Marhaban!

Ok, so i started this post over a month ago and didn't finish it.

I am in Amman! it is fun!! it is way hot here.. this city is pretty developed and westernized, I was really surprised. but despite the tall commercial and residential buildings there is a lot of cattle around here. I was very surprised to see goats and sheep grazing in uninhabited plots of land in between tall buildings. There is a shepherd who herds his goats to the open field next door to where i live and lets them graze there.

Here is the shepherd with his sheep and goats. This picture was taken from the living room window of my apartment. In the foreground you can see ruins that are from the ottoman era.

I'm staying at the American Center for Oriental Research. It is pretty nice here. When they told us we were living in a hostel I was expecting the bare minimums. But it turned out to be pretty nice. I live in a two bedroom apartment on the top floor of the building with four other girls. Our building is not bad. It is about twenty years old. I'm pretty sure all the furniture, sheets, and towels are around the same age. It is kind of gross. Since we live in the middle of the desert we don't have much water here. Water is delivered once a week so we are encouraged to take 'navy showers' Yesterday while i was taking a shower the water went out. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. But thank goodness I had a two liter of mineral water handy. I was able to rinse most of the soap off of me.

This is the only picture i have of ACOR. We have our own long private driveway and 'special police officer' that is stationed outside 24/7.

This is our neighborhood, Ta'al al Ali. It translates to "Ali's hill" in the foreground is a Bedouin tent, they are the nomadic people that once lived throughout the Arabian peninsula, and in the background is our neighborhood.

So far i have really enjoyed this program. It is definitely refreshing to be around people who are so diverse. There is so much to learn from the people here and I love it. Being here, even though its only been a week, has re-kindled my interest in learning. It is good that i feel more motivated to learn now, but at the same time it is making me more indecisive about my major. I love geology, but there is so much more i want to learn about as well!

Yesterday was a really fun day. We had our first cultural tour. We went all around Amman and visited historical sites. I no idea that civilizations have been living here for thousand of years.

This is the blue mosque near downtown Amman. it is beautiful.

Yum, fried cheese, sugar and psittacosis.

This is the world's tallest flagpole. 400 ft!

The first site we went to was a roman amphitheatre. It was right in the heart of down town Amman. it was crazy to see it sticking out among the regular city buildings.

here is the theatre amongst the buildings!

Nazneen, Flannery and I scaling the steep amphitheatre steps.

Group picture!

This is Flannery and I at the sacrificial alter. Flannery is in the program with me. She is studying near eastern studies at Princeton.

After the theatre we went about 500 meters to the top of a hill where the temple of Hercules once stood. There was also a cool archaeological museum there with some of the dead sea scrolls.
The temple of Hercules with downtown Amman in the background.

We went to a small village called Iraq Al-Amir after the temple and saw another temple built during the Ummayd empire. Some women from the village prepared lunch for all thirty of us. It was mansaff, which is chicken, rice, and some spices. it was really good.

Here I am knocking on the door of a handicrafts store in Iraq Al-Amir.

A group of people from my program decided to go see a concert at Hussein Gardens. We saw a Palestinian rap group called "damn" or something like that. They were actually pretty good.

Joel, Dennis and I. i think this picture is so funny.

Damn in action.


Me with one of the many faces of King Abdullah displayed heavily throughout Jordan.

ni hao!

I was trying really hard to figure out how to write hello in Arabic. I couldn't quite figure it out so i just settled for a ni hao instead. haha.

I am currently in Washington DC for orientation for the critical language scholarship program going to Amman, Jordan. There i will be learning Arabic at the university of Jordan for the next two months. I decided mostly to write this blog for myself, kind of as an online journal since i can type a lot faster than i can write by hand, and it hursts a lot less. and also for my friends and family back home who are curious as to what I'm doing over here in Jordan.

Yesterday was my first day away from Utah. I landed in the Dulles international airport after a four hour flight. It really wasn't a long flight in comparison to the flights I'm use to taking to Singapore. I slept mostly and read a bit out a book Bruce let me borrow called Understanding Arabs. The book seems pretty interesting and i think it will help a lot in interacting with the Jordanians.

The cab ride from the airport to the hotel took about an hour. The weather was terrible. It rained and hailed so much. I am use to heavy rain because i normally visit Singapore during the monsoon season, but this rain was unlike any i have ever seen. The inside of the taxi even started leaking. It was intense. After arriving at the hotel i found out that there was a tornado warning issued near the Dulles area. And many of the other students coming to Jordan with me had delayed flights, some of them didn't even arrive until the next morning.

Orientation today was useful and interesting but also very long. I am excited though to be in DC. It is my first time here so i can't wait to go see some monuments and the Smithsonian. Well anyway, for all of you back home, don't call my cellphone for the next two months. The best way to contact me is through email. My address is amanda.t.barrett@gmail.com