spring break: emily takes on palestine and israel

Last week was the week I’ve been waiting for all semester: Spring Break! It was sort of a last minute decision, but I decided to go to Ramallah (which is in the West Bank for all you non-geography buffs), Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. So, here we go!

The bright side of going to the West Bank and Israel is that you don’t have to take a plane. The downside is that you have to take a taxi, another taxi, exit Jordan, grab a bus, get through Israeli border control, grab another bus, and then another taxi in order to get to Ramallah. Distance-wise, it’s a pretty short trip, but getting all those different buses and taxis makes it pretty lengthy. In addition, Israeli border security can be pretty difficult, but luckily my friend Miles and I passed through with minimal problems!

We made it to Ramallah and after searching for our hotel, we finally found it. The best part was as I was walking up the stairs, l discovered that my friend from McDaniel, Eddie, was staying in the same hotel. We put our stuff down and he offered to show us what he’d seen of the city so far, including the best shawerma place I’ve been to since I got to the Middle East. It was so good that I ended up going back twice!

The next day was for exploring and so I had planned to go see a Palestinian brewery called Taybeh. They offer free samples of their beer (which is good) and they give free tours. It was a pretty small brewery, but it was good to see. Afterwards, we explored the town of Taybeh, which is a small Christian community. There were a couple of churches and some beautiful scenery.

The outside of the Taybeh brewery.

A church in the center of town.

The Greek Orthodox church

Later that night, we met up with Miles’ host dad’s brother, who then invited us over for coffee. We went and we met his entire family. Aziz spoke only Arabic, but his two daughters spoke good English, so even though there were a few language barriers, we were able to communicate and it was really fun. The one thing that I was disappointed in when I got to Jordan was that there wasn’t a homestay option for my program, so I haven’t gotten to connect to Jordanians as much as I would’ve like. But that night in Ramallah was almost like being with a host family, so it was really cool. We planned to meet up with Aziz’s daughters the next day at Bir Zeit University, but the campus was holding elections and visitors weren’t permitted on campus and so instead, we headed to Jerusalem!

We got to Jerusalem kind of late, so instead of heading towards the Old City, we decided to explore the other parts of Jerusalem first and so we went the opposite direction towards the Knesset and found a huge park. It was absolutely gorgeous, but we realized that the Knesset was actually a pretty far walk from where we were. Conveniently enough, there was a giant church in between us and the Knesset, so we just explored that instead.

This is the church that we found. I discovered on this trip that even though it’s generally a good idea to have a good idea of what you want to do when you’re traveling, sometimes it’s fun just to head somewhere and see what you stumble on. I never would’ve planned to see this, my friends and I just happened to find it in the middle of a park.

The next day was spent exploring the Old City of Jerusalem which is where most of the historical sites are. Here are the highlights:

Dome of the Rock

Western Wall

Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives (which isn’t actually in the Old City, but I’m counting it anyway)

After almost a week of some pretty intense sightseeing, it was time for sleeping in and going to the beach in Tel Aviv! There was some exploring to be done though, in the old city of Yafo. Here are some of the highlights:

A minaret overlooking the Mediterranean

This is just to prove that I was actually there. Just kidding! That’s the Tel Aviv skyline.

 Sunset over the Mediterranean

The original plan had been to head back to Amman on Friday, but the border was closed and there’s no public transportation in Israel on Saturdays and so we stayed in Tel Aviv for an extra night before heading back to Jerusalem. Even though it wasn’t the original plan, it was still good because I was lucky enough to be in Jerusalem for Easter! Had I been in Amman, it would’ve been pretty unlikely that I would’ve gone to an Easter service, mostly because I don’t know where there’s a church in Amman (there are some, I just haven’t seen them). So instead, I woke up at 5am for a sunrise service in Jerusalem at the Garden Tomb, which in Western Christian tradition is where Jesus was buried. It was a good service and I was happy to be able to actually celebrate Easter.

After the service was over, it was time to head back because I had class the next day. I made it back safe and sound and the trip back was significantly faster, which was definitely nice!

the word for blind is….

So this week has been pretty hectic because it’s time for midterms. Yesterday I had an Arabic test, today I had my midterm in Development Economics and tomorrow I have a presentation in my Arabic dialect class. Basically, there’s been a lot of studying or a lot of thinking about how I should be studying. Anyway, Arabic tests are always the most stressful for me because when it comes down to it, you either know it or you don’t. So the night before an Arabic test, you can always find me studying like a crazy person.

Tuesday morning I woke up early to keep studying (we had A LOT of words to memorize!) and on the way to the Institute of Diplomacy, my roommates and I all had our vocabulary lists out. We didn’t have a normal cab driver though, this cab driver decided that it was his duty to help us study for our exam so he took my friend Katie’s notes out of her hands and started reading them. While he was driving. When he realized we were studying the parts of the body, he started pointing at his different body parts and making us guess them. And then he started quizzing us on colors. And THEN he started quizzing us on physical characteristics. All of this was really cool until he wanted us to guess the word for blind and he decided to demonstrate his blindness by driving the taxi with his eyes closed…

Anyway, it was a really cool experience and I survived the taxi ride (and the test). It was a really funny experience and small experiences like this are  why I wanted to come to Jordan in the first place. It’s so hard to practice Arabic outside of class in the US because no one has any idea what you’re saying and there aren’t an abundance of Arabic-speakers hanging out in Westminster. Mostly, I’m just happy that I’m here and happy to have this opportunity!

Anyway, for those of you keeping track, today marks the end of my second month. I’ll be home in less than 2 months!

yella. wake up. you have to run.

This weekend was probably the most challenging adventure I’ve had so far in Jordan: The Dead2Red Relay Marathon. To give you a little introduction to the race, Dead2Red is a race from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea (Aqaba). That’s 242 kilometers, which is about 150-ish miles. Since no normal person can run 242 kilometers by themselves, you assemble a team of ten people and each person takes turns running until the team gets to Aqaba. If the distance wasn’t a big enough problem, the other challenging part about this race is making it to Aqaba in time. In order to get there before the end of the race, everyone has to run shorter distances so that they can run faster. The fastest teams get to Aqaba by running sprints for eleven hours straight, but that was not happening, so my team decided that each person would run 2 kilometers at a time.

About three weeks ago, five people in my program (including me) decided that we wanted to do Dead2Red. I joined a gym when I got to Jordan and so I’d been running on a pretty regular basis, but the real attraction was the idea of having a free weekend in Aqaba. They also told us that it was mostly downhill. I should’ve realized that wasn’t true, but I got my seas mixed up and thought that the Red Sea was the lowest point on Earth, when it’s actually the Dead Sea. And when the starting point is the lowest point on Earth, well, you can only go up from there. And in the case of (me) running, that’s not a good thing.

But before I get ahead of myself, the real adventure started on Wednesday night, when it started to snow in Amman. There have been a couple times so far this semester that it has snowed a little bit, but it hasn’t been anything serious. So when everyone was telling me that it was going to snow, I didn’t really take them seriously. This time was no joke though. It snowed and it snowed a lot. It snowed so much that we got a snow day on Thursday! So instead of heading to my conversational Arabic class on Thursday, I got to sleep in and prepped for the race.

Snow day in Amman! The view from my front balcony.

Luckily, when we got to the Dead Sea it wasn’t snowing there, it was only raining a little bit. It was really cool though, because the Dead Sea divides the West Bank and Jordan, so I could see the West Bank! What was more interesting was that it wasn’t raining on the other side of the sea, but it was really cloudy and stormy-looking on our side. I just wanted to run over there!

The team by the Dead Sea! You can see where the clouds begin, right over the Dead Sea. The other side is the West Bank!

The actual race was a lot of run, but it was definitely challenging. The first couple times I ran, I was fine, but then it started to get dark and then it started to get a lot harder. It was really tough to run, stop running and fall asleep and then have to wake back up and run more. Around midnight, the driver of the car knew that I was exhausted, so he started yelling out the window “yella yella! Bisoora bisoora!” (translation: go go! Quickly quickly!) Then, to motivate me even more, he started laying on his car horn. Apparently I still wasn’t running fast enough after that (completely unsurprising) so he started counting in Arabic “wahid, ithnain, thalatha…” so I thought that when he got to ten, I’d be done running. Not the case. He just started back at one. To top it all off, the driver then decided that all of that wasn’t making me go fast enough, so he got out of the car and started running with me. And counting. And that was when I knew it was going to be a long night.

Soon enough though, it started to get light outside and it was so much easier to run. I knew it was going to be tough to run in the dark, but I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. The desert was pitch black and I couldn’t see where I was going except for the five feet in front of me. So when the sun started coming up, I was pretty happy. We were in the valley, with mountains on both sides and the sun peaking through the clouds. And that was when I was a. really glad that I got this experience because it was absolutely beautiful and b. super excited that we were almost to Aqaba.

The sun peaking through the clouds in the morning.

The really fun part started when we were getting close to Aqaba. The whole way there, there were signs along the way. The only problem was that each of the signs said something different. So we had a rough idea of how much farther it was, but not an exact idea. So our driver, Rami, came up to us and suggested that we run 200 meter sprints for the last 17 kilometers so that we would get there faster. After some deliberation, we decided it was a good idea. So Rami turned up the music, we opened the side door of the van, and got pumped for sprints. They were actually a ton of fun, but really painful! We ran for awhile and then we started asking Rami how much longer we had to run and he would go.. “yaaaaneee 5k?” (translation: like… 5k?). It was not 5k. But it was okay because we were all happy that we were almost there.

Sprinting. If you could call it that. I was really excited we were almost to Aqaba!

Probably the best moment of my life was when they told us all to get out of the van and start running. We were finally at the finish line! I’m so glad that I decided to do Dead2Red because the memories will definitely last a lifetime (although I hope that I never EVER have to hear someone say “yella. wake up. you have to run” ever again.)

The team at the finish line!

Petra and Wadi Rum Adventure!

It’s been a month since I got here and I finally have an actual adventure to share! Last weekend, as part of my program, I took a weekend trip to Petra and  Wadi Rum! It was absolutely gorgeous! But more about that later.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy. Classes have been keeping me really busy, but I’ve definitely been learning a lot and I’ve had so many cool opportunities that I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t come here. For example, in my Jordan as a Case Study for Development and Diplomacy class, we’ve had the opportunity to take a couple of trips, including one to Parliament and one to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both were really interesting and a lot of people came to talk us, including the Secretary General of the MOFA (essentially the Hillary Clinton of Jordan).

So, as a reward for all our hard work, my program sent us to Petra and Wadi Rum so that we could get out of the city for a weekend and see what else Jordan has to offer! What makes Petra unique is that nothing there was built. Everything was carved into the stone that was already there. Some people believe it should be considered one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

We started the trip at Petra. This is a picture of the Siq, which is the entrance to the city. The rocks were moved apart by earthquakes and they formed a large crack. This picture sort of shows how the rocks were moved apart over time because you can see how they would’ve fit together. The walk through the Siq was about a mile long and along the way there were idols carved into the walls.

Since the walk to Petra was pretty long, I sort of forgot why were were there because I was too distracted looking at the walls of rock. So when the tourguide told us to look down at our feet, I didn’t think much of it. But then he told us to look up, and this was what I saw! This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but it was absolutely breathtaking to look up and see the Treasury.

This is the Treasury! It’s called the Treasury because the second civilization that found Petra thought that there was a pot at the top that was full of gold. They decided to shoot arrows to get to the gold, but then they figured out that the pot wasn’t actually full of anything, it was just solid rock. The name stuck, though, and it’s still called the Treasury today!

This is the monastery. This is probably the most spectacular site in all of Petra and it’s also somewhat of an accomplishment to get there. Before we left for our trip, a friend told us that we should go to the monastery. When we got to Petra, I asked my program coordinator how long it would take to walk to the monastery and she said it would take 4 hours and that there wasn’t time. But as people kept asking about how long it would take to get to the monastery, the number kept decreasing until finally, at lunch, our coordinator told us that it would take 40 minutes to get there and 40 minutes to get back. We had a little over an hour and a half to get to the monastery and eat lunch, so everyone in my program decided that we’d eat fast and then move fast. After scarfing down lunch, we pretty much ran up to the monastery, which was no easy task because it’s 800 steps to get there. But thanks to my roommates forcing me to go to the gym, we made it to the top in about a half hour. The steps were worth it though because the monastery was HUGE. It’s unbelievable that this was carved into rock, thousands of years ago.

After Petra, we headed to the bedouin camp where we spent the night. We got there after dark, so we threw our tents and then went to a big tent for dinner. After we’d been sitting down for a little, we were all herded outside and told to stand around this pile of dirt. The bedouins started digging and after a few minutes, they dug our dinner out of an underground oven. It was pretty cool, but I think we were mostly just excited to have dinner. After dinner, there was dessert, bedouin dancing, and a Saudi wedding. I spent most of the night being confused, but it was still a lot of fun! By 9:30 I was exhausted and so I headed for the tent to call it a night. Unfortunately, it’s still winter here and the desert is COLD at night. I had three blankets, but I was still freezing so I didn’t sleep well. But at least I can say I slept in bedouin camp!

We spent the next day in Wadi Rum. Forever ago, Wadi Rum used to be an ocean and rocks formed from the sand. Now, it’s just a desert but the giant rocks are still there and they’re super cool. We spent the first half of the day riding on 4×4 trucks, which were awesome. Our first stop was pretty much a giant sand dune, which was pretty cool. Then we got back in the trucks and headed to a much bigger mountain/cliff. It was probably the most intense rock climbing I could do in jeans, but it was so much fun! And the view from just halfway up was totally worth it…

It’s hard to see in that picture, but it’s pretty much straight down. After we all made it to the top, there was a race to the bottom and a couple of the kids in the other program did some pretty solid face-plants. By the time we got to the bottom though, we were all dumping the sand out of our shoes. I guess that’s what happens when you hang out in the desert.

We drove for a little further until we got to a spot where there were a million camels and bedouins just hanging out. It was time for camel-riding! Before we got on the camels, our tour guide, Abu Yazim, handed out keffiyehs and traditional Arab clothes so that we would look the part when we were on the camels. It was pretty fantastic and I can leave Jordan knowing that I did the most stereotypical thing you can do when you go to the desert. Life complete.

I’m looking forward to more adventures in the couple of weeks (and hopefully a little less homework) so that I can blog some more!

Hummus?! Shawerma?!

I’ve now been at in Jordan for two weeks and my program is just starting to get going. The first week was pretty much just orientation with a few Arabic dialect classes. The second week was kind of abnormal because my program has a lot of different components and to fit them all in, the semester is set up kind of weird. So last week I had three intensive dialect classes that were three hours long each. They tested my patience and my mental fortitude, but my professor is absolutely hilarious and keeps the class entertaining. He was also nice enough to give us coffee breaks every hour, which was awesome. Last  week I also had my core course (Jordan: A Case Study in Diplomacy and Development) every day. The idea is that the class is separated into four different modules: history, society, politics, and contemporary policies. In conjunction with that course, I’m also required to do an internship at a local development NGO or research center, which brings me to the whole purpose of this post.

Today, as part of the internship process, I had to go interview at an organization called the Wana Forum. One really cool thing about this place is that it’s located in the Royal Courts, which is pretty much the central place of the Hashemite monarchy. The downside is that it’s not something that the general public can get to, so we (I was going with two other girls in my program) figured that it would be kind of difficult to get in. After we were done with class, we immediately got a taxi and headed to the Courts. We told the taxi driver where we were headed, but he didn’t really understand exactly where we wanted to go, so he dropped us off at the wrong gate and left. When we walked up to the gate, there was a bit of a language barrier and we tried to tell the guards that we were supposed to be going to a job interview. Since none of us could actually communicate that, we handed them the job description and they realized that we were at the wrong gate. So instead of just sending us on our way, one of the guards stood in the middle of the street and flagged down the first cab that passed by, even though the taxi already had someone in it. The next thing I know, he was telling us to get in the taxi and the taxi would take us to the right place. We thanked the guards and headed to the right place.

After a quick taxi ride, we arrived at the right gate and some guards ushered us into the compound. Taxis aren’t allowed inside the Courts, so a driver was going to be meeting us and we had to wait for him to arrive. As we were waiting for the driver, there was a guard that was checking us in. He tried to make small talk, but soon realized that our Arabic was (really) limited and his English was limited, so conversation wasn’t really going to happen. We had been sitting there for about ten minutes when another guard walked in and began talking to the first guard. Whenever people are talking in Arabic I always try to listen and see if there are words that I can pick up. They were both talking pretty fast, but at the end of the sentence, I thought I heard one of the guards say the word hummus, so I looked up and said, “Hummus?!” At that point, they looked at me and both started cracking up. They hadn’t been talking about food at all, which was really embarrassing on my end, but they were amused that I was attempting to understand them.    Finally, the driver arrived and took us to where we were going. Usually I get pretty nervous at interviews, but after all the stress of attempting to get to the interview on time, it was just a relief to finally be there!

After the interview was over, the interviewer asked us where we were going. When we said Shmeisani, she said that a driver would meet us out front. I assumed that he would take us back to the gate and we’d grab a taxi from there, but he actually took us the whole way home! When he learned that we were studying Arabic, he insisted that we practice our Arabic and so he was asking us about how long we’d been in Amman and telling us about the different neighborhoods we were passing. There was a lull in the conversation and so one of the other girls in the car asked the driver where the best place to get shawerma was. He listed about three places, asked if we wanted to get shawerma, and then insisted that we get shawerma. It took some effort, but we finally convinced him that we’d get shawerma tomorrow and we just wanted to go home. When we thought our afternoon couldn’t get more interesting, we turned off the main road and there was a HUGE crowd of men and two empty busses in the middle of the road. A lot of the men were shouting and we were sitting in the back of the car wondering if we were driving through a protest. Our driver had a sense of humor and said under his breath, “What is this? The Hajj?!” Luckily the driver was able to break through the crowd of people and take us home. Note: I still don’t know why there was a massive group of men shouting in the middle of the street.

All in all, it was probably the most interesting day I’ve had so far in Amman. Obviously there are a lot of things that are different here, but sometimes I think I unconsciously pretend that I’m just in a different city in the States. Today was really the first time that I actually realized that I’m in a different country. There was no way that any of those things would’ve happened at home and in a way, that was hard to reconcile in my mind. When I walked into my apartment building, I realized just how surreal the afternoon had been.

If you’ve stuck with me this long, you’re a trooper. I promise I’ll put extra pictures in my next post.

Ma Salaama!

-Emily

So many balconies!

I’ve officially made it through my first week and a half of being abroad! Hooray!

The first half of last week was a week of luxury. When I arrived at the hotel, it was sort of late and I was pretty tired, but when I got upstairs, I was totally taken by surprise. We were staying in probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever been in AND we were staying in the “Royal Apartments”. And they weren’t kidding when they said that they were royal.

This is the living room space. On the right, the sliding door lead out to a big balcony that overlooked part of the city.

There was a dining room space as well. Through the window, you can also see the kitchen we had. We didn’t do any cooking at the hotel though.

The view from the balcony!

For most of the week we had orientation, which was not too exciting, but definitely informative.  We did have some more fun events though. On Monday, we took a tour of the city and visited the Citadel and the Roman Theater. Both sites were absolutely gorgeous. It was really strange pulling up to the Roman Theater because in the middle of a hustling and bustling city, there’s a giant Roman ruin built into the side of the hill.

A photo of one side of the theater

From the entrance looking up at the theater

From the top looking down. It was terrifying walking up because all the steps were uneven, but I made it!

After exploring the Theater, we went from the bottom of the hill to the top. Amman is a city that’s built on several hills (I want to say seven, but I could be mistaken) and on top of one of the hills is the Citadel. Historically, Amman has been an important place and has seen lots of different civilizations. The cool thing about the Citadel is that when new civilizations arrived in Amman, instead of tearing down old structures, the new people just built around the already existing structures. Citadel Hill is a place where you can see thousands of years of history in just one place.

This is Hercules Temple. It was built by the Romans and this is what’s left. There was a huge statue of Hercules, but now all that’s left is an elbow and  a finger.

On Wednesday, though, I finally got to stop living out of a suitcase and I moved into my apartment. All week the staff here in Amman had been telling us that we’d be living in a neighborhood called Shmeisani, which they said was a residential area that was full of families. I wasn’t sure what to expect, though, because in the US, student apartments are generally pretty basic and not much to get excited about. I was definitely surprised when I got to the apartment because the apartment is huge!

This is sort of like the TV room. There’s a TV on the right that you can’t see. Behind the couch, the sliding door leads to a balcony that looks out on the street. And yes, that is a Japanese lantern. And no, we did not put it there.

This is the sitting area that’s next to the TV area. We have so many couches!

The dining room area which is behind white couches.

One half of the kitchen. The door next to the counter leads to another balcony.

The other half of the kitchen.

My room! Behind the closets, there’s a door to ANOTHER balcony. I get the feeling that balconies are a big deal here.

You also might notice that my bed’s a little lumpy which isn’t because I can’t make a bed, it’s because there’s a sleeping bag under my blankets. It’s cold here! Side note: the other day it even snowed a little bit! But anyway, Jordan is a developing country, which means that basic things I take for granted at home (like being able to turn on the heat whenever I want or  taking long, hot showers) aren’t possible here. We only get a few hours of heat a day, which means that we don’t sleep with the heat on. Despite all that, I’ve had a great time since I’ve been here. The adjustments have been relatively easy to make and it’s eye-opening to live in another part of the world where they don’t have the same luxuries that I have back home.

-Emily

I’m here!

This will be a short post because I just got here at it’s almost 11pm, but I figured that I’d update the world that I am alive and well in Amman. For the past 12-15 hours (I’m not really sure how long) I’ve been on a plane. Both flights went smoothly and I made it here safe and sound!

I got to the Amman airport, where I met another guy who’s studying with CIEE, except he’s doing the language program. We navigated our way through customs and getting our baggage and then we headed out to face the rest of the airport.

Remember when I said I was hoping that this experience would be something like my Kenyan one? Well, if nothing else is the same, the driving is. Drivers here are crazy, but I guess they manage to make it work. They are also addicted to their horns. I’m currently sitting in my hotel room (on the 11th floor, the “Royal Apartment!”) and all I can hear are car horns. Living in the city is another adjustment I’m going to have to make.

All in all, it’s starting to hit me. The next four months are going to be filled with lots and lots of Arabic. I’m looking forward to it!

 

-Emily

It’s (almost) time.

In six days, I’ll be on a plane to Amman, Jordan where I’ll be living and studying for the next four months.

I am a combination of extremely excited and incredibly nervous.

I haven’t always been interested in the Middle East. When I started college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was pretty sure that I wanted to study political science, but that was mostly because everything else sounded boring. Then, for fall semester of my sophomore year, I signed up to take Politics of the Middle East and I walked into the class with essentially no knowledge of the Middle East. During the first few weeks of class I was unbelievably confused. I had no idea what was going on and I was starting to think that I had decided on the wrong major. But after a few weeks, I started to get it and I really liked it. I was also studying Arabic at the same time and I decided that I wanted to study abroad in the Middle East.

This is going to be an adventure and I’m ready to embrace it as one. For the past few months I’ve been trying to prepare myself for the countless mistakes that I’m sure I’m going to make, the frustration, and the confusion that I’ve heard accompanies study abroad. But I’m also so excited to see a brand new part of the world. Exactly one year ago, I was living in a small village in Kenya and my time spent there was both eye-opening and wonderful. Obviously Kenya and Jordan are two completely different places, but I’m hoping that I’ll have a similar experience in Amman. In any case, I’m really grateful that I have this opportunity and ready or not, in six days, my adventure begins!

I’m hoping that this blog will serve as a way to keep everyone updated about what (and how) I’m doing and I’m also hoping to post pictures so that you can see what I see! In addition, I love getting emails and if you’d like to keep in touch with me through email, feel free! My address is ejs007@mcdaniel.edu

-Emily