وادي رم Wadi Rum

In Arabic, Wadi means Valley and, the interwebz says that Rum is Aramaic for elevated.
Wadi Rum is the biggest valley in Jordan. It's in the southern part of the country, and most people know about it becasue it's where Brit. Commander T.E. Lawrence led the Arab Armies in the Arab Revolt against the Otto. Empire in 1917-1918. Apparently it was one of T.E. Lawrence's favorite places in the world. I don't blame him. it's insanely beautiful...

The site is featured in The Transformers, Lawrence of Arabia. Apparently in Red Planet, Wadi Rum was the surface of the moon.


Our program took us on a 3 hour camel ride through the valley. we slept in tents at a bedouin camp, and in the morning we took jeeps back across the desert. enjoy these pics


Here is a panorama picture that I stole from the internet, because none of my pictures are very good. There were no clouds when i was there, and at night the stars were absolutely amazing. like better than in Yankton. (click on this pic to make it big)


This is a Picture of Some of the Rock Formations...
(note: the area with these formations in 720 sq. km...which is about 450 square miles...it was a really long camel ride...we took a lot of breaks to climb the granite/sandstone rock formations. they were really easy to climb and the views were phenomenal.



This is the tent that I stayed in. My roommate was a girl from Macalester, Kaitlin Roh. I hadn't talked to her in a while so it was nice to catch up.
Also..this place was like a "bedouin camp" it's a really touristy place, but the Bedouin inhabit Wadi Rum and tourism is their primary source of income



The sunset at Wadi Rum. Beautiful!



Sand with camel footprints.
walking in the sand felt amazing. it was so soft.


This is my camel...i called him Paul. I named him after the the protagonist in the movie/film Dune, because Wadi Rum sort of looks like what i imagine Arrakis would look like. it was also really hot and i wanted water all the time...which happens in Dune. the cool kids made fun of me when i explained that if we walked in rhythmic patterns the sand-worms would come after us, but i had a lot of fun pretending i was on Arrakis.




A bunch of the guys during one of our breaks...we went back through wadi rum in the back of these trucks...it was crazy. there aren't exactly roads in the middle of the desert, and being in the back of trucks for 4 hours was kind of crazy. these guys look pretty happy though.



Here is a piture of me and my friends. we look happy here, but after four hours, we all kind of looked like hell.

جبل القلعة Amman Citadel

A while ago, after class I went to the Amman Citadel with some of my friends. it actually took us like half an hour to find a cab driver who knew where we wanted to go because none of us knew how to say citadel in Arabic. At any rate, the Amman Citadel is beautiful. We spent hours wondering around the amazing ruins and enjoying the breathtaking views from the top of the fortification walls.


some ruins and amman in the background


view of amman complete with roman amphitheater.

temple of hercules

again

the sign. now i know how to say citadel in arabic!

Ummayad Mosque

Byzantine Church

delicious food.

sorry that i haven't posted in so long. i've been busy with school, and i haven't had much time, but here i'll try to get updated, because i know that you are all dying to know what i'm up to.


This is what my aunt made me for dinner one night when i stayed with her. i was so excited. it's absolutely delicious. they are stuffed grape leaves! it's one of my favorite foods, but i don't eat it very often because it takes a long time to make. it was so amazing, and i even got the leftovers!

alright, i have to go though. i'm going to meet two of my friends at a restaurant called Hashim by my house. it's one of the most famous restaurants in amman. they have delicious falafel, hummus, foul, and tea. it's amazing and super cheap. me and my roommates find ourselves at hashim's often after a night out.
aight, i have to go, but i'll do a post about hashim sometime. i swear i won't turn this into a food blog, but just know that the food here rules, and is really vegan friendly!

poisoned

ahh, i think i've been poisoned. i don't know what i ate, but i feel terrible. my roommate, and a whole bunch of other people on my program are sick too...i think our program fed us something toxic. anyway, for some reason i went to class today...it was terrible. i've spent the rest of the day skyping laura and laying in bed. :( I feel awful...kind of like this bear.
Hope I'm better by tomorrow!!!
in the meantime, sick-jamila would appreciate calls from america more today than on most dayz.

getting medz.

Okay, so getting medicine today was quite an insane experience. First, I tried to go to a couple pharmacies to ask them for some medz, but they told me i needed a prescription...I enlisted the aid of of Ummo (uncle) Rashad who met me at the University of Jordan at noon. We walked to Al-Isra' hospital where I spoke to a woman who told me she couldn't give me a prescription, but she knew a guy who could. we took a cab to this office building to meet this guy, but he wasn't there. We were told he would be back between 4 and 6. we didn't want to wait around for 4 hours so we left and had coffee at the city mall and went to a pharmacy. The pharmacy people told us to go to istishari hospital because they have the medicine. we went there and they directed us to another hospital in Shmeisani. I was exhausted by the time we got to this hospital, and then some doctor guy told me they didn't have these drugs in jordan at all...and i was like...are you kidding me? i've been running around this city all day, and now you telling me you don't have the medicine i need. i was so annoyed...i felt like i was on a really lame scavenger hunt. ugh, that guy sucked, but my Ummo Rashad was not about to give up. He opened some sort of secret door at the hospital where these two guys were chilling smoking cigarettes. apparently my uncle knew one of the guys so we chilled there for a while and my uncle filled him in on my situation. my uncle told me he has friends like this at all the hospitals. this guy spoke english which was nice. he made some phone calls and it seemed like i was going to be able to get my medicine, even though the other doctor told me they didn't have it in Jordan. i gave this guy my insurance card...and he looked at me like i was an idiot...and he's like no. you don't need this. go outside and there is a building and on the second floor is dr. mahmoud abu someone, and he will give you the recipe...and i was like okay this sounds super sketchy, but whatevs. give me the recipe...anyway, i roll over to this guy's "office" and chat with him for a while. he was pretty cool. he didn't really ask me much about medical issues, he randomly asked me if i was depressed. and i was like. no?...anyway, he gave me a prescription and it was marked like "special" and "danger" ahahah. which i thought was hilarious. i took it to the pharmacy...and 6 hours after my journey started, i had my medicine! i really wish i would have taken a pic of my prescription before i filled it because the guy at the pharmacy wouldn't give it back to me, and it was really funny. oh well. The Dr. gave me his cell phone number, and he was like, "call me if you need anything." if i get anything else, I will take a picture. anyway, after that i got coffee with my uncle again. overall, crazy exhausting, hilarious day. my ummo rashad is great. he's the bomb, like tick tick.

Figs for the road تين

So...I recently found out that I have a new set of local followers so I need to be more cautious about what I say...ha.

at any rate, Amman is a really chill city. everyone loves to hang and people are really relaxed here. generally, people are really calm and way less stressed out than Americans. Everyone seems disinterested in time and efficiency. it's really great, although, if you are in a hurry, you are probably screwed. for example, it took me 6 hours to get my medicine today...

When I got my phone here, it took me like an hour to figure out the cell phone logistics with my dad translating everything for me, but my aunt and uncle were annoyed that I was sorry for making them wait...my uncle told me...time is no problem in Jordan.
Also, if you walk quickly here people think you're weird...or they know you are a foreigner.
At restaurants, people hang out...the bill doesn't arrive as soon as you finish eating...the waiter doesn't necessarily come to your table immediately...you don't feel like you are being kicked out of a restaurant when you finish your food...

When my aunt and uncle were dropping me off in Amman, our trip took 3 hours, because we just hung out the whole trip. Its only like a 50 mile drive, but we stopped about every ten miles to chill...We made so many new friends along the way, and my family didn't seem in any rush to get me to Amman or to get back home. Along the highways in Jordan, there are a lot of people selling things. fruit, vegetables, tissues, decorations, jewelry, sim cards...most things. we stopped once to get juice... later we stopped to get some figs...figs make an excellent snack for the road. Here are some pictures of the fig experience.


here is the fig stand on the side of the highway. that guy was really nice!


delicious!

oh the exception to being super chill is when people drive. everyone honks all the time. it's ridiculous. it works though. i'm a little scared when i get into cars, but i'm starting to get used to it.

البحر الميت -Dead Sea

So this post is long overdue, but I've been busy catching up...On our first day of orientation we went to the dead sea and listened to some really long lectures about Jordan...typical orientation stuff...long and boring. it was really overwhelming because no one knew anyone. it was basically exactly like the first day of college orientation except instead of just what's your name/where are you from...we asked what's your name?/where are you from?/where do you go to school?/and what do you study?....Too many questions...I never remember anything about anyone...Anywya. I ended up having a lot of fun. I met some really cool people.. we got to swim in the dead sea and hang out at a really fancy hotel all day.
Enjoy these pics!


here's the dead sea. i'm on the jordan side...across the sea is the West Bank. It was beautiful at night!


Here is a picture of the chilling that took place after we swam in the dead sea.


This is a picture of a part of the dead sea spa hotel.

And, here is a picture of Anneka, Mara at the hotel. i can't remember that guys name... i have a feeling it's either gary or dave.