Ya Allahi!

A few weekends ago, our group went on a trip to Jerash-- one of the decapolis cities of the glorious, great, powerful beyond our wildest dreams, ancient Roman Empire (that was for you, figlio della lupa :P). Annnnnyhow, it was a fun trip. The excavated site at Jerash is really interesting. It's so large that you can really get a feel of an ancient Roman city. There is a hippodrome, 2 amphitheaters, a marketplace, several churches, the Temple of Artemis and some of the most well-preserved Corinthian columns. The columns were amazing and I photographed them throughly. Is it nerdy to get really excited over something like that? I don't care. Thank you Romans for your beautiful columns that entertained me for an entire afternoon. There is also a re-enactment of warfare tactics of Roman Legionnaires and chariot racing. It was corny, but really fun to watch and I learned some things as well. Video footage will be posted soon. We also went to the Ajloun Castle, the only Muslim castle in Jordan from Crusader times. It wasn't as cool as the castle in Shoback, but it was still okay.

"Roman" Legionnaires


Chariot!


"Die, infidel!"

Collonaded Oval Plaza


Felix does Jerash


Lovely columns


Smallest Amphitheater

The following weekend, some friends and I took an independent trip to Wadi Dana, Jordan's largest nature reserve. We stayed in a crappy dive hotel with a friendly yet mildly insane owner, hiked for 7 hours in the desert, and drank a ton of tea while sitting on the roof of the hotel and looking at the stars and Israel in the distance. The hike was amazing. We got to see alot of the valley and even scaled on the side of a mountain. It was mildly dangerous and therefore really fun. Our guide was really nice and funny and even made coffee for us at the top of a cliff during a break. This was one of the best trips I have been on so far, probably because it wasn't pre-arranged for the entire group... :)

Hotel in Dana

Field in Dana

The mountains we climbed :)

Oh snap... it's me on a cliff.

Dana Sunset

I will be leaving for Cyprus this Friday until the 24th. I'm really excited to go somewhere completely different and be out of the Mid East for a few days. It will be a nice vacation. Lying on the beach of the Mediterranean, eating wonderful Greek food, and trying not to think about the conversion rate from the Euro to the dollar. Anyhow, it will be great to relax and escape the nasty men and cigarette smoke. If my funds permit, I might try to go to one of the Gulf States or the Emirates a few weekends after this. I think it would be cool to see, though I would probably get angry-- especially in Dubai. All of that opulence and obnoxiously blatant displays of wealth while people starve in villages.

On another note, I need to say that Americans get a bad reputation when it comes to watching TV. Arabs watch more TV than any American I have ever seen. Seriously... they are obsessed with the satellite dish and get damn near every channel ever. If you see any photos I've taken of the city, take a moment to notice how many satellite dishes there are. Pretty much all my family does is watch TV, and this is what I've been hearing consistently from other students in home stays. It's not as if it is on just for noise and they are doing other things simultaneously, oh no. They are actually watching it. When we had that big snow storm, the satellite dish went out temporarily and you would have thought the world ended. My host mom even sent the youngest son up on the roof a few times to clear the snow off of it :P So funny.

Cell phones are another point of interest here. Every Jordanian has at least 2 functioning cell phones. This includes Bedouins living in caves in the middle of the desert because yes, you do get a full signal out there, believe it or not. Chances are their phones are nicer than any one that you have. No one has really been able to explain to me why people have 2. I guess they just like them... along with the satellite dish, of course.

Politically, things are less than ideal here. Generally there is something going on in one or 2 countries, it fizzles out and starts somewhere else... but now, the metaphorical shit (sorry Grandma) has the potential to hit the fan all across the board. Travel to Syria is now banned in addition to Israel, Palestine, Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon... and obviously places like Iraq, Saudi Arabia (only because they don't give tourist visas), etc. Tensions are high in Jordan because fuel prices are set to rise again and because of the situation in Gaza. Many Jordanians are from or have family there so there have been many protests on campus and around the city. A German tourist was stabbed downtown last weekend. It was an isolated incident and people aren't really sure if there was any reason behind it, but fortunately, the stabber was caught just hours after it happened. The Muhabarrat scares me, but it does have its advantages! It was on Friday afternoon, just after the Husseini Mosque let out. Since we arrived, we have been told to avoid downtown at this time on Fridays. There are a lot of people and they might be fired up over what the imam said during the prayers. Unfortunately, this is something a tourist might not really know/think about. The German didn't die, but it's still scary. Despite all of this, don't worry. Jordan is really the best place to be in this area, in terms of safety.

Happy Easter to everyone! I hope you all have a nice holiday. Eat some ham and dye an egg for me :)