I've now been here in Amman for two weeks and I have yet to write on anything about what I'm actually doing as time goes on. This post, although a bit long, will catch you up on my life.
I'm taking four classes this semester (all in Arabic): Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), colloquial (known as amiyya), a research and writing class, and then I have one elective, History of Jordan. My MSA class was a complete nightmare the first day. Luckily, I found out that no one really understood what was going on in the class either so it was okay. The second time I had that class it was a thousand times better. We did presentations on the elections (which I'll discuss in a bit) and then a couple exercises. My colloquial class is a blast, mainly because the professor is awesome. We have a review quiz every Sunday, but I don't think the class will be too hard. My research class is taught by the same awesome professor, which is really good because research classes can be awful if you don't have a good professor (people at AU, you can attest to this). By the end of the semester, we have to write a 20 page paper. I think mine is going to be on women in sports in Jordan, in particular, the contrast between Christian and Muslim girls and sports. Finally, my history class seems pretty standard. We'll cover a lot of different topics and I also have to write a 20 page paper for that class and give a presentation at the end. I'm hoping to write about the Jordanian intelligence/security services, but if that idea is shot down then I'm going to write about the limitations of the Jordanian press.
Elections.
The Jordanian elections were this past Wednesday and the Prophet's birthday was this past Thursday so we didn't have any classes and had a four day weekend instead (Note: the King changed the Prophet's birthday to the previous Sunday the Thursday prior but we kept our original schedule). What's happening in Jordan is that many Islamic groups believe the King has too much power and that he should transfer some of his power to parliament. To show their disdain and opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, along with 4 other political parties, boycotted the elections. So, there have been protests and we basically had to avoid downtown this entire week due to protests. There was also a burning car, but it remains to be seen whether that was in conjunction with the elections (Note: the Muslim Brotherhood has been a peaceful part of Jordanian politics for a long time. Despite the boycott, they remain peaceful).
Now, because of this lovely four day weekend, almost everyone in our program was making plans to travel. Some people went to Jerusalem, some went to Aqaba and I went to Madaba and the Hammammat Ma'in (Ma'in Hot Springs) with three other girls (Madaba is only about a 30 minute bus ride away so this was just a day trip). Madaba has some pretty cool history so we stopped there for a couple hours to explore old churches, archaeological ruins, etc.
I'm taking four classes this semester (all in Arabic): Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), colloquial (known as amiyya), a research and writing class, and then I have one elective, History of Jordan. My MSA class was a complete nightmare the first day. Luckily, I found out that no one really understood what was going on in the class either so it was okay. The second time I had that class it was a thousand times better. We did presentations on the elections (which I'll discuss in a bit) and then a couple exercises. My colloquial class is a blast, mainly because the professor is awesome. We have a review quiz every Sunday, but I don't think the class will be too hard. My research class is taught by the same awesome professor, which is really good because research classes can be awful if you don't have a good professor (people at AU, you can attest to this). By the end of the semester, we have to write a 20 page paper. I think mine is going to be on women in sports in Jordan, in particular, the contrast between Christian and Muslim girls and sports. Finally, my history class seems pretty standard. We'll cover a lot of different topics and I also have to write a 20 page paper for that class and give a presentation at the end. I'm hoping to write about the Jordanian intelligence/security services, but if that idea is shot down then I'm going to write about the limitations of the Jordanian press.
Elections.
The Jordanian elections were this past Wednesday and the Prophet's birthday was this past Thursday so we didn't have any classes and had a four day weekend instead (Note: the King changed the Prophet's birthday to the previous Sunday the Thursday prior but we kept our original schedule). What's happening in Jordan is that many Islamic groups believe the King has too much power and that he should transfer some of his power to parliament. To show their disdain and opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, along with 4 other political parties, boycotted the elections. So, there have been protests and we basically had to avoid downtown this entire week due to protests. There was also a burning car, but it remains to be seen whether that was in conjunction with the elections (Note: the Muslim Brotherhood has been a peaceful part of Jordanian politics for a long time. Despite the boycott, they remain peaceful).
Now, because of this lovely four day weekend, almost everyone in our program was making plans to travel. Some people went to Jerusalem, some went to Aqaba and I went to Madaba and the Hammammat Ma'in (Ma'in Hot Springs) with three other girls (Madaba is only about a 30 minute bus ride away so this was just a day trip). Madaba has some pretty cool history so we stopped there for a couple hours to explore old churches, archaeological ruins, etc.
St. George's Greek Orthodox Church, Madaba
It was extremely ornate: I learned that students from the Mosaic school came to build and design this church. The tile on the floor and the mosaics on the wall were astounding, especially once you realize it was all done by hand!
After Madaba, we taxied to the Ma'in Hot Springs, about a twenty minute drive away. Once you leave the city, you pass farms, some nice homes, and then the windy road that leads you towards the Dead Sea and the Hot Springs. This was one of the views. In the distance is the Dead Sea and Israel.
Finally, we reached the Hot Springs and due to some convincing and my friend's iNext insurance card that said she was a student at UJ, we got in for the price of a local ($7 cheaper than tourist price). We got access to the 3 waterfalls (family, public, and women's), the Roman Bath and picnic area. Below are two of the waterfalls. Note the difference between the women's waterfall (left) and the public waterfall (right).
Nonetheless, we met some great women at the women's waterfall. They even offered us lunch, which was excellent because only one of us had brought a sandwich. Afterwards we made our way over to the public waterfall that was amazing. It even has a cave in the rocks. Unfortunately, the cave is a guys club and it's not a good idea to go in if you're a woman, but it looked cool. And the water was so warm it was amazing. I stood underneath the falls just being completely drenched and it was quite relaxing. Definitely worth it. By the time we got back to Madaba to catch the bus back to Amman, we were all exhausted. Happy, but exhausted.
(Photo cred goes to our great taxi driver)
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