Updates, Updates, Updates
My mom and brother went to Amman this weekend (my brother went there to take the ACT...) and so my dad and I were at home here.
On Saturday we went to Karak (the big city in the area, maybe 15 minutes away) to do some stuff. To get there, we had to take a taxi from the gate of the University. It was our first taxi drive outside of Amman, which was unique. All the taxis in Amman run on meters, and have fixed rates, but out here in the country, everything is negotiable. Our taxi guy didn't speak hardly any English, but we could communicate some. He was excited that we were Americans (he gave us a thumbs up when we told him) and that we were trying to learn Arabic. I think he thought that I understood it pretty good, because initially he was talking to me and wanting me to tell my dad what he said. Of course, I didn't understand most of it. La affam (I don't understand). Chway Arabiya, mish akthyr (a little Arabic, not too much). He figured it out. He was a nice guy, though. He did his best to have a conversation with us, and got us to where we needed to go, for the meager (*cough* *cough* - rings shirt collar) price of 2JD.
Karak has this incredible, old castle that we wanted to explore. We went to see it in 2001, but there are some new renovations (a Japanese corporation is funding a bunch of reconstruction on the castle), and plus we just wanted to see it again. It cost 1JD (approx. $1.30) entrance for tourists, which is sweet, and then you can either get a guide for a tour, or just walk around yourself. We did the latter, because its way cooler.
The castle is huge - the remnants of its external wall pretty much go around the entire city. There are like 7 levels to the castle, with all kinds of passages and rooms that you can go into, and just as many more that you can't... (mmm, mysterious.) It was controlled for a long time by different groups, including the Nabateans and the Byzantine empire, and it is in a tactically perfect location. It is perched atop a huge hill, with steep slopes all around it to the valley below. The pictures aren't that telling, because it was a pretty hazy day. But, on most days you can see for miles off into the valley, making any potential threats easy to spot. It worked for its purpose, until the invaders realized that if they just surrounded the castle for long enough, everyone inside would eventually starve... Because of the progress of the excavation, there are quite a few rooms that are either not fully opened, or are totally dark and so you can't go everywhere in the castle. I kept wanting to go into the dark rooms and find secret passageways, but I didn't. You can freely explore quite a bit, though.
After we walked all through the castle, and got past all the tourist bullshit around it (giftshops and restaurants featuring "Western meals." lol), we decided to walk to the actual town part of Karak. It was pretty awesome. Since it was Saturday (and everyone had off work) everyone was out and about, shopping in all the small, local shops for food and other things. It was about ("yanni") 1:30pm and we hadn't eaten much all day, so we went in search of a place to eat. Once we got to a place where there were some restaurants, we decided on one that had the Pepsi sign. There were quite a few to chose from, ones with chickens roasting outside, or with the shwermah meat cooking on a spit, but we wanted to find one that had falafel, and that was the first one we found.
So, we went into the restaurant (actually, it was more like a cafe with a place to order things and take it home too) and got seated. It was pretty busy when we got there. We spoke with our waiter and ordered some hummus, khubez (bread), falafel and Pepsi. While we were waiting for our food, we finally realized that there were NO women in the restaurant. Of course, the women are allowed to come in and order hummus or falafel or shwermah to go, and they are given priority over men in line (so that they can get in and out as quick as possible, and not stand with the men), but there were none actually sitting and eating in the place. It is pretty common for places around this area to be run like that (restaurants, bread shops, etc.). Quite interesting.
Anyways, the food was good. They gave us a fairly good deal on it, too. Although when our waiter brought us our change, he gave himself a 1JD tip... We got a taxi back to Mu'tah University ("Jamah Mo'tah") and haggled with the driver for a lower fare. Overall, it was a successful day. We just heard about a girl who is living in a nearby village who is working for the Peace Corps. She is 22 and is here by herself, so we've been trying to meet up with her. She was going to try and come to Karak with us, but it didn't really work out (she had to work on Saturday). I think we're going to try to do something this week, ensha'allah.
Yesterday morning I went with a girl I know, Lubna, to one of her classes. She's a 3rd year computer engineering major whose dad is a Professor here (she lives on campus too). She wanted me to come with her because it is her only class this semester that is in English (and plus, its just something to do). Of course, when a class is in "English" the professors need to do some things in Arabic. All the notes are in English, but its not really feasible to explain and describe all the technical information in English to Arab students (even though most of the actual terminology is in English only). So, maybe half the class was actually in English. The professor kept switching mid-sentence from English to Arabic, in order to get the point across.
After the class she was so embarrassed because so much of it was in Arabic. For her, since the notes were in English and since some of the lecture was English too, everything was just processed in her head in English (plus, she's really good at English, since her mom is American). I did catch some of the words/phrases, though, which is cool. I'm getting an ear for the language... I assured her that it was fine, because I probably wouldn't have understood what the doctor was teaching even in English. All the Ohms and formulas and such - I'll stick to my fluffy, liberal-arts humanities, thank you very much.
Oh, and here's some pictures from the feast that we had:
And a nice panoramic shot of the main gate at our University that I took yesterday. Our house is inside the University.
North Gate of Mu'tah University
On Saturday we went to Karak (the big city in the area, maybe 15 minutes away) to do some stuff. To get there, we had to take a taxi from the gate of the University. It was our first taxi drive outside of Amman, which was unique. All the taxis in Amman run on meters, and have fixed rates, but out here in the country, everything is negotiable. Our taxi guy didn't speak hardly any English, but we could communicate some. He was excited that we were Americans (he gave us a thumbs up when we told him) and that we were trying to learn Arabic. I think he thought that I understood it pretty good, because initially he was talking to me and wanting me to tell my dad what he said. Of course, I didn't understand most of it. La affam (I don't understand). Chway Arabiya, mish akthyr (a little Arabic, not too much). He figured it out. He was a nice guy, though. He did his best to have a conversation with us, and got us to where we needed to go, for the meager (*cough* *cough* - rings shirt collar) price of 2JD.
|
|
|
Karak has this incredible, old castle that we wanted to explore. We went to see it in 2001, but there are some new renovations (a Japanese corporation is funding a bunch of reconstruction on the castle), and plus we just wanted to see it again. It cost 1JD (approx. $1.30) entrance for tourists, which is sweet, and then you can either get a guide for a tour, or just walk around yourself. We did the latter, because its way cooler.
The castle is huge - the remnants of its external wall pretty much go around the entire city. There are like 7 levels to the castle, with all kinds of passages and rooms that you can go into, and just as many more that you can't... (mmm, mysterious.) It was controlled for a long time by different groups, including the Nabateans and the Byzantine empire, and it is in a tactically perfect location. It is perched atop a huge hill, with steep slopes all around it to the valley below. The pictures aren't that telling, because it was a pretty hazy day. But, on most days you can see for miles off into the valley, making any potential threats easy to spot. It worked for its purpose, until the invaders realized that if they just surrounded the castle for long enough, everyone inside would eventually starve... Because of the progress of the excavation, there are quite a few rooms that are either not fully opened, or are totally dark and so you can't go everywhere in the castle. I kept wanting to go into the dark rooms and find secret passageways, but I didn't. You can freely explore quite a bit, though.
|
|
|
After we walked all through the castle, and got past all the tourist bullshit around it (giftshops and restaurants featuring "Western meals." lol), we decided to walk to the actual town part of Karak. It was pretty awesome. Since it was Saturday (and everyone had off work) everyone was out and about, shopping in all the small, local shops for food and other things. It was about ("yanni") 1:30pm and we hadn't eaten much all day, so we went in search of a place to eat. Once we got to a place where there were some restaurants, we decided on one that had the Pepsi sign. There were quite a few to chose from, ones with chickens roasting outside, or with the shwermah meat cooking on a spit, but we wanted to find one that had falafel, and that was the first one we found.
So, we went into the restaurant (actually, it was more like a cafe with a place to order things and take it home too) and got seated. It was pretty busy when we got there. We spoke with our waiter and ordered some hummus, khubez (bread), falafel and Pepsi. While we were waiting for our food, we finally realized that there were NO women in the restaurant. Of course, the women are allowed to come in and order hummus or falafel or shwermah to go, and they are given priority over men in line (so that they can get in and out as quick as possible, and not stand with the men), but there were none actually sitting and eating in the place. It is pretty common for places around this area to be run like that (restaurants, bread shops, etc.). Quite interesting.
Anyways, the food was good. They gave us a fairly good deal on it, too. Although when our waiter brought us our change, he gave himself a 1JD tip... We got a taxi back to Mu'tah University ("Jamah Mo'tah") and haggled with the driver for a lower fare. Overall, it was a successful day. We just heard about a girl who is living in a nearby village who is working for the Peace Corps. She is 22 and is here by herself, so we've been trying to meet up with her. She was going to try and come to Karak with us, but it didn't really work out (she had to work on Saturday). I think we're going to try to do something this week, ensha'allah.
Yesterday morning I went with a girl I know, Lubna, to one of her classes. She's a 3rd year computer engineering major whose dad is a Professor here (she lives on campus too). She wanted me to come with her because it is her only class this semester that is in English (and plus, its just something to do). Of course, when a class is in "English" the professors need to do some things in Arabic. All the notes are in English, but its not really feasible to explain and describe all the technical information in English to Arab students (even though most of the actual terminology is in English only). So, maybe half the class was actually in English. The professor kept switching mid-sentence from English to Arabic, in order to get the point across.
After the class she was so embarrassed because so much of it was in Arabic. For her, since the notes were in English and since some of the lecture was English too, everything was just processed in her head in English (plus, she's really good at English, since her mom is American). I did catch some of the words/phrases, though, which is cool. I'm getting an ear for the language... I assured her that it was fine, because I probably wouldn't have understood what the doctor was teaching even in English. All the Ohms and formulas and such - I'll stick to my fluffy, liberal-arts humanities, thank you very much.
Oh, and here's some pictures from the feast that we had:
|
|
|
And a nice panoramic shot of the main gate at our University that I took yesterday. Our house is inside the University.
North Gate of Mu'tah University
posted by Aaron Berdanier at 1:50 PM Permalink
