Here are some pictures from my trip to Jordan and Egypt:
http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f231/hp123987/?albumview=slideshow
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Last Day
Today is my last day in Jordan. There are a lot of people I'm going to miss and it's not easy saying goodbye, but I'm really glad to be going back to America. Jordan is a good place to study abroad for a semester, but I'm certainly not ready to live here. Being here has really made me appreciate the US more.
Anyway, if you don't know: I'm going to be going to China for three weeks in June (my visa just came through earlier this week), plus there are still a lot of thing about Jordan that I haven't written about, so I'll be continuing this blog. Thanks for reading.
Anyway, if you don't know: I'm going to be going to China for three weeks in June (my visa just came through earlier this week), plus there are still a lot of thing about Jordan that I haven't written about, so I'll be continuing this blog. Thanks for reading.
Friday, May 15, 2009
The king stay the king.
One interesting thing about living in Jordan is the fact that this is a real monarchy. It doesn't quite have the history behind it that some European royal families have (but it's also a legit monarchy and not just a relic). It's hard to escape the presence of the king. There are pictures of King Abdullah everywhere. Every business is required to have at least one picture of him up. There's not just one picture though. There are shots of him with his family, in his army uniform, carrying an M16, even riding a scooter. In Egypt there are almost no pictures of Hosni anywhere and an inversely proportionate number of uniformed police/army with machine guns.
I'm not sure if it's related, but people here generally don't talk about domestic politics. Maybe it's because they don't have a very loud voice. If politics does come up, it's always about Israel or Obama. It's probably good that they don't have democracy here, since most of the population are Palestinian refugees, and Palestinians haven't exactly proven themselves as stewards of Thomas Jefferson. Plus the king seems to be a pretty good one.
One of the worst things about living in Jordan is the call to prayer. It goes off every few hours throughout the day, and lasts about two minutes. The earliest is the wake up call just before 4:00 and then the first call at around 4:15. It's probably one of the most irritating sounds you can imagine and it wakes me up about half the time. Since it's right next door earplugs don't really help either. Much to their chagrin, this is not the seventh century and people can buy alarm clocks if they insist on getting up that early to prey. It's pretty obnoxious.
In case you couldn't tell, I'm definitely ready to go home. I will be back at this time next week (insha'allah). Sorry about the lack of updates recently. I've had a bunch of papers due in the last few weeks and have also been sick this last week.
I'm not sure if it's related, but people here generally don't talk about domestic politics. Maybe it's because they don't have a very loud voice. If politics does come up, it's always about Israel or Obama. It's probably good that they don't have democracy here, since most of the population are Palestinian refugees, and Palestinians haven't exactly proven themselves as stewards of Thomas Jefferson. Plus the king seems to be a pretty good one.
One of the worst things about living in Jordan is the call to prayer. It goes off every few hours throughout the day, and lasts about two minutes. The earliest is the wake up call just before 4:00 and then the first call at around 4:15. It's probably one of the most irritating sounds you can imagine and it wakes me up about half the time. Since it's right next door earplugs don't really help either. Much to their chagrin, this is not the seventh century and people can buy alarm clocks if they insist on getting up that early to prey. It's pretty obnoxious.
In case you couldn't tell, I'm definitely ready to go home. I will be back at this time next week (insha'allah). Sorry about the lack of updates recently. I've had a bunch of papers due in the last few weeks and have also been sick this last week.
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