The Siq

We read in our Lonely Planet guidebook that we should get to Petra as early as possible. Our hotel was in Wadi Musa and we had a free shuttle bus to the park. The park opens at 6 am, but the shuttle doesn't start running until 7 am, so Andrew and I got up at 6:30, went and ate our breakfast, and left on the first shuttle. It was a good thing that we did because, as you can see, we had the Siq all to ourselves.

(We were also really excited to find out that with our student ID cards you get into the park for just 1 JD per day. That is much better than the 21 JD per day (11 with student ID card), 26 for 2 days (13.50 with student ID card), or 31 for 3 days (16 with student ID card). Because our student ID cards were from the University of Jordan we were considered residents. (I actually forgot my student ID card at the hotel so we went back to get it--a four JD taxi ride (we got ripped off) but well worth it in the end!) So our entrance fee to the park for 2 days was 4 JD instead of the 27 JD we would have spent with just ISIC cards.)

It was a relatively cool morning and we could just meander through the Siq (I think we took 40 pictures just in the Siq--it's only about a 30 minute walk). The Siq is cool because it isn't a canyon...it's one rock that was broken apart by an earthquake...that was one big earthquake. The Nabateans who built Petra sure were smart though. Not only did they build a dam at the Bab as-Siq to evade flash floods, something the Wild West never did think of, they build aquaducts to collect this water, bring it into the city, and store it. Smart! The pictures below are of the aquaducts. (Behind Nancy and the Statues is the aquaduct)

Statues...or Nancy?

An Aquaduct


A Dam in the Siq with Aquaducts

Nancy on a big rock above the Aquaduct

Andrew in a tunnel by the Aquaduct

Near the Bab as-Siq there is an Obelisk Tomb. It is really pretty cool. At the beginning of your walk down a trail toward the Siq there are a bunch of little houses carved into the rock. Andrew and I explored those and thought they were pretty cool. Then we saw this...and thought it was amazing! (Until we got to the Treasury).

Al Bab as-Siq (The Door to the Siq)

Andrew in a small tunnel

There are these carvings in the Siq pointing the way to Petra. The Siq was a major highway/trade route for the Nabateans they paved the road (which the Romans later re-paved with big cobblestones) and placed these signs so that people could find their way to Petra. The sign below happens to have a fig tree growing by it (fig trees grow all over Petra as well). When I was walking underneath it a fig fell and hit me on the head!

The Evil Fig Tree

The sky in the Siq was such a nice contrast against the rocks! It was a stunning blue. Very similar to southern Utah. (Yeah...Kirk told us a day or a day and a half would be enough for Petra...what he didn't know is that Andrew goes to the same place in southern Utah every year for a week and loves it! Petra absolutely dwarfs Mesa Verde and Little Wild Horse Canyon and even, dare I say, Goblin Valley, as well as Writing on Stone...that should give everyone a little perspective. Andrew and I could definately have spent a week in Petra exploring every little thing! We still want to go to Aaron's tomb, hike down the backside of the High Place of Sacrifice, etc., etc., etc. We might just be going back...)

Blue Skies, Red Rocks

Wanna buy a stone? (And other Bedouin Ploys)

On our second day in Petra, we walk through the Siq and into the main treasury area where there are a ton of Bedouins selling post cards, jewelry, and camel/donkey rides. We evaded most of them (I pretended that I didn't speak English and really confused a group of little kids. They were like, "She doesn't speak English? Okay, let's go!") except for one fellow who was adamant that I needed a necklace. "Only 1 JD!" he calls. So, we look at his necklaces. I choose one that I think is fairly pretty and he says, "That one is not 1 JD. That one is 7 JD. See all the different colored stones? That takes so long to make. This one [he pulls out a little necklace with plastic beads] is 1 JD." We walked away. He followed us for about five minutes calling out, "Fine...this one only 3 JD!" but after ignoring him for a long while he left.

This is where we meet Mohammed. Mohammed is about 3 years old. He has very few teeth. He has a very raspy voice. And he sells stones. This is an interesting thing to sell since there are rocks all over Petra (because Petra is rock). He comes up to us and says, "D'ya wanna buy a stone?" Andrew stoops down, picks up a rock and says, "I have one." Mohammed says, "But this stone is from Petra." Andrew says, "This one is, too!" Mohammed says, "This is pretty." Andrew says, "This one is, too." We turn to leave and Mohammed demands, "Give me bon-bon!" I say, "We don't have any candy." Mohammed says, "Hatha." (which means that) and points to Andrew's backpack. We had strapped some food to the back and he wanted a cookie. So, I gave him a cookie and he gave Andrew and I each a rock and then let us take his picture. He then went and tried to sell rocks to other tourists. About an hour later we saw Mohammed and his mother...doing what? Picking up rocks and putting them in his box...to sell...

Mohammed, the Stone Seller

On our first day in Petra, we got bombarded with Bedouins. The first thing they ask is, "Is this your first day in Petra?" If you say yes, they will say, "I'll show you around...I will help you..." This means Sweet! I can totally rip you off! And they do. We rode camels to the museum for 15 JD (for both of us, so that's not terrible, but it isn't great either). Our guide says, "It is very hot and the museum is very far. It is an hour walk but only half an hour on camel." We wanted to ride camels anyway so we bartered him down from 30 JD to 15 and rode the camels to the museum. Our guide walked leisurely behind us. How long did it take to get to the museum? About half an hour. So, by camel...1/2 hour. Walking...also 1/2 hour. From there people tried to sell us a donkey ride up to the Monastery. They said it was a long way...uphill...very hot...1000 steps. We walked it. I refused to ride the donkeys there. They are the ugliest creatures ever! So we walked up to the Monastery. It was a long way, uphill, and hot, so they weren't lying about that, but it was worth the walk. We got a lot of exploring done. And the walk was free.

Andrew and Nancy on Camels

Some other ploys that the vendors use is, "No charge for looking. Have a look. No charge. Just look." So you walk over and they accost you! One bedouin man had a heavy cockney accent, "'Appy hour! N' cherge fur lokin'. Go' some nice col' wiskey.'" I don't think that he even had whiskey...he just knew how to say that much in English. They will also tell you, "Business is bad. There are no tourists. Here I put my things up on the top of the hill and no one will hike it to see them. For you I make good price. I close my shop today. Must sell. Business is so bad." I think to myself, "Why did you put your things at the top of the hill?--because you knew people would come up here, duh!"

Another thing they will do is give you a gift and pretend to want to be your friend. I ask, "How much is this?" the lady says, "For you...free. It is a gift because you can be my friend." If they say that, you just take the gift and walk away. Take the gift...walk away. They pump up all the prices after that. 10 JD for a little wooden camel. I don't think so. We did buy some things from her, at very inflated prices because we felt obligated since she gave us a gift and wanted us to be her friend, but decided that if anyone else gave us a little gift we'd just walk away.

Walking away is actually a good way to get the price you want. They will refuse to drop prices and you walk away and they will say, "Fine! Whatever you want..." I think it's because what they are selling isn't really worth anything anyway. Andrew and I even walked away, hiked up a hill, were gone for an hour, and when we came back down this girl says, "Fine, mister! For you, only 1 JD! Come and buy!" And she let us buy some camel bone necklaces for 1 JD.

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime...?

Things have been so boring around here lately. Crystal and I have taken to window-watching again. We watched as our garbage piled higher and higher, wondering if the garbagemen had gone on strike. Not only were the dumpsters full, but there was trash surrounding the dumpsters piling up. We were glad that the garbage truck finally came around, but when they did, they just lit the garbage on fire and left. The pile was blazing for a long time - it's a good thing there are no plants around or it would have spread through the whole city!

*******

Yesterday when we got up we went in the kitchen for breakfast, we looked out the window. There, balanced precariously on the ledge of a windowbox was a man cleaning his windows. We are not really sure how safe this is considering the box is meant to hold flowers...and he was on the third floor. But it was something interesting to look at, that's for sure!

Our window-washing acrobatic Arab neighbour

Thoughts on water (aka a list of good things to have when out and about in Amman)

Yesterday was not an ideal time to run out of water. We're not actually sure why we ran out of water this week since we used way more water last week, but that's okay. Since there isn't enough water pressure in the city to keep all places with water at all times, there are tanks on the roof that get filled once a week with water. This should, theoretically, give you enough water to last a week (this includes doing laundry, showering, flushing toilets, etc). Once a week the city turns on the water for your neighbourhood and your tanks get replenished (our day is Tuesday!) and then you have whatever water you got to last you for the rest of the week. It's like forced water conservation. Luckily, they also generally have tanks in the basement of the apartment buildings in case, like us, you use too much water one week. Hopefully we'll do better next week!

You buy your drinking water separately because the water that comes through the pumps is not very sanitary. So, a 20 litre container usually lasts about a week as well. We still have plenty of drinking water but we didn't want to waste that cleaning and so forth because drinking is somehow higher on our list of priorities than showering.

In light of our recent waterlessness, I have been thinking about what I am glad I brought to Amman (things helpful in water crises and otherwise):

1. Baby wipes. These have served in numerous capacities and are really good for a sponge bath if needed. (They also sell them here)
2. Hand Sanitizer. We actually didn't bring any of this (they do sell it here) but it is good to have on hand for those times when you run out of water and can't wash your hands, or when you're just on the street and decide to eat and then look at your hands and think back on all the things you may have brushed up against.
3. A little bottle of water. I always carry a 0.33 Liter bottle with me because it fits nicely in my purse. I can use it when I get desperate. I just keep refilling the same bottle.
4. Kleenex or a little "on the go" toilet paper roll. Public bathrooms generally do not have toilet paper. Kleenex serves its purpose and you can buy it anywhere (children will often sell it on the street), but it would be nice to have a travel toilet paper package (I believe Charmin sells toilet paper in resealable plastic containers). If you happen to not have either of these items, look for a McDonald's or other "American" building (like Mecca Mall); the restrooms in these places are generally well-stocked with TP, soap, and paper towels.
5. Change. If you take a taxi, they rarely have change, so it is best to hand them correct change. If you hand a taxi driver anything more than a 5 JD bill he will get rather flustered (we've tried paying for cabs with a 20...it doesn't work very well). Sometimes they cannot even find change for a five, so if all you have are big bills, I suggest going to a busy restaurant and buying a bottle of water or something so that they can break your bill, otherwise your taxi ride could be more expensive than you bargined for.
6. Cell phone. This is such a great amenity to have here. If you bring one from America, make sure that it is a tri-band phone and that it is already unlocked. We brought a tri-band phone that was supposedly unlocked but it wasn't and so we bought new phones here. A lot of places sell used phones for around 30-40 JD. SIM cards are about 12 JD and genreally come with minutes already on the phone. If you run out of minutes, you just buy another card and put more minutes on your phone (the minutes are "good" for a year). A 5 JD card usually lasts more than a month. Text messaging is cheaper than calling. It's helpful in case you get lost and need someone to give directions to your taxi driver...just phone a Jordanian friend and hand the phone to the driver. Perfect!
7. A guidebook. We have the Lonley Planet Middle East book and the Slades have the Lonely Planet Jordan book. Both are very helpful in planning trips and finding cool things to do in the city.
8. A purse...or "man" purse. It's nice to have a small bag to put all the above-said items in while you are out in Amman. Crystal and I have it easy because we carry purses. Andrew uses his scripture bag from his mission and Jason bought a "man" purse yesterday (because he was jealous of Andrew's "man" purse). A "man" purse is a small, black, retangular bag with a shoulder strap.

My "first" day at work and other issues

On Friday at church Soriah told me that I could come in on Sunday to start my editing projects. So, I left today when Andrew went to school to take the taxi to Shmeisani. I got out at the Arab Bank and walked to the office without any problems (last time I got lost and ran into the Trash Collector). So, I get inside the office and there is a secretary. That's it. No one else is there. Everyone is in a meeting--all day. So, once again I have wasted my time going to the office. Hopefully Soriah calls me soon because I'd really like to do this project.

Anyway, since I didn't really have anything else to do, I decided that I would try to take the bus home. That meant finding Queen Rania street. I knew the general location of the street from the time we got our visas at the police station at Shmeisani, so I traced our steps. I walked from the bank to the military base and from there up to the main street where we caught the taxi. But then I couldn't really remember where the taxi turned to get us to the police station...so I just started wandering up and down all these roads. I wandered around for about an hour but didn't find the street I wanted, so I decided to just take a taxi home. But I couldn't catch a taxi, so I had to walk back to the main road.

I finally caught a cab, get in...turn a corner...and end up on Queen Rania street. So I ended up spending 90 piasters to get home instead of 15. Oh, well. Now I know where Queen Rania street is.

***More on the Citadel Story***

Yesterday after walking around all day we were all pretty worn out, and really dirty. Crystal and Jason both took showers and Andrew and I were going to, but when Andrew went to turn on the water...there wasn't any. This was rather upsetting because, not only were our feet dirty but I had something fall on my head while we were out (I'm not sure what it was: bird droppings or food...) so I really had wanted to wash my hair...but there was no water so I guess we were out of luck. So, instead of showering, we used baby wipes to wash our feet and faces...that was okay, but we really are looking forward to showering.

Citadel and Ghettos

We went up to the Citadel today. We were going to go to the Dead Sea but we all weren't feeling very good in the morning and since the ride to the Dead Sea is pretty curvy we decided that we should probably stay around Amman.

We left for the Citadel around noon. It's pretty easy to get there because the taxi just drops you off at the top of the hill (getting back home was a different story) and you buy your entrance ticket (2 JD per person) and explore. Nothing is labeled so it would have been nice to have a tour guide, but we did have the Lonely Planet book and it explained some pretty crucial things. It's strange exploring the ruins here because you can climb on anything you want. The only thing they have blocked off are the wells--and that's probably a good thing because they are deep and full of trash. Andrew knew quite a bit about the architecture from his history classes (he's excited for his humanity classes where he will learn even more).

It was really fun to explore everywhere but it was so hot! The only shade we could find was in the Ummayyad Palace so we frequented there quite a bit. We were noticing with the ruins that the walls were so thick making the rooms rather small, but apparently it pays off because the Palace was so much cooler than standing in the sun!

The museum (Citadel archaeological Museum) was pretty cool, too. They had a tour that went all through different time periods, showing the Bronze period, the Iron period, the Roman period, the Byzantine period, etc. They had a ton of things from biblical times that were so cool to look at! It really made us realize that this is a Holy Land.

After we finished exploring everything we decided to head back to town. The problem was, there wasn't really a great way to get back to town. We had two options: walk down the big hill to town or take the stairs through a Palestinian ghetto. We opted for the main road but, it didn't go all the way down, so we ended up taking a whole bunch of windy side roads anyway.

I was hoping that we would come across some of those windy roads since I had read about them in books...but hadn't seen any yet. They really are quite windy. I think we would have gotten lost if it wasn't for all the children pointing us to the Roman Amphitheater. We were so tired once we got to the bottom of the hill! We decided to go find a place to eat.

Andrew really wanted to go to a restaurant that is mentioned in the Lonely Planet so we found that place. It was pretty good, although I thought it looked pretty sketchy at first. We walked in and they threw pita bread in front of us and brought us falafel and humus. It was good...and super cheap. All five of us ate for 3 JD.

We also went to a fresh juice stand. The juice was so good!

It was a fun trip but short outing (since we weren't feeling too great this morning, I think it was quite an adventurous day).

Citadel pictures

Andrew by a wall at the Citadel

Nancy in Ummayyad Arch

Andrew and some columns inside Ummayyad Palace

Andrew up on the Citadel Wall with city in background (and the world's tallest free-standing flagpole)

Nancy with the Amphitheater in the background

When you have to go...

Nancy with some ruins of the Hercule's Temple

Andrew tried sitting on that column. It's not stable!

Stairs we walked down from the Citadel (kind of through a Palestinian refugee ghetto)

Part of East Amman (from the Citadel)

More of the stairs we walked down.

Ummayyad Palace (built on old Byzantine chapel)

Temple of Hercules

Tree growing out of a well

Air raid maybe?

So, we were sitting and eating dinner today when we suddenly heard a loud sonic boom - a fighter jet flew right over our house. When I ran out to the balcony, I saw the jet, and then one minute later, helicopters started flying by. 19 of them. They circled Amman for about 10 minutes until leaving.

At the Dead Sea we had a helicopter patrolling the beach to make sure nobody swam across to Israel. Military police are pretty good here. Who knows what the 19 helicopter convoy was doing today - they were flying towards Iraq before they started circling Amman. Maybe we'll find out in the news soon.

Just another cool thing that happens here.

Visa Extension...

Today Andrew and I went to get our visas extended. We bought our initial visas at the airport for 10 JD a piece, but they are only good for 30 days, so in order to stay in the country legally you have to, as they stamped in our passports, "Contact the nearest police station within one month." Since we arrived on May 3rd and tomorrow is June 1st, we decided that we should probably do that PDQ! It was quite an adventure.

I left our apartment just before 1:00 to meet Andrew at the University after his class. From the University we took a taxi to Sweilah because that is the closest police station to our neighbourhood. At least, we thought it was the closest one since that's where Levi got his visa extended and he is only a 10 minute walk from us. Sweilah isn't exactly in Amman though, it's suburb of Amman (kind of like Sandy to Salt Lake City) and only part of the people in our neighbourhood, Tela al-'ali, are allowed to register there and we live in the other part, I guess. So, we get to the police station in Sweilah and talk to some guards with big guns and then go into the station. We met a really nice man from New Jersey...

He is a used car dealer, but the FBI is on him because a lot of the cars that he sold were shipped to Iraq and used by suicide bombers. The FBI tracked down the VIN and since he sold the car, he got questioned...it probably doesn't help that he is Palestinian, but as he said, "I sold them the car. I asked for money. They gave it to me, I gave them the car...does that make me a criminal?" He was really cool.

After we were told that we couldn't extend our visas in Sweilah he gave us a lift to Tela al-'ali where we tried to find the police station...but there is no police station in Tela al-'ali so we then took a taxi to Shmeisani, the next neighbourhood over. Our taxi driver was really quite nice but he had no clue where the police station was. He took us to the military base with armored guards everywhere who told us to go to the American Embassy. Andrew told them that we had to go to the nearest police station because that's what it says to do in our passport. I was getting nervous with all the guns around, getting poked by them occasionally and everything. Finally the guards got frustrated with us and told us to go to the other gate and talk to the guards there. Those guards told us to take a taxi to the police station. We were frustrated because we had been trying to find that police station for some time. But, we caught a taxi anyway and asked the driver to take us there. This driver actually knew where the police station was and dropped us off about a block away because he didn't want to turn around. So, we walked up the street to the station and then asked the guard where to go. He didn't actually know where so we followed some people around to the back of the station to a room with a bunch of people waiting in it to get their visas.

There were a lot of Iraqi refugees there registering their passports. Their process was a lot easier than ours. All they had to do was provide a telephone number. We had to give our address and the name of our landlord (which we don't know, interestingly enough...we've never met our landlord). Since Andrew didn't know the name of the landlord he explained this and then said, very sheepishly, "Is that a problem?" (in Arabic). Everyone in the room laughed at him. He sounded rather nervous. It might have been all the guns around...

In the end we got the visa extension and were then sent upstairs to get it signed by the head-honcho police man. He had an air-conditioned office. It was nice.

Now we can legally stay in the county until August 3rd. Slightly problematic since we are here until August 16th. I think since we are going to Egypt in July we will just get another visa and then register that again. Hopefully that works. :) If not...

Technology...

Since we're new to this blog thing, we're still discovering new and cool things we can do with the blog.

Like commenting. We just discovered a way to allow anyone to comment on our posts. If you read our blog and want to say something cool about it to us, go right ahead! We can see the comments you leave. Please leave us comments so we can see what you think about it all!

Also, we added a link to Jeremy and Bridget's Blog. If you all remember, he's the assistant director of the program - we went to the Dead Sea with them a while ago. They've got interesting stories too... Also we added a link to Jason and Crystal's Blog, who live with us.

So, moral of the story - leave comments! We should have fixed it so that you can comment even if you don't have a blogger.com account.

Hope to see your comments!

How Hot is Hot?

We were asked a very good question: How hot is hot? Well, it's pretty hot, but it isn't terrible--however, since I really enjoy the heat you might want to take that with a grain of salt. Anyway, the average temperature in the summer is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Today it was 92 degrees and that was pretty hot. Even in the school, although it is air conditioned, everyone was sweating.

The houses here are built to keep things cool. The walls are brick and cement and the floors are all marble. It makes things really cold - like the beginning of May when it was freezing inside but around 20 degrees Celsius outside. So, it isn't dreadfully hot inside but it is still rather warm.

The heat brought Andrew a very interesting situation yesterday. Our neighbours were installing new furniture all evening. Around 8:00 PM, the porter and our neighbour knocked on our door. Instead of actually talking to Andrew they say (in Arabic), "Water, water? It's hot outside! Water." They then start waving their hands in front of their faces and panting. Andrew thinks to himself, They must be thirsty from all their work and have run out of water and want to borrow some. So Andrew goes to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of water and tries to give it to them. They refused it but said again, "Water, water? It is very hot outside!" Andrew's like, "Yeah, it's hot..." but still had no idea what they were getting at. So, the porter left and came back with a 20 liter container of water and said, "1 JD." It turns out they were trying to sell us water, not borrow any. Since we had been trying to find a place that sells water in large containers (we'd been buying 1 litre- 5 litre containers and go through them really fast!) we were really excited. Plus, this is way cheaper. Andrew starts to pull out his wallet but then they say (in Arabic), "Change! Change!" So Andrew thinks to himself, They don't want me to give them bills...they want coins. Okay. He starts pulling change out of his pocket so that he can pay them with his coinage. But then they say, "Old one, new one." and Andrew realizes that they are asking if we have an empty container to trade with them. We didn't so he paid them 1 JD and they left. So, now we have 20 litres of drinking water that will be replaced each week. Andrew was quite embarrased about his miscommunications. We often find ourselves wishing that people would speak to us in full sentences. People find it hard to believe that, as Americans, we can speak any Arabic at all, therefore, they will either speak English to us (even though their English might be worse than our Arabic), or they speak in baby-talk to us. But, as Andrew learns more and becomes more fluent more and more people talk to him. They realize that he actually does understand and that he actually can speak. It's what we call the "talking-dog" syndrome. People listen to what you say and then tell you that they don't understand what you are saying. You'll say what you say again and they think, "Wow! That dog is talking!" but they don't respond. You say it a third time and they think, "That dog is talking and I know what it's saying!"

Goats in Amman, Andrew in the Dead Sea

Here is our local goat herder with his goats--they eat trash.



And here is Andrew snacking in the Dead Sea--he eats pita.

The Gas Truck Theme Songs

These are some of the songs from the gas trucks. These gas trucks can be quite annoying, although they get Ezra all excited everytime he hears the music! The music is rather obnoxious and they only play a few bars of it so it gets stuck in your head and then everyone is whistling it...so we thought that we would share it with you so that you can have it stuck in your head, too!

You could all go into the gas business here. It is pretty easy. It works like this:
1) Buy a gas truck. It has to be blue and fit about 60 tanks of gas in the back. You can buy them from your local taxi/gas truck/mini-bus car lot.
2) Decorate the truck in brightly coloured geometric shapes.
3) Get a gas company to sell you gas and have them assign you a neighbourhood.
4) Drive around the neighbourhood all day starting at 7:00 AM long playing your little 2-bar song. All day means 12 hours. With the same song. This might seem rather monotonous, but if you get a few of your buddies to do it with you then you can all drive around the neighbourhood playing the same song...but not at the same time. You could also all drive around at the same time but play different songs.
5) When someone comes outside, slow down. Be cautious. If they whistle at you or motion for you to stop, stop the truck and turn off the music.
6) Sell the tanks of gas to whoever stopped you. They cost 4.25 JD...but you will need two: one for the stove and one for the water-heater. (In the winter you will need a few more tanks for your space heaters).
7) Go into their house and set them up for your patron.
8) Return to your vehicle and turn the music back on.
9) Continue your drive around the neighbourhood.
10) You can occassionally stop for a cup of hot licorice beverage or tea with your gas and taxi driver friends. You can leave your music on or turn it off. Whatever you would like. At around 7:00 PM you can quit your route and go home.

Theme song 1


Theme song 2

Street Sweepers, Garbagemen, and Trash Collectors

Like a lot of big cities, Amman is full of litter. There are garbage cans everywhere, but not everyone uses them; therefore, three different jobs have been created from the excess garbage. The first are the street sweepers. These are they who walk around with wheelbarrows and shovels picking up trash from the street. They then take the trash to the dumpsters and continue sweeping the streets. The second are the garbagemen. These are they who wear orange coveralls and ride on the back of a dumptruck and empty the dumpsters into the back of the dumptruck. Thirdly, we see the trash collectors. These are they who wander around Amman all day looking for treasure (one man's junk is another man's treasure!). They range from children looking for whatever to goat herders trying to feed their flock to men looking for scraps of things to sell.

(If you look closely in this picture, you will see a little boy hunting
through the trash to find food for his goats.)

Today I ran into one such Trash Collector. I was on my way to a meeting at the Junior Achievement HQ in Amman (I'm supposed to edit their monthly newsletter)...I was a little afraid to do so since I had never exactly been out of our neighbourhood by myself. But, I now am fully confident that I can get home, so going anywhere isn't really a problem (before I could say jareedit a-distour, it was another story). So, I took a taxi from the University of Jordan to the Arab Bank in Shmesani...or almost there. My taxi driver stopped and said to me (in Arabic), "The bank's here. Get out." I was like, "Okay." So I got out and I looked around but couldn't see the bank anywhere. But I did see a little police station, so I walked upto the police station and asked if they knew where the Arab Bank was. Just my luck: they didn't speak English. So, I asked them where the bank is in my very broken Arabic and get directions. I didn't understand anything the officer said to me (except "the bank is here.") so I followed his pointing and finally made it to the bank. From there I had to follow a little map that my friend Tim had drawn for me. I think I am directionally impaired because I could not find the planned destination. As I'm wandering up a road, a Trash Collector walks by, dragging his stash behind him. This was no ordinary trash collector though! This Trash Collector spoke English! As we passed each other he said to me, "I love you!" I ignored him, but he said, "Hey! I love you! Come here! I will hold you!" I still ignored him. He started following me...apparently I am better than trash. He kept talking to me, "I love you, pretty girl. Come here! I love you!" I turned around and said in Russian, "I don't speak English, go away!" He then started speaking to me in Spanish. I was quite annoyed and didn't really know what to do.

Here I am, lost in Amman with a Trash Collector hitting on me. Lucky for me there was another guy on a corner just up the street. He said to me, "Hey, I you can help!" and so I walked over to him and the Trash Collector left. That was nice. But then the nicer guy wanted to talk to me. I just said that I was supposed to have a meeting and I just need to phone someone to meet them here. He said okay and walked away. Phew...alone again. Lost...but a step up from being followed around by a Trash Collector.

I phoned my contact at Junior Achievement. She said that the person I was supposed to meet with had a baby yesterday morning so I won't be able to meet with them this afternoon. I went home--with a very nice taxi driver who spoke English well and taught me a little more Arabic. I was a little frustrated that I wasn't able to meet with my boss after all that I had been through today, but having a baby is understandable. Maybe next week I will be able to start editing!

Political unrest....at the university?

Universtiy life here is relatively normal - almost like BYU in lots of aspects - the girls dress modestly, there aren't any major problems, etc.. However, two weeks ago, life got crazy. Why? Student elections.

Anytime you mention the word elections in the Arab world, people go crazy. Even the student kind.

For a full two weeks, campus was plastered with signs and pamphlets calling for votes. "Vote for Mohammed!" "Vote for Mahmoud!" - stuff like that. The candidates then organized themselves into political parties - not the fake, arbitrary parties we do in America in school elections. These were extensions of actualy parties. One party was pro-Palestine and Hamas - another called for the unity of Jordanians and Palestinians (Palestinians in Jordan are treated like Mexicans in the southwest) - another called for a pure Jordanian state, or no Palestinians. Campaigning got more heated.

Demonstrations were held all day every day. Hordes of chanting people marched around campus, with the presidential candidate at the forefront, crying out their parties' positions. More often than not, anti-American, anti-British, and anti-Israel phrases were chanted in addition to the normal campaign slogans.

The day before the elections, the university administration disqualified one of the parties, the one calling for a pure Jordanian state, because of excessive demonstrating. So, the next morning, a riot broke out on campus. Police and military are not allowed on campus for some reason, so students and teachers had to stop it. For the rest of the day, though, campus was surrounded by armored cars, humvees with huge guns on top, a tank, and tons of men with machine guns to help calm the situation. Undercover police men were spread around campus to prevent any further disturbances.

I ate my lunch that day in front of the tank while students talked with the soldiers.

Cool, huh?

What does Andrew do all day?

I wrote about how school was organized here a while ago, but it's changed a bit and is now officially set in almost-stone, so I'll comment about it again.

We are all studying at the مركز اللغلابت (language center) at the University of Jordan. Normally, language classes are held there for both Arabs and foreign students, like us. They have set teachers and classes just like any other university. However, becuase our BYU group is so large (30+ students), we have our own separate and special program.

We were all divided up according to our level of proficiency in Arabic, decided by competency tests taken our first week here. There are 4 levels - beginning, intermediate low, intermediate high, and advanced. I was unfortunately placed in intermediate low, probably because of my 2 year Arabic hiatus. Class is actually really easy for me now (for the past few weeks it hasn't been though - it took a while for Arabic to kick back in).

Each group attends classes together, kind of. There are 4 different classes of fusHa, or written Arabic, one for each of the levels. There are 3 classes for ammiyya, or spoken Arabic - the intermediate classes combine for those.

The teachers are UJ professors from different departments on campus, specially hired and contracted for our program. For example, my fusHa teacher is normally an Arabic grammar teacher. She actually taught in a private school for the royal family before coming to the UJ five years ago, so she taught grammar to princes and princesses and famous Jordanians. My ammiyya teacher is actually the department chair of the French department. He has an extra hour every day to teach us, even if he's not an official Arabic teacher. Ammiyya isn't taught in schools here - it's just spoken in homes - so having a class on ammiyya is rare - no teachers really teach it.

I'm on campus for a little over 4 hours every day. My fusHa class goes from 11:30-1:00. I then have a lunch break from 1:00-3:00 and then have ammiyya from 3:00-4:00. It's a pretty easy schedule.

Just to give you an idea of what I actually do at school and learn in classes, in fusHa we have to read the newspaper in Arabic everyday for homework and we discuss current events in class and debate about them. Recently we've talked about Iran's nuclear program, Darfour, and Iraq's new government, but we've mostly focused on the problems between Fatah, Hamas, al-Qa'ida, and Israel, since all that is going on a little over an hour away from here (it's a 90 minute drive to Jerusalem from here...). It's been fun learning all that vocabulary and focusing so much on the news that's happening in this area of the world. It's also fun to talk about it with people on the streets, although discussions can get pretty heated.

In ammiyya, we don't have any set lesson plans. Our teacher just teaches us words and phrases for specific situations, based on our needs. We know how to find an apartment, take a bus to places out of Amman, order food from a restaurant, check prices of food from a grocery store, talk about soccer and the World Cup, including all the names of the positions on the field, and lots of other stuff. Our homework is to go and use those words with people on the streets. Last week I had to go to a bus station and figure out how to get to Petra. Jason Slade (the guy living with us), had to go to a restaurant yesterday and talk with the owner while eating food (hard homework, eh?). It's a fun class.

So that's what school is like here. I'm learning a lot!

Safeway - the exciting place to be

A few cool stories from last week...

1 - We've discovered the coolest store in the world here. Safeway. It's right next to Abdoun, the expatriate rich neighborhood. The store has food from every Western country. We got maple syrup, Italian tomato sauce, American ceral, peanut butter - everything! It's like an international Walmart. We got our sheets and pillows and pots and pans and stuff there too. They even have a semi food court that makes fresh juices and milkshakes - we got pineapple juice and a strawberry milkshake last time.

So, last week in Safeway, we met an Italian couple who were impressed that I spoke Italian. We gave each other our phone numbers and left. They called us a few days ago and invited us over for dinner. So, we happily went. We had real Italian pizza (there's a pizzeria across the street from their apartment - the Arab owner lived in Italy for a few years, so he knew what he was doing) and some way good pasta and spoke Italian most of the time (even Nancy).

We think they had ulterior motives for the invitation though. They are both devout Jehovah's Witnesses.

When I left with Pietro to get the pizza, he cheefully asked me where I was from. When I said Utah, his mood changed completely. He said "Oh..." and got really silent. I wrecked his plans for a bible study that night. As you may know, the relationship between Mormon missionaries, even ex- missionaries and JWs isn't that good.

They were still pleasant and nice the rest of the evening and never tried fighting us or converting us. They gave us a few pamphlets and an Arabic bible when we left, but didnt' invite us again for another evening - didn't even say that we should meet again. It seemed final. They lost us as potential investigators. We got good food though.

Who would've thought that we'd eat dinner with two Italian JWs in Amman Jordan? Cool, huh?

Cool story number 2 - once again at Safeway...

The first day the Slades were here, we took them to Safeway to buy groceries. I talked with the driver a lot and it was pretty fun. He dropped us off in front of Safeway and I stayed in the car and got the money out to pay him. I gave him a bill from my wallet and then got my coin pouch to pay him the rest of the fare. I then left really fast to catch up with everyone else.

I then realized that one of my pockets was empty. My wallet was in the taxi still - with all my money (I had just taken 350 JD out of an ATM - according to Google, that's $493.30...) and credit cards and ID and everything. Nancy and I panicked. The taxi driver was driving away. I started yelling and chasing him down, but we were stuck in the walled parking lot of Safeway.

He heard our cries of panic and stopped in the middle of the road and saw us stuck behind the wall. He moved over to the side of the road. As he did so, brave ol' Nancy scaled the wall and jumped down the other side to grab my estranged wallet. She thanked him and he drove off, and we were a lot happier, although we were pretty shaken the rest of the day. I'm a lot more careful with my wallet now.

So, that's all for now!

Independence Day in Amman

So, yesterday was a pretty fun day. It was the Jordanian Independence Day - 60 years ago the UK dissolved the Palestinian protectorate and formed the country of Transjordan, which later was renamed Jordan after it took the West Bank from Israel in one of the many wars they've been having.

Because of that, we got a three day weekend (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). We hoped to go to Petra for the whole three days and stay in a hotel there, and Kirk told us to go out and see stuff, but the next day, he sent out an e-mail saying that all travel on Friday (the Sabbath here) was prohibited, meaning that our Petra plans (and everyone else's) were dashed. Lots of people got mad at him since he gave us no alternatives. It seemed like we'd never be able to leave Amman for extended periods of time to see other places. A few days later he called a meeting and told us he'd make other real 3 day weekends for us to leave and see stuff in Jordan. So hopefully we'll have time soon to get to Petra.

So, since we were stuck in Amman for the 3 day weekend, we went downtown to see what ancient things exist here. One of the main sites is an ancient (duh) Roman amphitheater that is extremely well preserved (Europeans use rock to build buildings - Arabs make their own brick out of sand - when Europeans needed building materials, what better source did they have than a huge colosseum sitting in the middle of town, not doing anything. The Arabs just ignored the big stone things here. Plus, it never rains here - minimal weather damage).

The theater is huge, and is part of the old Decapolis city of Philadelphia (modern day Amman, obviously). The main capital is on the top of a huge hill, now called the Citadel, and the old temple, or Acropolis, is up there too. Most of those buildings are destroyed now after numerous wars and stuff over the past 2000 years, but it's still pretty cool.

When we got our tickets (1 JD each - cheap), we walked in and an old, nearly toothless man came and proclaimed himself our guide for 5 JD. He then started giving us the tour before we could say no. He took us through the two museums and the main amphitheater really quick so that he could take us out to a small souvenier store and force us to buy something. We left the Slades in the shop and ran back to the amphitheater to take more time in it. It was nicer without the guide reciting a made up tour. For example, in one of the musems they had a whole bunch of mosaics from the city of Madaba (near the Dead Sea - biblical Moab). One mosaic was clearly labeled as "boy with wig," but the old guy said that the mosaic came from the amphitheater and was a picture of the king of Rome (wouldn't that be emperor?)

After that, we went to the main market to buy some cheap DVDs - 1 JD each. We bought Paradise Now last week, about 2 Palestinian suicide bombers (Nancy wrote about that earlier), so we bought 5 more yesterday (Ice Age 2, The Wild, Munich, The Benchwarmers, and the Legend of Zorro). We watched The Benchwarmers when we got home, but the quality was horrible, as was the film. Some guy filmed it from the back of a theater, so we got the audience laughing along and occasional popcorn breaks and people standing up to go in and out of the theater. Hopefully our other movies are good quality like Paradise Now.

While we were in downtown, the Jordanian Air Force put on an airshow right above the market, so everyone on the streets (and the cars) stopped and watched for 10 minutes. It was pretty cool. Later that night we heard fireworks, but couldn't see anything because our window faces away from downtown.

Today was pretty uneventful - we just went to church, came back, took a nap, got the wireless working, and cleaned and organized and relaxed. Tomorrow we'll do some more stuff in downtown more, maybe, and I have tons of homework to catch up with.

Pictures from our Indepdence Day trip in downtown Amman

We're talking to the Slades from the other side of the curve (Romans were pretty smart)

The ancient Acropolis, or temple, is off in the distance on top of the hill

Native tribal costumes in the museum

Women's tribal headdresses in the musuem

A camel eating a tree outside the amphitheater (he's a Jordanian Army camel too)

View from halfway up the amphitheater steps

View of East Amman (mostly Palestinian ghettos) from the top of the amphitheater

Me on the steps of the amphitheater

The Slades down at the bottom. They are talking to us and we can here them just fine. They are standing at the acoustic center of the amphitheater, so projecting your voice is easy.

Us and the Slades (they are jetlagged, hence the not too energetic faces)

The fruit market in the main huge Amman market

We're at 100%! Finally!

Okay - I hope you all enjoyed the pictures of the Dead Sea and of our apartment. The Dead Sea post was actually written a while ago, and we haven't posted much lately because of some more changes.

First of all, not only do we have DSL, we have wireless internet too! We bought a router a few days ago, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to work at all, even following all the instructions. I was even on the online chat help thing with Linksys for 1.5 hours and they couldn't figure it out. I spent well over 20 hours the past 3 days trying to make it work. So, today, Nancy suggested that she try. In less than 5 minutes, she had the wireless up and running. I don't know how she did it. Magic I guess. It works now!

Second, we don't live alone anymore in our wonderful apartment (that's finally growing on us - we've been here for two weeks now!). The Slade family moved in with us. Jason is a BYU alum who graduated a while ago in Near Eastern Studies/Arabic (the predecessor to my current MESA major) who's currently in med school in Illinois. He is working on his MD/PhD dissertation and is doing it on Arab health care, so he's here studying Arabic at the UJ like me, but is going to try to set up internships and interviews with hospitals here. He brought his wife Crystal and their almost 2 year old son Ezra. Ezra is such a cute kid! The Slades got here on Tuesday night, the same night we got internet.

The internet was such a hassle! I spent a week and a half calling Jordanian Telecom, Wanadoo (our ISP), the landlord (who isn't really the landlord), and went all over Amman by myself to different government buildings scattered throughout the city. On Tuesday both Nancy and I spent all day with JT technicians and tried to get the Wanadoo guy to come and just give us our password. He called at 5 saying he'd be over at 6:30. Then he called at 6:15 saying he'd be over at 7:45. Then he called at 7:30 saying he couldn't come that day, but maybe the next day. We gave up hope and pretty much resigned ourselves to never having internet. At 9:30 he called and said he was here. He decided randomly to come that night and set us up. It was a miracle!

So, today, I finally unpacked and organized everything. Everything is now perfect and set up and working properly. We are no longer gypsies in Jordan. We are technology enhanced Middle East gurus loving every minute out here now!

So, that's all for this post. I'll make another one about our adventure yesterday.