Just a hilarious little poem I read on the placemat of an upscale Cafe I thought was worthy of sharing. Lemons descending to earth? Okay, that is a little weird.
Week two of real classes is now complete and so far everything is great. I am so happy I chose the SIT (School for International Training) program over the larger, more well known program in Amman through CIEE. Every week we have about three guest lecturers come and share with us knowledge about their specialty that has to do with whatever our weekly topic was. This week one of the visits was from former Jordanian prime minister, Dr. Jawad Anani! It was pretty cool to have someone who worked with King Hussein personally for ten years and got to meet a handful of other significant figures in the realm of world politics come and talk to a group of 23 Americans about his experiences both professionally and personally. Just wanted to share an example of why I have really been enjoying the school portion of my visit here so far.
My weeks here so far have consisted of A LOT of exploring in and around Amman because there is A LOT of exploring to do in such a big city. One highlight of my explorations last week was visiting the ancient Roman Amphitheater that literally is right in downtown Amman. I will definitely post pictures sometime next week.
Tomorrow a group of students and I are going on an to the city of Salt. I don't know a whole lot of specific history about Salt but I do know that it is an old, old, city. And for this reason I have heard it is very beautiful with a lot of older architecture, unlike Amman which for the most part has only recently (in the past 60 or 70 years) become a larger city. Here is a little blip about it from The Rough Guide to Jordan, my nerdy tourist book of choice.
"A regional capital under the Ottomans, the town- who name derives from the ancient Greek saltos, meaning "thick forest" - came into its own in the late nineteenth century, when merchants from Nablus arrived to expand their trading base east of the river. Into what was then a peasant village of shacks boxed between precipitous hills, the merchants brought sophisticated architects, and masons to work with the honey- coloured local limestone; buildings were put up in the ornate Nabulsi style to serve both as grand residences and as merchandise centers... Salt has seen none of the headlong modernization that has afflicted the capital (Amman): much of the Ottoman architecture in the old quarter has survived, as has peace and quiet, perfect for aimless exploration." Anyways, that was a good summary of why I am excited. Amman has so much to offer but I am still in the stage where I want to be in awe of how far I have traveled and the vast history that this area has seen. I guess my host mom is also from Salt so I will have to write about what she thinks about it after I talk with her a bit.
Another exciting trip awaiting me is my 5 day homestay in the Badia next week!! The Badia is a large area northeast-ish of Amman that is usually described as rural and traditional. It is also where many Bedouins live, although most are no longer nomadic so sadly I won't be traveling around on camels pitching the tent at a new spot every few days. Since the academic director, Dr. Raed, of the Jordan SIT program is from the Badia his personal connections have allowed students to get this unbelievably rare opportunity to have a short stay with families in more remote, traditional areas, with the Bedouin. Every student will be staying with a different family and maybe even in different villages. Most likely the families will speak little to no English and the living standards are in general much lower than the modernized city of Amman. I am mostly looking forward to it just to have some perspective on the diversity that exists within the people of Jordan's lifestyles, political view points, etc. Hopefully my explanation of the short home stay in the Badia has made sense but you will all hear much more after I return....
Now it is bedtime for me since I have an early morning expedition to Salt! MaaSalama!
No comments:
Post a Comment