So we're coming dangerously close to the end of this semester in Jordan... I have about 15 days left until everything is over and done with. Arabic finals are this upcoming week and after that the area studies finals... I'm a little bit freaking out.
Everyone is starting to get excited about going back home, which is hard for me in a couple different ways. First of all, I'm going to miss the living crap out of everyone here... I've made some incredible friends while I've been here. But other than that, it'll just be weird not seeing the people I've seen every single day for the past 3 months anymore... some of them never again. It's just a really strange feeling. Second of all, while I'm very much excited for my next adventure (going to Lebanon for the summer), I am very much homesick. I don't really know if I'm more homesick for Turkey or America, but one thing is for sure. I miss my family and I miss my friends. It's a little difficult to hear everyone talking about all the things they want to do with their families/friends this summer, knowing that I'm going on a whole new adventure on my own, where I'll have to make new friends all over again.
Therefore, I'm trying to take advantage of everyday I have left here. I sort of realized that I didn't travel nearly as much as I would've liked to when I got here. So for the remainder of the weekends I had left after spring break, I decided to plan to go somewhere for each. Last weekend, me and some friends went to Madaba, which was very cool! It is a majority Christian population and we saw some really amazing old churches that held mosaics from 2000 years ago. It was definitely an awesome experience.
This weekend, I went to Aqaba with two of my friends. Aqaba is the one city in Jordan that actually is "touristic" as it is right by the dead sea. It was super nice! We stayed in a little tiny hotel with a small pool that was right by the beach. We got to relax and sunbathe for a little bit. Also, we went scuba diving which was incredibly amazing! I had done it once before, but it was definitely just as cool the second time around! The coral down at the bottom was truly some of the most beautiful I had ever seen! It was gorgeous and so much fun.
It was also very nice to get away from the city for a while. Even though it was humid and the city was filled with people (and lots of men who were incredibly creepy), it was just nice to breathe in and smell the salty water, something I love from being in Turkey all the time.
Another AMAZING thing was simply the location of where we were. The Red Sea at the very top is pretty much just a bay, around which 4 countries are located. Standing at the beach, right across you could see the mountains rising up from the Sinai Peninsula; in between us and those mountains, to the right, was a little strip that was all lit up at night, Eilot, Israel; and if you looked to your left, about 16 km down the shore was Saudi Arabia. I don't think it gets cooler than that for a student who studies Middle Eastern politics.
Going to Aqaba was definitely cool... but I have to say I can NOT wait for next weekend! We have planned this little trip into Palestine (The West Bank) and I can't wait to go. We are visiting four cities, Jericho, Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus. It's going to be amazing. I know Clark doesn't endorse trips into the West Bank because it is on the US State Department Travel Warning list, but I absolutely have no problem signing the waiver of liability. I doubt I will ever get another chance like this, so I'm going to enjoy it as best as I can.
I will update you guys about how that trip went next week!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
But I'm Turkish...
Merhaba! Greetings from a (finally) beautiful day in Amman!
The last time I left off, I was about to go off on my spring break journey to Turkey! And one hell of a trip that was... there's so much to tell about it, I don't even know where to begin!!
So we set off on Friday, March 30 to go to Istanbul. It was about 8-10 of us on one plane heading there, and about 5 more of our friends in Istanbul already by that time, even though we were all going to stay in different places. I could barely contain my excitement about fiiinally going back home for a little bit. At the same time I was finally realizing my longtime wish to show some American friends around in the beautiful place I call home. I knew it was going to be amazing!
Arriving in Istanbul and leaving the airport to go to our hostel (it was my friend Philip and Liese that were staying with me), the first thing I really noticed was COLOR! It was crazy, but being in Amman, I had forgotten what it was like to be in a city that had buildings in all different sorts of colors. Then there was the water - it was clear and a gorgeous shade of green/blue... it was as if I was seeing colors again after being color blind for the last two months! It was wonderful. Also, the area of the city in which we stayed, the old city called Sultanahmet, is absolutely beautiful. I hadn't been to Istanbul in about 6-8 years, so even for me it was exciting to rediscover the beauty of the city.
Our hostel was this really really adorable little pink building on a cobblestoned, narrow street. It had gorgeous furnishings on the inside and an amazing homey feeling. The room we got (6 beds cramped into a tiny little space) was a lot smaller than I had originally thought, but it was okay. We also had this bar/lounge thing on the top floor that had an amazing view.
I think one of the first things I did when we got there is go upstairs and grab a glass of Efes, the local beer in Turkey. It is my absolute favorite beer in this entire world, because no taste compares to it... The weather was also gorgeous, the view breathtaking, and not to mention I could UNDERSTAND what people were saying!! I don't think I had been that excited and happy in a long time.
On that first day, Liese, Philip and I set off to explore our neighborhood a little. We soon discovered that we legit lived 2 minutes away from two of the most historic and most beautiful structures of the city, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque... both of them absolutely gorgeous and majestic with a little park/pathway connecting them to each other.
Walking around in the neighborhood, we actually ended up running into 3 of our other friends who were staying at a hostel nearby and had taken a different flight out of Amman that same day. It was such a nice surprise! So the six of us walked around together for a bit and then headed over to this street that was filled with restaurants. It was fun and entertaining to have all the Turkish people trying to get us to eat at their restaurants, speaking to us in English, completely oblivious that I was Turkish. It's a reaction I get often, so I wasn't surprised, but it was hilarious to see their faces when they realized they wouldn't be able rip us off because there was a Turk among the tourists.
We found this nice little place that had a closed off terrace at the top with a gorgeous view of the Blue Mosque. I was so so so happy to be eating Turkish food again! It was absolutely delicious! We had a wonderful time catching up and asking the others what they had done so far that day. We continued the day by going back to our hostel and smoking some nice hookah on the terrace. It was really nice to be back in Turkey.
Over the next few days our adventures didn't stop; we went to all the historical sights (topkapi palace, blue mosque, hagia sophia, etc.) and the big touristy things (grand bazaar, spice bazaar, good restaurants, etc.) and it was absolutely amazing. We all went out a couple of nights in Taksim & Istiklal Avenue, which are huge for their night scene. We met up with a bunch of our other friends and just had a blast.
I have to say though, being a "tour guide" was extremely exhausting at times. I sometimes didn't have the mental strength to continue to translate. Something that was also a little difficult was to navigate what everybody wanted to do. There were so many of us, it was really quite difficult at times to get everyone to agree on something. But I guess these are just parts of traveling in large groups. They definitely didn't bring us down at all from the amazing time we were having.
After Istanbul, which depleted our money supply sufficiently (that city is soooo much more expensive than what I'm used to), our next trip was to Gallipoli and Troy. Now this was an adventure, because my father's friend who owns a travel agency hooked us up with a private van with a driver who would take us to all the historical places... the only problem was that this guy didn't really know where he was going and it was his first time going to these places as well.
However, we eventually found where we wanted to go. The first stop was the memorials for the soldiers at Gallipoli... now this is where the story behind the title of this post comes from. My friends and I were standing at one of these memorials, which was located on top of a mountain/hill sort of thing. We were enjoying the beautiful view had from on top of there by standing at the very edge of a drop and had our backs turned to the memorial. There were around 50 students there at the same time, my guess would be Middle School students, on a field trip with their class. They, of course, were little meshkeljis (troublemakers) and decided to start talking about the tourists they saw right in front of them.
Obviously, they thought I was also a tourist and began speaking in Turkish about how funny it would be if they all pushed us off the edge at the same time, laughing while they talked about it. Hearing this, I turned around with a smile on my face and looked directly at the kids. At this point, one of the guys stepped forward to me, looking directly at me and said something incredibly rude, which I can't really repeat on here, expecting me to not understand.
I laughed a little and simply responded with, "But I'm Turkish..." in Turkish, obviously, and the calmest voice I could muster. The following reaction was the best part. The kid turned bright red as his classmates fell to the ground laughing. My favorite were the girls who also were keeled over laughing. They later kept coming up to me, being like "holy crap, that was the best part of my day! Thank you so much for telling him off like that!" After I translated quickly to my friends what had happened, they were also very amused. It was definitely a highlight of that day.
That same day we also traveled to Troy, which was also a very cool experience. But by the time we were done with that place, we were all exhausted and ready to get onto our bus to Izmir. The journey there was a little longer I expected, but it was fine. We grabbed the service from the bus station to the area of town where I live and reached my house exhausted but happy.
The following three days were probably my favorite of the journey, just because I was sooo happy to be home and with my family. We had awesome breakfast for the next few days, traveled to a wine-producing little village for some free and delicious wine tasting, visited a hamam (turkish bath), went up to a historic castle with an amazing view over the city, and went shopping in the central bazaar of the city. It was really amazing to have my friends meet (and get along with) my family.
On our last night there, we went to the place where my mother's boyfriend performs (on the traditional turkish instrument called saz), ate some delicious food, celebrated one of my friends' birthdays and just had a really awesome time with my family. When it came to say goodbye and take the overnight bus back to Istanbul, I definitely couldn't help but shed a few tears. It was truly an amazing trip and I was soo happy to have seen my family, but at the same time it was a little bit of a tease just to see them for 3 days. It definitely made me realize how much I miss them.
The bus ride back to Istanbul was long and filled with uncomfortable sleep. We were all happy to get onto our planes and fly back to where we had comfy beds waiting for us. Overall, the trip was incredible and I think we all had an amazing time. It made me miss home a lot and I cannot wait to go back in July!!
Over the next few days our adventures didn't stop; we went to all the historical sights (topkapi palace, blue mosque, hagia sophia, etc.) and the big touristy things (grand bazaar, spice bazaar, good restaurants, etc.) and it was absolutely amazing. We all went out a couple of nights in Taksim & Istiklal Avenue, which are huge for their night scene. We met up with a bunch of our other friends and just had a blast.
I have to say though, being a "tour guide" was extremely exhausting at times. I sometimes didn't have the mental strength to continue to translate. Something that was also a little difficult was to navigate what everybody wanted to do. There were so many of us, it was really quite difficult at times to get everyone to agree on something. But I guess these are just parts of traveling in large groups. They definitely didn't bring us down at all from the amazing time we were having.
After Istanbul, which depleted our money supply sufficiently (that city is soooo much more expensive than what I'm used to), our next trip was to Gallipoli and Troy. Now this was an adventure, because my father's friend who owns a travel agency hooked us up with a private van with a driver who would take us to all the historical places... the only problem was that this guy didn't really know where he was going and it was his first time going to these places as well.
However, we eventually found where we wanted to go. The first stop was the memorials for the soldiers at Gallipoli... now this is where the story behind the title of this post comes from. My friends and I were standing at one of these memorials, which was located on top of a mountain/hill sort of thing. We were enjoying the beautiful view had from on top of there by standing at the very edge of a drop and had our backs turned to the memorial. There were around 50 students there at the same time, my guess would be Middle School students, on a field trip with their class. They, of course, were little meshkeljis (troublemakers) and decided to start talking about the tourists they saw right in front of them.
Obviously, they thought I was also a tourist and began speaking in Turkish about how funny it would be if they all pushed us off the edge at the same time, laughing while they talked about it. Hearing this, I turned around with a smile on my face and looked directly at the kids. At this point, one of the guys stepped forward to me, looking directly at me and said something incredibly rude, which I can't really repeat on here, expecting me to not understand.
I laughed a little and simply responded with, "But I'm Turkish..." in Turkish, obviously, and the calmest voice I could muster. The following reaction was the best part. The kid turned bright red as his classmates fell to the ground laughing. My favorite were the girls who also were keeled over laughing. They later kept coming up to me, being like "holy crap, that was the best part of my day! Thank you so much for telling him off like that!" After I translated quickly to my friends what had happened, they were also very amused. It was definitely a highlight of that day.
That same day we also traveled to Troy, which was also a very cool experience. But by the time we were done with that place, we were all exhausted and ready to get onto our bus to Izmir. The journey there was a little longer I expected, but it was fine. We grabbed the service from the bus station to the area of town where I live and reached my house exhausted but happy.
The following three days were probably my favorite of the journey, just because I was sooo happy to be home and with my family. We had awesome breakfast for the next few days, traveled to a wine-producing little village for some free and delicious wine tasting, visited a hamam (turkish bath), went up to a historic castle with an amazing view over the city, and went shopping in the central bazaar of the city. It was really amazing to have my friends meet (and get along with) my family.
On our last night there, we went to the place where my mother's boyfriend performs (on the traditional turkish instrument called saz), ate some delicious food, celebrated one of my friends' birthdays and just had a really awesome time with my family. When it came to say goodbye and take the overnight bus back to Istanbul, I definitely couldn't help but shed a few tears. It was truly an amazing trip and I was soo happy to have seen my family, but at the same time it was a little bit of a tease just to see them for 3 days. It definitely made me realize how much I miss them.
The bus ride back to Istanbul was long and filled with uncomfortable sleep. We were all happy to get onto our planes and fly back to where we had comfy beds waiting for us. Overall, the trip was incredible and I think we all had an amazing time. It made me miss home a lot and I cannot wait to go back in July!!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Updates from Jordan
Hey.. So it's been a month since I last updated... and nothing particularly crazy has happened. I've fallen into a pretty nice routine at this point and everything is going pretty smoothly. My Arabic is advancing nicely (though still too slow for me at times) and I have the majority of midterms behind me.
A couple weeks ago there was some turmoil here on campus. It actually began with the weather being absolutely crazy and blizzarding on us in the middle of March. Some snow actually stuck, which hasn't happened here in apparently years. So one day, some kids on campus were having a snowball fight, when one of them got a little mad at being thrown at continuously. The argument escalated and the kid who was mad actually pulled out a gun and started shooting into the air. When the kid throwing snowballs got angry as well he advanced on the guy with the gun (always a bad idea) and told him he didn't believe the other guy had the nerves to shoot him (second wrong move on his part). So the guy with the gun took his gun and shot it at the ground, next to where the other guy was standing. The move was obviously meant to just scare the other guy, but the bullet actually ricocheted off the ground and went into the second guy's leg.
Later on we found out that this had actually been a dispute between guys of two different tribes. We learned that tribal lines run deep here and one small thing, such as a snowball fight, can lead to fighting and violence.
Luckily this incident occurred on a day we had a (sort of) snow day (my first one EVER and I've lived in Minnesota/New England for 9 years now!) so I wasn't on campus to witness any of it.
However only a couple of days later, another incident of tribal fights occurred, this time over a girl situation. This time, however, all of the violence involved sticks and the breaking of windows... so nothing serious. However CIEE, doing its job, went overboard on making sure we were safe. For an entire week our classes were either removed from campus or we had CIEE escorts take us to classes. We were assured that the violence had absolutely nothing to do with us and it was completely a tribal fight. Therefore, most of us felt that the extra security measures were a little ridiculous, but we understood that they were just doing their jobs.
The violence stopped after a week or so and everything went back to normal. The weather is also slowly getting better (about time!) which most of us are really glad about. It still baffles me that New England is warmer at the moment than Amman... it just really blows my mind.
Also, last weekend I went on a CIEE trip to Kerak and the Dead Sea. This was super fun, as we once again saw really really old ruins (at Kerak there was a 2400 year old Crusader castle)... but this time we got to spend the afternoon at the Dead Sea... now this was really incredible. We all swam, of course.. if you can even call it that. It was the strangest experience! For those of you who don't know, the Dead Sea has absolutely no life existing in it (hence the name) because of the extreme concentration of salt in it. The salt also makes anything that goes in it float... it was absolutely crazy! We all just bobbed along without trying to swim or touching the ground at all. We could lay flat on our backs and just let the water take us away... It was an amazing experience! I will post some pictures in the next post to showcase how awesome everything was!
Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened. With most exams/papers behind me, I only have one thing to look forward to is SPRING BREAK!! I have one week of school left, then it's off to TURKEY for me!! I am beyooond excited for this. I am going with a fairly big group (about 12 people, with some others who are not going specifically with us) to Turkey for all 9 days. I know I probably should have used the opportunity to travel to places I haven't been yet, but honestly I am so so so glad at the thought of going home for a little while. It will be soo nice to just be in my own country and speak the language of the place I'm in for a change. Plus I'm going with people I really really like and get to be their translator/tour guide! I finally finally get to showcase my beautiful country to some friends.
We'll be staying in Istanbul for 5 nights, then moving on to the ancient sites of Troy and Galipoli for a day, after which we'll head down to Izmir, where my mother & family live. Some people will only be staying for one night in Izmir, while a couple of friends stay for 3 nights with me and my mom. I am beyond excited to see my family, explore Istanbul (since I don't know it that well either) and just spend time with amazing people!
It's going to take all my will power to remain calm and make it through the next week of school... we're flying Friday morning and I have 5 more full days before I am home.... SOO excitedddd!!!!
I will leave it there for now... the next time I update I'll tell you all my awesome adventures in Istanbul/Izmir :)
A couple weeks ago there was some turmoil here on campus. It actually began with the weather being absolutely crazy and blizzarding on us in the middle of March. Some snow actually stuck, which hasn't happened here in apparently years. So one day, some kids on campus were having a snowball fight, when one of them got a little mad at being thrown at continuously. The argument escalated and the kid who was mad actually pulled out a gun and started shooting into the air. When the kid throwing snowballs got angry as well he advanced on the guy with the gun (always a bad idea) and told him he didn't believe the other guy had the nerves to shoot him (second wrong move on his part). So the guy with the gun took his gun and shot it at the ground, next to where the other guy was standing. The move was obviously meant to just scare the other guy, but the bullet actually ricocheted off the ground and went into the second guy's leg.
Later on we found out that this had actually been a dispute between guys of two different tribes. We learned that tribal lines run deep here and one small thing, such as a snowball fight, can lead to fighting and violence.
Luckily this incident occurred on a day we had a (sort of) snow day (my first one EVER and I've lived in Minnesota/New England for 9 years now!) so I wasn't on campus to witness any of it.
However only a couple of days later, another incident of tribal fights occurred, this time over a girl situation. This time, however, all of the violence involved sticks and the breaking of windows... so nothing serious. However CIEE, doing its job, went overboard on making sure we were safe. For an entire week our classes were either removed from campus or we had CIEE escorts take us to classes. We were assured that the violence had absolutely nothing to do with us and it was completely a tribal fight. Therefore, most of us felt that the extra security measures were a little ridiculous, but we understood that they were just doing their jobs.
The violence stopped after a week or so and everything went back to normal. The weather is also slowly getting better (about time!) which most of us are really glad about. It still baffles me that New England is warmer at the moment than Amman... it just really blows my mind.
Also, last weekend I went on a CIEE trip to Kerak and the Dead Sea. This was super fun, as we once again saw really really old ruins (at Kerak there was a 2400 year old Crusader castle)... but this time we got to spend the afternoon at the Dead Sea... now this was really incredible. We all swam, of course.. if you can even call it that. It was the strangest experience! For those of you who don't know, the Dead Sea has absolutely no life existing in it (hence the name) because of the extreme concentration of salt in it. The salt also makes anything that goes in it float... it was absolutely crazy! We all just bobbed along without trying to swim or touching the ground at all. We could lay flat on our backs and just let the water take us away... It was an amazing experience! I will post some pictures in the next post to showcase how awesome everything was!
Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened. With most exams/papers behind me, I only have one thing to look forward to is SPRING BREAK!! I have one week of school left, then it's off to TURKEY for me!! I am beyooond excited for this. I am going with a fairly big group (about 12 people, with some others who are not going specifically with us) to Turkey for all 9 days. I know I probably should have used the opportunity to travel to places I haven't been yet, but honestly I am so so so glad at the thought of going home for a little while. It will be soo nice to just be in my own country and speak the language of the place I'm in for a change. Plus I'm going with people I really really like and get to be their translator/tour guide! I finally finally get to showcase my beautiful country to some friends.
We'll be staying in Istanbul for 5 nights, then moving on to the ancient sites of Troy and Galipoli for a day, after which we'll head down to Izmir, where my mother & family live. Some people will only be staying for one night in Izmir, while a couple of friends stay for 3 nights with me and my mom. I am beyond excited to see my family, explore Istanbul (since I don't know it that well either) and just spend time with amazing people!
It's going to take all my will power to remain calm and make it through the next week of school... we're flying Friday morning and I have 5 more full days before I am home.... SOO excitedddd!!!!
I will leave it there for now... the next time I update I'll tell you all my awesome adventures in Istanbul/Izmir :)
Sunday, February 26, 2012
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