Israeli raid on aid ship to Gaza

A deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla headed to Gaza caused uproar in the Middle East and the world today. Currently, in our hotel room, I'm watching the Turkish Foreign Minister speak at an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting. Protests and riots have broken out, primarily in Turkey and Palestine, and also Jordan. We received a travel alert, but the protests are mostly in Amman. I haven't seen any in Irbid yet. I've been watching AlJazeera all day, and reading U.S. newspapers and Web sites, and the difference is astounding. I first saw news about the attack at 6AM my time. I was talking to Jimmy, who couldn't find anything about it. The New York Times still only has one story online, and it tells Israel's side for the entire first page. Meanwhile, on AlJazeera they've been interviewing a variety of government officials, protesters and commentators from all sides of the story––Israel, Gaza, Turkey, United States, France, London, etc. This is not a light issue. Turkey has said relations with Israel could be irreparable after this, and Jordan and Egypt, two Arab countries who actually have peace treaties with Israel, are protesting the behavior and considering consequences. Israel attacked on international waters, and up to 19 people have been killed and dozens more injured. The pictures, audio clips and videos on AlJazeera are also much more graphic and telling than anything you would see on the news at home. Lucky for me, I'm learning Arabic and Farsi, and from what I've seen AJE is fond of blonde reporters. :)

Jordan

Look at all the pictures!!

Wait...We came here for classes?

If I could go boating on the Red Sea every day, I would never come home. We left class early Wednesday for our weekend excursion to Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba. It was a long five hour bus ride to Petra, but when we arrived we realized we were staying at the Crowne Plaza resort, which was amazing. Never have I appreciated a real shower with actual warm running water so much. (Our shower in Irbid is touchy, to say the least). We were free until the morning, so the four of us from UW-Madison gathered around the hotel bar for way overpriced Amstel, (the only thing they brew here), in honor of all of you at home drinking at the terrace. Thursday morning we woke up at 5:45 to hike through Petra before it got too hot. It was mind blowing...an entire city completely carved out of rock. We wandered through caves, climbed rocks, saw the treasury and monastery, then ventured up the mountain of carved stairs to the highest point. 1,000 steps later, (literally), we reached the top, and it was worth the sweat, sore feet and Bedouin women begging us to buy souvenirs. The view was "stupendous!" as the retired couple from Toronto we met kept saying. I tried keeping the beautiful sight in my mind as we trudged the two hours back, but in the desert heat it was hard. I don't think I've ever been so exhausted. The people just starting out as we got back at noon probably got heat stroke.
Trading our resort for tents that night at Wadi Rum was not a good deal. Canvas is suffocating. On a typical night, or basically any night except the one we were there, Wadi Rum is one of the most beautiful places on earth, especially at night. Lawrence of Arabia owned the land and was known to come and lay in the mountains and sand dunes and look at the stars to help him think. Unfortunately, we came on what everyone told us was the first night of bad weather in months–cloudy and dusty. We were entertained by traditional Bedouin dances, but rushed to the bus early Friday morning to get to Aqaba and the beach!!
Beach towns are beach towns, whether in Delaware or Jordan. Little kids running around with ice cream, touristy shops with cheap jewelry and sundresses....but only in Aqaba is it not safe to wear your bikini until you're far from shore. We ran onto the boat, free from linen pants and scarves and excited to finally get tan! As we sailed along, Jordan on our left, Egypt on our right, Israel behind us, we couldn't get over the fact that we could actually see and were so close to three countries at once. After the sun got too hot to stand, we jumped in for snorkeling. The water was SO blue. We floated around coral and held a puffer fish, which was surprisingly cute. For the next few hours we ate fish, drank, had a dance party and did everything in our power to keep the day from ending. Taking advantage of the one city we could wear dresses in, the seven girls on the trip went shopping and met back at the dorms for a night out downtown. It started out rough, as we were surrounded by little boys with knives who wanted our wallets, and got even more interesting as fellow classmates decided to make complete idiots of themselves and turn the rest of us against them, (more on that when I can tell it in person), but turned out to be a lot of fun. We ended up at a bar called F.R.I.E.N.D.S, yes, named after the tv show and right next to a McDonald's, (not surprising). Mike, Cassidy, Brianna and I explored at least six other locations, but a hilarious cab ride, (the driver wanted to marry Cassidy and have five kids) and a gold plated elevator, (haha), later we made it back.
Now, it's Sunday and week two of classes, which I actually really like. If only we could get past the alphabet! Brianna and I are at our favorite cafe again, and our google translate friend just brought us free ice cream for the second time. Yum :) I think we'll make this a weekly thing. It's extremely hot outside, and wearing long pants is killing me, but we get enough looks as it is I wouldn't dare wear anything else. It's been a very fun, very busy first week. We've done so much I feel like it has been much longer. I can't wait for future adventures, but I miss everyone at home! Happy Memorial Day...eat a Bratfest brat for me :)

Amman!

Tuesday was Jordan's Independence Day, so school was cancelled and a few of us decided to take a bus to Amman, the capitol. The city is huge, and really crowded. It's built into mountains so the roads are kind of scary, but make the city look really cool. Mom, if you thought the cab drivers in New York were insane, don't ever come here you might die. Amman is a really interesting city though. In some areas it's crowded and dirty, then on the far west side is the palace and really nice areas, and downtown is a mix of that plus ancient Roman history. We went to Citadel Hill, (Jabal al-Qal'a), home to the temple of Hercules. The Umayyad palace/mosque there is beautiful, and there are remnants of statues and buildings across the hill. Amman is situated on seven hills, resembling Rome, and behind Citadel Hill is a huge amphitheater used by the Romans. It was thought to be built between 138 and 161 AD by the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, and can fit 6,000 spectators. We climbed to the top–so scary! The steps were extremely steep and slippery from hundreds of years of use. I almost couldn't come back down, and Brianna and Jaimie and I had to sit on each step and scoot down like little kids we were so afraid of falling. We went to a restaurant for lunch that had all you can eat for 1 dinar...the tables were outside under an awning and they just kept bringing bowls of hummus, beans, vegetables, falafal and pita bread. Hummus in the U.S. is never going to satisfy me after this. We tried to visit a historical Byzantine church, now an art museum, but it was closed. An employee of the museum happened to be doing maintenance though, and let us in anyway, then brought us fresh squeezed lemonade, (which is why, as Brianna says, "you should only travel with pretty people)". The rest of the day was spent shopping, (Robert and Rick I got you presents!), and taking the bus home. We met some people on the bus who taught us much needed Arabic words in exchange for English sayings.
The day wouldn't be complete though, without a dramatic, language barrier incident, and that's where buying a hair dryer comes in. Brianna and I made a trip to the mall with Jay, (he came along only for food), because the heat is making my hair do crazy things and the dryer I brought doesn't work with my converter. It was a disastrous first week without it. We finally found hair dryers in a grocery store, (grocery stores here sell everything), but there was only the display, none on the shelf. I tried to ask, but was unsuccessful, and soon a group of women with babies were trying to help me and give me a stereo. "Phillips! Phillips is what you want!" NO, I want this Sizzler hair dryer do you not see the lion mane on my head? Next thing we knew there were three employees trying to figure out what I wanted, and after much difficulty they gave me the hair dryer on the shelf. We headed to the cash register, but one employee insisted we follow him to one side of the store, where he proceeded to plug in the dryer and wave it around to demonstrate its drying abilities. We couldn't stop laughing, and then neither could he, and soon the entire store had gathered around us. The ironic part is, as we waited in line at the register, we saw an entire crate of the exact same hair dryer waiting to be stocked.
Anyway, I'm getting used to things being insanely cheap. We usually eat for less than 1 dinar, and anything over 5 seems ridiculously overpriced. I'm going to come back stingy and cheap....Jamsheed you might have to force me to spend money in NYC, the most expensive, opposite place we could go after this.

Catching Up

We're here! After weeks of packing, panicking, phone calls and emails, running about a thousand errands and a long day of travel, we arrived in Irbid, Jordan. The city is way different than expected. In some ways very modern, in others not so much. Everyone is extremely friendly though, which is good, as Brianna and I don't know any Arabic and rely on our smiles and pointing to get us directions and tea.

The Alphamia hotel, our home for the next six weeks, is also nicer than expected. The one review Brianna found said it was a one-star hotel, so we were a little worried, but it's pretty much your standard hotel, but with a cafe downstairs for tea instead of a bar, a slightly cold shower with bad water pressure, cute little seating areas, gold accents everywhere, old fashioned steps, decorative rugs and a much friendlier staff than most hotels in the U.S.

Backing up: Our first flight took off Friday evening from Chicago, and we arrived in London at 8:30 am their time. We had five hours until the flight to Amman, so we took the underground downtown, (about 45 minutes), and spent the next hour and a half on a whirlwind tour of the city. We saw Big Ben/Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace, then ran back to the subway to catch our flight, (we were so proud of ourselves for figuring it out!). I loved all of the houses we sped by, little brick things with gardens, and I'm even more in love with English accents. We debated whether they find our accents as charming as we find theirs, but decided definitely not. An airport security guy tricked us and said our flight to Jordan was cancelled, and too bad we would have to stay with him. We momentarily panicked, and he was scolded for flirting with Americans and neglecting his work.

When we finally made it to Amman around 11 pm we were exhausted, but customs and currency exchange and everything went quickly. Sunday was orientation, which consisted of a bus tour of Irbid, (the city we're studying in), and the University. We stopped at two museums, neither one too impressive. They reminded me of the rock shows I used to put on with Emily Schreiber in my bedroom, where we would set things on paper, write the scientific name, and force our parents to pay to see it. There were Persian squirrels, (the only difference I could find was they were skinnier than Wisconsin squirrels), some shells, insects, and a jungle cat with an expression like it was about to get shot–which maybe it was. It was hilarious though, and someone has a picture so expect to see it soon.

Irbid is known for their desserts, (my favorite thing!), especially Cannafa, a cheesy, sugary, syrupy concoction, so we stopped for some of that as well. We had a welcome lunch at the University of Yarmouk, and took a placement test. Or, for half of us, wrote our names down, didn't know anything else, and left to go to a cafe with students at Yarmouk. We ended up going to a really good restaurant for mensaf, the national dish of Jordan. It's served on a giant platter for the whole table, and is rice with fried almonds, lamb, and a yogurt oil sauce with some other flavor I can't describe. It was delicious–and so filling. All of the food here so far is amazing, and that paired with the famous baked goods is trouble for us. Brianna and I were planning on working out a few times a week, but so far that's not going well, and we were told most of the gyms are for men only. We're almost to the point of doing workout videos in our hotel room, (she might kill me for putting that online), but at least we walk around the city a lot. After dinner last night we went to another cafe, (that's the main entertainment here), and then ANOTHER one, then finally got calling cards and phones and went to sleep.

Today, Monday, was our first day of class. Very easy, but I'm sure next week will get much harder. We learned the alphabet, sounds, and a little bit of reading. I already know all of it from Persian class, so it was a little boring, but after the first week we're supposed to finish learning to read and write, and start speaking, then I'll know nothing. We have class Sunday through Thursday from 8:30 to 2:30, so we have time to go through a lot. Tomorrow is Jordan's Independence Day, so we have off, and Wednesday through the weekend we're going to Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba. Exciting!

This is a really funny story: Right now, Brianna and I are at a cafe using the internet, (it's nice you just sit on couches and they bring you water–bottled–and wait on you), and we didn't really know how to ask for the password so there was a lot of pointing. Then we asked for tea, we thought, and when the guy working asked what kind we told him to surprise us. So someone came back with a Hookah–not what we asked for at all. We tried explaining, but it turned into a lot of confusion on both sides. Eventually, we kept the Hookah, but also got our tea and coffee. Next, about 30 seconds ago, he came back to see how things were going, and tried to ask if we speak Arabic. We told him it was our first day of class, but it wasn't coming across right at all. He asked if we liked America, but that was the only successful question/answer. Everything else either side tried to say was met with blank stares. Brianna kept trying to tell him we would come back when we knew more and would talk to him, and he was trying so hard to understand and turning so red, and I think also thought we were crazy, so I went on google translate and typed everything we were trying say and he read the arabic version. He burst out laughing...so did we, and then said Ohhh ok he is excited for our return. It was awkward, but really funny, and as Brianna said, would of course only happen to us. Thank god for technology I guess. Also, they really like American slogans and music here–a lot of shirts with weird American pictures and sayings, A LOT of Enrique Iglesias, (we've literally heard Hero four times in the last 20 minutes), pictures of Shakira, and even a McDonuts.

What else.... The call to prayer is really loud...There's a very strange kid in our group who just graduated high school, (actually missed his graduation to come), who I have many funny stories about, two other students from UW-Madison, one who happens to live in the same apartment building as me and only one floor up....The boys remind me of Jimmy with their tight v-neck shirts, gelled hair, cocky walk and winks, (I'm sure he'll love that haha). I think that's it for now. Hopefully the next posts won't be so long!