Life is Beautiful!

What a great week!

It all started off with a trip to Jerash - the Disneyland of Roman ruins here in Amman. I could have stayed there all day and then many more days. It was like history actually came to life and said, "I'm awesome!" - or something like that. Let me tell you those Roman engineers earned their pay, every cent of it. The ampitheaters all still worked perfectly, you could still stand at the bottom anywhere on the stage and whisper, and you could hear perfectly at the very top. It was surreal. It was kind of nice to not have microphone feedback or any of that, but I digress. The ride to Jerash is about an hour bus ride north of Amman through the countryside. It is so interesting to see how life works here - the valleys where all the water is happens to be green (well, relatively), the mountains are barren desert of Biblical descriptions. The contrast is part of the appeal for me in this country and part of the world. Anyway, you get to Jerash and drive through a modern city until you hit classical Roman architecture. The first you thing you see is the Hippordrome that was built to welcome Herod back in the day. It is grand, arrogant, and everything worthy of his name and presence. I wonder what you have to do nowadays in order to get an entrance like that. It looks like the very inspiration for the Triumphant Arch of Paris, just saying. After you enter, you get to see the grand Roman Colonnade. A huge circle surrounded by pillars with two major streets going off of it. Each pillar is an exquisite work of art and all join together to form something amazing (although I did imagine Hercules running in trying to catch a discus and then knocking them all down. Just saying. Then you see the Temple of Zeus, the North and South Ampitheaters, the Temple of Aphrodite, the City Fountain, the Baths, the bridges, the Entrance Gates, perfect roads, old butcher shops, Byzantine churches, ancient mosques, and so much more. They actually say most people suffer from ruins fatigue because of everything that is there and I have to say writing about it would probably do the same thing for all of you. Suffice it to say it was amazing and a dream come true. The pictures are on Facebook and I have a lot more to put up at some point in the future when my internet will actually allow me to do so. Anyway, look at the pictures and know that it wad a day very well spent and one I hope to repeat in the future after the rainy season when apparently all of Jerash turns green. That will be spectacular. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who ever gets the chance to come to Jordan. The other plus side is we were blessed to go on a day where there were no crowds, we almost had the whole place to ourselves. It was a perfect day and a perfect break from the stresses of school and Arabic.

This week was interesting. I definitely enjoyed the group presentation that we were asked to give. We were given the assignment to figure out daily TV viewing habits of people in Jordan. The results were really interesting. A lot of people here work really long days, like 10 or 12 hours so they don't have much time to watch TV or movies or anything. Most of them replied that they watch the news or sports. Although they believe all the news is a total lie because of governmental censors so I'm not sure quite why they watch it, but they do. If they aren't watching those two, they love TV programs from Syria, Turkey or Egypt. One guys described the Turkish version of "24" to me complete with the spy-ness and everything although with added drama because Arabs love their drama and love shows (picture Hispanics and their Telenovas). They also love shows they are satires of the colonization that has still so much affect on their everyday lives from 100 years ago. There also some TV shows made here in Jordan, but they are only on YouTube. One is called FeMale and addresses women/men relationships here in Jordan - the craziness of it and the difficulty of it as compared to the Western world. There is another one where a guy goes around and asks people for jokes on the street, each episode he is searching for a specific type of person to ask so children, women, men, university students, taxi drivers, etc. Again, it is only a YouTube phenomenon though. Women here also really love "Friends" oddly enough (that classic 90's tv show that I also still get a kick out of). They love watching how relationships must work in the USA (so they don't have it exactly right, but the stereotypes they got down). They don't get many of the jokes because they have to do with American culture, but still they enjoy it. For our presentation, we just found short clips of a bunch of different shows that people told us about and then described our conversations, the show themselves, who watches that show and then watched the clip. We ended up with the highest grade that we have gotten yet on a presentation, it was sweet! It was also a lot of fun asking people about television. The rest of the week was spent discussing media issues in the Middle East and in Jordan and that was also fascinating. We debated about the purpose of censorship and when it might be ok and when it is not ok. We discussed the power of social media and how it was one of the major causes for the Arab Spring. The discussions were interesting and I enjoyed it. I came to the realization this week that everyone makes as many mistakes as I do when I'm speaking, so I might as well just speak up all the time, so I started doing it. I enjoyed class so much more because of it. I also have started to relax when I start talking with other people and that has been a nice change as well. I didn't do my blog interviews this week because I didn't plan out my time schedule very well, but the plan is to fully instigate this aspect of my study abroad experience post-Petra. Speaking of which, that is this week, and I am so beyond excited!!! We are going to Petra, Wadi Rum (to camp out with Bedouins, off-road in the desert, see the stars, etc.) and then go snorkeling in Aqaba. It is going to be the best week ever and I am so excited!

Ok, other things that happened this week. I had a great conversation with an old shop owner in Wast al-Balad about the meanings of the kuffiya and why it matters so much to the people here in this part of the world. I bought a really nice one I plan to use during my trip this week to avoid the massive sunburns that I am so famous for. We went over what colors different countries where, what dignitaries where vs. what business leaders where. It was fascinating. I also had a great time today going out with friends from the Arab branch, the Patkimions - we went and had food at Taj Mall talked about how life is different in America, China (YaoYao who is from China on my program was there) and here in Jordan. It was a fun conversation and there are definitely differences galore. It was really fun. I also had the chance to have another Fruit Salad - this one with Nutella and everything delicious on it. It couldn't have been any better of a day. I also found something fun for Grandma Hughes to add to her different collections of things.

This week I started to gain confidence in my Arabic which was a nice break from feeling so low at other points due to not understanding or struggling speaking or feeling everyone else is better than me or whatever. I know whatever good things happen are because of the Lord and have nothing to do with my own strength. Not in the least.

Ok, I am sorry I didn't have the time to write all I wanted to write this week, but I have to go finish packing for tomorrow, we leave around 6:45 in the morning and that is going to come really early! Look forward to my pictures and stories of my adventures next week!!!