In Pictures...

I'm trying to upload a whole bunch of pictures so here are some for now.

Pictures:



The University of Jordan. The clock tower in the center was the site of several students protests during the time we were there.



Hezbollah's TV station al-Manar was always on in the lobby of our aprtment building during the war in Lebanon. On the station, videos showing militias marching around interspersed with pictures of children wounded by Israeli bombs or speeches from Hassan Nasrallah played on a continual loop.



The infamous Al-Amera apartments where I lived.



We're still unsure what the point of our visit to this place was, but at least they served us the best Falafel sandwiches ever.



Erik and I with one of the kids from the King's Academy.



These kids were really friendly and kept giving us food. They also kept trying to show of for us.



The kid on the left spoke better English than I do.



Roman ruins in Jerash. They have a big music festival here each summer, but they canceled it in 2006 due to the war in Lebanon.



These guys were actors that recreated a roman battle (major tourist trap). But when we started talking to them, one guy randomly invited us over to his house for dinner. We had to turn it down unfortunately due to time restraints, but that shows you how friendly everyone there is.



This is from a special room in a girl's elementary school devoted to the Palestinian armed resistance.



Another picture from the "Free Palestine" room depicting dead bodies being carried away from fighting during the second intifada.



A drawing by one of the students at the girl's school depicting a Palestinian resistance fighter.



This is Mt. Nebo where Moses is supposed to have died. The pole with the snakes on it is where that symbol you see on ambulances comes from.



Duff in front of one of Jordan's few Christian churches.



A really famous mosaic map in a Greek Orthodox church. It's supposed to be a really big deal.



Fuad fixing one of the beds in our apartment after Rashad sat on it. We had to fix it without the owner finding out or we would have been charged way more than the actual price it would have cost him to fix it. So that day we went hunting for some nails at a construction site, and this guy came up to us and gave us all the nails we would ever need as well as a couple of Cokes just for the heck of it.



Mensef, a traditional Jordanian dish consisting of lamb, rice, and a yogurt sauce. Notice the sheep head in the middle.



We ate at this really good restaurant a lot, and every time we went there a wedding party going on next door. So Duff and Fuad crashed a random wedding there and were likewise treated as the guests of honor.



I always felt at home when I went to this place as it was a bastion of all kinds of American culture.



This picture gives you a good perspective on Globalization.



Here our driver stops along the road in the middle of nowhere to buy onions. He had earlier refused to take us to a crusaders castle but felt that it was okay to do some personal shopping on our time.



This guy's name is Olaff. He was a Dutch student who turned out to be only 16 years after I had mistaken him for much older. When I was explaining to him that I don't smoke because because I'm Mormon, he got really confused as he thought the Mormons and the Amish were the same people. "How did you get here then if you couldn't have used modern transportation?", he asked.



The Jordan River. The side the picture is taken from is Jordan, and the other side is Israel. That means that I about 10 feet away and could have possibly jumped into Israel with a good running start.



Israeli soldiers and Christian pilgrims. We were told that it was forbidden to say anything to the people on the other side of the Jordan river, even if they were only 10 feet away.



The great and spacious building (a.k.a an Israeli visitor center for pilgrims to the Jordan river). You've got to love this picture though with the flag and the barbed wire fence. Very symbolic.



Muhammad and Gretchen at Ajloun castle. Muhammad was a student at Yarmuk university where he studied English literature. It was interesting to get his take on Shakespeare and Mark Twain.



Duff, Muhammad, and somoother guy at Ajloun castle.



The beginnings of a street riot in front of our apartment after Italy won the World Cup.



The street riot escalates.



Right before the police came and broke it up. It started up again 5 minutes after they left.



Actually being in the Middle East when this stuff happens is a lot different than watching along at home.



This kid is going to grow up to be an avid hooka smoker thanks to the habits his mom instilled in him when he was younger.



I feel bad about this picture because I didn't ask this gut for permission before hand. I just stood in the distance and pretended to take a picture of the scenery behind him. I'm pretty sure he noticed.



I bet if I had taken either road it would have led to some very eventful adventures.

So guess the first thing I need to talk about is the fact the Jay Harris has returned! He’s the guy who is in charge of the whole thing. Between writing the first sentence and this sentence, I discussed with my roommate Sean Rao about how Jay Harris returning is like a living in a dream because it’s been over a month since he left.

This weekend we went to Al-Azraq, which is half-way between Amman and Iraq. About ten years ago, this big spring out there was pumped dry because the demand of water was so high, resulting in a ecological disaster. So now there trying to pump water back. So we went there, were “truly” appalled by how much water wasn’t there, and then went to a Wildlife reserve with Ostrich. It was a very interesting trip but Lunch kind of gave it a bad name. We went to this place which according to my guidebook is where all the Saudis go to get drunk because it’s illegal in Saudi Arabia and just over the border. But the food at his place had been made a couple days before and had just been warmed up in the microwave and put in those buffet style metal trays with the flames underneath. It was 8JD! ($11!).

The next day we went to Jerash, a Greek turned Roman turned Islamic city which is really famous. We only had an hour and a half there, so we didn’t see all that much but it was really interesting. They had a reinactment of a roman battle and all the “soldiers” were out on the side of the Hippodrome so me and Duff Ullah went to ask for pictures, and ended up being invited to lunch at someones house. I think what I’m going to miss the most about Jordan is that the people are so friendly! You talk to a person and introduce yourself and they will remember you forever.

On Sunday, I took care of all my gift shopping in the old part of Amman where they sell all of the traditional clothing and stuff. I had to buy a suitcase to take back a lot of the stuff I have acquired being here. We were walking around and Faud saw this place where they were selling Ihrams which are what the men are supposed to wear on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). So he was going to buy 24 for all the men at his mosque in Florida, but ended up being able to buy 12 because it took up a whole new suitcase which we had to go buy. But the reason I’m talking about this is because while we were waiting for them to bring all of the Ihrams out, Faud told the guy who he was buying them from that he had a nice cellphone cover, so then the guy took it off his phone and handed to him to keep. The people are so nice!

Okay, maybe my last entry was a bit over the top about the conflict over here in Lebanon. I'm not in any danger because of anything going on over here, but I'm just quite upset about the whole thing after seeing how the people here view the entire mess. It's actualy both sides fault, but my last entry was pretty much aimed towards Bush which is were only some of the blame should be going. But I don't think it's our right to blame anyways.

Well other than that, I went to a really good lecture yesterday where one of the professors from the religon department of the University of Jordan came and talked about the basic elements of Islam. I've said this a lot to various people over and over again, but Islam is extremely similar to Mormonism, in fact it seems closer than most christain religons. I'm going to prepare a special blog where I will compare and contrast the two. But anyways, this guy was very sharp! He explained how the bad things that we hear all the time about Islam aren't Islam at all, but tribal elements from Arab culture which have existed from before Islam such as honor killings, violence, ect.. And another interesting thing is that even though it seems like Islam discriminates against women, it's actualy a better deal for the women than the men, and more women then men convert to Islam. I will discuss this more in the Mormonism vs. Islam blog (that actual dosen't very nice, all change it).

The other day, I featured a story about a girl in the group who had an intereting run in with the waiters at a restaurant. Well after she read my blog, she reminded me of another story. We went to this restaurant somewhere that had a lot of wierd stuff on the menu, so when she saw that there was a grilled cheese on the menu she ordered it. When the waiter brought it out it wasn't two pieces of bread with cheese in the middle that had been grilled. But in fact it was just cheese that had been grilled, a small piece of cheese to be exact.

Well cheers everyone.