Blogs from North, Jordan, Middle East - page 31

Our next stop, kid free, in Jordon was Hammamat Ma’in (Ma’in Hot Springs). . It is pretty cool. Ma'in is about 30 mins from Amman. My sister in law's husband drives a taxi in Amman so we did not have to worry about transportation. If you are not fortunate to have relatives who can drive, you can hire a van and driver for fairly cheap in Amman. We passed through Madaba, known for its mosaics that date back 3500 years, We stopped here to pick up our lunch. Chicken, rice, hummus and labne(yougurt). I would suggest bringing your lunc into Ma'in. I did catch a pic of some ruins here.Not sure when they date but they look cool. The huge waterfall, heated by uderground lava fissures, fills many baths below.Underneath the waterfall is a cavern that ... read more

The first Friday we were in Jordan, after J'umaih we had a bbq at a park in Amman. In the way to the park, it was about 15 minutes from downtown, people would stopp on the side of the road and have tea anad bbq. This park had no grass but it did have lots of trees and large open areas. It reminded me of Northern California around Yosemite area. The park was pretty full and we had to drive a way out the road till we found a spot. My husband' three sister's and their husbands, their twelve childrened, combined, my family of four and my husband's brother all went. We had to rent a bus to get out their. The kids and the adult spent time trying to fly kites but the wind was ... read more

So I finally arrived in Aqaba after spending far too long in the airport waiting for a delayed flight - and ultimately could have driven here in the time (!). I didn’t realise Aqaba was so BIG! I also didn’t realise that people had 5 days public holidays for Eid and so the place is absolutely packed full of holiday makers. Oh for a bit of research before leaving home. So I’ve had to book into a larger, nastier and more expensive hotel than expected which is packed with French and German tours groups and throngs of British squaddies presumably on leave from Iraq. They are not actually behaving as badly as one might expect, they all seem pretty irritable but are generally quite quiet; although I haven’t yet seen them with a drink inside them. ... read more

Its been a little while since I last wrote, but there have been a couple of interesting experiences since. Hopefully next time I can show you some pictures from outside Amman. Some of the good things that have been happening are that I have been spending more time with the other students at Qasid and meeting Jordanians that are really nice and allow me to speak to them in Arabic so I am not as lonely nor do I have as much time on my hands as I used to. Unfortunately that means that I am spending more time in cabs here and am not tolerating being swindled where the meter is "broken". I got into a pretty big argument with a driver today and ended up not paying him the exorbitant price that he was ... read more

Hey all, I have just completed week 2 in Jordan and things are still going great hear with much less confusion. I started classes the day after the my excursion to Ajloun Castle and love them so far. I have class for 3 hours in two sections starting at 8:00 am. My first teacher is Muhammad (common name over here as you may know) and is apparently the best in the school. He speaks the entire time in Arabic and is constantly joking around which is great just on the fact that we can finally joke in Arabic a new level of language competency! Our second teacher is Ra'id and not quite as good. He makes forced jokes that are not as funny (although he laughs) and speaks in English when he really doesn't have to ... read more