Jerusalem

Jerusalem!! Otherwise known as J-Ru, according to one of the girls who went there. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. I absolutely loved it and I am extremely glad that I went. Okay, so let me start at the beginning:

Paula, James (a grad student from GW who is in my arabic class), and I took a bus to the border between Jordan and Israel/Palestine. The Jordanians didn't give us any trouble, but once I got to the Israeli side, they gave me a ton of trouble. Paula and James got through fine, but they kept me waiting for an extra five hours! All because I had lebanese stamps on my passport and my name sounds arab. See, I asked not to have my passport stamped because if they stamp it I won't be able to go to Lebanon or Syria without getting a new passport. They were not too happy that I asked them not to stamp it and they decided to keep me there for a few hours. It was soooo boring. The best part was talking to this cute guy from Denmark, but that only took up about an hour of the waiting period. I was questioned too during this amount of time. They asked me things like, "what do your parents do? why did you go to dubai? why are you studying arabic? do you have any family or friends in Israel? what do you plan on doing in israel?" I was, of course, polite and sweet and they ended up not stamping my passport, but it was absolutely ridiculously waiting there forever.

Instead of typing a crap load about all we did there (we left wednesday morning, july 30th and returned on saturday, august 2nd) I will just describe the pictures above, which I hope gives you a decent idea of J-Ru.

The first picture is a view from the Mount of Olives. The forefront is a Jewish graveyard and the area behind the tree, I believe, is West Jerusalem. (Jerusalem is split between West and East. East consists of Palestinians and West consists of Jews and is cleaner. Just as a side comment I liked the East more than the West :) )

The second picture is of a pizza place we ate at twice. It's located in the Old City near the Austrian Hospice. The Old City is almost a completely different city within Jerusalem. Battlements from.....I'm not sure which century, surround it and there are four different quarters contained inside: Jewish Quarter, Christian Quarter, Muslim Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter. This was my favorite part of Jerusalem, and I would love to live there. The Jewish Quarter is extremely clean; there are lots of bagel shops; and you can see lots of people wearing traditional Synagogue clothing. The Christian Quarter--I don't think there are any Christians in the Christian Quarter besides the tourists. Anyway, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located there and there are tons of Christian paraphenalia shops. The Muslin Quarter has some of the best souks/food I've ever seen. It's really cool to walk down the small streets and have people asking you to step into their shops or try their food. Then there is the Armenian Quarter. We're not really sure why the Armenians got their own quarter? It's nice, but there is no outstanding quality about it. So, the pizza place was awesome and they had the best lemon and mint drink ever. The food was relatively cheap, which made it even more attractive. The price of food in Jerusalem was ridiculous (ex. our first dinner was about $25 for just pasta and water).

The third picture is part of the inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This church is extremely old and a huge holy sight for Christians. There are about five different Christian denominations who use different parts of the church (that number may not be accurate). I believe that one of the muslim emperors opened up the church to other christian faiths (besides Catholicism) such as Romanian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox. Also, the stone where Jesus' body was prepared for burial is located there and the rock where crucifix was hung is there. This was one of my favorite places in J-Ru. (side note: James and I had some rosaries blessed be a random, visiting French priest.)

The fourth picture is of the money exchange place where Paula and I got our shekels (about 3.5 shekels per dollar and 4.9 shekels per dinar). I put a picture of it here because the guy who worked there took a fancy to Paula. The first time we met him he purposely stared at Paula to embarrass her--it was hilarious :)

The fifth picture is also from the Mount of Olives (located outside the Old City). It basically shows the entire Old City, and the gold, shiny dome is the Dome of the Rock.

The sixth picture is of the Damascus Gate, which is the largest entrance into the Old City. Our hostel was located right outside the Damascus Gate. We, unfortunately, made the mistake of looking for our hostel inside the Old City when we first arrived. It was very tiring and we got hopelessly lost inside the Old City, which is how we found the money exchange place.

The seventh picture is of the Dome of the Rock, which is located inside the Temple Mount. It was so cool. The design on the outside (we were not allowed to go in) is so intricate. According to one of the guide books, a caliph had it constructed (691 AD) because he did not want muslims to be "seduced" by the church of the holy sepulchre. So, he made the building completely different from the Church--the church is very dark and somber whereas the dome is very bright and airy.

The next picture is of the Western Wall, which is located right next to the Temple Mount. For those of you who have not heard about it, it is an extremely holy place where you can place petitions in the wall and pray there. There's more history to it, but I don't feel like typing it up.

I hope this gives you an idea about jerusalem and some of the adventures there. Please post comments/questions!

Petra

I went to Petra this past Thursday, and it was ammaaaazzzzziiinnnggg! We left right after class and rented university buses/drivers to take us there. It was a three hour drive with a few stops, but it was worth it. Petra is huge, and they are still excavating a lot of it. We walked to the Treasury, which is one of the main attractions. Then some of us decided to walk to the Monastery. Bad and good idea. It was a ridiculous walk up 950 steps after an hour and a half walk just to get to the steps. I wasn't sure I would make it to the top. When we got to the Monastery we continued to walk for another ten minutes to see "the view." (This is in quotation marks because there were many signs along the way labeling it as the "View.") The view is this beautiful high point where you can look out at the mountains and valley. Those of us who climbed to the view (myself, Paula, Brett) basically ran to return to the visitor center before the Petra at Night tour we went on.

Petra at night involved walking to the treasury in complete silence with just candles to light the way. Then we sat in front of the treasury listening to traditional bedouin music and drinking sweet tea. It was quite relaxing.

(FYI: if you go to Petra and walk around for hours, try not to carry too much with you because my bags definitely gave me bruises. Also, history fact of the day: Petra was built by the Nabataens in, I think, the first century AD.)

Video: The View

Pic 1: The Treasury (famous from Indian Jones)

Pic 2: The Monastery

Pic 3: the lanterns at Petra at night

*By popular demand I have put up, not people pictures, but places pictures.

Camping in the Desert

I went to Wadi Rum and Aqaba this weekend with the University (University of Jordan) and most of the Miami U kids who are in Jordan. It was sweeeet!!!!! It took forever for the bus drivers to get us there because they kept stopping, but it was worth it. It was ridiculously hot and there were tons of ants, but the desert was beautiful. Some people rode camels, others went rock climbing,....I fell asleep in the tent. In the evening we watched students and other tourists awkwardly dance. And we ate this delicious dinner (some of the best meals--lunch, dinner, breakfast--I've had in Jordan so far). Unfortunately, one of the bus drivers was being a bit too forward with the foreign girls, but oh well. He dragged us out onto the dance floor multiple times.

*aside: a little bit about the bus he drove- I would like to quote one of my friends from class, "It looks like a 70s porn bus." It really did too. The seats were upholestered with this ugly green and brown fabric, a carpet with tassels was hanging from the window, and, of course, there were many poles.

We drove around the desert in truck (and by "we drove" I mean we had drivers). My groups driver was sweet. He totally held down the pedal with something and stuck almost his entire body out the door. Another group had a 10 or 12 year old kid driving. One of the students has a really good picture of him. Some of the highlights of the day: watching the sunset and hearing about my friend getting proposed to by some guy she had just met. Also, it was just really cool being in the place where Lawrence of Arabic was filmed; I love that movie.

The next day we drove to Aqaba, which is a resort town along the Red Sea. Four counrties meet there: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, and Egypt. We used the facilities at the Movenpick resort, which was absolutely beautiful. I didn't really explore the city, but I did hang out at the beach and pools for most of the day. Now, I'm going to stop boring you with my writing and post some pics!

The first picture is of the tents at Wadi Rum. The second is me and a random camel we found (we actually passed wild herds of camels, as we were driving....are they called herds?). The third is of the sunset. The fourth is of, what looked like, the first train ever made. The fifth is of the hotel in Aqaba.

pics from last post

The top picture is part of the famous mosaic map in Madaba. The middle picture is an internet picture of the Palace and the bottom picture is me (of course) in the royal cemetary.

the king's palace, the american embassy, and other things...

The King's Palace! well, one of them anyway.....It was really cool. We visited Raghadan palace, which I think was the first palace built in Jordan by the king in the 1920s. They had two history teachers give us the tour and we got to go to all the state rooms and sit on couches where the King sat and where foreign dignitaries sat. There was a lot of pride and history of Jordan contained in the palace. The guides basically told us that the history/founding of Jordan is contained there. It is simply decorated except for the gifts that people have brought for the kings, which are usually made of gold. We got to see a racing cup awarded to King Hussein (King Abdullah's father) when he raced against Nixon. The palace was, of course, heavily guarded, but we did not have any problems getting in. One of the military guys was our......i know this isn't the right word, but he was basically our babysitter: rode in the bus with us, followed us from room to room, escorted us out, etc. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the palace because we were not allowed to take cameras, but I did get to take pictures in the royal burial area. The imam allowed us to take pictures and to go in without our hair covered and we even got to pray with him if we so desired. (just as a side note: everyone here loves king hussein, who basically built jordan, and his son, king abdullah II, is liked but they like king hussein better)

We also got to visit the U.S. Embassy--one of the students set up the visit for us. It wasn't quite as exciting/pretty as visiting the palace, but it was still very cool. The embassy is also heavily guarded; I had to chug a small bottle of water I accidently brought in with me, but it was cool. We didn't get to tour the embassy, but we did have the opportunity to talk with people in the public and foreign services (US Aid, Political, and Economic areas). Unfortunately I don't have any exciting stories about the embassy because we mostly just sat in a room talking to the aforementioned people. It was informative, and honestly, it was kind of nice to be in America for just a few hours. That sounds horrible, I know, but I haven't seen anything truly american (besides people) in months. I didn't think I'd miss it, but I actually kind of do. Okay, no more sappy crap. I couldn't take a camera to the embassy either so I don't have pics of it :(

So, before I go to Wadi Rum (the desert!) and Aqaba (seaside resort!) with the University this weekend I want to describe my last school trip to a city called Madaba and Mount Nebo. I think all of the Miami students, except one, and a bunch of other students from the university went on a university bus to see Mount Nebo, which is where Moses was supposed to have been given a glimpse of the Holy Land and where he is supposed to be buried. I could kind of see Jerusalem, Jericho, and the Dead sea from the mountain, but it was really hazy out so I could only make out blobs and point in the general direction of things. Unfortunately, our guide from the university didn't know anything about the history there and the site was under construction :(

Madaba is a christian/muslim town with tons of mosaics and churches. One mosaic is particularly famous because it is supposed to be one of the first maps ever made. Again, our guide stunk, but the church where the map was contained was absolutely beautiful. It's a Greek Orthodox church, St. George, and the map is actually on the floor, which is totally cool. I'm sorry I don't have more details, but it really wasn't that exciting. I will hopefully have better stories after this weekend.

Ahh! I will have to post pics another time because blogger won't let me right now, and I must go get ready for a bedouin wedding we're going to =) I'll try and get back online sunday and put up tons of pics/stories.

The Dead Sea and Jerash

The Dead Sea was amaazzzinnngg. I had so much fun (and I actually got a slight tan--yay!). It is such a strange sensation, floating in the Dead Sea. It's almost like the water is pushing against your butt whenever you try to sit or swim. It's also really awkward when you flail around. The water tastes disgusting, which is not suprising, but I thankfully didn't get any in my eyes. We (Paula, Brett, Alex, two French girls, and I) took taxis to and from the Amman Public Beach (the Dead Sea resorts are way too expensive), and we basically spent the day there. You can rent towels and eat in the restaurant (buffet style) and swim in the pools they had available. I didn't spend too much time in the actual sea, but I did spend a lot of time in the pools. The weird thing is that the water of the dead sea doesn't look that different from regular sea/ocean water. I think I was expecting to actually be able to see the salt. The sand at the bottom of the water, near the shore was interesting though because it was really hard and a white-ish color from the salt. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see the baptismal site near the dead sea, but we might make another trip to the Dead Sea before we leave.

So, this past Tuesday I went to Jerash for the Jordan Music Festival to hear Elissa, Omar Abdalat, and Georges Wassouf. It was awesome! The concert was in this roman amphitheater and it was packed with people. There were people with lebanese flags (for Elissa), Jordanian flags and signs (for Abdalat), and heart shaped pillows (for Wassouf). I kid you not, the guys had heart shaped pillows and t-shirts for Georges Wassouf (who is also Lebanese). They knew all the songs for him, which is good because I'm not sure Wassouf could remember the words to his songs. He, according to multiple sources, gets drunk before he sings. That's the only way he'll do it. They also played some Abdel Halim Hafez and Fairouz songs, which everyone knew the words to, which should be strange because those are singers/songs from the 60s and 70s. Omar Abdalat is true Jordanian (no mixed background), which made Saleh really happy. He sang a song for Palestine, which apparently ruined his career. Everything revolves around politics in Jordan (and Lebanon). Also, I've heard on the grapevine that most Jordanian singers sing about the army and different areas of Jordan, so love songs are hard to come by. By the way, nine girls out of the 11 girls who came on this trip went to the festival. Saleh and Tawfiq (one of the administrators at the University of Jordan) came with us and basically served the function of bodyguards. Whenever some guys bothered one of the girls they would be there to look mean and scare them off. Oh, I forgot to mention: Saleh got us through all the lines at the festival by saying that we were American students from the U.S. Embassy. For all of you who have never heard me talk about Saleh, he's our Arabic prof from Miami who just happens to be Jordanian.

Also, the king/his represents were at the Festival. They had special tents set up away from the main amphitheatre area, and a million guards were sitting in front of the flaps.

Random note: I love speaking in Arabic here because all the men peg me as lebanese because of the accent I have when I speak in dialect, which automatically makes me cute. And therefore gets me better service :)

The top two pictures are of the roman ruins and elissa at the Jordan Festival. The second two pictures are at the dead sea. The tents in the background of the pic with me in it are bedouin tents. Bedouins bascially puts tents wherever they want. There are some near the two major malls in Jordan. It's kind of sad because, if you think about it, all this land used to be their's to live in and now there is all this commercial stuff.

I hope this is enough writing/pics for now. Next time I'll talk about our visit to the palace :)

jordan pics

Since I'm running out of time to post (Gloria Jeans closes at 12am and I still have homework--ahh!) I'm just going to put up pics, but I have plenty to write about because we visited the Dead Sea this past weekend.