Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Vol. CLIV, Issue 6
Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

So Much Adventure, So Little Time

HELLO!

Many adventures later, I finally bundle up the energy and motivation to update my blog. I last left off with a week till Eid break and many essays to write and midterms to study for before I could leave to the beautiful countries of Oman and United Arab Emirates. Because of the sheer amount of things that went down, I will try to give you the sparknotes version.

1.5 Weeks before Eid Break:

I should really write this 10 page research paper and study for my midterms… Or I can go to this cafe and hang out!

1  Week before Eid Break (and midterms):

Midterms are coming up… Ok, I’ll study for my Arabic tests. My tests actually went very well, I am suprising myself how quickly I am learning the material. I love learning Arabic. I always feel so accomplished when I can form a comprehendible sentence with the correct verb conjugations or read a new sign out in the city. I still have lots of trouble listening and speaking, but I think I might be at the fluency level of a one year old Jordanian kid – mumkin (perhaps).

Half a Week before Eid Break:

Funny story. Although papers were eventually written and tests eventually studied for, the highlight of my .5 weeks till Eid Break was the visit from my best friend Ben Roberson who studies at Whitman with me. He is studying abroad in Rome this semester as well and for his fall break he decided to visit me in Amman and then travel to Israel independently (which I have to say, I give him major props for traveling by himself. It’s amazing, I don’t think I have that type of courage to do that, but maybe one day!) Anyways, for a few days I was able to show off my city as well as show off my newly obtained Arabic skills. It was so much fun! It was really nice to have a friend from home to be around – I loved showing him around all the major city sites (rainbow street, downtown, paris circle, my university), taking him to some of my classes, making him try my host mom’s cooking (which was zachee kateer – very delicious Ben said), as well as just exploring the city in a way I haven’t really done with my friends here. Unfortunately, on the day I left for Oman, Ben also left for Palestine/Israel. I wish I had the time to do an exchange trip and visit him up in Rome this semester, but it is what it is. One day I hope to visit Rome and Italy, I’m told it’s absolutely beautiful.

Eid Break!!!!!!!!!:

When deciding where to go for our Eid Break, I originally thought to travel to Palestine/Israel like most CIEE students. However, my group of friends wanted to do something different, somewhere with little travel warnings (have I told you that every country touching Jordan has many travel warning…but not Jordan!), and yes, somewhere with beaches. We wanted to relax! Oman is a country I never really heard about till planning this trip, but it is a small country in the Arabian Peninsula on the coast. Oil is big deal – which explains how rich, clean, and pretty this country was. We stayed in the capital, Muscat, for 4 days at this tacky but amazing hotel called the Tiger Apartments Hotel (which I must say, was literally decorated completely in tiger statues, tiger murals, tiger paintings, tiger stripes, tigers holding platforms as shelves, ect – we were in love with it all). After getting into Muscat at 4:30am and surviving customs, a smaller group of us decided to explore the area around the hotel and we were able to see the sun rise over the encompassing mountains. Unlike Jordan, Oman seemed very flat but with mountains periodically scattered. As we stood on this walkway overpass we watched the sunrise and could see the Grand Sultan Qaboos Mosque which was located right next to our hotel – it was absolutely beautiful. If I could describe the architecture in Oman, well basically all of Oman, it would be the classical stereotypical Middle East. The buildings had laced pattern  decorations and were white and the men wore the long white outfits (which the name escapes me every time). To briefly summarize and move on, my time in Oman included a trip to the Souk along the waterfront, a all day tour by some cab drivers we met the first night who took us an old fort, a beautiful lush valley and village, the sea and luxury village where we took a 20min motorboat ride along the coast for .5rials (1.5dollars), a traditional Omani restaurant for lunch (where we sat on rugs in stalls and ate with our hands – so good!!), and the Grand Sultan’s Palace (which I have decided will be the inspiration for my future home). I also spent a day on the beach playing in the Oman Sea and falling asleep on the beach.

On our day of departure from Muscat, our group split and the majority of us took a 6 hour bus ride to the United Arab Emirates to stay in Dubai for one night. Dubai, as my friend described it, is the millionaires’ Disneyworld. At night, the city lit up with lights and sparkling trees and sparkling buildings (when I say sparkling I literally mean sparkling, they had lights on them that flashed which made the simple trees look like they were made of diamonds (which theoretically I could image being true). Our main spot we visited was the Dubai Mall – the world’s largest mall which contains the world’s largest glass aquarium (sharks and manta rays included), the world’s largest fountain show (think Belagio in Las Vegas, but larger!), and it was next to the world’s largest building, the Burj Khalifa (which is also the only 7 star hotel in the world…). What a crazy city. What drove me insane though was the amount of people there. Everywhere I stepped I ran into another tourist from all around the world. In Oman, I had a feeling we were one of the few tourist groups in the whole country. But in Dubai, the tourists and the migrant workers were everywhere. On a side note, I found out during this trip that in both the UAE and Oman there is a huge migrant workers population from India (especially in Oman, in which we partook in the opportunity to get real Indian food most nights – good decisions all the way) and Southeast Asia. But in Dubai, when all the workers migrate for work and leave their families behind, they are forced to surrender their passports till they leave. However, these workers are literally slaves and work obscene hours (I saw a group working on a construction at 11pm – it was completely dark at that time), and send most of their money back home. But, when they want to go back home, they are unable to because there is a huge exit fee that most can’t pay since they sent all their money home, in which case they have to go back and work. Ultimately, this is my theory on how Dubai has grown exponentially in the last 5-7 years. Anyways, Dubai was beautiful, but would I ever live there, no way. It’s worth a visit just for visit’s sake, but Oman was my favorite spot this Eid Break. It was relaxing, it was pretty, it was fun, it had great food, and the people were so friendly (this sect of Islam that is the majority in Oman are very pacifistic and the Sultan is highly liked by his people, which explains how the Arab Springs never really reached this gulf country). But all in all, my break came in at just the right time before I began pulling my hair out from school stress, and I don’t think I could have chosen a better place than Oman and Dubai for my adventures.

The Week Following Eid:

School…. what? A rude awakening to classes after such a great break. But my Fusah Arabic professor did bring us Eid candies and Arabic coffee that first morning – she is so nice, and she told us all about her Eid and how she celebrated this year (spent it with the family, distributed the goat meat to the poor and her neighbors, went to Aqaba for a day to see family). I spent most of this past week hanging around my house, not really doing anything too adventurous to begin with – I needed to rest from my trip of course!

Eventually, meaning two days ago, my host cousin/student Lauren and our friend Stephane took a bus ride from Amman to visit the old Roman city of Jerash, about an hour out. Buses are funny here in the sense that there is no bus schedule, and that the bus will only leave when the driver deems it full enough to be worth the gas to shuttle us. Thus, we waited in the bus over an hour till enough people showed up at the bus station to go to Jerash. I didn’t mind though, I chatted with my friends and zoned out to my iPod most of the time. But when we did get to Jerash, it was huge! Unlike most historical sites, here people were able to climb anything or touch anything in the site (something that would never fly in the states!). Thus, we got lots of pictures of us climbing once sealed off stone stairwells and sitting on old forgotten pillars. Believe it or not, there was also a random bedouin family herding their hoard of goats through the ruins. After exploring Jerash, we headed back to Amman and grabbed a drink at one of my favorite cafes, Books@Cafe, and stared out upon the glistening city of Amman.

Today, I volunteered with CIEE to go to Iraq al-ameer, a small area near Amman to do some community service! This whole month CIEE plans to volunteer each Saturday at this all boys school and help renovate it. Today, we painted all the outside walls and installed railings to keep the boys from pushing each other and falling off the stairs and hurting themselves (apparently it was a big problem, lots of casts). While we were painting, a bunch of the school boys wanted to help us paint, so handed them our paint brushes while asking them questions such as what’s your name, what do you like to do, etc. We pretty much pulled a Tom Sawyer on those kids. Afterwords, the secretary of the school invited all 20 of us over for giant spread she cooked for lunch at her house. Generosity in this country still amazes me. Following lunch, we walked to the family’s olive tree orchard and began picking olives. I loved picking the olives, it was really fun to find olives hidden by the leaves and simply imagine these little purple berries’ futures (I’m weird, I know – but I love olives!).

And there is my low down of the major adventures I have been up to since we last spoke. But oh, here’s a quick funny anecdote about the weather. It’s November, and it’s still very hot during the day. I have been told countless times that no, it will be very cold in November and December, from a myriad of Jordanians. My host brother Tariq now sports a long sleeve sweatshirt and sweats in the evening and morning as I sit around in gym shorts and a tshirt at home, perfectly content. After coming home from Oman and Dubai, one morning Tariq told me as I was about to leave in my usual pants and tshirt that it was freezing outside and that I will get sick if  I don’t put on a jacket. Since I have been gone for almost a week I decided to listen to my brother’s advice and I put on a flannel shirt. As soon as I step outside my house, I begin sweating. I take my flannel off, put it in my bag, and never since have I attempted to wear jacket. I honestly believe that Jordanians do not know real cold. I also think they woud think I was crazy if I told them that many times I simply wear shorts even if it’s snowing!

Well, thanks for reading and sorry for my absence this past 2ish weeks. I hope all of you are doing well!

Till next time, ما سلام و الليا الخير

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