My host siblings are adorable

Indisputable photographic proof can be found here.
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When it rains...

I feel like, having grown up in Eugene and studied in Portland for two years, I am a pretty well qualified judge on the subject of rain. And the rain in Amman is CRAZY! It doesn't rain very often, but when it does, it rains buckets and dogs and basically floods the city for the duration. The ground doesn't really absorb water, and there are very few flat places in the city, so the result is massive rivers pouring down most streets and large lakes forming at the lowest points. As soon as it stops raining, though, things start to dry out, until sometimes only a few hours later you can see stretches of dry street between the puddles.

I've been told that Jordan really does have four seasons, but right now I'm having trouble believing it, since we went from a week of +70 F temperatures to wind, rain, and chill. I actually considered wearing my down jacket today. This transition was made even harder by the fact that I spent the weekend in Aqaba, where it was even warmer, while in Amman in rained and got cold during that time.
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The News

A Ms Kisertin Anderson is now a resident of Jordan, but at least I have the stamp in my passport to prove that it's really me.
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The Day of Exceeding Strangeness

Yesterday was just one of those crazy, slightly unbelievable days. To begin with, we were scheduled to go on a field trip to a waste water treatment plant and King Talal Dam with the water politics class. Alright, so far so good, we all met at the bus at 9 AM to set out. From there, events just sort of progressed.

Step one: Drive to Samra wastewater treatment plant near the town of Al-Hashimyya in northern Jordan, about an hour from Amman. Stop at several points outside the town to take pictures of the oil refinery and power plant, earning more stares than normal from the local population.

Step two: Tour of the Samra plant. There were too many of us to take a walking tour of the plant, but they showed us a video (followed by a coffee break), a explained the process using a model, took us up to the plant overlook, gave us a guided bus tour of the plant – we were only allowed to get out at the last stop, between the final settling pools and the chlorine purification – and finally they took us to where the water, now clean enough to be used for irrigation, is released. The smell in certain parts of the plants is incredibly horrible, but remarkably almost nonexistent once you reach the final stages of the cleaning process. (If you want more information about any of this, let me know. I have to write a report on the entire trip so I have lots of notes about it all..)

Step three: Board the bus. Eat whatever lunch you had packed. Drive for an hour to Irbid, where we stopped at McDonald's for more lunching. Then back on the bus headed for extreme northwest Jordan (we'd wondered when he said it, but yes, we really were going to go look at the Golan.)

Step four: Our peaceful bus ride towards Syria is interrupted by texts from several people's friends claiming that there is no class Thursday or Sunday. After some initial confusion about whether this refers to one specific class or all the classes, Stewart (our academic director) is called and he confirms that ALL classes are canceled on account of an outbreak of the flu, giving all of us an unexpected four-day-weekend. Casual ideas about extending trips to Wadi Rum or Aqaba quickly spiral out of control into wild speculation about the possibilities of hopping on a plane to Kurdistan or India.

Step five: Plotting is semi-interrupted by our arrival at the “highest point in Northern Jordan” where some government official wants to charge us three dinar to enter some old ruins so we can try to spot Lake Tiberius. A helpful local says he knows a better place where we won't have to pay, so we get back on the bus and proceed through a series of military checkpoints towards the border. Our student IDs are checked, and we are forbidden from taking pictures.

Step six: Arrival at a rocky overlook near a cave where Jesus allegedly hid when he was fleeing from Nazareth (we can see the mountain from where we're standing. We are surrounding by olive groves and litter, leading to questions about who, exactly, is being permitted to come out here to create so much garbage. Below us, we can see the path of the Yarmouk River, and on the other side, Syria-as-occupied-by-Israel – the landmine fields of the Golan Heights. Our teacher points to the vehicles traveling along a road on the other side of the river and tells us, “Those are Israelis.” A little further away, we can see the clean waters of Lake Tiberius and on the other side, the town of Tiberius. The contrast between the greenery of Israel proper and the arid land of occupied Syria is stark. After the view, stepping into the sheep-poop carpeted cave is kind of anti-climatic.

Step seven: Head back toward Amman and King Talal Dam. Stop by the side of the road several times in order to, respectively: see a large dead snake near one of the checkpoints; take pictures of cows standing near some cacti; have the teacher buy us all a pomegranate from a roadside stand (ie a collection of boxes of fruit set next to the highway).

Step eight: Continue the long busride back. Weekend plotting continues, but reality increasingly forces its way in. Numerous phone calls and texts are sent to friends in Amman in attempts to facilitate plans.

Step nine: Attempt to stop and see the King Talal Dam. The bus driver asks for directions from several locals, but the closest we are able to come is a hillside that overlooks the lake but does not actually permit us to see the dam. Our bus pulls up next to a lone couple leaning against the from of their car. The woman shoots us one of the evilest looks I have ever seen, but its hard to blame her. The sudden arrival of a busload of American students would be a mood-killer for anyone. We all dutifully take pictures, then wearily pile back onto the bus to return home.

Step ten: Arrive in Amman, finalize weekend plans (I am going to Aqaba, just as I had been planning before we got school off), check email (I will have to translate my resume to French for my spring internship in Morocco) and of course get on Facebook (first live interaction with Jackie since I've been here!), then finally at 8 PM get a taxi home. Arrive, eat dinner, watch a little TV, then fall asleep at 10, before my host father has even returned from his job at the airport.
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!الحمد لله

Alhamdulilah! I am finally, finally done with midterms! I am only taking two classes this semester, but somehow that meant a total of 6 separate tests (one in water politics, and 5 - FIVE - in Arabic) spread over a period of a week and a half. Plus I was at Wild Jordan for 8 consecutive hours last Tuesday because we had a big jewelery launch. Not too surprisingly, it has been a stressful, unhappy week and a half for me, but now it is over. I will be celebrating by taking a field trip with my water politics class tomorrow, to King Talal Dam and a waste water treatment plant. Joy.

In happier news, we ALMOST have residency in Jordan. We should be getting our cards and passports back soon, insha'allah. So that's good.

Spent the past weekend in Irbid visiting all of my host mom's family. Her mother is in Dubai with her father for the next few months, and her brothers are living alone at the house. So after spending the day visiting her three sisters, we went to the house and Niveen and one of her sisters did some serious cleaning. But on Saturday we went shopping, so I now have one genuine Jordanian shirt (which randomly and amazing perfectly matches a scarf that one of Niveen's sisters gave me on Friday) and a pair of Jordanian jeans.

I'm learning to cook some Jordanian food from my host mom. Current favorites: stuffed chicken, rolled grape leaves, several wonderful rice dishes, cucumber yogurt, salsa, and of course ice cream. I'm still hoping to get to watch her making mansaf, though.

New french fry food: turkey and cheese sandwich on pita.

Also, despite being left all weekend without food, all four fish are incredibly still living. Apparently Jordanian pet fish are a hardier breed than the ones you get in the US.
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Miscellaneous

- Almost two weeks later, the fish are remarkably still alive

- Foods I have eaten with french fries in/on them: falafel sandwich, two different types of chicken sandwich, scrambled eggs

- New favorite sandwich: chicken, french fries, ketchup, coleslaw, garlic. Mmm.

- Favorite part about my internship: "breakfast" at 1 in the afternoon with my coworkers - pita, hummus, assorted other yummy things to eat with pita including aforementioned eggs and french fries.

- I have a peer tutor. She speaks Arabic, English, German, and Urdu - and is pretty much fluent in all of them. I am in awe (although it really doesn't help me when she starts chattering in German)

- Went to a really cool environmental film festival at the Jordan Royal Film Commission. Amazing venue (views of the citadel and downwtown behind the outdoor screen) and really interesting movie (The Age of Stupid - go watch it) that was partly set in Amman - at the end, there's a shot of a Middle Eastern street with a Burger King and McDonald's on it - the University of Jordan is across the street and I walk by those restaurants every day on my way to the computer lab.
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The most fantastic place on earth

On Saturday I (finally) went to Wadi Mujib and I have to say it is now one of my favorite places in the world, and definitely one of the most incredible hikes. I have no photos (I didn't bring my camera, for reasons that will become obvious) but I really wish I could have, because there is no way I can adequately describe its mumtastic-ness (mumtaz = excellent or fantastic in Arabic).



This photo was not taken by me (you can find it and several other nice Wadi Mujib pictures on Flickr or by doing a Google image search for "Wadi Mujib") but I think it'll help you get an idea of why I'm so in love with this place. We didn't actually climb the waterfall depicted (you need a guide and equipment for that) but we did hike to it.

There were four of us (we were supposed to be joined by some other friends, but they got a super late start so we hiked separately. We were expecting to see them at some point on our hike back, but we were almost to the end by the time we passed them) and we hired a taxi from Amman for the day (only 30 dinar = about $10 apiece!). According to new RSCN rules, you have to wear a life jacket on your hike, kindly included in the price of admission.

We took the Siq trail, which is about two and a half hours round trip hiking through an incredible canyon. You walk in the river (shockingly clean, especially for Jordan) essentially the entire time. Almost all of the pictures you'll see of the canyon will be of the beginning of the hike or the end at the waterfall, for the reason that it would be very difficult keep a camera dry and in your hand for most of the rest of it.

Not too far into the hike, you have to climb your first waterfall. This one is short and easy to get over, but as you continue the falls get higher and more difficult to climb. In some places, you have to haul yourself along a rope just to get close enough to scramble up the falls. You clamber across wet rocks and through torrents of water, with the walls of the canyon rising up around you and occasionally overlapping above you until you finally arrive at your destination, a gorgeous waterfall. You walk through it, the water pounding your head, and there is a small hollow. There are fish in the calmer water back here, and they nibbled at your legs until you wedge yourself between two rocks. Don't try to talk too much, because you won't be able to avoid getting the spray from the falls in your mouth and the noise will drown out your voice anyway.

The walk back is easier (and cooler) if you give up on walking. You can float almost all the way back (occasional climbing down rocks is still required where the falls are dangerous, and at some points you do have to roll from one side of the river to the other) with only a few bumps, enjoying the view of the canyon as you go.

As if the hike itself wasn't awesome enough, on our taxi ride back to Amman we passed a large fleet of motorcycles. Now, in Jordan, not many people have motorcycles and there are pretty strict limits on the amount of horsepower you can have. So when you see a bunch of massive bikes coming down the road followed by a string of black cars with tinted windows, you know something's up. As the motorcycles went by, our taxi driver indicated the last, largest, shiniest motorcycle and told us, "That's the king." So, so, so cool.
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Daily Life

So I haven't been writing about a lot of things that I've been doing because they seem really normal and everyday to me, but it occurred to me that most of ya'll probably have no idea what a normal day is for me here. Weekends are different, but I'm starting to get into a schoolday routine.

My school week is Sunday through Thursday. I wake up around 6:30 every morning. My host mom is usually up helping Yazan get ready for school, and most of the time she gets breakfast out for me - if not, I get it out for myself. We have bread with yogurt, cheese, olives, zattar, and sometimes fuul or eggs as well. Around 7:15 I leave to catch the bus to school with Kris, another girl in my program who lives in the neighborhood. We have to walk down to a big street a little ways below our apartments in order to flag down the bus, which is basically just a van with the route written on it in Arabic. They're called services, they're privately owned, and they just run specific routes constantly. We just go down and wave one down, like waving down a taxi, and it takes us to school, stopping occasionally to pick up more people. During Ramadan, the trip took a really long time because a lot of the buses would wait at one of the circles to try to get enough people to fill it, but not many people were going to UJ because it wasn't open yet. Now that classes are in session, though, it only takes 15 or 20 minutes.

From 8 to 10:30 or 11 everyday, I have my Arabic class. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I have two hours of Modern Standard and then an hour of colloquial, and Monday and Wednesday we have two and a half hours of Modern Standard. It can be kind of a lot, and I always feel a little overwhelmed when we leave, but I think I'm learning. There are only four of us in the class, so we all get to talk a lot, which is really nice, but it does mean that the teacher can kind of pick on you if you don't know what's going on.

On Sunday and Tuesday, I have to go to my internship (with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature - more on that later) around 12 or 1. I've been going to get lunch near campus beforehand with one of the other girls from my class, but I think I'm going to start going directly to Jabal Amman - the area where my internship is - and exploring the places to eat there instead. (I had really good shwarma there yesterday). I've been going to RSCN on Thursdays as well, but in the future I think I'm just going to go then if there's something specific that needs doing, to give me more time and to cut taxi costs. I'm there until 4, so I get home around 4:30.

Monday and Wednesday, I have another class in the afternoon, so I go to lunch with friends around 11 and hang out in the computer lab (like I am now) until I have to leave for class around 1:30. The class is from 2-3:30, but the building is really far away. The class is the Environment and the Politics of Water, and it's a combination of scientific discussion of hydrology and a political discussion of water shortage in this region. It's all really interesting, though some of the science seemed a little basic. We're definitely getting just one perspective of the political situation - Israel stole all the water, and now they're giving it to the settlers and not letting the Palestinians have any, and isn't their lifestyle so extravegantly wasteful of water? - but as long as you keep that in mind most of the information is at least useful, and defintely does provide a good idea of the Jordanian viewpoint. Sometimes I go to the computer lab afterward, or else just go straight home. I take a different bus to get home. The final destination for this one is Zarqa, another city near Amman, so I have to explain to the control (the guy who takes your money and figures out where the bus needs to stop) that I want to get off in Arjan, which can be difficult.

I started meeting with a peer tutor last week, so far just Mondays at 4. We try to talk as much as possible in Arabic, and she says she's going to show me to all her favorite hidden places in downtown sometime. We're both really busy, so it's a little hard to plan meetings, but (insha'allah) we're meeting again this afternoon.

Every other Monday, I have an internship class (I'm dong it for credit) at 5:15. It lasts till at least 6:30 usually, so I don't get home until around 7. When I get home, Niveen usually has food ready. Depending on what time it is, whether Hamada is coming home soon and who has already eaten, I may eat by myself, with just the kids, or with the whole family. After dinner I study, play with the kids, watch TV, and just hang out in the house. Usually around 7, we'll have something else to eat - sometimes chips and chocolate bars from the little store next door, sometimes apples and grapes, sometimes cucumbers and carrots.

Sometimes in the evening I go out with friends to a bar or cafe. Kris and I hang out a lot, which means we can share a taxi (there isn't really anything to do within walking distance of Arjan). We have a couple drinks, or smoke some arghilah, or get something to eat (and I like to watch football, which is available at most places we go), all very chill and laid back - Amman is not really a party town. My weeknight curfew is 11, so I'm back and in bed in time to get at least a little sleep before I have to get up and do it all again.
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Photos!

Now on Facebook.

More here.
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A most profitable visitation

This is going to be just a brief note (I promise more is coming soon) to describe several interesting things to happened to me this weekend, mostly involving going to visit Niveen's aunt. Hamada works on Saturdays, but Niveen and the kids and I spent most of the day there, with good results.

1) They were making filled pastries (with meat, cheese, spinach, or zattar) when I got there, which were excellent. They wouldn't let me help, but I got to watch, and I think if I knew how to make the dough and what the baking instructions are I could do the same thing.

2) The aunt's son is getting married in November, so we're going to his wedding! I'm super excited to get to go to a real Jordanian wedding.

3) A cousin somehow convinced Niveen that it would be a good idea to buy some fish for Yazan (they had a tank there and he was fascinated by it) so we now have a fishbowl with four fish in the kitchen. Knowing the delicate nature of most pet fish, I have serious questions about their long-term viability in our house, but we'll see. Expect samak updates in the days to come...
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