Crusades, Camels, and a Need for more Coke

Its hard to find coke in this country. Pepsi must have the Jordanian gov't in a stranglehold, which is tragic. Coke is my life source, and Egypt had it plentifully in glass bottles.
Anyway, this weekend we went on an excursion to Wadi Dana. It's the biggest nature reserve in Jordan, pretty sweet. And most importantly: filled with mangy camels. I love them. We also went to this crusader castle. The sweetest part was when we got to go in the tunnel under the castle that the Crusaders held up in while under siege. It was dark, slippery, and steep, and really cool.

Here's Dana, its pretty, but not as cool as anything in Southern Utah...
Baby donkey. Cute.
Climbing out of the tunnels. It doesn't make it look as scary cool as it was.
Here's the castle (ruins)

I'm not sure who looks more uncomfortable: me or the donkey?
I can totally read that shiz written behind me. Yeah, Im hard core. 

happychococamel

i love mangy camels more than life itself

Bidet? And other things

Life in Amman

Is going okay. Everything is just different. Sometimes different is good, but it’s hard to get used to. Class is pretty intense and we have tons of newspaper translation homework, and we’re expected to log 2 hours of speaking with Arabs on top of that. Pretty much the whole day is spent on campus. But things are pretty interesting here:

Kunafa

This dessert is out of control. So sugary. And so good. Only available in a shady alleyway downtown, and there is always a huge line of addicts waiting for it.

King Abudallah's picture is everywhere! Check him out behind Angie on the street. 

People wear way traditional clothing, and then drive Cadillac escalades... Strange

Bidet

So this country does not believe in toilet paper. I’ve taken to carrying it around in my backpack because public bathrooms do not have it. But yesterday came terrible news from our Professor. Toilet paper has been officially banned from the toilets in our apartments. I guess the Jordanian sewage system is not set up for toilet paper, and we’ve been causing trouble with the plumbing in our building… So bidets are now mandatory. Yes, we have to use that garden hose looking thing. And we have our own “bidet towels”. I’ll spare you the details, we had to be in serviced by some returned European missionaries.

Gay Neighbors

We had a class last semester where we talked about the underground gay subculture in the Arab world. Turns out they’re not so underground. Our neighbors are flamboyant homosexuals with two hideous dogs. I’ve been trying to get a picture of them in their loud clothes, but its hard to take discreet pics of your neighbors. I will continue to try. Also, they are not friendly.

 

 

 

Life in Amman

After an ordeal of Ferry Ride (if you want a detailed and funny description, read my roommate Angie's blog (http://angiepangiepuddinpie.blogspot.com)- we made it to Amman! Our apartment is pretty great - except when we first moved in we didn't have a front door, and we have the apartment that opens on to a busy street. They put the doorman Muhsin, as our security guard. Now we have a door and the biggest problem is that no one understands a word I say. Im not super good at Arabic to begin with, but most the people here are Palestinians, and their dialect is fairly different. We start classes tomorrow, and Im actually glad. Im going crazy with time to kill and no one to understand me. Downtown is awesome, the marketplaces have such good food and the fruit and vegetable sooq has really good fresh cheap produce. My new favorite food here is this dessert called Kanafa, it has cream cheese then wheat, spices, and then drenched in syrup. Sounds gross, but its amazing and it keeps me going :) I haven't taken any pictures here in Jordan yet, its on my to do list.... So here's a general pic of the city, its huge, and you can see that flag from everywhere (its supposedly the largest free standing flag in the world?). 

If you ever think you should move to Cairo, Do it.

Life in Egypt is going good. We are leaving tomorrow to hike Sinai and then its off to Jordan to study our brains out for 3 months. Hopefully I’ll learn a lot of Arabic during that time – because being here has made me realize how insufficient mine really is. The internet cafés are super slow here (and we have very limited free time), so I only really upload pics to flickr. I'm one of the people that only really likes to see pictures. So if you’re like me, and want to, all my pics are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35316747@N05/sets/

If your not like me, and like to read words, here’s a few notes from two days of sightseeing:

(Please forgive any egregious spelling errors and any non-sequtor comments. We don't get a lot sleep, and breathe in a lot of smoke.)

LUXOR DAY: Luxor was the bomb! Cairo is so dirty and big and noisy – Luxor is relatively clean and calmer. The Nile actually looks enticing down there. Angie and I even had an “American Night.” We swam and laid out by the pool w/our group, in one piece swimming suits. I only note that because again Europeans are ridiculous – all the men in speedos and all the women in bikinis- regardless of whether they were massively overweight and saggy. We ate at Pizza hut with beef pepperonis (pork is haram and not available anywhere) and then got a pedicure from some Copts. 

 MOSQUE DAY: was somewhat torturous in that we got off the night train from Luxor (on which it is impossible to sleep) at 4:30 am and then proceeded to see roughly a million mosques around Cairo.  It was blazing hot and our 65 year old tour director stops for no man (he reminds me of my Grandpa Hales). It was pretty much the Battan death march. I finally got ahead enough to pull of the side on one street and buy and ice-cream bar from a street vendor. Best 2 pounds (20 cents) I ever spent! We saw all the different periods of architecture (Fatimid, Mamuluk, Ottoman). They have some incredible beautiful buildings, and its mind blowing to think how old they are. I admire the devoutness of many Muslims and there is definitely a spiritual experience to be had in the Mosques.  I’ve seen a lot of men here with bruises on there foreheads. I took me a while to remember from my MESA class that it’s a show of devoutness – that you drop to you knees and bow your head against the floor enough to leave a big mark. The call to prayer can be kinda scary – me and Angie and Lindsey were in kinda scary neighborhood (we got off the Metro at the wrong station) when it went off. It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. And nearly everyone prayed, not something you seen on the main streets of Cairo. 

From a land were everyone yells and it rains garbage.

Greetings from Luxor! Egypt is pretty amazing, I could go on forever- but I don't have long time at this ghetto Internet cafe. We are in luxor right now which is approximately a million times cleaner and less busy than Cairo. We're going to a temple today and then a faluka ride on the nile - then its another night train back to Cairo. I'd say for sure the coolest things i've done so far are: 1) camel ride by the big pyramids of giza 2) seen the tombs in the valley of the kings 3)but sadly they wont let you take pictures 3) made a fool of myself everytime I try to talk in arabic. If you're bored and want to see some of my pictures go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35316747@N05/sets/72157617327455881/

Hope everyone is doing well!

I made it to EGYPT!

So its 5 am here, haven't slept all night, and I need to be ready to take a night train to luxor in about an hour. I will add more pictures and actually write something as soon as I have internet again. In the mean time, here is a pic I took of an awesome camel, and Angie and I in front of the step pyramid. 

Easter Weekend

Dan and I were able to have a great Easter weekend - Together! I flew to Tucson and Dan met me there. 

I was not sad at all to see the landscape of cold, snow-capped mountains transform into warm, barren cactus filled desert!
We did a lot of shopping at the Mall. I got some clothes for my big trip and Dan is modeling his new scarf. The rental car and its navigation system was awesome by the way - locate nearest ice-cream shop- done!
Me and my new shoes - the last pair at Aldo. It made me feel very victorious. We also saw Adventureland (wouldn't recommend) and ate at a Chinese Bistro (also, wouldn't recommend).
My cousin Jenni was kind enough to host Dan and I at their house for Easter dinner. She is a easter dinner extraordinaire: lamb!, couscous, lots of veggies - and brownies and ice-cream! Daniel gave my Dan lots of great advice, I got to chat with Jenni, and their little guy was entertainment for all!
We capped off our adventure with something we share a great affinity for: Pizza Hut. So ghetto, and so good. It was so nice to see Dan and spend some time together. Now I just have to survive the next week of finals, and then its off to Jordan!