The weekend kicked off with a night out at the boulevard... Which is INCREDIBLY modern. It has pristine streets with great restaurants and new apartments. It also has the first fully completely and tallest Jordanian tower. We stayed for dinner, and a little concert in the town center afterwards. It was so nice to see the modern part of Amman, which truly looked like a DIFFERENT world. Or as if we flew to Dubai in an hour.
This past weekend we got to visit Mount Nebo and Madaba. Mount Nebo was beautiful with had great views and perfect weather. For me, it was so interesting to be on the other side of the Dead Sea because exactly a year ago I was across the mountains looking over Jordan. The mosaics there were still well maintained and I loved seeing a map that displayed the location and proximity of other holy sights... It truly made you feel as if you were in the center of it all. In Madaba we pretty much did everything. It was the 11 of us, Nadia (our Jordanian guide), and Madison (our Resident Director) who said when we got tired that "if we're in Madaba, we're going to see all of Madaba". Something my mom would say. So we walked around these cute streets for hours and got lost many times wandering through many churches and archeology museums. I loved to see the coexistence of many Muslims and one of the highest populations of Christians in one small town. I was also so intrigued to go into many churches and see Arabic inscribed on photos of Jesus... Something you don't see too often. It was so nice to get out and see Jordanian culture outside of the city of Amman.
The work week in most Muslim countries begins on Sunday, so we just finished our "Monday" of the week at the arabic institute. We have loads of homework and are preparing for our midterm next Sunday. We are also all preparing for our "ikteshafs" or portfolios that we are presenting tomorrow. We each do a five minute english/arabic presentation on a topic of our choice... I chose to do local mosques and the call to prayer.
The highlight of today was when five of us walked to go get dinner and ice cream at a Lebanese restaurant nearby. We had to come back for curfew so we ate SO fast then speed walked back twice as fast... I have never walked faster in my life with an ice cream. I ordered my food, WHICH started in arabic then totally corrupted when I had no idea how to say "combo"... totally blew my cover. After we all got our food we went upstairs and sat down. There were tons of Jordanians upstairs all with their food trays in front of them. Everyone was relatively silent and waiting. The restaurant was our equivalent to a Five Guys or Cosi. Can you ever imagine Americans sitting silently in Five Guys for fifteen minutes waiting to eat? We also waited for the "adhan" (which is the call to prayer or iftar to break the fast) so that we could start eating. The locals could tell we were not from around here because we looked so un-used to the waiting to eat dinner. I have never really understood the true importance behind Ramadan, but in that moment waiting with these Muslims in a typical restaurant felt weirdly spiritual as if more important things came before your selfish desires to eat food. And of course, when the adhan played, we ate our food the fastest.
Some more recent pictures :)
This past weekend we got to visit Mount Nebo and Madaba. Mount Nebo was beautiful with had great views and perfect weather. For me, it was so interesting to be on the other side of the Dead Sea because exactly a year ago I was across the mountains looking over Jordan. The mosaics there were still well maintained and I loved seeing a map that displayed the location and proximity of other holy sights... It truly made you feel as if you were in the center of it all. In Madaba we pretty much did everything. It was the 11 of us, Nadia (our Jordanian guide), and Madison (our Resident Director) who said when we got tired that "if we're in Madaba, we're going to see all of Madaba". Something my mom would say. So we walked around these cute streets for hours and got lost many times wandering through many churches and archeology museums. I loved to see the coexistence of many Muslims and one of the highest populations of Christians in one small town. I was also so intrigued to go into many churches and see Arabic inscribed on photos of Jesus... Something you don't see too often. It was so nice to get out and see Jordanian culture outside of the city of Amman.
The work week in most Muslim countries begins on Sunday, so we just finished our "Monday" of the week at the arabic institute. We have loads of homework and are preparing for our midterm next Sunday. We are also all preparing for our "ikteshafs" or portfolios that we are presenting tomorrow. We each do a five minute english/arabic presentation on a topic of our choice... I chose to do local mosques and the call to prayer.
The highlight of today was when five of us walked to go get dinner and ice cream at a Lebanese restaurant nearby. We had to come back for curfew so we ate SO fast then speed walked back twice as fast... I have never walked faster in my life with an ice cream. I ordered my food, WHICH started in arabic then totally corrupted when I had no idea how to say "combo"... totally blew my cover. After we all got our food we went upstairs and sat down. There were tons of Jordanians upstairs all with their food trays in front of them. Everyone was relatively silent and waiting. The restaurant was our equivalent to a Five Guys or Cosi. Can you ever imagine Americans sitting silently in Five Guys for fifteen minutes waiting to eat? We also waited for the "adhan" (which is the call to prayer or iftar to break the fast) so that we could start eating. The locals could tell we were not from around here because we looked so un-used to the waiting to eat dinner. I have never really understood the true importance behind Ramadan, but in that moment waiting with these Muslims in a typical restaurant felt weirdly spiritual as if more important things came before your selfish desires to eat food. And of course, when the adhan played, we ate our food the fastest.
Some more recent pictures :)