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Published: July 28th 2008
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July 25/26
So made it safely to the Heathrow Airport and made my flight to go seeeee DIALAAAA!!!! HABIBIIII!!!! (means “my love” in Arabic) yaaayyy no troubles at the airport and even saw my first camel along the side of the road! Woohooo Met Diala’s mom, dad, older brother, sister and aunts…Her brother, Isam, actually went to Marquette and her sister, Jumana, went to Macalester—what a small world! Then went out and met Diala’s buddies...everyone has been sooo nice so far!
Next day, Diala’s friend, Mees, who actually goes to UBC too invited all his friends over for a traditional Palestinian meal. He is Palestinian and his parents are strict muslims so it was cool and interesting to talk with them and experience a traditional meal in their home. They asked if this was my first time in the Middle East and if I was scared and what I thought before I came here. It’s sad because they know how people especially Westerners view the Middle East and joked that they were going to take me to Iraq and Aghanistan to scare me. haha but the sad part was how they knew many fear the area they live in.
faisalllllllllll
one of diala's good buds from highschool Jordan is very westernized yet still so unique and sooo amazing—I would highly encourage anyone who is interested in their culture to visit here or anywhere in the Middle East that is secure enough to travel to. It is in the vicinity of nearby countries that are at war but that doesn’t mean the whole of this area is not safe. It’s horrible how the media portrays the whole as chaos and in conflict and prevents us from seeing such awesome and beautiful places. Please don’t fall into the majority of people who are just scared of what they don’t really know or are scared to know and learn…Such an amazing place with unbelievable people.
So, back to the lunch at Mees’ casa…The food is called “Msakhan” which is pita with cooked onions and spices on top and chicken with yogurt to dip it in. And best of all…..YOU USE YOUR FINGERS and it’s just a mess but everyone is eating it like that too so you don’t look silly and it’s just great!!! Haha Delicious too! We were stuffed till the end of the day—so amazing!
**Just some cool facts to know about Amman. The huge city is built
on 7 hills with it’s winding cities--kinda similar to Mpls and St. Paul with suburbs within each. The beginning of the week usually starts on Sunday and Friday/Saturday are days of rest mostly because this is a Muslim country and mosque. Funny though because most of Diala’s friends that I have met including herself are not Muslim but Christian. But she says there are only around 12% Christians in the country.
Then we headed to a pool party up in Mahis where her friend, Dina, lives by apparently royalty and overlooks the city of Salt and beyond the hill from there is Palestine. Breathtaking. Dina’s boyfriend is a dj so he set up and played some sets for us. He dj’s in LA and even brought his friend, Rob, who you might have seen in some tv shows, Coach Carter, or House of Wax. Haha it was funny to see another American chilling in Jordan but he said it was his second summer in Jordan because he loves it so much. So we all watched the sunset and danced the night away.
July 27th
Laid back day while everyone goes back to work…
Had lunch with Diala’s family—they
cooked a common Jordanian dish of cabbage rolls of rice and meat (Sound familiar Weber family?? Hehe) with more cabbage on top and whole cloves of cooked garlic!!! Yummmmy no vampires tonight! It was called “Falfoof“ which means “rolled” because of the rolled cabbage. Of course delicious!
Later, Diala and friends took me to this cafe called Wild Jordan that is in the area known as "Old Amman" because the city is expanding so much and this is the older part of the city. It overlooked everything and you could even see the Jordanian flag--it is apparently the tallest flag pole in the world and the biggest flag in the world (according to Guinness World Records). Then they drove me around the 8 roundabouts in Amman and we walked around some malls and finally went to The Dark Knight....SOOO INTENSE!!!--the movie was in english but had arabic subtitles...so fun! ohhh it was funny because there was CARIBOU COFFEE IN THEIR NEW MALL!!! hahaha i started laughing and in shock because it's from battle creek, mn right?
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