"Why is the rum gone!?"--Captain Jack Sparrow

Wadi Rum, that is! (Haha, I am so clever.)

Wadi Rum

Last weekend, I went on an overnight trip to southern Jordan to explore Wadi Rum--the desert valley made famous by the film Lawrence of Arabia.  It amazes me that a place with so little flora and fauna can be so unbelievably gorgeous.  We were there for a mere 24 hours, which was just enough time to get a taste of the area's beauty before being whisked back to the hustle and bustle of Amman (and midterms, yuck).  The most surprising part of the trip for me was realizing that the term "desert" can indicate quite a wide array of landscapes.  Last summer in Egypt, I went on a trip to Siwa (a small oasis town near the Libyan border in the middle of the Sahara) where the desert takes the form of vast, sweeping sand dunes for miles and miles all around.  Wadi Rum looks absolutely nothing like that.  Instead, it consists of flat, packed earth stretching as far as the eye can see dotted with areas of loose, drifting sand and enormous, wind-withered rock formations.  It was simply stunning.

The first afternoon in Wadi Rum, we all piled into the beds of old, rickety pick-up trucks and zoomed around the desert in a generally unsafe but very entertaining fashion.  We stopped at various points to clamber all over the aforementioned rock formations and drink in the expansive views from the higher vantage point and, later, to watch the sun set behind the distant mountains.  After it got dark, the old, rickety pick-ups dropped us off in a "Bedouin camp" (aka a super touristy, super cliche, not at all realistic recreation of a real Bedouin camp with a full buffet) for the night.  The high point of evening was not the camp itself, but walking out into the desert to lay under the stars and contemplate life.  Perfection.

Clambering on rock formations in an unsafe manner.

Me and some desert.

Sunset

The next day, after waking up to the sun streaming into my Bedouin tent, the moment came that I have been anxiously awaiting since the minute I first considered traveling to the Middle East.  I RODE A CAMEL.  Her name in Arabic was something that sounded sort of like "Gouda"... you know, like the cheese.  I felt a little weird about that, so I renamed her Eleanor.  She was perfect (and pregnant!!).

My partner-on-camel, Gabby, with Titan, Eleanor's esteemed husband.

I loved absolutely everything about camel-riding--the sun on my back, the slow lurching movement, the faint sound of Arabic music emanating from our guide's cell phone.  Throughout the ride, I was alternatively reminded of the McKinley Middle School rafting trip (?!) and concerned that the sand people (a la Star Wars) might stage an ambush as any moment.  Without dispute, it was one of the most beautiful, peaceful, self-contemplative experiences of my life (which is probably why it reminded me of the rafting trip).  It only fell short of perfection because I felt a little awkward that our guides walked along next to us for three hours while 85 American college students rode their camels.  Womp womp.

Ahmed and Ibrahim (our guides), Eleanor, and I
after the arduous journey.

And now a brief round-up of other news:
-If you've been following the news coming out of the Middle East at all, you may have seen that the protests in Amman became violent for the first time last Friday, resulting in one death and approximately 100 injuries.  Never fear, I was in the middle of the desert when all of this was going down and am perfectly safe.  If you are interested, I recommend this post from my friend Betsy's blog for a fair, straightforward account of what happened.
-Yesterday was my 21st birthday!  It was pretty low-key because we're in the middle of midterms, but it was still lovely because my host mom made me a delicious chocolate cake, the whole family sang me "Happy Birthday" in French and English (but strangely enough, not Arabic?!), and a couple of the neighborhood CIEE girls showed up to study for our Islam in the Modern Context midterm toting a box of my new favorite Jordanian desert--ma'amoul. 
-Next week is my spring break and in just over 24 hours I will be on my way to Turkey!  We're going to hang out in Istanbul for a couple of days and then head south to Olympos to stay in TREE HOUSES.  I had been planning to go to Syria and Lebanon, but recent developments caused me to scrap that plan.  Safety first and all that jazz.  I'm disappointed, but the tree houses will undoubtedly make up for it.  Stay tuned!

Night & Day

This weekend, while my nights were spent slogging away at a god-awful paper instead of sleeping, I spent my glorious daylight hours gallivanting around the northern part of Jordan.  On Friday, my Islam and the Modern Context class went on a field trip to visit a number of holy sites in Salt (Jordan's oldest continuously inhabited city) and the Jordan Valley.  While it was kind of cool to see shrines for various prophets and companions of Muhammed, the best part of the day was chatting with our professor, Dr. Samira.  In class, she comes off as very knowledgeable and as sweet as can be, but talking with her in an informal setting was truly a phenomenal experience.  She studied in Britain (and has two PhD's!) but is a fairly conservative Muslim, so she has a very interesting perspective on the world.  I feel like I could sit and chat with her for hours and learn something new every single moment.  Also, she made us maklouba for lunch... mmmmmm.

Mosque housing a shrine for one of the
Prophet's companions in the Jordan Valley.
.

I don't normally cover my hair, but you have to
if you want to enter a mosque. 
(We even got yelled at once by a sheik's son!)

Margot and Aliya in the garden
at one of the mosques.
.

Mosque housing a shrine for another
prophet in Salt... and the back of
my professor's head.

 After we got back to Amman, we stopped by the King Hussein Mosque.  It is brand new (just finished in 2006) and easily one of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen in real life.  We were there right at sunset and it could not have been more perfect.  At one point, the muezzin (the guy who does the call to prayer) stopped to talk to us.  He went on a short rant about how important it is for Americans to learn about the real Islam (translated via our professor) and he said, "We honor women.  I am only 29 and I have two wives!"  It was awkward and he looked kind of like Professor Snape, but it was all worth if after he left and our professor whispered to us, "I do not think he meant he honors women, I think he meant that he loves them!"  This from an adorable, 70-year-old woman in a hijab.

Then, on Saturday, I went on a trip to Ajloun, another city north of Amman.  We went hiking in the Dana Nature Reserve, were welcomed into the home of a random family in a random village in the valley for lunch, and then visited Ajloun Castle (a crusader castle like Karak, only much better preserved). 

Wild strawberry tree in the Dana Nature Reserve.

Hiking.

Ajloun Castle!

Chillin' on a castle, no big deal.

نهاية الاسبوع الجميلة (a beautiful weekend), indeed.

This entry was also posted to the AU Ambassadors blog for prospective American University students.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

There are many excellent things about the University of Jordan.  The campus is absolutely gorgeous (let's revisit this picture).  Due to the absence of copyright laws, I only spent 15JD for all of my textbooks (aka photocopied and bound compilations of articles and book chapters) for the semester.  I can (and most certainly do) purchase a cup of tea with mint leaves, a warm pastry filled with melty Nutella, or a fresh falafel and hummus sandwich for .5JD or less right on campus.

However, quite possibly the greatest thing about UJ is my Modern Standard Arabic professor, Nizar.  He is an entirely adorable, young Jordanian man who stands all of 5'4 tall, has a mouth full of braces, and just got engaged last summer. 

Sneaky photo of Prof. Nizar from the middle of class.

Not only is he a pretty phenomenal Arabic professor, but he is easily the most bubbly and enthusiastic person that I have ever met.  How he manages to mostly keep my attention for the duration of a three-hour class is a mystery to me.  During our very first class, he sang us excerpts of Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Celine Dion songs.  Last week, he directed the class in a rousing rendition of "Hey Jude" and then randomly decided to demonstrate his calligraphy skills by writing all of our names in Arabic on the board (see picture above).  I'm really expecting to see him as a contestant on the acclaimed television show Arabs Got Talent any day now.  Other antics include animated games of charades to explain unfamiliar words without resorting to English, instructing us to play pictionary with the new vocabulary list, doing the splits to get us to answer questions quickly (before he splits his pants), and enthusiastically producing his just-finished doctoral thesis from a plastic bag one day at the beginning of class and inviting us all to some sort of thesis-related party at the Faculty of Foreign Language.

Prof. Nizar easily makes my top ten favorite things in Jordan list.  What a guy.

Also, last Tuesday was my lovely Jordanian partner-in-crime's 21st birthday.  I will leave you with the following photograph of an epic Jordanian sparkler-cake and the crown that I made for Lura from tin foil and a headband (I'm a little too proud of it).

Delicious cake/innovative crown creation at Paris Cafe.

I have so much love for this girl.  Early curfews, Arabic listening homework, and large family gatherings are only made bearable by her presence (and lolcats).  Happy belated birthday, Lura!

Salt, Mud, and Crusaders

My house has been quite chaotic for the last several days.  My host brother, Najib, who works as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, came home for the weekend.  In honor of his visit, we had the whole extended family over for brunch.  There was a plethora of food involved:  zaatar bread, hummus, falafel, something resembling an omelet, a cheese-walnut-olive oil mixture whose name I do not recall, all the Jordanian standard dishes.  I wish I had taken a photo of the spread before it was demolished, but suffice to say that is was absolutely delicious and I ate far too much.

It surprised me how the atmosphere of the big family gathering transcended cultural idiosyncrasies.  I felt like I could have been at any Morrison or Frey family event (with the small exception that I didn't actually know anyone or understand what they were talking about).  At one point, I could tell that there was a heated political discussion occurring about Mubarak and Qaddafi and I wish so much that I could have understood better what people's views were.  Short of my professors, I know so little about what ordinary Jordanians think about what is going on in the region.  The one thing everyone does seem to agree on is that Qaddafi is majnoon (crazy).  Additionally, I met an Arab with a Wisconsin accent!  One of the cousins that was there actually lives in the Chicago area and was just in Amman visiting family for a few days.  As it turns out, he got his masters from the University of Wisconsin, is a die-hard Packers fan, and I have probably driven by his house dozens of times. I'm learning quickly that it really truly is a small world.


On Saturday, I went on a CIEE-sponsored day trip to Karak and the Dead Sea.  Karak is a huge Crusader castle a couple hours south of Amman.  According to my trusty guidebook, it's one of the most well-preserved and easily explorable fortresses of its kind. The castle itself was enormous and it was tons of fun to wander around--I probably could have spent a whole extra hour poking about and trying to locate the "suitably dank" dungeons--but it was the view from the top that was truly spectacular.  As in Jerash, there was no one of authority around except for a couple police officers at the front gate. Consequently, we were able to clamber all over everything in what was most certainly an unsafe manner including climbing to the top of one of the walls.  Amazing.  Now I just need to find somewhere to buy an illegal copy of Kingdom of Heaven so I can see what happened there (or at least Hollywood's interpretation thereof).

Karak Castle

Lovely Lura at Karak

After exploring Karak in the morning, we drove through more of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery that I saw last weekend between Madaba and Ma'in to the Dead Sea.  I've seen a partially obstructed view of the sea from afar on several occasions since I arrived in Jordan, but this was the first time that I really got to see it, touch it, and (unfortunately) taste it.  I did all the typical touristy things--slathered mysef in mud, almost got cut up on the salt formations, floated around, tried not to get salt in my eyes--and had a marvelous time doing so. 

Dead Sea mud!  Erika, Jessica, me, and Gabby

Mike and I demonstrating our floating abilities.

I had really been expecting that the whole floating thing wouldn't really live up to the hype... but oh was I wrong.  It was amazing to feel completely weightless, to "stand" upright in the water without sinking, to be in kilometers-deep water without exerting any effort whatsoever.  I can't wait to go back!

Taking on the Interwebs

This week my exciting opinions about the world have been popping up all over the internet.  A friend that I interned with at Save Darfur last semester recently started a blog for women transitioning from college to the "real world" and she asked me to do a guest post on my observations about women in the Middle East.  Check out my thoughts on women and the Arab media over at Fresh Ink.  While you're at it, check out the rest of their blog too!  The authors, Hannah and Caroline, have posted a lot of great insights and advice on everything from careers to fashion to women and politics.

Additionally, a few days ago, I was approached by a friend of a friend back at American University who was writing an article for AWOL (American Way of Life Magazine) about the ongoing pro-union protests in Madison and wanted to find out what AU students from Wisconsin thought about the whole business.  It went live online yesterday too, so take a look at my groundbreaking quotes about my lovely state.

On a more personal note, I made the exciting/terrifying/marvelous discovery yesterday that I have completed more of my degree requirements than I thought, so many that despite my double major and minor I can graduate next December if I want to!  I have absolutely zero desire to graduate early (Pass up taking a semester's worth of elective classes at a prestigious university that are already 2/3 paid for by my scholarship? No way!), but the idea that it is possible is a little terrifying in and of itself. 

A Cop-Out Post

There is one person in Jordan that I spend infinitely more time with than anyone else.  Lura, another CIEE student, and I not only live in the same house in the same extended host family, but we also have three of the same classes, split taxis regularly, and generally spend our entire Jordanian lives together.  Lucky for me, she is a marvelous human being who puts up with my grumpy morning self and takes my anal retentive tendencies in stride.  In the mere month that we've been in Jordan, we've shared experiences ranging from a getting-to-the-university-on-a-sketchy-microbus-that-randomly-starting-going-backwards-on-the-day-of-our-first-Arabic-test adventure to trying to make it look like our plates are full when my host mom implores us to take more food at dinner.  She just posted an entry in her own study abroad blog that is a much more insightful summary of our last few days than anything I could come up with myself, so shall leave you with a link and her wise words about the our colloquial Arabic class and the LGBT movement in the Middle East.