Amman rain, you can't hold me down.

Before I begin, look at this photo!!:



I know, pretty a-m-a-z-i-n-g. My friend Liz Hann took it from a distance...and it was not planned. Making it all the more wonderful...but I know what you are asking (besides, how am I so lucky to know this girl?), where am I?

My friends, I am at the Citadel in Amman, Jordan. This is the highest point of the city and located here are the remnants of the old cities that came before Amman. Amman dates all the way back to 3500 BC. Most notable city is Philadelphia, founded by Romans and occupied later on by Muslim dynasties. Around this sight you find the skeletons of an old mosque, including a old Turkish bath. In addition you find a Byzantine basilica, and athe temple of Hercules. Unfortunately, it was not a very well labeled area so I could barely tell what was what.

Within this lovely sight you find an Archaeology museum. And being a gigantic nerd, I adored it. We all did really. Within this sight, you find the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest statues in the world, a baby skeleton, and tools dating back to the Paleolithic period. We saw all of this for only 1JD.

This is not the oldest statue in the world. But it is still cool.



Despite the rain, we moved on to the old Roman amphitheater. It is pretty impressive. Then again, it is only the second amphitheater I have seen. From this sight, we moved on to see two museums which were more humble, but still nice. They displayed some scenes of Bedouin life and crafts. We saw some traditional dresses, ect. Also, we saw a mansaf dish.

What is mansaf? Here is a good description.

It is delicious, but made me a bit sick. This is also only one type of mansaf. It is usually all mixed together. But at the restaurant we ate, Jerusalem Restaurant, the meat was placed on top of the rice and you could put as much yogurt as you wished.

ok! I feel guilty for not posting recently, so I will write some more in the near future. Please note that you can access my second Facebook album, which shows more pictures of my weekend.

Right now, I am having trouble loading pictures. So you will have to enjoy the facebook album.

Salam,

Liz

Insert Witty Title about Petra Here

I have been dragging my feet in terms of writing this new blog entry. I apologize. A lot has been going on, so it is hard to find time. Especially with such a nice rock to lean on....


Where am I in this photo? As some of you already known, it is Petra, "The Rose City"....a famous Nabataean ruin in Jordan. It is referred to in the Bible as Sela, and more importantly, has been in an Indian Jones movie as well as in the Transformers movie. I will not go into the history of Petra, because the lord created the Internet for that purpose. The main things you need to know are:

1. This city is over 1000 years old and is a World Heritage Sight. Thus making it the main source of tourism for Jordan.
2. It was lost to the western world until 1812 (Every Bedouin person in the area knew where it was, naturally)
3. They carved everything out of rock.
4. They had a sophisticated aqueduct system, in addition to being innovative in every way. Such as cultivating huge apple tree fields. In the middle of a desert. Apple trees, in a desert!
5. They spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his pals.
6. The Romans conquered this ancient civilization, like how they conquered most everything.
7. An earthquake destroyed a lot of the buildings that used to be there.
8. As a center of trade, this society was influenced in terms of religion by surrounding cultures
9. They made the best frankincense you have ever seen/smelt
10. Many Bedouin people will claim that they have lineage connecting them to these ancient peoples

Alright! I hear some of you snoozing there, so I will leave the rest of the research up to you. It was a bit of a sad trip, because people in this area are very poor and survive on tourism. But the tourism also inflicts a lot of damage on the sight. Plus, a lot of the animals there are not treated very well. Otherwise, I very much enjoyed myself, sans the sand in my shoes.

BUT ONWARD to the photos you are all dying to see. I am only picking a few. Please visit my Facebook album, located on the left side of the screen, because that is where the real action is at. You also will see pictures of a crusader fort that we saw as well.

This is a monastery. I climbed about an hour to get here.

This is from "Little Petra"-the industrial/trade center This is what is known as "a treasury". However, archaeologist now doubt that it was used for such. Rather, it is now considered a tomb. And indeed, I saw the tombs underneath. A spectacular view

Pretty cool right? I will sign off for now. I have a few adventures planned for this weekend, but we shall see what actually happens in terms of blogging. Maybe they won't be interesting.

Anything you want to hear about?

Salam,
Liz

Hijab 101

Hello everyone,

My post today will not be too bouncy or descriptive, because here in Amman, my house has experienced a lose. Our dear rabbit, Humza, died this morning from complications of being a rabbit from a market (aka, unknown disease.) He went as most of us would want to go, quite quickly. It was a sad day. So, I don't want to reflect on much of it.

SO! To change the topic, lets talk about Hijaab. I have gotten a lot of questions about this. You have probably asked me it (which is cool! I love questions!) They usually are:
1. Do you wear a hijab?/Do you have to?
2. Do women wear them mostly?
3. Do you have to wear a burka?

To help you all see what I see, here are some terms. Click on the terms to access the photo. I did not take them, because it isn't very polite for a relatively immodest girl from America to take a picture of a Muslim women. Among other reasons. This is just a basic, VISUAL overview. I will not go into the reasons for the Hijaab, just their styles.

Hijaab:
Here is a photo of what a Hijaab is...they are sold everywhere. Women wear them with real style here, let me tell you. When you hear the word, think of this.

Burka:
This is an Afghani burka. I have only seen about one of these. There are usually not slits for hands.

Niqaab:
This garment covers the entire head and has a slit for the eyes.

"Half" Niqaab: (sorry, this picture relates to the controversy in France, but is the best visual)
This handkerchief reveals more of the face, falling just below the nose.

Abaya:
An all encompassing garment, which is very traditional.

Bushiya:
This garment covers the entire face, there is no eyeslit present. They are entirely covered and usually wear gloves.

Chador:
Also covers all of the body, usually swings around in a circle like fashion. Think Nun sort of.

By no means are these all of the styles of head scarf. Every culture, region, and religious sect has their own ways. I already know that not seeing these women when I'm in the United States, will be very strange for me.

As of right now, it is hard to not look when you see a Burka or Bushiya. Mostly, because you don't know how to see.

Last of all, please note on the side of the blog how to get to my Facebook album!

Best,
Liz

City Living

A7lan,

The time has come to tell you all about my shuk-ka, or apartment/flat. To be honest, we live in a house. The top floor is our landlord, which is a man named Imad and his wife Ismeyhah. (They are Canadian citizens, actually). They built the house in the 70's for their children and Imad's mother. They each got a floor, leaving three floors total. When everyone moved out ( or died in his mother's case), the two floors were open for rent. CIEE contacted them and now CIEE students stay in these fully furnished apartments, which are really quite large, with kitchen, bathroom and other amenities.

Here are a few photos of our apartment. As you can see, quite nice! Our kitchen--where a lot of cooking has taken place.

Our two living rooms.

My room.

A nice view! We have a lemon tree.

Our landlords are not really our landlords-they are our parents. Only women stay in the rented apartment and they consider us their daughters. They control the gas and water so we don't exceed the CIEE limit. Also, on our first evening, Ismeyhah prepared us a gigantic meal of at least six different dishes: three whole chickens, herbed; a Libyan dish with fish; Tabouleh-a dish with parsley; tomatoe and cucumber salad; double friend chicken (much better than KFC); and a giant rice and meat dish. All of it was zakee zakee (delicious!)

We are also welcome to have tea or coffee with them. Ismeyhah has taken us on several errands and was kind to buy us some delicious falafel sandwiches. She speaks very good English and is spiritual, but mostly secular. Imad is completely and utterly secular. "Look to Science!" he says.

Imad mostly sits in his robe and sweaters, smoking cigarette after cigarette, and tinkers with devices. As a retired engineer, he gets very bored and therefore takes a part everything. He told us his last tenants did not break anything, and he was disappointed. As we have already broken a few things, I think he is pleased. Also, he is an animal lover...so when my flat mate from the floor above bought a bunny, he was pleased. Currently, he is building a cage.

Imad will certainly provide many funny stories. He is very ridiculous, as well as very kind. They both are very generous and I hope to find time to sit with them more often. It will be hard though, because so far my Arabic class has proved very challenging.

We live in a very nice neighborhood. We are next to several embassies-including the Israeli embassy. I promise you, there are many guards and I do not see many hoodlums about...just street cats, who for the most part just want more garbage to rut through. As much as I would like to save one of these furry felines, I do not know how to go about it

To end this obscenely long post, I will tell you the story of the bunny, named Humza, an Arabic letter which is impossible to predict and hard to pronounce.

After we went to downtown Amman, the old part of the city, we wound up in a Sooq (a market) that snaked throughout the streets. The smell of fish and the sight of sheep heads almost made you faint, but the smell of soap and herbs kept you stable. Old clothes and fresh oranges sat beside each other. Once we got outside the central part of this maze, we arrived in front of an old woman with several boxes of rabbits (I mean, household rabbits--not street rabbits), some chickens in a closed box, and a rooster with one leg tied to the rabbit box (so, he stood there with one leg.) Oh, and did I mention the turtles? It was a sad sight to see, hazeen katteer. A few guys from the program joked with my friend Anam to buy one--for 3 JOD (that is about 5 bucks). The woman looked at us and began tossing the rabbits around in different boxes-trying to find the best one. Needless to say, Anam bought the rabbit...which was put in a bag with some straw and handed over. Now, 3 JD is a pretty penny-it could get you a good lunch for certain.

Anam carried the rabbit everywhere, including the cab and in a cafe. Everyone loved the rabbit, even the waiters. The chefs sent out carrots and people came to take photos. I'm sure he did not like the smoke-but such is life as a rabbit from the Sooq. Our landlord loved the rabbit, we gave Humza a wash and put him in an old dog carrier with some food. He has been in bit of a shock the past few days, but for the most part, he is content. People say he is for eating (no Arab person has said that), but I don't see how that is possible. He is maybe .5 pound.

Ya Haram! How long this post is, I apologize. This is what happens when I put of posting. Amy asked me to post about food, so I hope that last mention was good. Right now, I have been cooking for myself-nothing too exceptional, but fun. At orientation we ate off banquets, not really all that interesting.

Salaam! Please post! love to hear from you all.

p.s. I found a ladies only gym! All the hijaabs come off.