So once we received out transit visas we had to find a new taxi since our taxi from Amman abandoned us because Americans are always kept at the boarder for ridiculous amounts of time. So we go out into the parking lot and start asking around. Almost everyone was headed back to Jordan. Most people were helpful and tried to gesture vaguely in the direction of where we could find a taxi but really I think they had as little of an idea as we did. The people we did find tried to charge us outrageous amounts of money, like $50 [View Full Entry]

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I am sorry that I have not kept yall updated in a while. Getting internet for more than a few minutes has been a challenge but right now it is a nice reprieve from the extensive traveling I have been doing. Lets see where to start. Last...Monday, yes I think it was Monday there was a shooting at the University of Jordan between two bedoiun tribes, Al Anwans, (the agressors or agressives) and the Bini Shaher (Sons of the Rock) best match up ever. Anyway the details have not exactly been released even by my professor Dr Najah who is a [View Full Entry]

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I had the most incredible weekend of my life last weekend. We got out of class on Thursday (the new Friday) and began out journey to Wadi Rum which means Valley of Rum which is not an apt name for the location I am displeased to report. The RUM IS ALWAYS GONE...because it is haram aka super forbidden (lol harum)in Islam. Anyway we began the trip by riding in 4x4 truck beds (standing up) through the desert. We turned it into a race and our driver Hasan..Al Ahsan (it means Hasan the Best...we gave him the superlative) This crazy fool drove [View Full Entry]

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Ok so apparently I say Al Jamiya al Urdania in a completely different way than people who speak arabic do because it has only about at 30% success rate compared to if I just say University of Jordan although al bawayya Al Reyees tends to work a lot better than main gate. So typically I leave my apartment at 7:15 although it only take about 15 tops to get to school to be there for my 8:00 am private secession that I have either with Eustatha Muna or Eustatha Rabia. Then I have 3 hours of Fus ha or standard arabic [View Full Entry]

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I am now in the super fancy (free internet cafe that serves supper fancy desserts to the dismay of my waistline. Maybe I can off set that by the fact that I have to walk, EVERYWHERE and the only food I have found is fruit and bread. So far I have moved into my apartment, FLUNKED a placement exam, I mean I left huge chunks of it blank. This resulted in my being placed in the lowest level but fortunately was a real teachers pet in class today and proved just how much Arabic I knew and got moved up to [View Full Entry]

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Today marks my first full day in Jordan, 14 months to go. Getting here however was not entirely uneventful. My plane from Philadelphia to New York was suppose to Leave at 6:30 which meant I would arrive at 7:45, plenty of time to catch my 10:00 pm flight to Amman. Well not when you board at 7:30, are told that you are just going to wait on the plane for another hour, take off at 8:30 to arrive at 9:45 in a different terminal than the one my flight to Amman was in. Fortunately through a series of sprinting, then jogging, [View Full Entry]

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Alas, a return to Starbucks. Andrea needs to email to paper to Professor Chen so here we are. Blast you corporate America! At least our computers recognized the WI Fi and we didnt need to buy anything to connect. GOT EM! Aw the guy who rang us up yesterday is mopping and recognized us. Hola Amigo! Anyway the day started in a much less American way. This morning we learned how to make flan! Unfortunately I wasn't thinking and forgot to take pictures but you will have have to take my word that is was the prettiest flan there has ever [View Full Entry]

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UGH! I just wrote a post but of course the internet at the Starbucks here in Morelia decided to cut out when I clicked publish. Triste. Bueno it is already difficult to type in English which is create because it means I am thinking is spanish pero it is kind of a bad thing because I really dont speak that much spanish. I guess that means the overall complexity of my thoughts has decreased and to that I say finally! I am so ready for this break. I thought it was kind of hilarious that everyone assumed I was going to [View Full Entry]

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I have briefly left my desert home in Maharastra and head up North to the Himalayas. I am in a tibetian town called Leh and I feel like I am on a whole other planet not to mention no longer in India. Women are wearing long black dresses with wooly vests over them and monks are running a muck! well I dont know about a muck but they are everywhere. The entire town is surrounded by beautiful mountain and down here in the valley we are at 12,000 ft. We began our journey by car from Meherabad to Mumbai at 7:00 [View Full Entry]

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Well not much to say today, literally! Today is silence day where no one talks in honor of the day the day that Meher Baba stopped speaking and remained silent for the last 44 years of his life. The only sounds are cars, birds and the occasional squeak of my hiccups (they have no reverence the silly things). Yesterday I toured the organic farm and women's cooperative store run by an NGO called Prithvi. It was really incredible. They use cow manure for fertilizer and urine for pesticides. They grow medicinal herbs, coconuts, mangos, papayas, dhal, and other Indian staples. It [View Full Entry]

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