Aqaba

I cannot believe that I have been in Amman for almost a month--so much has taken place, and there are so many changes that it is surreal!  This week was pretty interesting.  There were two demonstrations that took place on the UJ campus, one in support of the people of Libya and the other for financial reasons.  Both of the demonstrations were extremely organized and peaceful, and we just happened to be walking by when they were taking place.  I also found a new amazing little place for lunch, which sells falafel sandwiches for 25 piaster’s (that’s about 35 cents!)  It is a couple of falafel on pita bread, with hummus, lettuce and tomatoes all wrapped up--delicious!  There apparently was an extremely small earthquake that took place around noon earlier this week, but I did not feel anything, nor did I hear anything in the news, so that may have just been a rumor.  It some of the pop culture is also interesting.  The longer I have been here, the more I have noticed that they really like Celine Dion.  The coffee shop that is near the University, is always playing (so often that I usually here the same songs multiple times before I actually leave) and the beach that we were at played it, along with George Michael, quite a few times!

I took my first weekend trip this past weekend.  I went with three other girls from the program to the Red Sea for the weekend.  We were planning on taking a bus to Aqaba, which is about a 4 hour ride from Amman, but when we got to the bus station, all of the tickets were sold out!  (you cannot reserve seats ahead of time, and since we had class on Thursday we just had to go in the afternoon and keep our fingers crossed!)  We would have had to wait another three hours to take the next bus, so we decided to take a taxi there.  It was only 10 dinar a person, and the four of us piled into a taxi, the driver didn’t say one word to us the entire time, and we were on our way to Aqaba.  It took us about three and a half hours, and the entire time the highway was surrounded by complete desert, though once in a while there would be a little town that appeared.  We settled into a really cute “budget friendly” hotel that was 12 kilometers outside of Aqaba.  There was tons of greenery, and they had little tents that you could sit in that were covered and had seating with the huge pillows.

The view coming from our room

The next day, we spent the entire day at the beach.  We purchased a day pass to one of the private beaches, since it is not really acceptable to wear regular bathing suits on the public beaches, and that way we would avoid any harassment that may have ensued.  From where we were, we could see Egypt on the other side, and the Saudi Arabian border was less than 5 kilometers away from the beach that we used!  The weather was so warm, and the water was absolutely beautiful.  I have never seen such blue water--you could see right to the bottom, where there were tons of interesting fish swimming around.  We did go swimming, though the water was a little chilly, it was certainly refreshing!  We did go into Aqaba for a little while after the beach on Friday, and I saw some camels on the sidewalks!!  They are so much bigger in person than I ever thought.  They are kind of intimidating, and thanks to Blake and his use of youtube, the entire time I was walking on the sidewalk, with the camel behind me, the only thing I could think of was getting spit on by it, and how terrible that would be!  We stayed there for two nights, and then took a bus back to Amman on Saturday. It was a double decker coach bus, and the trip was about four hours, though I slept most of the time!  It was such a relaxing weekend, it was great!



The palm trees on the Private Beach



Sunday was the first day that I had to take a cab by myself.  Sarah was sick, so she didn’t go to class.  I lucked out a lot with the cab going to the university.  I got into the cab and told them my destination, in Arabic.  He then asked me where I was from.  When I responded “America” he preceded to say, “I know, where in America?”  So much for trying to use my Arabic and fit in!  But, he was really chatty, and once I said New York, he was so excited because of NYC--that’s usually the reaction that I get!  The cab driver coming back from the University was not quite as friendly, but I was able to use only Arabic and make it back to the homestay on my own!