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.