Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Postscript to the Second Half of the Last Post in Jordan
I guess I left out Jerusalem. Unfortunately, I have to wake up early tomorrow to pack before my last exam, so I guess I'll be writing about Jerusalem in China. Sorry to torture you all, I'll write everything as soon as I can.
Second Half of the Last Post in Jordan
The weekend after Wadi Rum, I went with 2 of my friends, my roommate Lauren and another girl, Kim, to the Dana Nature Preserve. Dana is kind of an experiment in Jordan, where they are trying to set aside land and still support the local people on it, mostly through tourism. It's basically a canyon, not like Wadi Rum but an actual canyon with a (very small) river at the bottom and cliff sides. There are quite a few trails, most of them requiring a guide. Getting to Dana is a little bit tricky, mostly because there's no bus that goes directly there. Lauren, Kim and I got on a bus in Amman that was supposed to leave at 9 (not surprisingly, we left around 10:30 and the bus driver was disappointed we knew how much money to pay) which took us to a large town that was sort of close, then we had to negotiate for a taxi there. Fortunately, there was a Jordanian woman who I had befriended slightly on the bus (she was the one who told us how much we should pay for the bus) offered to help us get a good price on a taxi. We probably could have managed on our own, but it was definitely helpful to have someone who really speaks the language do the negotiating. The town of Dana itself is very small, so there are a limited number of options in terms of accommodations. We ended up staying at the Dana Tower Hostel, recommended to us by other CIEE students who had gone earlier. It was called a tower, but while it may have been the tallest building in the town, it definitely didn't look like a tower. It was too sprawling for that. A common feature of the architecture for hostels in this part of the world seems to be circuitous stairs and multiple levels but not necessarily directly on top of each other.
All three of us were not feeling especially energetic, and it was the hottest part of the day when we got there, so we decided to take a very short hike to the spring just outside the village and relaxing before deciding what to do. We only had one day, since all three of us had exams on Sunday, and in my case a research paper on Monday, and so we had to come back in the morning on Saturday. The spring was not particularly impressive. There did seem to be a small waterfall above where the stream started, but there was too much underbrush to see clearly. We eventually gave up trying to find it and returned to the hostel to have lunch and wait for the day to cool off slightly. We were all feeling very lazy, at least partially due to the heat, but also, at least in my case, because there was no stressing about homework or preparing for exams, because the material was in Amman. I couldn't study, even if I wanted to, so relaxing was the only option. This semester has been the easiest academically that I have ever had in college, but stretching the finals out for 3 weeks was still somewhat stressful because even though the volume of work was never really high, there was always something. I prefer more of a sprint to the finish style of finals.
Anyway, when we finally did decide to move, we chose to go down the only non-guided trail, straight down into the canyon, so we could go at our own pace. As it turned out, we only got about half-way down when I spotted some sandstone rock outcroppings with shade that looked interesting and we decided to stop. We didn't leave until sunset. I did a little climbing around on the rocks, but mostly we all just sat, occasionally talking, mostly just relaxing. It was a wonderful afternoon, although I can't claim to have seen much of Dana Nature Preserve. I did see a lot of birds though, and different varieties too. It was the most diversity of wildlife I've seen in Jordan. When the sun was close to setting, we started up, which was actually quite challenging. Those switchbacks were extremely steep. We did manage to beat the sun though, and were able to watch it set from the top. It was a great day, except that oddly enough none of us could sleep that night. Our bus was leaving at 5:30, but the other two were too hot to sleep, and I just wasn't tired at all. So we mostly ended up sitting outside, watching the stars. We watched the sun rise and set in the same 24 hour period. It wasn't the most exciting trip, but it was definitely one of the most stress-free. Again, I'll post pictures when my internet is working better.
All three of us were not feeling especially energetic, and it was the hottest part of the day when we got there, so we decided to take a very short hike to the spring just outside the village and relaxing before deciding what to do. We only had one day, since all three of us had exams on Sunday, and in my case a research paper on Monday, and so we had to come back in the morning on Saturday. The spring was not particularly impressive. There did seem to be a small waterfall above where the stream started, but there was too much underbrush to see clearly. We eventually gave up trying to find it and returned to the hostel to have lunch and wait for the day to cool off slightly. We were all feeling very lazy, at least partially due to the heat, but also, at least in my case, because there was no stressing about homework or preparing for exams, because the material was in Amman. I couldn't study, even if I wanted to, so relaxing was the only option. This semester has been the easiest academically that I have ever had in college, but stretching the finals out for 3 weeks was still somewhat stressful because even though the volume of work was never really high, there was always something. I prefer more of a sprint to the finish style of finals.
Anyway, when we finally did decide to move, we chose to go down the only non-guided trail, straight down into the canyon, so we could go at our own pace. As it turned out, we only got about half-way down when I spotted some sandstone rock outcroppings with shade that looked interesting and we decided to stop. We didn't leave until sunset. I did a little climbing around on the rocks, but mostly we all just sat, occasionally talking, mostly just relaxing. It was a wonderful afternoon, although I can't claim to have seen much of Dana Nature Preserve. I did see a lot of birds though, and different varieties too. It was the most diversity of wildlife I've seen in Jordan. When the sun was close to setting, we started up, which was actually quite challenging. Those switchbacks were extremely steep. We did manage to beat the sun though, and were able to watch it set from the top. It was a great day, except that oddly enough none of us could sleep that night. Our bus was leaving at 5:30, but the other two were too hot to sleep, and I just wasn't tired at all. So we mostly ended up sitting outside, watching the stars. We watched the sun rise and set in the same 24 hour period. It wasn't the most exciting trip, but it was definitely one of the most stress-free. Again, I'll post pictures when my internet is working better.
Last Post in Jordan
This is my last post in Jordan. I leave for China tomorrow night, at 2 am. Sorry I've dropped the ball on posting for the last month, finals was stretched out for a full three weeks, so I have actually been busy, plus I've traveled almost every weekend. My last exam is actually tomorrow. I've taken three trips in the past month, two in Jordan and last weekend, I went to Israel. I'll start with the Jordan trips though, Wadi Rum and Dana Nature Preserve.
Wadi Rum is one of the more famous places in Jordan, although unless you've researched the country you've probably never heard of it. It's a great place for rock climbing and actually reminded me very strongly of southern Utah. It's desert, like the rest of Jordan, but although it's called valley (wadi means valley) its more like a lower altitude plateau with small mountains bordering it and somewhat randomly appearing in the middle of it than what I think of as a canyon. The mountains are, not surprisingly, sandstone, which makes climbing somewhat interesting. This was a CIEE trip, and it was a very popular one, so my experience was quite a bit different than if I had gone in a smaller group. There were probably 80 of us, at least. We had been told that we were going on 4x4s, which I thought meant 4-wheelers (ATVs, whatever you want to call it). I couldn't imagine CIEE actually putting all of us college students in charge of our own motorized vehicles, not least because it is strictly forbidden in the study abroad rules. It turned out that I was right, by 4x4s, they meant small pickup trucks with benches in the back suitable for 6 people. At first I was somewhat disappointed (I would have liked to drive something) but it was fun being driven. Of course, being college students, a lot of the 3 hour trip was spent trying to get our drivers to race each other across the desert, and at times they obliged us. There was a LOT of yelling. If there had been any animals in the vicinity, (I never saw any other than camels, who I imagine are used to noisy tourists) they would have been long gone. It was fun though. We had periodic stops for tea and impromptu rock climbing. There were no ropes or anything like that, of course, it was just bouldering, but its been a long time since I got to climb anything, so that was probably my favorite part of the first day. Oh, and did I mention that it was hot? It's gotten hotter since then, so the memory isn't as clear, but it was definitely hot, at the beginning of April. The seasons here mess with my mind a bit.
After the jeep (as they called the pick-ups) ride, we were dropped off at a somewhat picturesque (although it would have been hard to find an un-picturesque spot) spot to watch the sun go down. This would have been much more fun with less people. Possibly with no people. As it happened, we didn't even completely finish watching it go down before we left. Our "camp" for the night, which I had been told was not a bedouin camp, but it was "like" a bedouin camp, consisted of rows of tents made out of rough cloth, which is actually what some bedouin tents are made of, except they use pretty much anything and their tents tend to be more of a patchwork of plastic and fabric, not nearly as orderly as our accommodations. I know this mostly because of the many bedouin tents I've seen by the side of most of the roads in this country, and even occasionally in Amman. Another thing that always accompanies the real bedouin tents is goats, sheep or both, and our hotel definitely didn't have that. There were probably ten establishments like this one all clustered in this one part of the desert, around a small mountain from a town, so as to seem more isolated. Nevertheless, it was nice enough.
The next day, we woke up to the sound of camels. The main features of this trip were the kinds of rides arranged for us. The first day was jeeps/pick-ups. The second day was camels. I thought surely we'd at least get to "drive" our own camels, but that did not happen either. Imagine seeing 80 camels, carrying mostly white American college students, mostly led in chains of camels by Jordanians across the desert of Wadi Rum. It was probably quite a sight. Camels, as it turns out, are not the most comfortable beasts to sit on for long periods of time. Our ride was 3 hours, and if there had been no trotting, I probably would have made it alright. The way you are supposed to sit on a camel is by hooking one of your knees over the front pommel and propping your other foot on top of that leg, sort of cross-legged. Most of us seemed to manage this alright, but my saddle happened to be too big, and there was no way for me to do this without sitting directly on top of the camel's hump (you should be just behind or just ahead of it, I think), which is both uncomfortable and rather precarious. So I wished for stirrups the whole way and couldn't walk the next day. Despite that, it was an interesting trip. We made a few stops at various spots, but the point was the ride itself. I was in the back of a string of 3 camels, led by a Jordanian who also held the reins to another string of 3 camels, so there were 6 of us and our "driver." The driver changed periodically, and watching these guys climb all over their camels was entertaining. My favorite way of mounting that I saw was when they stepped on the camel's neck while it was standing to get up to the saddle. We all mounted on the ground, and then the camel stood up, which was an extremely jerky process (first the back legs straightened, then the front) and you had to hold onto both the front and back pommels to stay seated. Oh, and then there was trotting. Walking was fine, not exactly smooth, but not jarring either. Trotting, on the other hand, is torturous, at least if you aren't sitting right it was. Our driver for the second half of the trip was quite a flirt, although not with any of us (all 6 of us were girls). He would bring our whole mini caravan up to a girl and start chatting. This was fine, except when he decided that he needed to catch up with a particular girl. Then came the trotting. This continued for probably the last hour, and by the end we were all cursing him. My camel in particular was unhelpful in this regard, because he seemed to delight in trotting at any time, and even though he was in the back, he still sometimes got the whole group going unnecessarily. I say he, but I was never actually able to check since he only stood up when I was on him. I named him Ahmed, just for something to yell when he started running. Not that he payed any attention to me of course. I'm sure these camels have carried hundreds of tourists across parts of Wadi Rum. We rode the camels to the visitor center, which is where we met our buses, so that was the end of the Wadi Rum adventure. I'll post pictures later, my internet is being a bit slow at the moment.
Wadi Rum is one of the more famous places in Jordan, although unless you've researched the country you've probably never heard of it. It's a great place for rock climbing and actually reminded me very strongly of southern Utah. It's desert, like the rest of Jordan, but although it's called valley (wadi means valley) its more like a lower altitude plateau with small mountains bordering it and somewhat randomly appearing in the middle of it than what I think of as a canyon. The mountains are, not surprisingly, sandstone, which makes climbing somewhat interesting. This was a CIEE trip, and it was a very popular one, so my experience was quite a bit different than if I had gone in a smaller group. There were probably 80 of us, at least. We had been told that we were going on 4x4s, which I thought meant 4-wheelers (ATVs, whatever you want to call it). I couldn't imagine CIEE actually putting all of us college students in charge of our own motorized vehicles, not least because it is strictly forbidden in the study abroad rules. It turned out that I was right, by 4x4s, they meant small pickup trucks with benches in the back suitable for 6 people. At first I was somewhat disappointed (I would have liked to drive something) but it was fun being driven. Of course, being college students, a lot of the 3 hour trip was spent trying to get our drivers to race each other across the desert, and at times they obliged us. There was a LOT of yelling. If there had been any animals in the vicinity, (I never saw any other than camels, who I imagine are used to noisy tourists) they would have been long gone. It was fun though. We had periodic stops for tea and impromptu rock climbing. There were no ropes or anything like that, of course, it was just bouldering, but its been a long time since I got to climb anything, so that was probably my favorite part of the first day. Oh, and did I mention that it was hot? It's gotten hotter since then, so the memory isn't as clear, but it was definitely hot, at the beginning of April. The seasons here mess with my mind a bit.
After the jeep (as they called the pick-ups) ride, we were dropped off at a somewhat picturesque (although it would have been hard to find an un-picturesque spot) spot to watch the sun go down. This would have been much more fun with less people. Possibly with no people. As it happened, we didn't even completely finish watching it go down before we left. Our "camp" for the night, which I had been told was not a bedouin camp, but it was "like" a bedouin camp, consisted of rows of tents made out of rough cloth, which is actually what some bedouin tents are made of, except they use pretty much anything and their tents tend to be more of a patchwork of plastic and fabric, not nearly as orderly as our accommodations. I know this mostly because of the many bedouin tents I've seen by the side of most of the roads in this country, and even occasionally in Amman. Another thing that always accompanies the real bedouin tents is goats, sheep or both, and our hotel definitely didn't have that. There were probably ten establishments like this one all clustered in this one part of the desert, around a small mountain from a town, so as to seem more isolated. Nevertheless, it was nice enough.
The next day, we woke up to the sound of camels. The main features of this trip were the kinds of rides arranged for us. The first day was jeeps/pick-ups. The second day was camels. I thought surely we'd at least get to "drive" our own camels, but that did not happen either. Imagine seeing 80 camels, carrying mostly white American college students, mostly led in chains of camels by Jordanians across the desert of Wadi Rum. It was probably quite a sight. Camels, as it turns out, are not the most comfortable beasts to sit on for long periods of time. Our ride was 3 hours, and if there had been no trotting, I probably would have made it alright. The way you are supposed to sit on a camel is by hooking one of your knees over the front pommel and propping your other foot on top of that leg, sort of cross-legged. Most of us seemed to manage this alright, but my saddle happened to be too big, and there was no way for me to do this without sitting directly on top of the camel's hump (you should be just behind or just ahead of it, I think), which is both uncomfortable and rather precarious. So I wished for stirrups the whole way and couldn't walk the next day. Despite that, it was an interesting trip. We made a few stops at various spots, but the point was the ride itself. I was in the back of a string of 3 camels, led by a Jordanian who also held the reins to another string of 3 camels, so there were 6 of us and our "driver." The driver changed periodically, and watching these guys climb all over their camels was entertaining. My favorite way of mounting that I saw was when they stepped on the camel's neck while it was standing to get up to the saddle. We all mounted on the ground, and then the camel stood up, which was an extremely jerky process (first the back legs straightened, then the front) and you had to hold onto both the front and back pommels to stay seated. Oh, and then there was trotting. Walking was fine, not exactly smooth, but not jarring either. Trotting, on the other hand, is torturous, at least if you aren't sitting right it was. Our driver for the second half of the trip was quite a flirt, although not with any of us (all 6 of us were girls). He would bring our whole mini caravan up to a girl and start chatting. This was fine, except when he decided that he needed to catch up with a particular girl. Then came the trotting. This continued for probably the last hour, and by the end we were all cursing him. My camel in particular was unhelpful in this regard, because he seemed to delight in trotting at any time, and even though he was in the back, he still sometimes got the whole group going unnecessarily. I say he, but I was never actually able to check since he only stood up when I was on him. I named him Ahmed, just for something to yell when he started running. Not that he payed any attention to me of course. I'm sure these camels have carried hundreds of tourists across parts of Wadi Rum. We rode the camels to the visitor center, which is where we met our buses, so that was the end of the Wadi Rum adventure. I'll post pictures later, my internet is being a bit slow at the moment.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Various field trips...
As usual, I haven't written in a while, but that's because not a lot has happened. Classes are progressing, the end is nearing (1 month left), and I finally have some actual homework, although still not much. I have been on several field trips, for various classes and with CIEE, in the last couple of weeks that were somewhat interesting, although not nearly as exciting as Petra and Wadi Feid. The weekend before last, I went on the CIEE trip to the desert castles in western Jordan, but it wasn't really as exciting as it sounds. We went to 4, and all except one looked like large houses in the middle of the desert more than castles. One of them had very impressive murals, and another had a mosaic floor that was quite beautiful, but even though we had a guide, we weren't given a lot of information about the sites. Most of them were from the Ummayyad period, (roughly the 8th century) and the only one that looked like an actual castle (outer wall with rooms, large courtyard with a mosque in the middle) was originally Roman, rebuilt by a relative of Saladin. West Jordan itself is quite desolate, for the most part. Most of the population lives in east Jordan, because of the lack of water in the west, so although there were a few towns, it felt empty. Oh, and I almost forgot, on our itinerary one of the stops listed was at an "Iraqi border sign" to take pictures. I was confused when I read this, because it didn't look like we were going to be driving long enough to reach the Iraqi border, and that seemed uncharacteristically risky for CIEE, but their meaning became clear when we stopped under a highway sign saying "Iraq" with an arrow pointing west. The funniest part was that nearly everyone filed out of the bus to take pictures under this sign, despite the fact that we were probably at least 200 kilometers from the border. In terms of entertainment, that was the high point of the day.
Last Saturday was also spent on a bus, this time with my Contemporary Thought in the Islamic World class, with brief stops at various mosques, most of them connected to graves of some of the Prophet's Companions. The mosques were beautiful, but unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any pictures. My favorite mosque was the first one we visited, where the prophet Joshua (according to Islam: I don't think he's considered a prophet by Christians or Jews), who took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses died in the Old Testament. There weren't very many people there, and the imam took quite a bit of time telling us Joshua's story and the history of the mosque. We were of course welcomed at every mosque we went to, which included drinks and brief descriptions of the important people buried there, but the imam at the first mosque seemed the least perturbed or... affected by the fact that we were Americans, which was nice. He addressed us as students, not necessarily foreigners. At the last three mosques we went to the same group of men gave us tours of each and one of them was constantly taking pictures. We went pretty far north but stayed in the east (the West Bank was always in sight) and I was surprised at how much agriculture there was. It was a complete contrast from the desert castle trip.
Today I went on yet another field trip, this one to the zoo with my Arabic class, of all places. I had braced myself for the zoo, but honestly it was still worse than I expected. It wasn't actually in Amman, and it was a combination amusement park and zoo. The animals were in barred, very small cages with concrete or dirt floors. That I was expecting, although it was still a bit of a shock, but the amount of trash in the cages was disturbing. They had almost all medium to large animals too, none of them were very small. They had vultures, pelicans, camels, deer, several species of monkey, what I think was a small species of wolf, or else a coyote relative, 2 black bears, and the main attraction, lions and tigers. All of the animals were either sleeping or doing some kind of pacing behavior. At one point there was a trainer in one of the cages with a baby jaguar, holding it by it's tail and using a stick to keep it from biting him. It wasn't clear if there was a purpose for this, but it was definitely disturbing to watch. It was not a fun field trip.
Last Saturday was also spent on a bus, this time with my Contemporary Thought in the Islamic World class, with brief stops at various mosques, most of them connected to graves of some of the Prophet's Companions. The mosques were beautiful, but unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any pictures. My favorite mosque was the first one we visited, where the prophet Joshua (according to Islam: I don't think he's considered a prophet by Christians or Jews), who took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses died in the Old Testament. There weren't very many people there, and the imam took quite a bit of time telling us Joshua's story and the history of the mosque. We were of course welcomed at every mosque we went to, which included drinks and brief descriptions of the important people buried there, but the imam at the first mosque seemed the least perturbed or... affected by the fact that we were Americans, which was nice. He addressed us as students, not necessarily foreigners. At the last three mosques we went to the same group of men gave us tours of each and one of them was constantly taking pictures. We went pretty far north but stayed in the east (the West Bank was always in sight) and I was surprised at how much agriculture there was. It was a complete contrast from the desert castle trip.
Today I went on yet another field trip, this one to the zoo with my Arabic class, of all places. I had braced myself for the zoo, but honestly it was still worse than I expected. It wasn't actually in Amman, and it was a combination amusement park and zoo. The animals were in barred, very small cages with concrete or dirt floors. That I was expecting, although it was still a bit of a shock, but the amount of trash in the cages was disturbing. They had almost all medium to large animals too, none of them were very small. They had vultures, pelicans, camels, deer, several species of monkey, what I think was a small species of wolf, or else a coyote relative, 2 black bears, and the main attraction, lions and tigers. All of the animals were either sleeping or doing some kind of pacing behavior. At one point there was a trainer in one of the cages with a baby jaguar, holding it by it's tail and using a stick to keep it from biting him. It wasn't clear if there was a purpose for this, but it was definitely disturbing to watch. It was not a fun field trip.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Egypt
Cairo is more or less as I remember it, but with more pollution and worse traffic, if that's possible. For those of you who don't know, I spent 6 weeks in Cairo with the AFS exchange program right after I graduated high school. I lived with 2 host families, and my main reason for wanting to go back was to reconnect with them, since I had completely lost touch with one and almost lost touch with the other. I was only half-way successful, but I now have the means to contact the other family, so next time (whenever that is), I'll be able to directly contact them. The family that I did have a tenuous connection with (through Facebook, with my host sister Dina), the El Sherbiny's, welcomed me to Egypt enthusiastically. I was actually a little surprised that they even remember me very well, since I had only stayed with them for a week and a half while my host father in my first family had surgery and was recuperating, and that was 4 years ago. Nevertheless, they invited me to stay with them for spring break.
My host mother, Nashwa, is a regular volunteer with the AFS office in Egypt, so as soon as I arrived, she offered to hook me up with a group of 5 women from Belgium who were doing a week-long exchange as part of a potential expansion of the EVA program, a European program that does short (1 week) exchanges for host mothers, so they can experience a little of what an exchange student goes through. This was the first exchange that had taken place outside of Europe. They had a very busy schedule, so I didn't join them for everything, but I did go to some of the sights in Cairo that I didn't make it to the first time, as well as Fayoum, a town outside of Cairo that has several pyramids (although a bit less impressive or well-known as the Pyramids of Giza). It was an almost entirely female trip, since the volunteers guiding us around were the Egyptian host mothers of the Belgian ladies (as everyone called them). Everyone was at least 20 years older than me, so that was interesting, but also fun. I now have contacts in Belgium if I ever get there. Dutch is also much easier than Arabic, not surprisingly. There were enough words that are basically English with an accent that by the end of the 3 days I spent with them, I was more or less able to follow a conversation based on the key words I picked up and body language, which is very similar, if not identical, to American body language. I hadn't realized how different Egyptian (and Jordanian) body language is from American until I realized that I could understand almost without words what the Belgian ladies were saying, while watching a conversation among Egyptians or Jordanians is almost a complete mystery to me, even if I understand more of the words. I understand Egyptian better than Jordanian though, both the language and the body language, probably because I lived with a host family there.
Besides tagging along with the Belgian ladies, I didn't do anything spectacularly interesting. Mostly, I just relaxed. I went with Dina to her college a couple of days, which was interesting. It's a private school, and in order to get in, it was easiest if the guards thought I was a student, according to Dina. However, the first day I wore a backpack, which immediately gave me away as an outsider. (Dina had to say that I was looking over the school with the possibility of attending.) College students don't wear backpacks here, in Egypt or in Jordan, only high school students. Very occasionally, a man might, but women carry big shoulder bags/purses. So the second day I borrowed one of Dina's bags, and was let in without question. Dina's school is a British private college, so the classes are taught mostly in English, although all of the professors that I saw were Egyptian. Dina is studying marketing, and mid-terms were coming up, so I essentially got a crash-course in junior-level marketing. It was somewhat interesting. Some of the strategies they outlined I recognized from ad campaigns I've seen. The accounting class was fun, oddly enough, because I tried to guess the formula before the professor put up the answer (the other students were supposed to know the formula, of course), and solve it in my head. I'd forgotten how much I used to like math, since I haven't done it in so long.
My host family was largely the same, with one big difference. Both of my host sisters were veiled, starting in September. Nashwa had always veiled, but when I knew Dina and Kout (her sister) 4 years ago, neither of them was particularly religious or politically conscious, which are two major reasons I have heard for veiling. When I asked them about it, Dina said that a very good friend of theirs had died, and that was why they started veiling. She never explained exactly why his death (he died in a freak accident) would cause them to veil. Now that she is veiling though, Dina is very serious about it. I spent more time with her than with Kout (she's 19, Dina's 20), but Dina at least is much more politically conscious than she used to be (not surprisingly; she was 16 when I knew her, and I wasn't particularly politically conscious then either). She also has a boyfriend, which is not exactly allowed. Her mother knows, but her father doesn't, because she wants to marry him, but he's still a student, and her father wouldn't want her to marry him if he can't immediately support her. Dating is no more encouraged in Egypt than it is in Jordan, although of course it happens, especially at university, where everyone is away from their families. However, I had several conversations with Dina in which she criticized veiled women who were physically close to their boyfriends at university, and she doesn't intend to allow her boyfriend any liberties until they are at least engaged, more likely married.
Cairo itself, as I mentioned above, is largely unchanged, from what I saw. It's incredibly dirty, taxi drivers are generally bastards, and as soon as people see a foreigner, the price rises 10 pounds (about equivalent to $2, but a lot in Egypt), unless it's already marked. Nevertheless, I like Cairo better than Amman. It might simply be because I went there first, since I've heard the same opinion expressed, but about Amman, by several other CIEE students. Other cities are nice, but Amman is better. Cairo is much bigger, both in terms of population and in terms of the buildings and sq mileage. In Amman, the average building is about 5 stories, and there are empty lots all over the place, often occupied by small herds of sheep or goats, and the occasional camel or two. In Cairo, the average building is 10-15 stories, and there are no open lots anywhere. There are some donkeys and horses, but they are all working, not grazing, and the only camels are at the pyramids, for tourists to take pictures on. However, Amman is also much more Westernized, in some ways. The malls here are essentially identical to malls in America, and although Cairo has a couple of those too, it also has malls that are nearly completely deserted, in which the escalator has been turned into a stair (wooden railing and all), but a few shops survive, along with a bunch of cats. That particular mall was in Zamalek, one of the richest parts of town. There are definitely Western influences visible in Cairo, but, at least in my opinion, the Egyptians have mostly transformed them to best suit themselves, whereas in Amman, a lot of things seem to be directly imported from the West, without any adjustment. I'm not sure that that's a bad thing, necessarily, but in terms of preserving their cultural independence, I think Cairo is doing better than Amman. I'm not sure about the communities outside of Amman or Cairo, since I haven't really been there, or about Egypt and Jordan as a whole.
Leaving Egypt was an adventure all by itself. I had originally bought a one-way ticket, because I was planning to travel by land to Israel and spend a few days in Jerusalem, but since the Israel's announcement of it's intention to build more settlements in Jerusalem, which got the university students at UJ a bit riled up, I decided that I probably shouldn't go alone, and it was too late to try to find another group of CIEE students who might be there at the same time. So, I decided to go by bus to Nuweiba, a port on the Red Sea, take a ferry to Aqaba, and a bus to Amman. The bus to Nuweiba was the worst part of the trip, because it was overnight. I left around 10 pm, and we were supposed to get to Nuweiba around 5 am, leaving plenty of time to catch the ferry which I was told left at 11 am. Knowing Egypt's record for timely transportation, I figured that was a highly optimistic estimate (both for the bus arrival time and the ferry departure time) and I was right on both counts. The bus seemed to have a lot of trouble with the tiniest hills, and our bus driver apparently had the flu, so really it was a relief just to reach Taba but for whatever reason, we had to switch buses (unscheduled) there. On the next bus, I happened to meet up with two CIEE students who I knew who were also going back to Amman, so the rest of the trip I had company. We didn't have any major bumps, just a lot of waiting. The ferry was the most expensive part of the trip, and we seemed to be almost the only women on board, as well as the only foreigners. They didn't seem to know what to do with us. We were put at the head of the line wherever we went, which we were all kind of uncomfortable with, and once on the boat they shuffled us around a bit until they finally settled us in what had to be the first class section, since it was nearly deserted and was very comfortable. That was the most comfortable part of the journey, but unfortunately it was also the shortest. In Jordan, we got off the boat and onto the bus, so I didn't see any of Aqaba, which is too bad. Apparently it's very pretty.
And now I'm back in Amman. There are 5 weeks left of classes, and then a final week of tests. This semester has going to be over very quickly.
My host mother, Nashwa, is a regular volunteer with the AFS office in Egypt, so as soon as I arrived, she offered to hook me up with a group of 5 women from Belgium who were doing a week-long exchange as part of a potential expansion of the EVA program, a European program that does short (1 week) exchanges for host mothers, so they can experience a little of what an exchange student goes through. This was the first exchange that had taken place outside of Europe. They had a very busy schedule, so I didn't join them for everything, but I did go to some of the sights in Cairo that I didn't make it to the first time, as well as Fayoum, a town outside of Cairo that has several pyramids (although a bit less impressive or well-known as the Pyramids of Giza). It was an almost entirely female trip, since the volunteers guiding us around were the Egyptian host mothers of the Belgian ladies (as everyone called them). Everyone was at least 20 years older than me, so that was interesting, but also fun. I now have contacts in Belgium if I ever get there. Dutch is also much easier than Arabic, not surprisingly. There were enough words that are basically English with an accent that by the end of the 3 days I spent with them, I was more or less able to follow a conversation based on the key words I picked up and body language, which is very similar, if not identical, to American body language. I hadn't realized how different Egyptian (and Jordanian) body language is from American until I realized that I could understand almost without words what the Belgian ladies were saying, while watching a conversation among Egyptians or Jordanians is almost a complete mystery to me, even if I understand more of the words. I understand Egyptian better than Jordanian though, both the language and the body language, probably because I lived with a host family there.
Besides tagging along with the Belgian ladies, I didn't do anything spectacularly interesting. Mostly, I just relaxed. I went with Dina to her college a couple of days, which was interesting. It's a private school, and in order to get in, it was easiest if the guards thought I was a student, according to Dina. However, the first day I wore a backpack, which immediately gave me away as an outsider. (Dina had to say that I was looking over the school with the possibility of attending.) College students don't wear backpacks here, in Egypt or in Jordan, only high school students. Very occasionally, a man might, but women carry big shoulder bags/purses. So the second day I borrowed one of Dina's bags, and was let in without question. Dina's school is a British private college, so the classes are taught mostly in English, although all of the professors that I saw were Egyptian. Dina is studying marketing, and mid-terms were coming up, so I essentially got a crash-course in junior-level marketing. It was somewhat interesting. Some of the strategies they outlined I recognized from ad campaigns I've seen. The accounting class was fun, oddly enough, because I tried to guess the formula before the professor put up the answer (the other students were supposed to know the formula, of course), and solve it in my head. I'd forgotten how much I used to like math, since I haven't done it in so long.
My host family was largely the same, with one big difference. Both of my host sisters were veiled, starting in September. Nashwa had always veiled, but when I knew Dina and Kout (her sister) 4 years ago, neither of them was particularly religious or politically conscious, which are two major reasons I have heard for veiling. When I asked them about it, Dina said that a very good friend of theirs had died, and that was why they started veiling. She never explained exactly why his death (he died in a freak accident) would cause them to veil. Now that she is veiling though, Dina is very serious about it. I spent more time with her than with Kout (she's 19, Dina's 20), but Dina at least is much more politically conscious than she used to be (not surprisingly; she was 16 when I knew her, and I wasn't particularly politically conscious then either). She also has a boyfriend, which is not exactly allowed. Her mother knows, but her father doesn't, because she wants to marry him, but he's still a student, and her father wouldn't want her to marry him if he can't immediately support her. Dating is no more encouraged in Egypt than it is in Jordan, although of course it happens, especially at university, where everyone is away from their families. However, I had several conversations with Dina in which she criticized veiled women who were physically close to their boyfriends at university, and she doesn't intend to allow her boyfriend any liberties until they are at least engaged, more likely married.
Cairo itself, as I mentioned above, is largely unchanged, from what I saw. It's incredibly dirty, taxi drivers are generally bastards, and as soon as people see a foreigner, the price rises 10 pounds (about equivalent to $2, but a lot in Egypt), unless it's already marked. Nevertheless, I like Cairo better than Amman. It might simply be because I went there first, since I've heard the same opinion expressed, but about Amman, by several other CIEE students. Other cities are nice, but Amman is better. Cairo is much bigger, both in terms of population and in terms of the buildings and sq mileage. In Amman, the average building is about 5 stories, and there are empty lots all over the place, often occupied by small herds of sheep or goats, and the occasional camel or two. In Cairo, the average building is 10-15 stories, and there are no open lots anywhere. There are some donkeys and horses, but they are all working, not grazing, and the only camels are at the pyramids, for tourists to take pictures on. However, Amman is also much more Westernized, in some ways. The malls here are essentially identical to malls in America, and although Cairo has a couple of those too, it also has malls that are nearly completely deserted, in which the escalator has been turned into a stair (wooden railing and all), but a few shops survive, along with a bunch of cats. That particular mall was in Zamalek, one of the richest parts of town. There are definitely Western influences visible in Cairo, but, at least in my opinion, the Egyptians have mostly transformed them to best suit themselves, whereas in Amman, a lot of things seem to be directly imported from the West, without any adjustment. I'm not sure that that's a bad thing, necessarily, but in terms of preserving their cultural independence, I think Cairo is doing better than Amman. I'm not sure about the communities outside of Amman or Cairo, since I haven't really been there, or about Egypt and Jordan as a whole.
Leaving Egypt was an adventure all by itself. I had originally bought a one-way ticket, because I was planning to travel by land to Israel and spend a few days in Jerusalem, but since the Israel's announcement of it's intention to build more settlements in Jerusalem, which got the university students at UJ a bit riled up, I decided that I probably shouldn't go alone, and it was too late to try to find another group of CIEE students who might be there at the same time. So, I decided to go by bus to Nuweiba, a port on the Red Sea, take a ferry to Aqaba, and a bus to Amman. The bus to Nuweiba was the worst part of the trip, because it was overnight. I left around 10 pm, and we were supposed to get to Nuweiba around 5 am, leaving plenty of time to catch the ferry which I was told left at 11 am. Knowing Egypt's record for timely transportation, I figured that was a highly optimistic estimate (both for the bus arrival time and the ferry departure time) and I was right on both counts. The bus seemed to have a lot of trouble with the tiniest hills, and our bus driver apparently had the flu, so really it was a relief just to reach Taba but for whatever reason, we had to switch buses (unscheduled) there. On the next bus, I happened to meet up with two CIEE students who I knew who were also going back to Amman, so the rest of the trip I had company. We didn't have any major bumps, just a lot of waiting. The ferry was the most expensive part of the trip, and we seemed to be almost the only women on board, as well as the only foreigners. They didn't seem to know what to do with us. We were put at the head of the line wherever we went, which we were all kind of uncomfortable with, and once on the boat they shuffled us around a bit until they finally settled us in what had to be the first class section, since it was nearly deserted and was very comfortable. That was the most comfortable part of the journey, but unfortunately it was also the shortest. In Jordan, we got off the boat and onto the bus, so I didn't see any of Aqaba, which is too bad. Apparently it's very pretty.
And now I'm back in Amman. There are 5 weeks left of classes, and then a final week of tests. This semester has going to be over very quickly.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Abraham Path
Last weekend, I went on one of CIEE's scheduled trips, this one call the Abraham Path Voluntary Trail (or something like that). It is a trail system set up in the al-Alyoum or al-Ayoum (I'm not sure which) district of Jordan, which consists of 4 villages in norther Jordan. It was my first trip north, and the first time I saw forests of any kind in Jordan. The north is apparently much more fertile than the south, which is where Petra and Wadi Feid are. The trees in these forests were shorter than, say, New England forests, but not too far off some Alaskan forests. Our first stop on the Path was at the Soap House, where locals make soap out of olive oil and local herbs. Olive trees are everywhere. We even saw some trees that are 2000 years old, planted by the Romans. I have pictures, but my camera isn't with me, so I'll post them later. The actual trail we hiked on was not very long, it was only about a 2 hour hike, but there are more extensive trail systems that the locals are working on, with help from the Abraham Path organization, which gets outside funding from the EU, among others. We met an older couple from England who were helping to set up the trails. Apparently, this couple were the first climbers to visit Jordan with the intention of rock climbing, and they have been helping to promote trails and climbs in the country ever since. They knew Hakeem, our guide in Wadi Feid.
After our hike, we got a tour of some of the notable sites in the villages, including an old Christian church and the buildings that will be a hostel and restaurant, which will hopefully bring more business to the region. We ate lunch in the home of one of our guides, a traditional Jordanian meal with rice, chicken, hummus, flat bread and various fruits and vegetables. Our final stop was the ruins of a church, apparently famous for it's floor mosaics. However, it had rained the day before, so the mosaics were covered to protect them. The views from the church were amazing though. These villages are built on a very small mountain range, and the church was on the top of one of the hills. From that vantage point, our guide pointed out Palestine, and revealed that he was Palestinian. It seems that almost anywhere you go in this part of the country, you can see Palestine. This fact has given me new insight into the reason that the refugees are so set on their right of return. Besides the way they were abruptly kicked out and have very right to be angry about it, they can literally see their land, they just can't get to it. It much be extremely frustrating, and keeps the issue always relevant. I knew this part of the world was very small, geographically, but it's one thing to know it and another to see it.
After our hike, we got a tour of some of the notable sites in the villages, including an old Christian church and the buildings that will be a hostel and restaurant, which will hopefully bring more business to the region. We ate lunch in the home of one of our guides, a traditional Jordanian meal with rice, chicken, hummus, flat bread and various fruits and vegetables. Our final stop was the ruins of a church, apparently famous for it's floor mosaics. However, it had rained the day before, so the mosaics were covered to protect them. The views from the church were amazing though. These villages are built on a very small mountain range, and the church was on the top of one of the hills. From that vantage point, our guide pointed out Palestine, and revealed that he was Palestinian. It seems that almost anywhere you go in this part of the country, you can see Palestine. This fact has given me new insight into the reason that the refugees are so set on their right of return. Besides the way they were abruptly kicked out and have very right to be angry about it, they can literally see their land, they just can't get to it. It much be extremely frustrating, and keeps the issue always relevant. I knew this part of the world was very small, geographically, but it's one thing to know it and another to see it.
Egypt, Abraham Path, and Wadi Feid
Well, it's not exactly tomorrow. So far, my record for how long I've been able to regularly post/write a journal/blog is 2 months, so I guess I subconcsiously decided to take a break before writing about the second 2 months. Our spring break just started, and I am currently in Egypt. However, the Wadi Feid trip (the day after Petra) and the trip I took last weekend with CIEE to al-Alyoum were too cool to not describe, so I'll talk about Egypt next time.
So, Wadi Feid (wadi means valley in Arabic) was not at all what we were expecting. Our guide, Hakeem, and his driver picked us up from our hotel in Petra at 5 am in a pickup truck that seated 5 technically, but we fit 4 in the backseat, and my roommate Lauren and I and Hakeem sat in the back of the truck. It was actually quite nice because we could watch the sun rise, until we got to the dirt roads. Then it was a bit bumpy. Being able to look over the side down a very steep mountian was a little disconcerting too. I'm not afraid of heights at all, except in a car, it seems. The trip took about 2 1/2 hours. After that, we walked. Hanna, who found this company through CIEE, didn't get much information about the hike, and the website was pretty vague too, so we didn't really know what kind of terrain we were dealing with. We thought it would be mostly hiking, with probably some walking through rivers, and a little bit of rappelling. We also knew there were 12 waterfalls, but that was all. So it was a little worrisome when on the ride down, Hakeem mentioned that this was the most technically difficult hike he offered. He didn't really specify what he meant by technically difficult, but that part became clear when we all put on climbing harnesses as soon as we got out of the truck. That was when we found out that not only were there 12 waterfalls, but we were going to rappell down them.
So instead of a hike with some rappelling, this trip turned out to be rappelling with a little hiking in between. At least 2 of the girls were afraid of heights, and even though I'm not, it's still unnerving to rappell, because you have to go backwards, and to begin, you pretty much have to just lean back and trust the rope. By the end, I had the hang of it, but it was definitely hard to begin with. Also, because we were rappelling down waterfalls, it was slippery. You have to keep your feet in front of you so you can control where you're going, and if your feet slip, you usually end up smacking into the wall. We were all doing alright until the 3rd or 4th fall. It was the first really long one, and it went straight down, which is actually easier to rappell, but unnerving to look at. Half of us got down, including me, when we had our first (and only major) accident. Liz, one of Hanna's roommates, was starting to go down, but she wasn't centered on the rope, she was off to the side. If you keep your legs apart, that's usually fine, it's just harder. In her case, I think she slipped (I didn't really see), swuwng on the end of the rope, and hit her head on the wall. We were all wearing helmets, but hers didn't fit properly apparently, and it slipped up just enough so that she hit her head and not the helmet. I was at the bottom for all of this, but apparently the first aid kit the guides (we had 2 at this point, one to be at the top of the rappell, the other at the bottom) had consisted of iodine. That was pretty much it. Liz is fine now, there wasn't any infection or anything, but the fact that that was the entire first aid kit wasn't terribly reassuring.
Liz ended up climbing down that fall with the guide, and we all kept going. She actually couldn't turn back, even if she had wanted to, because we only had 2 guides with us, and we needed them both. As bad as all of this sounds, it was a very rewarding experience to know we had done this, with almost no prior experience, and not much more than basic instruction. The tallest fall was about 200 feet, straight down, and that one was second to last, so we were all tired. By the end of that fall, my hands were burning, probably from holding the rope too tightly at the end because I was afraid I was going to let go. We came down the final fall just as it was starting to get dark, ate lunch quickly (we hadn't eaten since 5 am, and it was now about 4;30 pm) and headed off to find the car, in the dark. There wasn't what I would call a trail, although our guide knew where he was going. We had 5 headlamps for 10 people, so that was interesting too. We walked for about 2 hours, I thihk, before we reached the car, and then we had a 3 or 4 hour drive back to Amman. We got back aroun 2 am.
It was an amazing trip, despite Liz's accident and several people's fear of heights. It was truly beautiful country too, although I admit I wasn't always paying attention. The canyon was mostly sandstone, the same as Petra, red and yellow sandstone. The waterfalls were really beautiful too, although again I didn't always appreciate it while I was doing down them. Unfortunatley none of us had cameras because we knew that we were going to be getting wet (I accidentally went swimming at one point- I went down the wrong side of the fall), and no one had waterproof cameras. I especially would have liked a picture of the 200 ft. fall. Maybe I'll try to draw it when I get home.
So, Wadi Feid (wadi means valley in Arabic) was not at all what we were expecting. Our guide, Hakeem, and his driver picked us up from our hotel in Petra at 5 am in a pickup truck that seated 5 technically, but we fit 4 in the backseat, and my roommate Lauren and I and Hakeem sat in the back of the truck. It was actually quite nice because we could watch the sun rise, until we got to the dirt roads. Then it was a bit bumpy. Being able to look over the side down a very steep mountian was a little disconcerting too. I'm not afraid of heights at all, except in a car, it seems. The trip took about 2 1/2 hours. After that, we walked. Hanna, who found this company through CIEE, didn't get much information about the hike, and the website was pretty vague too, so we didn't really know what kind of terrain we were dealing with. We thought it would be mostly hiking, with probably some walking through rivers, and a little bit of rappelling. We also knew there were 12 waterfalls, but that was all. So it was a little worrisome when on the ride down, Hakeem mentioned that this was the most technically difficult hike he offered. He didn't really specify what he meant by technically difficult, but that part became clear when we all put on climbing harnesses as soon as we got out of the truck. That was when we found out that not only were there 12 waterfalls, but we were going to rappell down them.
So instead of a hike with some rappelling, this trip turned out to be rappelling with a little hiking in between. At least 2 of the girls were afraid of heights, and even though I'm not, it's still unnerving to rappell, because you have to go backwards, and to begin, you pretty much have to just lean back and trust the rope. By the end, I had the hang of it, but it was definitely hard to begin with. Also, because we were rappelling down waterfalls, it was slippery. You have to keep your feet in front of you so you can control where you're going, and if your feet slip, you usually end up smacking into the wall. We were all doing alright until the 3rd or 4th fall. It was the first really long one, and it went straight down, which is actually easier to rappell, but unnerving to look at. Half of us got down, including me, when we had our first (and only major) accident. Liz, one of Hanna's roommates, was starting to go down, but she wasn't centered on the rope, she was off to the side. If you keep your legs apart, that's usually fine, it's just harder. In her case, I think she slipped (I didn't really see), swuwng on the end of the rope, and hit her head on the wall. We were all wearing helmets, but hers didn't fit properly apparently, and it slipped up just enough so that she hit her head and not the helmet. I was at the bottom for all of this, but apparently the first aid kit the guides (we had 2 at this point, one to be at the top of the rappell, the other at the bottom) had consisted of iodine. That was pretty much it. Liz is fine now, there wasn't any infection or anything, but the fact that that was the entire first aid kit wasn't terribly reassuring.
Liz ended up climbing down that fall with the guide, and we all kept going. She actually couldn't turn back, even if she had wanted to, because we only had 2 guides with us, and we needed them both. As bad as all of this sounds, it was a very rewarding experience to know we had done this, with almost no prior experience, and not much more than basic instruction. The tallest fall was about 200 feet, straight down, and that one was second to last, so we were all tired. By the end of that fall, my hands were burning, probably from holding the rope too tightly at the end because I was afraid I was going to let go. We came down the final fall just as it was starting to get dark, ate lunch quickly (we hadn't eaten since 5 am, and it was now about 4;30 pm) and headed off to find the car, in the dark. There wasn't what I would call a trail, although our guide knew where he was going. We had 5 headlamps for 10 people, so that was interesting too. We walked for about 2 hours, I thihk, before we reached the car, and then we had a 3 or 4 hour drive back to Amman. We got back aroun 2 am.
It was an amazing trip, despite Liz's accident and several people's fear of heights. It was truly beautiful country too, although I admit I wasn't always paying attention. The canyon was mostly sandstone, the same as Petra, red and yellow sandstone. The waterfalls were really beautiful too, although again I didn't always appreciate it while I was doing down them. Unfortunatley none of us had cameras because we knew that we were going to be getting wet (I accidentally went swimming at one point- I went down the wrong side of the fall), and no one had waterproof cameras. I especially would have liked a picture of the 200 ft. fall. Maybe I'll try to draw it when I get home.
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