PETRAfied!

Okay so last week classes began, which was a little rough since I had kind of forgotten about the "study" in study abroad. Also, UJ has I think 40,000 undergrads and is giant and scary and I have never felt so out of place in my life. I have already gotten seriously lost on campus twice. However, I made it through alive. Classes will be more difficult than I thought they would be, but I suppose I'll make it. One thing I will really miss about Miami is toilet paper and toilets that aren't holes in the ground.

Anyhow, this weekend was the trip to Shawbak Castle and Petra! They were both incredible. I am currently attempting to upload photos, but once again shoddy internet connection has foiled my plans. We left at 8 am Friday morning and got back around 6:30 last night. It was so exhausting, I feel like I didn't have a weekend at all but it was so worth it. On Friday we went to the castle and were there most of the day. We also went to a cave where apparently Bedouins still live, and my friends Amani, Patricia and I got to try on traditional Bedouin clothing. See photos for a better description. We continued on to our hotel, the Petra Palace, which is walking distance from Petra. We had free time until dinner, where we went to a kitchen and learned how to cook. After that we were so exhausted that most of us went to bed. On Saturday we left the hotel at 7 a.m. to begin our journey through Petra. It was a lot of walking and I really liked our guide. Then we "walked" up 850 "steps" (climbed a mountain) to see the monastery, which was exhausting and incredible. We had lunch at a nice restaurant and made our way back to the hotel, where we got back on the bus and journeyed back home. That was a pretty condensed version of the events, but I think the photos speak for themselves. I will continue to add more as I get them from my friends.

Life with the ladies is also stellar. Sunday is laundry day since that's when the water comes, and I have yet to see anyone here use a dryer. Needless to say, I enjoyed the crunchy stiffness to all of my sun-dried clothing. I also enjoyed the blue tint to everything that used to be white: apparently separation of whites and colors is a dangerous assumption. 

They continue to overfeed me with the most delicious food on earth, but I'm g

etting better at saying no. Today they force fed me squash, eggplant and grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat dipped in yogurt sauce... Incredible. I'm also picking up some recipes a

nd learning lots of new kitchen vocab. As it turns out, there is far more to Middle Eastern cuisine than just hummus and falafel. I can't speak for every Arab family, but the way they do meals here is a lot different from home. When the ladies wake up, they have Turkish coffee and digestive biscuits (a winning combination). Then they have breakfast about half an hour later, which includes an egg (omelette, fri

ed, hard boiled, etc.), pita bread, a variety of cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, zatar (thyme) with olive oil, and homemade jam. Lunch is the big meal of the day, and they eat it around 2 I think. They always have it waiting for me when I get home from school around 5. Dinner is more of a late-evening snack around 8 or 9 with tea. We also usually have some kind of desert then.

So, every day continues to be a challenge, but I wouldn't have it any other way... For those of you who were holding your breath during the shower debacle, that has been fixed and I am no longer afraid of my bathroom.

Some brief notes:

-One thing I will not miss about Miami is being robbed blind at the book store. Here, all of our books are photocopied and no more than around $5 each. Who cares if they violate copyright laws and are bound with duct tape?

-The many stray cats in Amman are as adorable as they are diseased. I wish I could cuddle with all of them, especially when they cry outside my bedroom window (like right now).

-It pleases me that men of all ages are not afraid to sport scarves here.

-Girls at school wear pounds of makeup and high heels every day, making me look like trash in what I once considered classy cardigans and scarves.

-It seems my iPod and plug adapter have been stolen. I think it was the last day at our hotel after orientation when our luggage was "safely locked" in a room. Word on the street is that it might be covered by the insurance plan included in my tuition this semester. In any case, I'm peeved.

-Highlight of Petra: seeing a 300 lb American woman riding a camel and screaming "Yeehaw". No worries, my friend Chris captured the moment in an epic photo.

Here are some links to photos! Enjoy them as I catch up on about 500 pages of reading for my Diplomacy in the Middle East class.

Shawbak: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041337&id=1164480030&l=3c67c

Petra: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041360&id=1164480030&l=b0085