pvd to amm

junior girl at georgetown university, from providence, rhode island, off to study abroad in amman, jordan for the fall semester. photos, videos, and stories from an adventure in the middle east!

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four days

four days to go? it's hard to believe that this semester is so quickly coming to a close. though i'm looking forward to traveling home, there are going to be some serious post-big-event blues to contend with.

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some of kat's photos from jerusalem. details of our trip to follow!

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birthday

luckily at least one of us five girls had a birthday during this semester. last night, we celebrated the birthday of julia, one of my housemates, as well as the seventy-fifth of our host-grandpa/landlord, imaad. 

esmahan encouraged us each to invite a friend for the party, meaning that there would be at least twelve of us at the dinner... so enough food for twenty. little did we know, esmahan and imaad had also invited a bunch of their nieces, our program director, her husband and their two sons, as well as the resident director. very much a real dinner party.

it was amazing. and it cured my sadness at missing a real-thanksgiving feast (the one in the UJ cafeteria didn't exactly feel like home, though i must admit, those mashed potatoes were pretty good). after some arabizi (a weird back and forth mix of arabic and english) and a not-declinable offer of arak, we headed into the salon to fill up our plates with esmahan's spectacular cooking. the usual suspects were there - cardomom-pea-rice, baked chicken, tabbouleh - with some new ones, including spleen. though i can't say i was brave enough to try it, i heard it was... chewy.

after all heading back for seconds, were were joined at our "kids' table" by our program director's son - a completely-wired six year old named sammy. after punching and jumping on our guy friends' for a good fifteen minutes, in between howls of laughter and laps through the entire apartment, the boys fired back, with all of the tricks we used to have played on us. remember when your dad used to pretend to pull his thumb apart? 

after trying to re-order to living room post-hurricane-sammy - a few lamps were knocked over, and all of the dozens of pillows were scattered across the floor - we were called back into the main salon, where the adults were enjoying their grown-up meal. we sang happy birthday to both julia and imaad, first in english and then in arabic, and then enjoyed our choice of homemade cinnamon-cake, a chocolate mousse cake, and a cherry cheesecake. the end to a fantastic meal that really felt like home.

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istanbul, how i miss you.

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a few more of kat's photos from istanbul. these are from the grand bazaar - a bazaar in istanbul's old city district. there are over five thousand shops in the winding alleys. spectacular.

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restlessness

four weeks to go, and as much as i am trying to focus on being here and taking in my surroundings, i'm having the most impossible time trying to concentrate. with america around the corner, i'm slipping back into my old mindset.

to illustrate: today, i'm standing in line at our usual falafel place to ask for our usual order of hummus, pita and falafel in a bowl. i'm waiting patiently behind a group of americans in our same program. finally, after they order and receive their (incredible) falafel sandwiches, i reach the front of the line. ready to step up to the counter, i inch forward, only to have two jordanian men beeline from outside, to right in front of me, demanding service. why do they do this? first, i am a girl. second, i'm a foreigner. 

while a few weeks ago i would have smiled to myself and thought "ridiculous!" now my american i-stood-in-line-and-there-should-be-a-system-for-this frustration is surfacing. and the fact that i am completely helpless to demand an answer for why they cut the line, or why they hiss at me or stare shamelessly, bothers me again. the numbness that i had worked so hard to attain is faltering, and the frustration that i felt so acutely in september are coming back. not sure if i'm simply running out of patience? or starting to refocus on things back in america (internships... registering for classes... parts of my life in georgetown are starting to come back slowly but surely) and the norms in america?

today we took a survey for a UJ student about our experience studying abroad. the questions focused on the effectiveness of study abroad in creating cross-cultural understanding and promoting exchange of ideas and customs. while answering the questions, i wonder how exactly this experience, especially when i look back on it in january, or next july, or in ten years, will affect me: my goals, my career aspirations, my desire to return to this part of the world. only time will tell.

for now, we're planning a few more trips to break up the last few weeks and keep our heads in jordan, or atleast in the middle east. tel aviv or cairo?

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the Istanbul sights

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views of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea

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emily, julia and me post-fish sandwich, one of istanbul's most famous traditions.

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turkish delight

last night we returned from our nine day trip to istanbul. by leaps and bounds, this was the most spectacular trip i have taken. ever. 

the two hour flight home was rough. after what was such a fantastic week, i had the sinking feeling that coming back to amman was going to be tough. though our break came at just the right time, right before total burn-out, it also set me back in keeping up a this-is-my-real-life routine here in jordan. the week is istanbul, though school- and work-free, seemed closer to reality that how it sometimes feels in amman. if that makes sense? 

we did everything. each day we got up early for breakfast at the hotel (which was situated right at the end of the hippodrome, a park in the city with monuments, that sits next to the aya sofya and the blue mosque, two of istanbul's most famous sights), went off for the day to see the city, returned to meet up for dinner, and headed out for the night. 

the highlights:

- topkapi palace. we visited a real harem - the place where all of the concubines were kept for the ottoman sultans. i have never seen such beautiful tiling. deep blue and turquoise elaborately painted tiles lined all of the walls. it was absolutely stunning... i considered attempting to steal a tile from the sultan's bedroom. may not have gone over well with the turkish police, but probably would have been worth it. 

- a ferry cruise up the bosphorous. istanbul sits between europe and asia. between the european sides is the golden horn, and separating the european and asian sides is the bosphorous, which connects the sea of marmara with the black sea. sitting outside in the biting cold on the top of this ferry was perfect. bundled up, we took turns heading inside to warm up with turkish apple tea. stopping at several docks along the way, we finally made it up to the last town on our cruise. a fishing town, this area was chock-full of little cafes with fresh fish. bosphorous fish. caught that morning. ahhh! being in amman makes me miss the ocean. after our turkish lunch, we trekked up to the castle beyond the town, where we snapped photos in front of the black sea. i repeat: the black sea. the view was unlike anything i have ever seen. sitting on ancient ruins, looking out over istanbul in the distance, and to the other side, the expanse of the black sea.

- the asian side. we made our way to the asian side by ferry across the bosphorous. after disembarking, we walked to the bar/restaurant area of the city - the asian side is much more commercial looking than the area where we stayed. we stopped in a traditional pub - giant efes pilsen mugs and darts were involved in our afternoon. post-pub, we wandered around to find a restaurant for dinner, stumbling on the best dinner of our trip. fresh fish, delicious mezze and turkish wine. what more could we ask for?

i could write about our turkish adventure for days - more to follow...

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... and i'm back!

after a few weeks hiatus (my parents' visit, midterms and eid al adha), i'm back. we're in the homestretch now - only five more weeks and i'll be heading back to america. it's hard to believe that the semester has flown by - as i'm sure i've made clear, some days moved by painfully slowly. on the whole, looking back at my time so far in jordan makes me incredibly happy. i've been so lucky to have this experience.

to return to a few weeks ago: the rest of my parents visit was fantastic. we explored amman, where i introduced them to my daily life here. we saw the university of jordan campus, amman's most famous monuments (the citadel and the roman amphitheater, which both sit right in downtown), and we lunched at the favorite falafel place right outside of school.

the "falafel man" as we call him was incredible to my parents. though he doesn't speak a word of english, he conversed with my dad through offers of cigarettes. since then, each day i go for lunch he asks about them. classic jordanian generosity and thoughtfulness.

after sal and scott's trip to wadi rum and petra, for which i sadly could not join them... thank you, university of jordan, they returned for their last afternoon, which we spent at the dead sea. covered in "free mud" (there are signs on piles of thick dark mud that read "free"), we waded into the salty water and floated around... but not for too long. the saltiness of the water almost immediately stings your skin. looking across the water at israel, it was so surreal - it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that i am all the way on this side of the world. and then sharing a once-in-a-lifetime experience like that with my parents was fantastic.

back to amman for the night, we met up with some of my friends for a final goodbye dinner before they headed back to america! 

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welcome to the kingdom

sally and scott stevenson have made it through two days in jordan. without breaking a sweat, for the most part.

day one: after impatiently awaiting their arrival in the lobby of the intercontinental, my parents finally arrived in amman after their eleven hour flight! after a quick stop in their room, we headed out to dinner at books@cafe, one of the more western restaurants in the city. we sat among jordanians and westerners smoking hookah and cigarettes - the adjustment to the smokiness and dustiness of the air is difficult - while enjoying the view of the city off the cafe's giant terrace. my dad drank a few amstels, beer brewed in jordan, while my mom tried the famous mint-lemonade.

day two: our plan to go to the dead sea was thwarted. apparently, there was an economics conference in the dead sea area all weekend, a fact of which we were painfully unaware. after being told that this was an impossible destination for the day, we settled on madaba, the most christian city in the kingdom, where we could see the beautiful mosaics and my parents could try a traditional jordanian meal. after hiring a taxi to take us to the city, fortyfive minutes outside of amman, wait for us, and bring us back, we set out on the dusty highway.

madaba was beautiful. it is a small-ish city of seventy thousand people, in which you can actually walk! miracle of all miracles. we began our tour in the madaba archaeological center, continuing through the main shopping area, where i found gold and silver bedouin-made earrings. we stopped at st george's church, the site of the famous map mosaic across the floor. we also visited the st john the baptist church, where we were blessed with holy water, to the tune of beyonce's "single ladies," which was blasting through the church from a street festival in the public square above. 

after our visit, we headed back to meet our taxi driver for the journey back home. he began chatting me up in arabic, asking first my name, second whether or not i am married, and third if i would like to marry one of his five sons. a common experience.

back in amman, we stopped for a pot of american coffee (ahhh! american coffee, not thick, black, turkish coffee, and not sugary sweet three-in-one nescafe! my heart soared), before getting ready to head out to dinner in abdoun, the wealthiest/most western part of amman. we had dinner at the blue fig cafe, one of the chic-er restaurants in the city, a little outside abdoun circle, where the people watching was perfect. 

days one and two flew by!

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yemen

luckily, we didn't actually go to yemen. but this afternoon's experience is sortof what i imagine it would be like. 

our colloquial teacher, saleh, took our whole class out to lunch at his favorite yemeni restaurant today. we met outside of class and made the trek up past the north gate of the university, where we were herded into a building's basement. at the bottom of the stairs, all of us proceeded to sit down at the half-plastic-covered-half-plastic-hanging-off chairs, but were quickly told "LA," and after the waiter unlocked the door to another room, we were asked to head in. after taking off our shoes, in authentic yemeni style, we grabbed seats on the floor-level couches around several square tables in the middle of the feet-smelling room. luckily, i was wearing socks, but the poor, poor people wearing sandals suffered a barefoot tip-toe across the stinky carpet. 

almost immediately, the food started coming, while saleh named each dish and taught us some vocab. arabic salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, vegetable soup, and a spicy tomato sauce came with a giant plate of rice and chicken (djaaj wa rooz). the chicken was actually more like a whole chicken sitting on my plate than just a few pieces. we dug in, each with a single spoon and our hands as our only weaponry.

after we finished eating, saleh asked if it was OK for him to smoke, before lighting up and lounging across the floor and the couch, one arm bent to rest his head, the other holding his cigarette. typical arab style.

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here we are in the university of jordan cafeteria, for a cooking lesson. though i will probably never eat in the cafeteria again, learning to cook a giant jordanian meal was quite an experience: stirring pounds onions, oil and spices boiling in the largest pot i've ever seen, instructed by an only-arabic speaking jordanian cook.

the best part of the whole experience was the hairnets. and the chef hats. though we cooked without gloves, it was essential that all of the girls with longer hair wear both a net (with our ponytails hanging out) and the chef hat. a seasoned UJ employee chased us down with both before letting us near the onion-cutting assembly line. 

after assembling our giant portions - first a pita, then the onion/oil mixture, then a piece of chicken, then some more onions, sprinkled with mystery spices - we headed out of the kitchen to taste our white-american-kid attempt at jordanian cuisine. not bad for a first try! 

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me in the middle east, perfectly captured. 

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five weeks

we’re about one third of the way through the semester… i can hardly believe it. in the beginning, everything was so new and exciting, and i think soon everything will feel more routine, but right now i’m feeling in limbo. i’m adjusting to certain aspects of life here - i always throw the toilet paper in the trash, i no longer feel my heart jump when men honk at us, i’ve taken a taxi alone (finally! i worked up the courage!), putting on jeans in the morning feels normal for a ninety degree day, my colloquial feels more natural - but i don’t feel quite settled into my life yet. 

there’s a restlessness that i’m still feeling, and i’m wondering if i’ll feel it for the rest of my time here.

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some of kat's photos from our trip to the baqa valley.