Aqaba

Internet access has been rather spotty up until now. A lot has happened since my last post but I'll try to include everything. Travelled to Aqaba, the only costal city of Jordan and met up with some Aggies who live there named the Mathisons. Their daughter Becca '13 is a friend of Jill's and they were extremely hospitable to us. Pretty much the whole city is a tourist city for europeans and wealthier Arabs. Aqaba is on the Red Sea and the snorkeling there is very good with fairly clear water, nice coral, wrecks and pretty fish. It is easy to see across the water to the opposite coasts of Egypt and Israel. The city itself is a sort of economic free zone with very low taxes and TONS of real estate projects like resorts and high end apartment complexes. Jordanians truly believe in the saying 'if you build it, they will come'... Insha'Allah (arabic for 'God willing'). While the water is nice, it is very hot and, surrounded by rocky hills and it is impossible to find a spec of green unless it is part of landscape.

A really popular thing to do here at night is to go to a local coffee shop and smoke hookah (argilla) and watch the world cup. Although its not really a habit of mine to consume tobacco, it is a pretty relaxing and social activity. One thing heather and I have noticed is that it is impossible to find a place (that serves alcohol) that does not serve Amstel beer. We discovered that this is because they actually have a brewery in the country in the city of Petra. Therefore its much cheaper than the other beers and can be found on tap almost. So we were out one night with Semma and her friend Basim and I ordered an Amstel. He said "ah, Jordanian beer." Heather and I looked at each other with a sort of strange expression and then turned to Basim and told him that it was neither exclusive or original to Jordan. "...What?" he said. "Yeah, we have this in Texas," Heather said pointing to the beer. His facial expression melted like someone had just informed him that santa clause wasn't real. Since then, we've experienced similar reactions from several Jordanians to whom we've gently broken the news.

Heather called this one "Sayed Paul"

Today I went to Heather's cousin's house where her grandmother and cousin (Miral) made lunch. One dish was called mahshee which is zucchini stuffed with rice and meat. They had of course heard of my legendary appetite and kept offering me more and more. The picture is of Matal's son Hani, about 2 years old. Tonight Heather and her cousin Semma and I went to a place called Souk Jara, basically an upscale marketplace with a lot of vendors. At the end of the long line there was a sort of outdoor club where I heard a band playing Master of Puppets by Metallica which gave me a nice chuckle. After that we went to a bar that had a really nice view of the city. Semma was surprised when I told her that the drinks cost about twice as much as they do in the US. She said it was because alcohol has a big luxury tax, much I'm sure like tobacco in the US. Anyway, everyone's very excited that the World Cup has started and it should be fun to watch it here as everyone gets very into the game.

Made it to Amman

Made it to Amman safely. Thanks for your prayers. Joe and Jill, two other Ags who are here with us picked up Jordan and I from the airport. I got a local phone so I could call people locally which was pretty cheap. Everything is pretty cheap here really. Its actually a pretty nice city (passed a Porsche dealership on the way in). When they picked us up we took a taxi to a city circle where we were supposed to meet Heather who had arrived earlier and was staying with family. We got to the rendezvous spot before they did, so there we were on the sidewalk in front of a tiny local felafel joint with all our luggage. We looked like we had accidentally gotten on the wrong plane in Newark and had somehow wound up here on their busy street.

Our landlord Enrique is a pretty shady guy whom I have yet to meet despite being at his house last night. Our apartment was supposed to be ready last night but instead wont be ready till Tuesday so instead we stayed in Jordan's apartment last night. We're going to Aqaba on Sunday through Tuesday though. Enrique's family however is very nice. When we were there, his brother Wassim, who was raised in Brooklyn and now attends Arizona State was really cool. He was telling us about different idiosynracies of Jordanian people. We were telling him how our Arabic wasn't getting us very far because the form we learned is Fus'ha (the formal written form) and he assured us that we would pick it up in no time. After teaching us some phrases for future use in the taxi (also after his mother had made us shai (tea) and we had smoked some hookah) he dropped us off back at Jordan's and gave me his number and said that if we ever needed anything to give him a call, which I'm sure I will. The following are pictures from Jordan's terrace.