Now that I am back in the U.S. and having Hashem with drawl syndrome I spent a little time reflecting on my month in Jordan. After I finished my Arabic course my wife and I set out on a three day whirlwind tour of the rest of the country. We had a great driver/guide who I had met earlier and Ahmed AKA "Steve" drove us from Amman down to Petra. One of the real highlights of the trip wasn't Petra, but "Little Petra" as Steve called it which is about 10-15 minutes away from the main Petra site. Little Petra doesn't [View Full Entry]

---

---

As uninspiring as the Desert Castles were yesterday the trip to Jerash made up for it. I decided to take public transportation all of the way and if things worked was going to try to make it Ajloun. The bus station that serves the areas to the north of Amman is very easy to negotiate. The buses are clearly marked and the drivers bark out the destination to get the bus full of passengers since they don't leave until they have a full load. After waiting about thirty minutes we finally hit the road. It was an uneventful ride and there [View Full Entry]

---

---

The first week of classes are now finished and I am exhausted. I am studying at the Ali Baba Center which is a small school that runs group and individual programs. It is near the University of Jordan campus, but not affiliated it with it in any way. My program was set up to be three hours of MSA Abrabic and one hour of Ammiah Arabic every day. I don't know if I was lucky or not, but definitely drew two great teachers. My main instructor is a PhD and from the moment she comes into the room it is non [View Full Entry]

---

---

Since it was a Friday during Ramadan I opted to hire a driver today rather then try to explore on my own. I wanted to get out of Amman for part of the day so decided on heading out East to the "Desert Castle's" and to call them castle's is a bit of stretch. You head out of Amman through the more industrial side of town and then along a well maintained, but pretty busy with a good bit of traffic and lots of police and check points along the route. I would have to give this excursion pretty low marks. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The first two days of classes are in the books now and I certainly have a much better feel for the lay of the land in the Downtown and Jabal Amman areas of the city. The days are broken down into three hours of MSA or standard Arabic and one hour of colloquial Arabic. While they are definite similarities it is almost like learning two different languages at the same time. I think in retrospect I would have opted to pass on the colloquial for now until I had a stronger grasp on the language. That being said I have learned [View Full Entry]

---

---

After about 24 hours of traveling I finally made it into Jordan. The worst part of the flight was the nine hour lay over in Frankfurt waiting for the flight into Amman. Getting through the visa and customs stuff was much easier then I thought it would be and was stamped and on my way in less than ten minutes. My ride was waiting for me outside of customs and we quickly set a speed record to my hotel near the 3rd Circle. I didn't get checked in until about 3:15 AM so decided to hit the streets to see what [View Full Entry]

---

---

I will be heading over to Amman Jordan next week for three weeks of intensive Arabic instruction at the Ali Baba International Center in Amman. I am scheduled for 20 hours of one on one lessons for three weeks, but found out today that with Ramadan my schedule will probably change a bit. So it looks like I will be doing four hours of MSA and then one hour of colloguial Arabic every day. Not looking forward to the long flight and seven hour layover in Frankfurt, but am ready to immerse myself in the language and culture. [View Full Entry]

---

---