining room, 3 bedrooms, and two baths. Oh, and a shit ton of awesome chandeliers. I'm sure it would be super awesome if it were warm here and we could have ragers but, as our higher ups in the program have warned us, the arabs know everything and will tell her everything. So, the three of us have decided to not be branded as the crazy American whorehouse, and keep the parties on the down-low.

My favorite part of the city so far are the beautifully preserved roman ruins. You can't walk a mile in Amman without hitting something left behind from their very ancient past. The mosques and the call to prayer were also a pretty cool part of the city in the beginning, but now that we've settled in to our apartment and realized the nearest mosque is right outside our window, its not so appealing (and also a little creepy) and 5 AM every morning.

Everything is great here, and I'll attempt to keep this updated every week. Jordan is not like Egypt, and I can assure you they wont be barricading us inside or shipping us home anytime soon.