Week Four...OMG!!!!

September 15th 2008

I cannot believe I am into my fourth week in Jordan already. Wow!!! So Monday was anti-climatic as usual!!! Haha...Mondays are so long. In one of my classes we decided to watch a movie but since this is Jordan well that doesn't work so well. Technology sucks in this country. And the movie had poor sound and so I begged off early. I could hear anything. At all. So after my classes I went home and I decided to give Stella a bath. Who since Najwan left for South Africa (my host sister returning the 25th) the dog has attached herself to me. I think that is because I baby her. Everybody else just yells at her...including Najwan when she is home. The dog runs to me when I walk in the house and runs around the house only to come back to me to beg me to scratch her ears. Yep...That dog is adorable. So I gave her a bath cause my host mom said she stunk and put her outside...where she cried and cried...I bathed her and was allowed to bring her back inside...of course I have to vaccum her fur first...haha...Anyways that is all for Monday...PEACE!!!!

September 16th 2008

Okay well today was to say the least just another boring same old same old day. Ghada (my host mom) and I went after I finished at the University to a seamstress. The zipper on my black pants broke and Ghada showed me a place were I could get a new zipper put on my pants for a single JD. I think later in the year I might take my jacket to this woman and ask her to fix the whole in my pocket that has drove me insane for a year now...haha...seriously I love how cheap most things are hear. Any ways after I went to the seamstress with Ghada her and I went to a friend of hers place and then they proceeded to make my life miserable by forcing me to speak Arabic and stare at them in stupidity as they spoke to me in colloquial. Haha...but seriously I guess they are only trying to help...I just feel stupid. I am like a special child where I can answer their questions but I need like one whole minute to think before I can open my mouth. Anyways after that Ghada and I went to the Pharmacy and let me explain to you how much I love the Pharmacy in the Middle East. First of all medicine is cheaper here by far. And secondly and most importantly you do not need a prescription for anything. I told the pharmacist that I was trying to get rid of some acne and she walks behind the counter and finds me prescription strength acne medicine with erthromycin in it...haha it is too funny that I don't have to see a doctor to get these things.
Anyways that was pretty much it for my day. Not terribly exciting I know.

September 17th 2008

Wednesday! Is okay. I have all of my classes on Wednesdays. I absolutely love my Contemporary Arab Women Writers course. I love the way this class is set up. We just sit in class and discuss all kinds of feminist ideas. And let me tell you...my teacher is a crazy Arab feminist. Like she makes every feminist I have ever met in the states look like their swimming in shallow water. Anyways, not too much happened during my other class. We went back to watching that horrible Anthony Quinn movie that the sound was so bad in that I still couldn't catch what was going on. Thank God that movie is finally finished. Maybe now I will find so thing of interest!
Again not much happened today. I went out to meet Cat later in the night and got terribly lost due to her instructions. She had to come find me and then she bought me a drink since she got me lost. Haha...cosmopolitans are okay.
After I went out with her I went and hung out with Lauren. I met her Jordanian boyfriend and also met his cousin and we just sat and smoked shisha and I told them different stories about my taxi cab experiences. haha

September 17th 2008

YEAH WADI RUM!!!! So today I went to Wadi Rum. I met up with the CIEE people at the university and we proceeded to ride on a good bus for about 3 hours until we got to the Wadi Rum visitors center. We ate lunch at the visitors center and I personally thought the food was horrible. And then we went on a four hours long camel trek. That's right I know you are jealous. Anyways, Wadi Rum is gorgeous, but frankly I was more fascinated with my camel. Really though I had two camels. I told the tour guide that was with us I really wanted a friendly camel, but then I saw the baby camels and I told him I wanted a baby camel. And since the tour guide and I got along really well he made sure that I got to ride a Mother camel so that the baby was always around. My camel was a beautiful camel named Helwai (this means very beautiful in Arabic...no i did not name her because I thought this name was great for her) and her baby who was a month old was name Abdan. Abdan walked right next to his mother most of the time and when ever he would leave her side she would start screaming for him. I am pretty sure she was grounding him. He would always respond right away by screaming back at her. I am pretty sure he was asserting his being a big boy...haha Anyways, he would walk by her side and so I rode Helwai sideways and had my feet resting on Abdan's back. He would nibble on my toes. My baby camel spent a lot of time with his face in my face the second the mother laid down on the ground. Kamel (one of the other tour guides was on the camel that mine was tethered to which was Helwai's cousin, or so I decided since she was a girl) kept telling me how he wanted to eat Abdan...since camel meat was amazing when they were so young. I kept trying to convince Abdan to bit the crazy Arab in the butt. So Kamel and I had fun just arguing with each other.
After a while Kamel switched with the tour guide I knew better, Zuhair. Zuhair and I spent most of the rest of the camel trek talking about different Bedouins and such. Zuhair I guess is a fifth generation Bedouin. After the camel trek we stopped to watch the sun set over Wadi Rum. It was amazing as the sun sunk below the rocks.
We walked from that spot to the Bedouin campsite that we slept at for the night...now mind you this site is run by Bedouins but it has working western toilets. They sang for us and we had a party and stuff there. I am pretty sure the Spanish people that were there were thinking we were all crazy. They just sat on the side and watched the CIEE people party it up with the Bedouins.
After our little party and shisha smoking with the Bedouins people took off and did different night walks. I spent most of the night joking around with Ahmad. He was groaning because I am staying for a year and so I was pretending to be upset and then he was pretending to beg for me to forgive him. And Najeh was laughing so hard at the two of us. I told Ahmad I added spices to his life and he told me where other people added spice with a salt shaker I more or less dumped a bucket of spice on his life...haha
I went out side of the camp and was watching the stars later and one of the Bedouin works came up to me and sat besides me. Now being American as I am I think nothing of this. So I am having a broken Arabic conversation with him (he doesn't speak English well) and he says something to me I didn't understand. I asked him to explain and I realized he asked me if I was a wife. I told him no. Next thing I know he has put his arm around me. I am like oh brother. I put his arm back in his lap and then he is trying to hold me hand. I won't hold his hand and then he asks me to marry him. So then I spend another 10 minutes trying to explain to the 20 year old Bedouin that I can't marry him. Basically Garrett just became my fiance. Haha
After that I just hung around with a few people at the campsite and talked.

September 19th 2008

More Wadi Rum then Acaba...So we went on a 3 hour 4x4 ride through the desert. It was amazing and it was so much fun. We took a route that is considered to be the Lawrence of Arabia Route. Wadi Rum looks alot like Sedona except without the green part. My group kept trying to get the driver to go faster and faster.
After the 4x4 ride we drove to Acaba and went on a boat ride. The boat (more like a nice nice ferry/cruise boat) took us to the coral reefs. We got to go snorkeling and do some swimming. The water was crazy salty in the red sea, but amazingly warm and there was no under toe and you could float really easily. I went snorkeling and the Jordanians clean out old tanks and boats and sink them to make more coral reefs. So I went snorkeling around a tank. The fish were amazing. (Nana if you come to Jordan I am taking you here. You will love snorkeling here.) After that I just swam around in very salty water. Ahmad was cracking me up because he doesn't swim well but towards the end I convinced him to get in the water for longer. Saying I would save him. Well he was so excited because since the water was so salty he could float without much energy. By the time it was time to leave he didn't want to go he was enjoying the water so much.
Anyways, we stayed at another Bedouin campsite that night...this time in Petra. This site didn't have the singing but it was still nice. I spent most of the night talking to Najeh and Ahmad. And dancing around with Cat to no real music. Haha

September 20th 2008

Petra! First let me say that nothing will ever top this place. Every building there was cut out of the rocks and every building was only one piece. One piece...it was so intricately cut out that it was insane. So let me mention something before I go to far. The way Arabs run a historical site is hilarious. There aren't rules and every body does what they want there. We were making fun of the American system there...My first picked up a rock and threw it and then we decided to arrest him for breaking history...mind you it was just a dirt clod but the point is no way cared that we were climb all over the buildings...and such...there weren't rules like that there. Anyways there were donkeys everywhere...and vendors...I got offered a couple free donkey rides...but I didn't take them cause I didn't trust how free they really were. I mean people were paying to use the donkeys, I am pretty sure the guys that offered me free rides just wanted to see if I was an easy American girl...haha...so no donkey for me. Anyway, everybody walked the 900 steps to the building at the top. It was nice but I think next semester when I go again I will walk to other places. I don't need to kill myself twice and I mean that about killed me. It takes about 45 minutes to do the walk and it hurts the knees really bad...but it is worth it at least once. After that we had free time around Petra. About the time we needed to meet up at the bus I ran into Elexer. CIEE had paid for us to be able to ride the horses if we wanted to. (the only thing being you needed to tip) So Elexer and I decided to ride. The guy that I rode his horse was really nice. I told him I want to ride an Arabian horse. He said that all the Arabs to pick from weren't that good. He did have his horse though. Which wasn't the best Arab either but it was better looking than the rest. I convinced him to take the tourist horse and he let me ride his horse. I asked if I could ride the horse fast and he said I could. I kicked the horse into a canter and next thing I know I am going at a break neck gallop down the path. He jumped on his horse and caught up with me. I slowed my horse down for him and then him and I looked at each other an kind of gave a wicked smile to each other and then gave both horses their heads. We started racing down the path (by the way mom I was riding an English saddle and I didn't fall...or even slip, maybe because there was a blanket over the saddle but hey I don't care.). When we were done...he was laughing so hard. He gave me congrats. He said that he never let others ride his horse because most Americans who say they can ride can't, but he said I handled his horse really well. It was so much fun. He even offered to let me keep riding...I passed cause I had to get to the bus. I had left my friend Elexer in the dust. The only thing ungraceful about the experience on the horse was when I went to get off...Well my foot got stuck in the stirrup. oops!!! But I eventually got it unstuck! It was so much fun...oh and my horses name was Susana...After I rode the horses I think got on a bus for four hours to return to Amman. That was the end of my weekend. When I got back to the house I finished my homework for Sunday and then went to sleep early. I was beat!

September 21st 2008

Today was to say the least stressful. I had to fill out my request to travel to Syria today. That sucked. But we got it done and now a group of us are going to go to Syria on the 30th. For the Eid break. Anyways, I didn't do much today besides that. I had Arabic only. And today in Arabic we had to talk about our favorite poet in front of the class. Well my public speaking fear got the best of me and I had to sit down before I could say anything. My Arabic teacher understood better than any of my other teachers ever had in America and she let me sit down and talk where I didn't feel pressure because I was not facing the class. But I hard core freaked. I don't know why speaking bothers me so much when I look at people as a group. I can't do it in English either. (Remembering back to high school where I always started to shake in my classes when I had to speak in front of the class. I think it is getting worse as I get older. It makes no sense I was fine during drama being on stage...but then again I couldn't see the audience due to the lights on the stage). Anyways she was really understanding. After class I went and talked to her about it. She thought that I was just afraid to speak like that in Arabic I had to explain to her that it was a problem in my life in general. She told me though that I did really good when I stopped worrying about the people and that my speaking is long and detailed and that I said a lot of good things...(I was talking about James Whitcomb Riley..who isn't my favorite poet but I knew alot about him)...By the way this teacher doesn't speak English at all so I had to explain it all to her in Arabic about my public speaking anxiety. Finally she understood completely. She is such a sweet heart I tell you what. But I think I need to see a psychologist, specializing in Phobias, when I get home...I swear there is something wrong with me. I think I would rather be stabbed to death that give a speech...or better yet be put in a room filled to the no breathing poin with Moths than give a speech...or even sent to spend a day in prison with big Bubba, after he has seen a woman in 30 years, than give a speech!!! haha...Does this convey to You all how much I hate giving speeches? Seriously I was fine until I looked at the class. And then all these people who I know and can talk to normally all of a sudden became the scariest people in the world. AHHH!!!! I swear...Anyways that was the end of my day. Cause when I went home I just slept off the day!