Back in the USA

Well, I have been home for about two and half weeks now. I have to admit, its a little weird to be back. But its also so wonderful. I just thought I would post one last time to let you all know that I am home, I survived jet-lag, and I am not going through too much culture shock. My flight home went really well. I met some awesome people in the Paris airport that kept me company for my five hour layover and customs was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I spent about a week at home with my family for Christmas, which was really great. I brought home all sorts of souvenirs and christmas presents from my adventures in Jordan and Israel. It seems like everyone liked them so I am pretty pleased with myself, not going to lie.

Then I spent about a week in sunny California with my basketball team. I have a hard life, I know. Its great to be back and I love all the new freshmen on the team. We won one game and lost one, which was unfortunate, but overall it was a great trip. We got some quality beach time in. Also, we got to go to Newport Beach, which was great because I have been there a few times. I showed everyone around like I was a local. No big deal.

Now I am back in Grinnell, Iowa and it is FREEZING here. Basketball is going well, although we lost our game against Ripon this past weekend. Tonight we play Knox and I am very confident that we will beat them. Its great to be back on campus, I missed this place so much. I am very excited for the coming semester. However, I do miss Amman. Last night I had a dream that I ran into my host family here in the United States (they were here visiting for some reason) and I ran up and hugged them like I hadn’t seen them in years. I can’t wait to hang my Jordanian flag up on my dorm room wall. Last semester was definitely an unforgettable experience and as much as I may have whined about things while I was there (the taxis, for example) I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I think I’ll go back some day (:

SNOW!

Guess what everyone! It’s snowing! By now I am sure some of you are sick of the snow you are getting at home but this is my first snow of the year and its great. Well there is only maybe an inch at most, our classes were canceled and the city is pretty quiet as everyone is hiding inside, away from the cold and the disaster that is the roads currently. Last night was really fun. Everyone in my house was very excited, anticipating the coming snow. Mckenna and I tried to study for the test we were supposed to have but we were not very successful and spent time hanging out with the host family and watching a movie instead. Good thing we ended up getting the day off. Unfortunately, I think we will have to make up class on Saturday, because we had finals scheduled for today. But for now, I am happy to sit at home, drink hot chocolate and read a book.

Snow!

And of course, play in the snow. As most of you probably know, that is one of my all time favorite activities. A little while ago my host sister, host mom, and a few other extended family members went outside to adventure in the snow and make a snowman. It was definitely a success.

Mckenna, Me, Maysoon, Dana, Selma, and Aroob

Our snowman

Only about a week left here in Amman. While I love the snow I hope the weather calms down a bit so I can go to all my favorite places once more before I leave. Its supposed to snow all weekend but it should be nice again by Sunday or Monday. Only a few tests and a paper left for the semester!

Two More Weeks!

Well, two more weeks. I just wanted to write a quick post to update you on a few of the exciting things I did this week and let you know what the plans are for the next two weeks. First, a disclaimer: you may not find these things exciting but my week was full of stressfully huge homework assignments in this crazy language called arabic so, to me, they were extremely exciting.

Sunday marked 100 days in Amman! How crazy is that? To celebrate, Emily and I did a few of our favorite things, including shopping Downtown, eating at Hashem, and going to our favorite cafe for smoothies. We also ate a McArabia for the first time. We figured it was something we had to do before going home. A McArabia is McDonald’s spin on a traditional Arabic meal and is therefore basically a chicken sandwich on pita bread and covered in unfamiliar spices. It was very good but definitely not as exciting as we expected. We also got a KitKat McFlurry in honor of KitKat’s popularity in Jordan.

McArabia!

Sand art for Emily’s brother. He made it right in front of us, so cool!

So that was exciting thing number one. I also tried صحلب (Sahlab) which is a traditional Arabic winter drink. I am not really sure how to describe it…it is really creamy and served hot and they sprinkle pistachios, cinnamon and I think cocunut on top. I was in love with it within five seconds. I plan to buy it every day until I leave. Well maybe not every day…. but most days. Also, good news! When I got home and told my host mom and sister that I had tried it they said they will make it tomorrow!!

Sahlab! So delicious.

The preparation

To top it all off, here is a picture of my roommate and the cute, friendly street cat she played with the other day. As long as I am talking about my roommate, I guess I should tell you all that she is really the BEST. I will miss her a lot. Luckily she goes to college in Iowa too so we have plans to hang out next semester.

Mckenna and her kitty friend

The next two weeks are going to be a weird  combination of work and play. Next week is technically finals week so my final papers are due and I have two tests. Then the week after is reflection week. I will have my last final at the beginning of the week and the rest of the week will be spent reflecting on our time here and doing all the things that we haven’t had a chance to do yet or that we know we will miss when we leave. It should be pretty fun, I am excited. So far there is a team cook-off and a reverse scavenger hunt scheduled as well as the farewell dinner on the last Thursday night. Hopefully I will have more fun adventures and pictures to post in the near future!

Biblical Excursion and the Dead Sea

Hello! Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I have been pretty busy and honestly not that much has been happening over here other than school. Recently I have been doing some Christmas present shopping and of course eating good food but other than that its been nothing but papers and Arabic flash cards. However, Wednesday and Thursday we went on our final excursion and it was really great! This was the Biblical excursion so we saw a few religious sights as well as spending some time at the Dead Sea. The city of Madaba, known for the many beautiful Christian mosaics that have been found there, was our first stop and we toured an old Greek Orthodox Church. On the floor of the church there was an intricate mosaic that was supposedly meant to serve as a map for Christians, depicting all of the holy cities in the area.

Part of the mosaic map on the floor of the Church

 

We also visited Mount Nebo, which our tour guide informed us is the place were Moses died. At the top of the mountain we were able to look out across the Desert towards the Dead Sea and Jerusalem, as well as a few other significant cities and places.

The view from Mount Nebo

Our last stop on our way to the Dead Sea was the baptism site. We went right to the bank of the Jordan River and were able to swim in it if we wanted (only two students did, it was very cold) or dip our feet, head or hands in. It was very interesting because the river also serves as a border between Jordan and Israel so right across the river, which was only about 20 feet wide, was the Israeli side of the river bank where there were also many people singing hymns and praying or being Baptized. 

Our hotel, view from the beach

 

After the Biblical sites we went to a hotel on the edge of the Dead Sea. We spent Wednesday night there and were able to do a little swimming that night as well as spending about four hours at the Dead Sea and the pool the next day. As a big group we went through a few reorientation sessions at the hotel, in order to help us look back on our experience here in Jordan. These were very useful and a nice way to sort of come to terms with the fact that there are only three weeks left of the program. We also ate three fabulous meals at the hotel. I cannot even begin to describe to you how full I was during our entire stay. It is perfectly fitting that Thursday was Thanksgiving because I was definitely in a food coma for a good part of the day.

Floating in the Dead Sea!

Dead Sea mud

Overall, it was sad to not be home for Thanksgiving but I think covering myself in Dead Sea mud and sleeping in the sun by the pool was a pretty good trade off. Now for the final push! I’ll make sure to enjoy the 70 degree weather while I’ve got it. Three more weeks and I will be back in Minnesota, ready for Christmas and lots and lots of snow! 

Southern Excursion: Wadi Rum and Petra

I would have to say that the past two days were the best and most exciting days I have spent in Jordan so far. For our southern excursion we went spent a day and night at Wadi Rum and we went to the ancient city of Petra. Both were very beautiful and like nothing I have ever seen before.

First, Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley in Arabic and long, long ago Wadi Rum was under an ocean. Today, it is a beautiful desert. We did a few exciting things in Wadi Rum. We saw and few historical sights such as the ruins of a small temple and some ancient inscriptions on a rock. There was also some sand boarding, which was basically snowboarding but down a hill of sand. I did not take part in that because I decided I would rather not have sand everywhere. After awhile some people gave up on the boards and rolled or tumbled down the hill, which was pretty amusing to watch. The best part of the day at Wadi Rum was the camel rides. I have always wanted to ride a camel and I have to say it was just as awesome as I thought it would be. My camel got a little aggressive at one point and bit the camel in front of him but he calmed down when he was put at the front of the pack.

Just riding camels in the desert

After our jeep tour through the desert we watched the sun set and headed to the camp where we would spend the night. There some bedouin men taught us a few dances, made us a delicious meal and Emily, Zoeth and I spent some quality time stargazing. The stars were brighter then I have ever seen them and we saw countless shooting stars as well. Needless to say, Emily and I crashed pretty hard when it was finally time to go to sleep in our tent later that night.

Wadi Rum sunset

The next morning we woke up bright and early, ate a quick breakfast and headed out of the desert in order to take our bus to Petra. This ancient city was built by the Nabateans around 200 BC and it is entirely carved out of rock. According to our tour guide, when the city was turned into a tourist site those living there, a tribe of people that descend from the Nabateans, agreed to move out of the city under the condition that they would be the only ones allowed to work at the site. Therefore, all the people working in Petra today, selling souvenirs and offering visitors rides on their donkeys or camels, are members of this one tribe. We also learned that all of the buildings in Petra were carved from the top down, which is crazy to think about. Some of the buildings were so huge and intricate! It just seemed impossible that someone could have carved something like that so long ago.

After an initial tour of the main parts of the city our group ate lunch and then we were set free to do whatever we wanted for the next few hours. Emily and I chose to climb the 800 or 900 steps to the Monastery, which turned out to be even bigger and more impressive then the most well-known building in the city, the Treasury (which is the one that is in the Indiana Jones movie if you have seen that).  From the Monastery we hiked a bit higher to what was, according to all the signs, the “best view.” I think that was probably the most beautiful view I have ever seen. It didn’t even seem real and I felt like I was watching Planet Earth at an IMAX Theater or something. The man running the souvenir shop at the top of the hill gave us some tea and we spent awhile trying to take it all in.

The Monastery

The view from the top

Eventually we reluctantly hiked down and begun the trek back to the visitor center to meet the rest of our group. At a certain point along the way there were men with their horses offering people rides back to the visitors center. Emily and I both love horses so we rode back part of the way, which was really fun and relaxing.

After a four hour bus ride we finally made it back to Amman and I returned home to my host family. I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see my bed. While really fun and exciting, the trip was definitely exhausting. Unfortunately, we won’t be going on any more fun excursions until the end of November. In the mean time I will be busy with quizzes and papers. I only have about two months left here in Jordan. I feel like I have been here forever but at the same time I still feel like there are so many more things that I have to see and do! Hopefully I’ll fit them all in before it’s time to go home.

Eid al-Adha Break: Tel Aviv

Emily and I arrived at our hostel, the Florentine Hostel, at around 4 pm on Monday only to find Zoeth and Jack impatiently waiting for us. As soon as we walked in they basically demanded that we drop our stuff and change quick so that we could all go to the beach, which Emily and I had no problem with. Our hostel was about a ten minute walk from the beach and so we were swimming in no time. The Mediterranean was so warm and the weather was awesome for our entire trip, which of course resulted in sunburn for me but thats okay. I eventually learned and started to wear sunscreen.

The next morning Emily and I went for a run on the boardwalk near the beach, which was really nice but also really hard after all the delicious sweets we ate all week (whoops). On our run we found a cool weight lifting area on the beach. At first we thought it was a small playground but as we got closer we realized that what looked like playground equipment was actually weight lifting machines. After our run we met Zoeth and Jack on the beach. They had gone to the store and bought us a picnic feast and we spent the entire day eating, swimming and building a sand city. While that may sound boring to some people we thought it was awesome and spent way to long on it and honestly it was probably one of the best, most relaxing days ever. I’d say the funniest part was when a man came up to us and asked “What is this structure you are building?” to which we replied “Its a city.” He continued “Wow. I was here at 2 and you were working on it. It looks great.” It was around 7 pm at this point. We have no regrets. That night we went to a nice Italian restaurant for some delicious pizza and then we went and had gelato at a place called Dr. Lick, which was recommended by Emily’s relative.

Our sand city at sunset

On Wednesday we decided to explore the city a little more. We ate breakfast at a really cute cafe and then wandered down to an area of the city called Jaffa. There we found the Jaffa Port, which was cool and we decided that we needed to eat fish for dinner. At the port we had more gelato and guess what, it was also delicious. We walked along the beach and went to inspect our sand city. It was destroyed but you could still tell where it had been and we were pretty proud. We continued along the beach (stopping along the way to fly a kite for awhile) until we got to the Tel Aviv marina and there we found a good restaurant right on the water. We all ordered fish and chips and had a lovely evening. Every night in Tel Aviv we watched the sun set over the water, three times while on the beach and once at the marine. It was breathtaking every time.

A kite and some swings on the beach

Sunset over the marina

Marina selfie

On Thursday Emily and I went for another run and then we spent the day on the beach again, watched the sunset, ate some sea bass for dinner, had gelato a third time and played cards at our hostel until we collapsed in bed, ready to leave early Friday morning.

For those of you who know me really well, I have a funny story. For almost the entire trip I was the one who directed us from place to place. Me. When we were lost, everyone expected me to interpret the map and get us where we were going. When someone wanted directions to somewhere we had been the day before, they asked me. Somehow I acquired a sense of place and direction! How great is that?! Don’t worry, I don’t know how it happened either.

The trip back to Amman was not nearly as stressful but it was still rather interesting and it included three cabs and a bus this time. Overall the whole break was really great and I am so glad I went. Emily, Zoeth and Jack were awesome travel buddies and we all had a really difficult time leaving Friday morning. While the trip was too short to really explore both cities completely I think we did a pretty good job of getting a good taste of both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I am not ready for the whole school thing to start again though. On the bright side, we go to Petra and Wadi Rum in less than two weeks! I will be sure to tell you all about that trip too. I have always wanted to see Petra and I am so excited!

Group picture on our last day, all smiles

Eid al-Adha Break: Jerusalem

After a fun and exhausting week, I am back home in Amman and trying to mentally prepare for midterms, presentations and fun stuff like that. This past week we had no school because of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday and for our break my friends Emily, Jack, Zoeth and I went to Israel! It was wonderful. For the first three days we stayed in Jerusalem and for the last four we spent our time in Tel Aviv. In this post I’ll tell you all about Jerusalem and I’ll post again soon about Tel Aviv.

Last Friday we made the trek across the border to Israel. This was not an easy feat as it involved two cabs, two buses, a few check points, a lot of waiting and some stressful moments. After a few hours we made it across and finally got dropped off in the center of Jerusalem. Emily and I stayed with a distant relative of her’s during our time in Jerusalem, which was great, but finding their house was relatively obnoxious, especially after the border experience. After wandering around for a bit we eventually gave up and decided to take a cab (we are pretty sure he overcharged us but at that point we no longer cared). Adam and Tammy, the couple we stayed with, were so wonderful and welcoming. Friday night we ate Shabbat dinner with them, which was delicious, and it was so relaxing to just sit, eat and chat for a few hours.

On Saturday we had big plans but first we slept in until 11 am and ate another really nice meal. By about 2 pm we finally made it out of the apartment and we just wandered around the city a bit. The weather was beautiful and we were able to walk everywhere, which really gave us a good taste of the city. Eventually we ended up in the Old City of Jerusalem, which was great but really overwhelming with lots of people and maze-like streets. After a few hours of wandering and sightseeing, we were exhausted. We visited the Wailing Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church was gorgeous, especially in the early evening light. That night we saw a light and music show at the Tower of David, which was really amazing. We were so lucky because the show was sold out but last minute we decided to double check if they had any secret extra tickets or something. We found a man that had three extras and we made it into the show just in time.

On Sunday we met up with Jack and Zoeth and visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.  It was definitely sad but the museum is set up very well and I am so glad we went. While I learned about the Holocaust in many of my classes throughout middle school and high school I feel like I still managed to learn a lot of new things. Afterwards, we visited the Mahane Yehuda Market which is basically a large food market. We bought interesting juices, dried fruits, and an embarrassing number of yummy pastry things, which was a great way to cheer us all up after the museum. Then we went back to the Old City and wandered around there for awhile, buying a few souvenirs and such.

At this point we were all sooooo tired of walking but I convinced everyone that we had to hike up the Mount of Olives as well, which turned out to be a really good idea and probably one of the best parts of the day. We sort of took the less traveled path and happened upon a park that had a path winding up the mountain. While we walked the sun was setting over the Old City, which made for a really beautiful view and a few great photo opportunities.

The beautiful walkway we found

Sunset over the Old City

The Dome of the Rock (a large mosque in the Old City)

Sunset picture #2

Panorama from the Mount of Olives

On Monday we left Jerusalem and made our way to Tel Aviv. Another one of Emily’s relatives offered to drive us to Tel Aviv and he took us to meet yet another relative, his mother, along the way. She was an adorable older woman and she was so happy to see Emily. I think she had only met her once or twice before and that was a few years ago. Afterwards he took us out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants and on the way to our hostel in Tel Aviv he showed us all the important places he thought we should visit during our time there. He was really nice and it was awesome to basically have our very own tour guide.

To be continued in the Tel Aviv post…

Northern Excursion: Jerash and Ajloun

I apologize to people like my mother who have been waiting for this post for about a week and a half. I have been pretty busy with school lately because, even though this blog probably makes it seem like I just have fun and do cool stuff all the time, I actually do some homework every now and then. Imagine that.

Last tuesday AMIDEAST took us on our first official excursion outside of Amman. We visited two cities in northern Jordan called Jerash and Ajloun, both of which are famous for their beautiful ruins. The trip was really fun and incredibly exhausting.

Jerash

In Jerash we spent about two hours hiking around the Roman and Greek ruins. There were multiple temples, churches and amphitheaters to explore and climb around on, which was great but really tiring. I took lots of pictures on my camera as well as some with my friend Emily’s camera, a few of which I included for all of you. We took full advantage of all the opportunities for cheesy tourist pictures. The Jordanian sun was pretty brutal during our hike through the ruins and I definitely went home with a sunburnt face (probably because my mom wasn’t around to tell me to wear sunscreen, whoops).

The first gate we went through to enter the ancient city of Jerash

One side of the Oval Forum in Jerash

Just chilling on some columns

By the time we left Jerash, we were all starving. Luckily, AMIDEAST takes good care of us and we ate in style at a beautiful restaurant nearby. I don’t know the names of some of the foods we ate but it was all delicious. After eating as much as we possibly could, Emily and I took a serious nap on the bus ride from Jerash to Ajloun.

In Ajloun we toured an old castle that is on a big heal, which apparently was a very strategic spot back in the day. From the top of the castle we could see both Palestine and Syria. I also discovered the panorama feature on my phone’s camera, which resulted in quite a few really cool pictures that still completely failed at capturing the beauty of the view.

View #1 from Ajloun Castle

View #2

A preview of my upcoming adventures:

From October 11th to October 19th we have school off for Eid al-Adha, which is a Muslim holiday. Emily and I are headed to Israel for break, specifically Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, so I am sure I will have lots of stories to share when I come back. I’ll take lots of pictures, I promise!

Key Lime Pie!

While my adventures in the kitchen do not top my canyon adventures from yesterday, I thought they would be worth sharing. Today, my roommate, Mckenna, and I decided to make a key lime pie for our host family. Apparently Mckenna loves baking, which is great, and so this was probably just the first of many baking experiences to come. According to Mckenna, key lime pie is a relatively easy dessert to make however, it turns out that making key lime pie in Jordan is sort of difficult.

Some important ingredients such as graham crackers (for the crust) and limes were a little bit hard to acquire. Graham crackers, we discovered, are simply not available here in Jordan and so we substituted with tea biscuits, which turned out to be basically the same thing. The limes were another story. Upon entering the grocery store and finding the produce section, Mckenna and I assumed that limes would be distinguishable from other fruits as they are small and green, which most other fruits are not. We were very wrong because apparently, instead of purchasing six or seven limes, we purchased six or seven very small green oranges. We discovered this once we were at home and in the middle of the baking process, which was not ideal. Luckily there were a plethora of limes in our fridge so we used those and, just because, we used a few of the strange green oranges as well.

Key lime pie ingredients, Jordan style

Here’s a fun game, guess which ones are limes

Because pie isn’t very popular here, we had a frightening moment where we thought we may not be able to find a pan for our creation. Luckily, Dana (my host sister) pulled through and found us something similar that worked pretty well. Then there was the realization that the oven temperature was in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, and our superior intellect helped us figure that out before we put the pie in the oven.

Mckenna creating the crust

We presented the pie to our host family after it had cooled in the fridge and after we ate a super fabulous dinner. It was a success! The whole family enjoyed it and I think they are excited for us to bake for them again. And to top it all off, we watched Arabs Got Talent while eating our key lime pie. A great way to end a great weekend.

Yum yum

A Wadi Moujeb Adventure

Well, yesterday was definitely the most exciting day of the semester so far! About 20 of us AMIDEAST students went on a hiking trip at Wadi Moujeb, a beautiful canyon near the Dead Sea. It was absolutely amazing! I will give you a play-by-play, it’ll be just like you came along.

First, we took a bus from Amman to Wadi Moujeb, which was an experience in itself. There were a lot of familiar faces on the bus, as many of them were my classmates, but there were also a lot of local Jordanians and a few tourists as well. The Jordanians, who all sat in the back half of the bus, spent the majority of the ride singing, dancing and playing the drums that they brought along. This was also the first time I have been outside the city since I arrived in Jordan. The view was beautiful and driving along the Dead Sea was really cool. AMIDEAST will take us there in November so we can swim and do all the important touristy things that must be done when visiting the Dead Sea, which will be great.

Group Picture!

Once we arrived we were instructed to find a life jacket and change into whatever clothing we had brought along for the hike. My friend Emily and I wore shorts, which was somewhat scandalous here in Jordan but felt great. We then proceeded to hike up a river. For the whole hike there were very tall canyon walls on either side of us, the weather was great and the water was cool and clear. Along the way there were a few obstacles that our guide, Anas, helped us  navigate, whether that meant simply giving us moral support through verbal encouragement or literally grabbing our foot and placing it in the right spot.

Just climbing up a waterfall, nbd

Today is my classmate Jadee’s birthday and she was also along on the hike yesterday (it was sort of planned for her). So, when we arrived at the end of the hike, a cake appeared out of nowhere, which was great. Apparently Anas had ordered the cake and arranged for his coworker to hike in front of us so that the cake would beat us to our destination. She was so surprised and we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. And then we devoured the cake, it was delicious.

After playing in a waterfall for a little bit we started the hike back. The obstacles were definitely harder to navigate on the way down but we made it back, safe and sound. After the hike we all ate lunch together and went go-karting for awhile (I didn’t because go-karting terrifies me but it was fun to watch) and the bus ride back was dedicated to nap-time and listening to low-key songs on our iPods or iPhones. Overall the trip was amazing and probably one of the coolest things I have ever done!