Jordan Sands

Aqaba

2007-10-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

Ryan, Ayman, Stephanie, and I spent much of our time sweating through Wadi Rum imagining the moment when we would plunge into the Red Sea in Aqaba. And when the time came, it was pretty sweet.

The town of Aqaba itself was pretty cute; a small, very conservative place, with a Saudi flavor, spiced by the odd tourists walking obliviously around in shorts. The Israeli town of Eliat and the Sinai were visible from our hotel. We spent one night hanging out in a local cafe on the beach, where were dragged our table into the water and dipped our ankles in the surf. It was pleasant, but the real focus of the trip was the day spent on the beach and snorkeling around the live coral reef.

The Crew

Leisure time well spent

Ayman negotiates high-powered business deals while Stephanie and I work out the final points of towel wrapping.

Take 2: Much better

a glorious sunset

The Reef

The intrepid snorklers:

Stephanie: Also known as the "the fish"

Ariela: Doing a little dance and trying not to drown

Ryan, looking unambitiously graceful

Krak de Chevaliers

2007-10-30T22:10:00.002-07:00

Coming Soon to a blog near you ...

Damascus

2007-10-30T22:10:00.001-07:00

Coming soon to a blog near you ...

Wadi Rum: Take 1

2007-10-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

Coming soon to a blog near you ...

Petra: The Rose Red City

2007-08-10T03:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, July 29, we came into school to find that not only did we have Monday off, as usually, but that Tuesday had been declared a national holiday and we would thus have our first two day weekend ever. Plans to attend the music festival in Jerash were quickly trashed and replaced with an overnight trip to Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world. We (me, Stephanie, Kat, Ryan, Ellie, Sean, Ayesnur, and Husna) arrived Monday in the late afternoon. We walked the narrow canyon (called the Siq) to the treasury, and then down to the old Roman Theater. We went back later that night to see Petra By Night, filing down the lantern lined Siq to a concert before the dimly lit Treasury. The next day we got up early to go on a hike through the park and discovered that it is much vaster than the tourism industry makes out. Most of the group took off back to Amman that afternoon but Kat, Ryan, and I kept walking, climbing the endless stairs until sunset and then stayed another night before returning to Amman and class the next morning.

And yes, it was wondrous.

(Unfortunately, and to my great distress, I left my camera in a cab on the way back to Amman and all my pictures were lost, these I owe to the rest of the group, with thanks for the memories)

Entering the Park

We were astonished with this tomb at the time, little did we know that it would be one of hundreds throughout the park.

Entering the Siq

Niches carved into the canyon walls

Water channels lining the sides

Time wears downs all women

Must ... Climb ... Rock ...

The Treasury peaks out from around the corner

Returning later, we walked, in one large line, back down the Siq, now lined with hundreds of lanterns.

The next morning we took off at 8am to explore the rest of the park.

Walking down another (less famous) canyon, we suddenly pop around a corner to find more ancient Nabatein carvings. Apparently those guys really got around.

The girls

Coming to the end of our canyon walk we pop out into an open area, make for the nearest cliff face, and realize that there was more to Petra than we ever imagined.

Finding ourselves back towards the city center we wind up twisting staircase, carved aesthetically into the rock, slowly making our way towards the High Place of Sacrifice.

The intrepid explorers are lost ...

... and getting desperate!

Husna and Ayensur: We loved you and your willingness to be dragged to the tops of desert mountains.

We got to the top (sorry, the goal was not as interesting as the journey), and found another staircase pointing the way back down.

And the tombs never did stop coming.

When we got down off the mountain everyone but Ryan, Kat, and I huffed it back to the entrance to catch the last bus back to Amman. They missed that bus, but that is another story. The three of us hung out around the Roman city center for a bit ...

... Then climbed up another mountain towards the Monastery

After about an hour of climbing stairs I walked right past it and didn't even notice it was there until I looked back over my shoulder. Its a hell of a thing to have sneak up on you like that!

For a sense of scale, I'm on the right, Kat is one the left.

Worth going back.

Maqamat (Holy Sites)

2007-08-10T02:39:00.000-07:00

Many a long week ago Qasid organized a day trip to visit various Muslim religious sites around the country. The three sites that we saw were Mosques built either around the tombs of famous people or places they had once stayed. Also, because we were entering Mosques we all wore Hijab for the occasion. I have Ellie to thank for the wonderful pictures.

The first Mosque we visited was built around the tomb of Abu Abayda, one of the companions of the prophet.

We began in the main prayer room, the women in the upper, balcony chamber, and the men below.

Looking down

the ladies

Stephanie walking across the central courtyard

Kat through the pillars

At the tomb of Abu Abayda

We then continued to another, smaller mosque, which we were told was built around the tomb of one of the prophets, but I didn't catch his name. When we entered the tomb the Imam sat with us and gave a lecture in Arabic about the life of the prophet. Although Dr. Rehan was translating for us I was pleased that I was able to follow along with most of the Arabic myself. And it wasn't until he started talking about bringing down the walls of Jericho that I realized this was the tomb of the prophet Joshua!

The small cemetery in the background

Ellie

Stephanie

Nell

Entering the tomb of the Prophet

The tomb and the Imam

We visited one last mosque for our last stop but by that time it was 3pm and we hadn't eaten all day, so we took a brief look at the exterior and then hurried off, and I have to admit I was too hungry by that point to remember anything about this last mosque - but it sure was cute!

The Dead Sea

2007-07-20T13:31:00.001-07:00

My first group vacation: a day trip to the dead sea. This involved an early morning trip to the bus station where we first located and then boarded our chariot, which took us on a forty-five minute ride down to a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. From here we chartered two taxis down to the string of resort hotels lining the beach, paid to use one of said beaches, and quickly joined the half-naked European tourists bobbing like buoys in the salty water.

Yo! We have arrived! (Stephanie and David dominate this photo - great hat Steph. - while I am clearly having issues with the sun, and Ryan may be trying to proposition someone behind the camera)

Beach chairs, palm trees, a stretch of sand, and the West Bank rising in the background - Welcome to the lowest point on Earth.

The beach was usually dominated by a large and roving herd of mud-people. Here David has his picture taken with them.

We tried to warn him - they can be ornery when provoked (could it have been that large and menacing one behind him?)

Ryan becomes the first of us to go native and convert to the mud-people way.

Here we see him and his people in their native habitat.

No! Stephanie has converted and she is coming for YOU!

I tried but I just couldn't get to Ellie before she and Kat did.

They actually seem pretty happy ...

Ah, what the hell, when in Rome. (By the way, that bathing suit took for-ev-er to get clean!)

Now come the idyllic beach scenes.

Ellie, caught in a moment of slightly grumpy cuteness. And could that be Stephanie actually doing homework in the background? Who would have thought?

David, in a rare moment of tranquility

I promised myself that I would never post this, but it is too characteristic. I, of course, am sprawled out and snoring in complete disorder, David has returned to a fetal position, Ellie sleeps not but rather stares sassily into the camera, Stephanie is at her neverending homework, and yes, Ryan does sleep in a Zen meditation pose.

Before leaving we return to take pictures of the bobbing.

Look mom, no hands!

Damn it, I tried to prove that Nell was actually on this trip with us, and of course the photo won't stand upright.

Homeward Bound (which was a great movie, by the way, you can not beat talking dogs, and that one scene at the end when the old golden retriever runs home to his boy - face it, you cried.)

There's Nell!

The Friday Souk

2007-07-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite routines here has become going each week to the Friday Souk, a large open air flee-market where vendors set up stall after stall selling clothes, shoes, fruits, vegetables, and household goods. I am indebted to Kat for these photos, and while I was not on this particular trip, I have been on many just like it.

The source of all our sports clothes here.

The vendors are usually a little more animated than this.

Eli says: oooooooo.... shiny....

We're not sure what Ryan's buying, but he seems pretty pleased with it.

Eli and Kate buying pretty things, David searching his back-pack, and Ryan providing cover in the back.

Eat your vegetables!

Hmmmm... cherries...

Fruit Lovers?

Shoes

More shoes

For those whose lives are unencumbered by those meddlesome tables

And finally, the wandering sweet drink seller. Those drinks are ridiculously sweet.

Beginning Explorations

2007-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Since I arrived in Amman, Jordan (Philadephia under the Roman Empire)on June 20th, 2007 and this is my first post I have a little to catch up on. With the exception of a visit or two back home to the states, I will be in Jordan for the next year on a Fulbright Student Grant. While my main goal is to studying oral narratives amoung post-nomadic Bedouins living in Wadi Moussa (near Petra) I will be spending the summer in the captial city, Amman studying Arabic at the Qasid Institute (www.qasid.com).

The Rough Guide calls Amman a "marked contrast" to its neighbors, "with none of the grand history of Damascus, none of Jerusalem's tension, and just a tiny fraction of Cairo's monuments ... a civilized, genteel place ... with an unexpected charm, not least because it subverts many stereotypes. " When Amman became the capital in the 1920's it was still a small village, but today has grown into a sprawling, industrialized city. I live in a quiet residential neighborhood behind the University of Jordan and have to agree with the Rough Guide, Amman is very civilized and very easy to live with. To this day I am struck by how very little harassment and how much respect I receive. Men stand to vacate their seats to women on the bus (indeed, bus drivers grant women the courtesy of coming to a complete stop before picking them up or dropping them off). My apartment is nicer than any housing I ever inhabited in College and the weather is blissfully cool in comparison to North Africa or the Gulf. For a favorite image of Amman: wherever I walk I am constantly whacked by shrubbery overflowing from neighboring courtyards or planted in the middle of the sidewalk.

City Ruins

Qasid sponsored a city tour for all us students, which I had assumed would show us all the relevant city areas and important landmarks. I was, however, mistaken and we were given, instead, a tour of historical Amman, beginning with the Roman ruins at the center.

Roman Theatre

The Roman Theatre was built in Philadelphia in the second century A.D. under the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and is impressively huge and very well restored and cared for. The Rough Guide tells me that it was built to seat an audience of almost six thousand and is still occasionally filled for concerts, a sight I would like to see.

Our group files into the forum in front of the Theatre

An incredibly concise portrayal of Qasid men

The Amphitheatre from the Forum

Entering...

The Stage
The Stairs

Stephanie and her omnipresent computer bag. Other details to note in this picture include the two guys struggling upwards on all fours and Ryan (way in the back) running up in classic jogging position.

Well worth the climb

The Rough Guide tells me that this was an earlier theatre, built to seat about five hundred. We called it the children's theatre, and it was very cute.

Jebel al-Qal'a (Citadel Hill)

After exploring the Theatre we returned to the bus and wound our way up to the hill overlooking the city. Known as Citadel Hill the site contains the ruins of a Roman Temple to Hercules, a massive Umayyad Palace complex, and the National Archaeological Museum.

Temple to Hercules

The Umayyad Palace

The most impressive building by far was the domed entrance hall.

Grrrr... Can't. Get. Picture. Upright.

So An-noy-ing.

Stupid Blog.

At least this one is supposed to have this orientation

Whoot, one that worked!

Pretty cool, huh

Ajloun