Blood Suckers and Babies

I am very, very much ready to come home. For a myriad of reason which I will now share:
"Why?" might you ask, "Is Lauren showing us a picture of her bed covered in blood spots?"
Because of these guys! Bed Bugs! Disgusting, I know. They live in my bed, come out at night, and suck my blood. There is no way to get rid of them. Yes I looked in to every possible method. I also tried sleeping on the couch, lo and behold, they live in the couch as well. Everyday I wake up with blood spots on my clothes/sheets, and itchy bites all over my body. I'll spare you the details/pictures on that one. 
Blood suckers of another type, Arabs. I really hoped before coming here I'd be able to say "Arabs are just like us! They are so misunderstood! They are all great people!" But, In my experience, they are not. These are our arab "friends." Friends that lie to us, talk crap about us when they think we don't understand, and are completely rude. I've had enough. I'm ready to return to "my people".  Gosh I love America and Americans. 

Lest you think I am completely negative, let me share a good news minute (relief society reference.) I have a niece! This is the darling Molly McNulty. I can't wait to get home and meet her and hold her. As soon as I have de-bed-bugged myself that is. Lovely. 

Its just like Transformers, except better.

It was really funny to see Transformers 2 here because the whole audience actually stood up and clapped and got so excited at the part of the movie that takes place in Petra. Jordan doesn't make it into a lot of movies, okay? Haha. This weekend we got to go on a little adventure to actually see Petra, home of the Primes. 
Me and Angie in front of the Treasury, the most famous building in Petra. 

This is the Monastery, which is actually bigger and cooler than the Treasury - yet less well known. That may have something to do with the grueling hour long hike to get to it under the blaring Middle Eastern sun, but thats just my hypothesis...

This is how you could find me most of the weekend. Hiding in the shade reading. I had a really good book, Freakanomics, I highly recommend it. 
After sleeping (except not really because it was so hot) in bedioun tents, the next day we went on a four wheeling excursion across the desert in really ghetto old Toyotas. It was rad. 
So you know that I'm not entirely lazy and actually did other things than just read, I climbed this sand dune. Proof. In other news, Dan and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first niece. And the end of this summer, so we can actually - you know - live together in the same country. We hear thats what married people do. 

AMERICA! Wadi Mujib. Cheetah Shoes!

Its been a long time since I’ve posted. Not much has been going on here, just the normal daily routine. But here’s some highlights of the last month or so…

The Cheetah Sandals Were Absolutely Necessary

If nothing else this trip has humbled me. Arabs find things totally inoffensive that are seriously offensive to a Westerner. A few weeks ago an Arab girl told me to my face that my friend Nettie is a lot prettier than me. My self confidence here is off the charts.

 But there is a quick way to restore one’s self confidence: Buy things! That’s where the cheetah sandals come in to play. After an especially humbling day. Angie and I went to Carrefour (a French Walmart) that is incidentally hooked into a mall. And there was Aldo’s. And there was my cheetah shoes. And I bought them, and felt better than I had in a long time. So now when I’m out and about and being mocked, I simply look at my feet, and everything is better.

 

4^th of July!: I used to think that living abroad was so glamorous, that anything is cooler than boring old America. I have totally changed my mind. Nothing is better than America! We are so lucky to live where we do. Especially when I look at all the rights and opportunities that I enjoy as woman in America compared to the oppression a lot of women here face, I feel really blessed. I love the USA. We Americans here had a nice little halal (no pork) bbq, sang patriotic songs, and basically just missed home. Angie and I made this beautiful Americana cheesecake. 
Wadi Mujib: I’ve seen a lot of really cool things in the Middle East, but Wadu Mujib was the most FUN thing I’ve done here. We got 10 people together and chartered a van. We went to Wadi Mujab, a big slot canyon that empties into the dead sea, right along the Israeli border. It was gorgeous! Seriously prettier than all the slot canyons I’ve seen in Utah. And, it was filled with water! The entire time we were wading, and then some parts swimming… And then some parts it was so narrow and swift we had to hold on to ropes. I felt like I was drowning and kind of panicked at some parts, and other parts I’d get pulled so hard by the current that one of the bigger guys would have to pull me. It was crazy! At the end there was a gorgeous waterfall, and then the way back all the steep scary hard parts became slides, and jumps to get down. It was awesome.

 

 

 

 

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.