Ramadan Kareem!

(Is this where they keep the holy grale???- the famous treasury building at Petra)

I've got a few pictures from our adventures in Jordan to post!!

(the canyon leading to the city of Petra)

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has officially started this weekend. Most shops are closed during the day as people are fasting and then the city comes back to life at night!! There are lots of beautiful lights and laterns decorating the city. We are currently trying to figure out all the crazy hours stores keep for Ramadan. I think one of my roommates should be coming back from vacation soon too.(circle in the town- a view from our lunch table)

Brent and I have been just hanging out in Alexandria, exploring some good cafes and reading and just enjoying being on vacation. Next week is Rina's (my language partner) sister's (Febe) wedding on August 31. I am super excited to attend the wedding and am looking forward to it very much. I will hopefully have some great pictures from the city during Ramadan and the wedding next week!
(Indiana Jones Cafe- Oh yeah!!)

The Michigan Difference

So. . . we ended up cutting our backpacking trip a little short and are now back in Alexandria.
Why exactly??
Well. . .let me tell you!

So we took a bus from Petra to Amman- actually we took a taxi from Petra to Maan, and then a mini bus from Maan to Amman. This mini bus was old and in order for it to start, some of the passengers had to get out and push to get it rollling (kind of like in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine) before it would start. But we made it safe and sound. We spent a day in Amman and had some great food and sweets from the restaurant called Jerusalem restaurant. It was a good thing that we both read Arabic because the waiters definitely did not want to have to translate the menu for us. That being said, we were still kind of guessing at what we were ordering, not understanding the menu 100%. But it was delicious.
The next day we got and went to the Citadel on top of a high hill in the middle of the city. There were some great ruins there and we also got an awesome view of all around the city. Then we took a bus to Irbid, a city in Northern Jordan, so we could take a service taxi to Syria the next day.
Once in Irbid we were searching for a hotel in the guide book called the Omayyad hotel. Two separate taxi drivers dropped us off at the wrong hotel- the Omayya hotel. We ended up staying there because we couldn't find the hotel in the guide book. It ended up working out ok. We took a taxi to the area near the University because the book mentioned lots of good places to eat there. We ate a small sandwhich at a cafe and then wandered around. A little while later we decided we were still hungry and had happened upon the "American" part of town- Pizza hut, Burger King, KFC, and a few others. We decided that we were both missing home and were craving some good pizza- so we were "those people" and went to pizza hut for dinner. It didn't disappoint!
After dinner we took a quick trip to a convient store to load up on something for breakfast and snacks for our anticipated wait at the Syrian border. We walked around the store grabbing at goodies like chocolate mild, oreos, nestle cereal, peanut butter, and dried apricots. After our quick trip into the store we started walking outside again and passed a delicious looking sweet shop and stepped in.
We ordered some baklava and went upstairs to sit as we waited for the waitress to bring it up. While we were waiting we looked at a menu and decided we should order some icecream as well. We saw an absolutely delicious looking picture of a banana split so when the waitress came over, I pointed at it to oder.
"Cheesecake??" she asked.
I wasn't really sure if there was a word for banana split, so I just explained that we wanted what was in the picture- icecream and chocolate syrup on top of the bananas. She looked at me like I was crazy. After a few more minutes of conversation, we figured out that while it was pictured on the menu, they didn't actually have a banana split and settled for a dish of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry icecream instead. It was all delicious along with the baklava. We went back to the hotel and rested up for the next day. . . Syria.
We got up and took a taxi to the bus station and hopped on a mini bus which I thought was bound for a town on the Syria border. Turns out the bus was actually bound for another bus station from which we had to take a service taxi into Syria. Securing this service taxi was truly a challenge to my Arabic skills. I had to explain that while we were looking to go to Syria, we hadn't obtained a visa yet, and were going to have to wait at the border. The other two people in the taxi were protesting our getting in: apparently they were supposed to be in Lebanon by 3:30 (a time they weren't going to make whether we were in the car or not). The driver finally agreed that he would wait a little while at the border with us before leaving and continuing on. So we departed.
We stopped at the Jordanian border and paid our departure tax while our driver and the other two passengers hit the duty free store. Then we crossed out of Jordan and stopped at the duty free store on the other side. Our cab driver bought enough cigarettes to last months- well, maybe not at the rate most men seem to smoke here. We went in the passport controll building to get the visa process started. When we explained that we didn't have a visa and needed one- the border guard promptly told us to go to the building next door and photocopy our passport. So we went to the building next door- it was a rest room. Next building: tourism office= they sent us to the next building. This was another passport office- one more building over was where we needed to be. So, we proceeded to cross the border into Syria to have our passports copied, and then cross back to continue the visa process. We submitted our passports and were told the information would be faxed to Damascus and we'd have to wait.
So we sat down next to two guys who looked like they had been waiting a while, and who also looked American. Turns out they were two students from Ohio State who had been waiting since 10am (it was about 12:30pm at this time). They were both doing an Arabic language program in Jordan for the summer. We talked about being Arabic students, their views of Jordan, and joked with eachother about the upcoming football season. Then we all pulled out some books and began to pass the time. I took up reading the first Harry Potter book in Arabic.
Hours passed. Then more passed. Then some more. Before we knew it, it was 6 oclock and we hadn't heard a word on our visas. The conclusion: we'd have to spend the night.
Brent and I decided that we had had enough of being in transit places. We had spent more time trying to get anywhere than actually being anywhere. This was the final straw- we decided to head back into Jordan. Easier said than done we found out.
The Syrian border guards refused to give us back our passports until we produced a driver who was going to drive us back into Jordan. For the first time in my life in the Middle East- we couldn't find a cab when we needed one. Finally, one cab driver agreed that he had extra space for 2 in his car to the border and the driver asked another man to do the same. The man reluctantly agreed, stating that it was going to cost us each 500 lira a piece. We agreed- didn't really have much choice. So we showed the driver to the guards and got our passports back, and they gave us one piece of paper for all four of us to show the border guards in order to pass back into Jordan since they weren't stamping our passports.
We agreed that that OSU guys were going with the taxi driver and they took the paper with them. We followed the second man who we thought was another taxi driver to his car. It turns out he was not a taxi driver- just some random man coming back from Lebanon with his family. They moved an assortment of produce to the trunk of the S class mercedes to make room for us in the back. We hopped in and hoped for the best. We waited in the line of cars and made small talk with our driver and his cousin. They were pleasantly surprised to learn that we spoke Arabic. When we finally got to the border, the guards demanded the paper that the other car had and made us pull over for a few minutes until they straightened it out- the other car had already gone through and left the paper with the guards. We were relieved to be back on the Jordanian side and were sure that the man, who's name we would learn in Muhammad, was going to kick us out of his car. Instead, he followed us inside to make sure that we got our exit stamp canceled and could get back into Jordan ok. No problems there.
When I presented our passports to the guard and told him we had tried to get into Syria and we could not, so we wanted to return to Jordan, he gave me a big smile and said "ahlan wa sahlan." "Welcome to Jordan." I think this happens more often than we know.
When we were arriving at the passport building, we saw the two OSU guys across the way- apparently kicked out of their taxi, heading for the duty free shop.
After we got all of that straightened out, Muhammad directed us back to his car. I was a little confused, because I was pretty sure this is where we would need to get a taxi back to Irbid. But he gave us bananas and lemonade- so I wasn't arguing too much. Eventually Muhammad's cousin and his sister or another cousing got in the car and we continued. The woman in the car argued with Muhammad a bit about us being in there, asking how much he was charging us for the ride and when we was going to let us out. At this point I was hoping it wasn't any time soon since he had driven us through the border check and now we were essentially in the middle of nowhere. Muhammad instead waved off her protests and I heard him tell her he was taking us all the way back to Irbid. He then told her we understood Arabic.
She turned around and began to talk to us. I told her I was a student in Alexandria studying Arabic. She was pleased. She made a comment about us trying to learn Arabic while they were trying to learn English. Overall, as the conversation continued, she seemed to warm up to us.
Muhammad not only drove us all the way back to Irbid, but even dropped us off right at our hotel. When I tried to pay him for the ride, he refused- saying that we were friends now.
I simply couldn't believe the generousity from this man. It was amazing. How many people in the US do you know that would give complete strangers a lift to the nearest bus station, let along carry them across an international border and drop them off at a town some 30 minutes away from there. Amazing.

As we checked into the hotel, exhausted and truly glad to be back in Jordan we came to this conclusion:
Two Ohio State students pay 500 lira a piece to ride in a taxi literally a kilometer across an international border.
Two University of Michigan students managed to hitch a ride in a 100 thousand dollar mercedes to the nearest town, pay nothing and make friends. That's the Michigan Difference.

1. . .3. . .4. . . news from the road

greetings from Petra, Jordan!!

I've skipped out on blogging the last few weeks since they were super busy!! To summarize: I found and moved into an apartment for the year in Alexandira, finished summer classes, and said lots of heart wrenching goodbyes to those students not staying for the year!

Brent arrived safely in Cairo and it was quite the trip to pick him up. We ended up waiting an hour and a half for the driver from the hotel to pick us up and take us to the airport. the whole time we were talking to him and he was telling us really bad, but amusing jokes in english, but he was hard to understand. there was something about a rat with a golden tooth. don't ask - i really dont know!!! i picked up brent and we spent the next day wandering around cairo a little before taking a bus back to alexandria.
We were only in alex for one night before hopping on a bus with a few others from my program to go to Dahab, which is this great little spot on the red sea. It's popular for diving and snorkeling.
before i go in to describing Dahab- i have to tell you about the great race to reach dahab. Brent, Jake, Monica, and I all took the superjet bus from alex to sharm el-sheikh and then from sharm to dahab. Taking a total of 13 hours and costing 100 egyptian pounds. There was another group of Tom, Laura, and robert who were convinced they could get there for cheaper, so they left in the afternoon on saturday at 2pm (we left 10pm saturday night) and took a minibus to suez and then a mini bus to Nuweiba, and then apparently the back of a pick up truck to Dahab. the trip totaled 24 hours and cost 95 egyptian pounds. who won? you be the judge!
Anyway- dahab was awesome! it's super sunny and warm, but the water is fabulous. there was so much sea life! we saw urchins, and a blowfish, and even a lion fish!! there are also lots of good places to eat, though a little expensive. brent and I did some snorkeling and even took a 2 hour horseback ride into the surrounding mountains for an awesome view of dahab and saudi arabia across the sea. it was good execpt i asked our guide if i could take a picture of him and he suggested i jump in the picture with him. well, after that, every picture we took was one of brent and i and then one of the guide and i. everytime our guide would take a picture of us he would count in English: 1. . . 3. . . 4!!! Thus the title of this post.
brent said afterwards he thought the guide was going to push him off the cliff and carry me back to town! I have some really great pictures now with brent and with a random egyptian man. what could be better from a horseback tour??
in general we spent time lazing about in the sun and snorkeling. It was a great trip except that i had to say more goodbyes to friends who were only staying for the summer.
After Dahab brent and i split up from the group and took a bus to Nuweiba and then took the ferry to Aqaba. the ferry was one of the most frustrating experiences i have ever had. we arrived plenty early to make sure we had time to get through the customs proceedures. to buy tickets we gave our passports to a man through a little window and then waited until he called "americans' because he wasn't going to try to pronounce our names. then we had our passports checked again at the gate to the ferry terminal and encountered little trouble.
we sat down in the ferry terminal and a helpful man guided us to sit with an Arabic family, where we would be safer. they were amazed that i spoke arabic and i had a good conversation with them for about an hour. they took pictures with us and asked us to write in arabic so they could see our writing. they even filmed part of our conversation on their cell phone. it was really interesting and a little awkward.
then we settled down and waited. and waited. and waited. we started to worry that we had missed the departure of the fast ferry. But alas, the ferry was just running late. how late?? well, we finally borded and departed six hours later than we were supposed to. 6 hours. seriously. we were not happy but there really wasn't anything you could do. the ferry itself was clean and comfortable, a big change from the wood plank benches and wretched bathrooms at the terminal. there was even a movie- the first movie that started playing was depicting some American in egypt yelling at a store owner (in a british accent) and then some egyptian guy calling george w bush at the white house and then the group at the cafe viewing september 11th on tv. then it shut off and a new movie was put on instead. interesting.
we arrived in Aqaba and the customs proceedures in Jordan were much more efficient. Jordan in general seems much more efficient and ordered than Egypt.
We grabbed a room at a hotel, had some great kebab and hummus at a restaurant nearby and then went to sleep.
this morning we woke up and took a minibus to Petra in Jordan. along the way our driver ran various errands, and we stopped in several places, such as a hotel and a dentist's office to drop things off. we arrived in petra, got a hotel room, and then took a taxi down to the park.
Ok- Petra is the location of the city carved by the Nabateans into sandstone cliffs. You know that crazy temple at the end of Indiana Jones and the last crusade?? Yep- Petra. Or, for a more recent reference- the temple in Jordan were sam found that key of life thing in Transformers 2? Yup- petra. except, unlike in transformers 2, petra is not an hour away from the pyramids.
petra is absolutely beautiful. the sandstone cliffs and carved facades are gorgeous. i took lots of pictures which i will post later. we hiked around all afternoon visiting of course the famous treasury (the building pictured in the movies), the ampitheater, and the monestary (and lots in between!!). it was a really long, hot hike, but definitely worth it. petra is one of the most beatiful areas i've ever seen, especially once the sun started to set and the rocks became a rosey-pink color. it was absolutely fasinating.
tomorrow we are hoping on a mini bus to Amman where we will stay for the weekend before we try our luck crossing into Syria.
I really love Jordan so far. Like i said before, it seems more organized than Egypt. The police look a lot more serious here. in egypt, most policemen have a pistol and some may have a rifle. in jordan, we've seen police with automatic weapons. brent knows the type and was pointing them out to me. we've also had some really great food- better kabab than i've gotten in Egypt yet. i'm continuing to use my arabic, but i find it a little difficult to understand the Jordianian dialect. we're still making our way around ok though!!
More to follow as we continue our backing across the Middle East!!!!

Second trip to Cairo

(picture- the restaurant, Sequoia, on the nile)

So we took a second trip to Cairo this weekend, just staying one night, to celebrate some August birthdays and do some shopping.
Our adventure started with trying to catch our train. As usual, the system (well, lack there of) at the train station made things confusing. It's hard to be sure which platform you are supposed to be on. After asking around, we figured it was platform number three. We waited for a while on the platform, being a general spectacle as we usually are. People pointed and stared. Finally, a train came in. We walked hurriedly trying to find our car. The platform ended and we had to get on the train and walk between cars toward our car. We arrived in car number 9 and found people in our seats. We stopped to ask an employee and discovered we were in fact, on the wrong train and it was definitely starting to move. We quickly hurried everyone forward. We had to run through 2 cars to we could get back to the platform and then had to step off the moving train. One of our friends was seated in a different car and we frantically called her to tell her to get off the train. Luckily the train stopped again and she could get off. In the mean time one of the girls with us discovered she had lost her ticket and had to jump back on the train to find it. One of the train employees had it and she was able to retrieve it luckily.
(Picture- Zamalek, the area of AUC)
After that, we waited on the platform for our real train to come. It was running late. As we stood on the platform, a group of women began talking to us. They were pointing at one of our friends and saying, "She is beautiful, like honey!" They then began asking us if we were married. Another woman came over to them and started yelling, "Shame! Leave them alone!"
As we continued to wait another train that wasn't ours pulled in and a group of women sitting on the train started taking pictures of us through the window. One of the guys we were with noticed and smiled at them and they got all embarrassed and stopped. After that train left, a small group of young boys started to crowd near us on the platform. Finally, our train arrived.
Once again, the platform was too short for the train and we had to step off the platform and then climb up into the train. We found our seats with no problem. The train was less than appealing. It was extremely slow and stopped frequently and our car smelled like piss. We made it to Cairo at last- about two hours late.
(picture- Khan Khalili)
We dropped our belongings off at the hostel and changed and went to dinner at this beautiful restaurant on the Nile called Sequoia. It was a little on the expensive side, but worth it. I got a Greek salad that was literally bucket sized. It was the first salad I've had all summer and I savored every bite.
After dinner we went to a party at the Swiss Club. It was mostly foreigners and it was really strange. In Alexandria, when we go out, guys will not approach you. period. Here, there were a lot of forward guys and we were all a little creeped out. Although I did get to hear a good pick up line involving a beard. We danced and tried to ward off unwanted attention and after a while returned to the hostel for some sleep.
The next day, we slept late, ate breakfast at the hostel, and then split into two groups. One group went to check out Old Cairo, and the group I was in went to Zamalek, the area in which the American University in Cairo is located. We walked around, stopped in a silver shop and a book shop. I bought four books- one in English, three in Arabic. I have a feeling I'm going to have an entire library by the time I leave next year which will be tricky to transport home!!
(picture- spices at Khan Khalili)
Afterward, we all met up at Khan Khalili- the large open air market. It was a super intense experience! People are yelling at you left and right, trying to get you to come into their shop and buy things. We were called a variety of things, including- Beautiful, Sweetie, Yank, Obama, and some others. The first thing I bought was a small bracelette which I bargained for. I was offered it for free for my phone number. The guy also insisted that I should take an Egyptian husband, he being first in line of course. I finally managed to pay and escape.
We wandered around the market which seems like a magical place. There are so many colors and noises and smells. It was overwhelming. It was beautiful. We found another silver shop and stepped inside. Hannah, one of the girls we were with had been there before. The shop owner was extremely nice and we passed the time in conversation while we looked.
(Picture- scarves)
Each of us bought a necklace and Hannah bought some earrings. Finally we decided we were ready to leave.
Instead of taking the train home, we hopped on a mini-bus, which was faster and cheaper. We got lucky and the mini bus had airconditioning. We arrived home safe and sound and in time for a good night's sleep.
I was really surprised at some of the thoughts and feelings I had in Cairo. It's much less conservative than Alex. Especially when we were at the party. You don't realize how the conservative ideals we live in every day are affecting you until you are some place much less so. You just tend to feel much more awkward and that things are in some way out of place. I have a feeling I will probably experience some reverse culutre shock when I return to America after a year!

Siwa

Last weekend a group of us took a trip to Siwa, which is an Oasis in the western desert in Egypt, near the Libyan border.
Day 1- The trip started with us hopping on a night bus from Alexandria to Siwa. As usual, this was an adventure. The bus was overbooked and people ended up standing in the aisle. Most of us were seated in the back of the bus and the air-conditioning was not working, so it was extremely hot!! Overall it was an uncomfortable 7 hour ride and most of us slept very little. We arrived in Siwa around 5:30 am and went to the lobby of small hotel to wait for our guide. We slept a little on the chairs in the lobby.
When our guide arrived, we ate breakfast and went on a tour of Siwa in donkey carts. This was interesting. Siwa was absolutely gorgeous. We visited the mountain of the dead and got to go inside a few tombs as well as the temple of the Oracle that Alexander the great consulted. We also visited the Cleopatra spring. There were a lot of men around and the girls didn't feel comfortable in the swim suits, so only a couple of the guys went in. I stood on a step and got my feet wet. At the Cleopatra spring, there was a man teaching his small son (maybe around 5 or 6 years old) how to swim. The method: tie an empty milk carton to his back and toss him in. The boy was not happy and kept running away. But he was starting to get it by the time we were leaving.
Overall a nice tour but we felt kind of bad for the donkies- when we stopped the drivers would unhook them from the carts and when we needed to get going again, the donkies put up quite a fight and made lots of noise when they were being hitched up again. Jake insists that the donkies are really happy and have a "hard work ethic" and would be sad if out of work. The rest of us beg to differ. A donkey revolution coming soon??
It was really interesting to be touring around Siwa. The area is much more basic and poorer than Alexandria. It is also very traditional. As we drove around, the only woman we saw was peaking out of the window of a small house.
After the tour our guide took us to lunch at his home. We ate dinner with his family, boys in one small house, girls in the other. This is so that his mother and sisters could come out and socialize without having to worry so much about their hijabs. Lunch was delicious. We spoke with our guide's mother and she was surprised to learn that none of the girls were engaged yet. She has 13 children and almost all of them are engaged, including her daughters who are much younger than us. After lunch the women drew with henna on some of the girls hands and then we all took a nap for a while. Afterwards, it was time to head into the desert.
We piled into to large Toyota SUV things and headed out. We stopped and our guides deflated our tires slightly so it would be easier to drive on the sand and off we went. No buildings, no roads, just miles and miles of sand. We drove over sand dunes like a roller coaster and eventually stopped on one for some sand surfing. The concept is like snowboarding, but on sand. We literally used snow boards. However, it is much different. You cant get any traction to actually turn the board, so you have to go down straight and are pretty much at the mercy of the sand. There were a couple of good wipe outs.
After the sandboarding we went swimming in a cold spring nearby. It was really strange to see this lake with a bunch of plant life around it in the middle of the desert. After swimming we visited a hot spring, but I didn't go in because it smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulfur.
We stopped at on last HUGE dune to sand board down, only we had to sit on the boards like sleds because it was too dangerous to be standing up. You would definitely break something if you fell. We hopped on the boards two by two and sledded down. It was super fast and a little scary, but really fun!! The bad part- sandboarding is really fun, but unlike snow boarding, there are no ski lifts, so you have to walk back up, which is very tiring. So we hiked back up the big dune once and went down a second time, then waited for our guides to drive the trucks down.
We drove to a camp and our guides made us dinner on a fire. Chicked and rice and vegetables. Really really delicious. The chicken was nice and tender and juicy. After dinner, we hauled into the vans again and drove out into the desert to camp for the night.
We set up camp- layed thick blankets on the sand and each of us had a small foam mat to sleep on. No tent. Just open air. It was absolutlely beautiful. We all layed back and looked at the stars. I've never seen anything like it in my life. The sky was covered. We could even see the milky way, clear as could be. We spotted satellites and shooting stars. It was amazing. We slept well for a while until it started to get really cold in the early hours of the morning. Even though I was in a sweatshirt and jeans, I woke up freezing! I ended up rolling myself in one of the blankets on the sand. We woke up and went back to the camp for breakfast and then part of the group headed back to Alexandria while the rest of us stayed for day 2.

Day 2-
We piled into the back of our guide's pick up truck and drove to the salt lake and salt flats. It was a big lake of salt- it looked like snow! We got out and walked on it and took pictures huddled together like we were standing in the artic. We found a hole in the salt leading to the water beneath and one of the guys sat in the water for a few minutes. He was floating like he was sitting in and invisible chair! Afterwards we drove to another cold spring which was much more secluded than the day before and did some more swimming. We drove to a second one after that, but it was exteremely crowded with a lot of local boys, so the girls could not go swimming, or would have to swim with our clothes on, so we decided to leave. We went and had some lunch and took another nap because it is too hot to do anything in the middle of the day.
After lunch we did a little shopping in town. I bought two scarves and a box of dates filled with chocolate. Delicious!! Siwa is famous for its dates and olives. After shopping we drove to this little hotel type place on the salt lake and went swimming in the salt lake. It was very strange. The lake was only maybe 2 feet deep all over and you couldn't go under even if you wanted too. If you just sat back, it was like you were floating on a lounge chair because the water was so salty.
A couple of us decided to swim out to this little island. Bad idea. The water was really shallow, so it was hard to swim in. You couldn't walk, because the salt on the bottom was sharp. We were pushing ourselves along with our hands for a while, but the salt on the bottom of the lake was leaving tiny cuts, like paper cuts, on our hands. We eventually made it to the island and were all quite sick of the salt, but had to swim back.
We made it back and jumped in the fresh water spring by the hotel. We watched the sunset and then had to head back into town to catch our bus. However, as we were literally driving away, the hotel workers stopped the truck and told us we had to pay 25 L.E. for swimming there (this was after they told us we had to buy something from the restaurant, which we all did). Our guide and our two Egyptian friends with us got out of the car and went aside and argued with the workers. Like usual, it was an intense discussion. Voices were raised, there were wild hand gestures. It carried on for about 10 minutes before all was settled, and everyone shook hands and we left without paying.
We made it back to town and said goodbye to our awesome guide and hopped on the night bus back to Alex. Once again over crowded, but at least the air-conditioning worked. After having had 2 nights in a row of very little sleep- we all slept on the bus. We made it home and went to bed and got up for homework the next day.