Saturday Afternoon

I woke up Saturday with no plans for the day. After eating an early lunch, I decided to call Jamal, a man who I had met at the King Abdullah Mosque earlier in the trip. The first time I had met Jamal, he had mentioned that he was friends with an American writer who he referred to as "Eriga" (I think that he was trying to say Erica) and he had said that if I ever wanted to get in touch with her all I had to do was give him a call. I thought that an American writer living in Amman would be a very interesting person to talk to, so I decided to take Jamal up on his offer and gave him a call. Jamal told me to come down to a library in the first circle around 4 p.m. and that we would meet "Eriga" there. When I got to the library, I found out from Jamal that Erica was busy for the day and that I would not be able to meet with her. Jamal and I talked for a few minutes and he told me that when he first met and talked to Erica he was surprised by her intellect and that she was actually quite brilliant. Hearing this caught me off guard. I guess when Jamal looked at her initially he assumed that she would be inherently dumber and less educated. It was surprising to him that she wasn't.
After five or ten minutes we heard the call to prayer ring out and Jamal informed me that he would be leaving for about 40 minutes to find a nearby mosque and pray. He said that I could come with him to the Mosque but I decided that I would wait outside the library. I sat for a short while before I decided to go over to a girl who was sitting alone and reading and ask her some questions. I started off by asking her how she felt about the current ministers and government. The girl paused for a moment before telling me that while she could understand English, she couldn't really speak it. (Ideally, I would have liked to have talked to her in Arabic for the entire time but early on in my trip I realized that my Arabic is not quite good enough to understand what people were saying about domestic and foreign policy.) At the time there was nobody nearby to translate, and I didn't really want to ask a stranger to stand there while she was talking because I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable and feel as though she couldn't speak out against the government or the king. We settled on an interesting system: I would ask her questions in Arabic/English and she was willing to write down her responses in Arabic in a notebook that I had with me and which I would later translate. I asked her some more questions and found out that her opinion of the current political situation in Jordan was very similar to that of most people that I had talked to on my trip. She felt as though the government was corrupt and ineffective and that their main goal was to take as much money from the people as possible. She was frustrated that the money that the government was collecting in taxes was showing no apparent improvements, and she proposed that there be a change of ministers as soon as possible. However, when it came to the king, her opinion was very different. Her support for the king was unwavering. While she seemed to have nothing good to say about the government, she saw the king as an entirely separate entity with separate intentions. The king, she said, had the people's best interests in mind and if not for the governmental failures, things would be much better. I was fairly confused by her response. Seeing as the king has final say over policy and appointing ministers, I thought that ultimately the king would bear the responsibility for poor policy and poor ministers. When I brought up this point the girl just smiled and shook her head. Maybe it's not something that Jordanians admit, or maybe it's not something that Jordanians admit to a foreigner, but throughout my trip not a single person had a bad thing to say about the king.
At this point, we were joined by two of the girl's friends who had stepped outside of the library to smoke a cigarette and shortly after they arrived Jamal returned from the mosque. Luckily, one of the boys spoke English pretty well and he was able to translate for the three of them as we talked about politics. One of the boys had pretty much the same view of the government as the girl I had been talking to, but he had some interesting things to add. He said the unlikely event of an overthrow of the Hashemite Monarchy would bring only chaos. Selecting a president or prime minister would exploit the regional tensions in Jordan as any candidate from the North would be rejected by the South and any Southern candidate would be rejected by the North. I asked the other boy who was translating what his view of Jordan was. He mentioned multiple times that what he loved most about Jordan was how safe it is and, unlike the two other kids there and every other college student I had talked to on my trip, he had no complaints about the government. I found this response unusual and so I asked him what he meant. We continued to talk and I learned that he is Iraqi and that he moved to Jordan when he was much younger. His brother, father, and uncle were all killed by the government in Iraq and what he loves most about living in Jordan is that he never has to worry about anything like that happening or bullets whizzing by at night. It really made me realize that everything is relative, and that though these students study together and live in the same setting, their view of the world is ultimately defined by their past experiences and their level of expectations.
For a while we stayed and talked about less serious topics such as what video games we each played or what soccer teams they liked. Twice, a group of 7 or 8 students gathered around Jamal as they listened to "words of wisdom" about the proper way to study and to focus. Some of the students started to leave, but Jamal, the two boys, and I stayed and kept on talking. I don't know how it was brought up, but one of the boys started talking about how the Jews were to blame for the partition of India into India and Pakistan and the ensuing violence in the Kashmir region. I asked him what he meant, and he proceeded to say that it was Great Britain's fault, and seeing as the Jews clearly controlled Great Britain, they were to blame. I told him that as I had learned it, the Partition was the result of a Muslim Nationalist Movement who wanted to break away from India. It was not the fault of Great Britain, rather it was an issue pushed by the Muslims. Additionally, the Jews didn't control Britain then, and it would be hard to argue that they do now. His response was that I had no idea what I was talking about and I only knew what they wanted me to know. I stopped arguing as I realized that there was no way to rationalize with anyone who believed something so ridiculous and was insinuating that I was the victim of a grand, secret, Western coverup of Jewish trickery.

One Small Note

The pictures look smaller initially but if you click on them they expand.

The Last Crusade

I just want to say a couple things to start off this post. Thing 1: Thank you to everyone who has read this blog and I am very sorry that I have been so lazy with posting. Thing 2: I know that the title of this post is cheesy but I'm using it anyway because I've been planning to do so for roughly 3 weeks and there's no turning back now.
Anyway: I went back to Petra and the trip on Saturday really gave me the opportunity to appreciate the site itself. Walking through the Siq and seeing the treasury again really allowed me to appreciate the grandeur of it all. Petra is much more than just the treasury, and the area itself is huge. The city has been conquered time and time again and there is a lot of history from different cultures. Basically the two most well known sites there are the Treasury and the Monastery and the two are located at opposite ends of the city. In between the two is a road that is lined with tombs and mausoleums elaborately carved into the sides of the mountains. I would like to talk more about the tombs and the buildings, but I feel as though nothing that I say here about the buildings can really do the place justice. It's really one of those places that you have to see yourself and I would definitely recommend doing so if possible. What I can talk about is the people who inhabit Petra. Though seeing sites and buildings is always interesting, I have found on this trip that I am more interested in the people. Petra brings with it a network of young and old Jordanians who try to capitalize on the tourist traffic. More or less these people can be divided up into two groups: young boys who sell donkey rides, and old women who work at bazaars set up throughout the city. In a way, both groups struck me as sad but each in different ways. There are tons of bazaars, each selling the same fake jewelry, each operated by similarly old and weak women, and each appearing to be selling very little. The boys who sell the donkey rides range from about 8-18 more or less. It's a little bit disheartening to see kids younger than you and your age whose lives will consist of selling short donkey rides to tourists everyday and smoking cigarettes. The idea of a "future" in the way that we view the word doesn't really apply to these kids and it made me sad to think that while I will be studying at an excellent university in two years these kids will still be selling donkey rides and smoking cigarettes every day. Looking back on it, I try not to apply "Western" cultural standards to things that I have seen as their cultural is totally different from ours. At the same time, though, it's hard from viewing these experiences in another way. After walking past the 6th or 7th 10 year old standing by a dirty donkey in the hot sun, I decided to stop and buy some candy bars to give to the next couple that I saw. Food, especially sweets, means a lot to Jordanians and receiving the candy seemed to make these kids' day. As I got closer to the end of the main road to the Monastery, some American tourists coming from the other direction told me that I would definitely want to take a donkey ride to get there as the Monastery is not only at the end of the road, but once you get to the end you have to hike up a mountain to get there. Now I know that American tourists are certainly not usually the experts on local affairs, but I was really tired and had never ridden a donkey before so I decided to look for a ride. I ran into a group of 9-10 year olds who had some donkeys and were standing next to a grown man who appeared to be the father of at least one of the boys. One of the boys was smoking a cigarette, and so I asked the man why he allowed him to smoke if he knew it was bad for the boy's health. The man's response was: he likes it, he does what he wants.
The donkey ride up the mountain lasted 30 minutes and, embarrassing as it is, I was scared for nearly all of them. The donkey kept rocking back and forth and for most of the ride it was almost vertical. I was almost certain that I would fall off and I did not trust my chain smoking 9 year old of a guide to keep me safe. When we finally got up to the monastery, I was relieved and excited that I was able to actually go inside of it. I think that it was the only building that allowed people to enter it. The walk/donkey ride from the Treasury up to the Monastery really lets you marvel at the city. Petra is intricately designed and expansive and I think that it is all the more impressive that it is located in a mountain pass.
The ride home from Petra was eventful in its own right. We stopped at Kerak which is another, more famous crusader castle. I thought that it was cool to see, but a little bit underwhelming. My favorite part about the place was that it had a spectacular view of the farming valley below. From Kerak we made our way back to Amman as we drove alongside the Dead Sea. It was a route that we had taken 3 or 4 times and I had just looked up from checking my phone when the Van driving in front of us tried to pull off of the rode but instead pulled into a ditch and proceeded to flip over. We pulled over and hopped out of the car and I froze up and couldn't bring myself to hop on top of the car and help out whoever was in there. I like to think that in the event of a tragedy or an accident that I would be brave enough to help save someone from the danger that they are in. Though I knew that there was a family potentially trapped inside of the sideways car, for some reason I just froze up and couldn't move. Luckily, within 10 seconds a fleet of Jordanian passerby's were on the scene and ready to help. At first they tried to flip the car, and all I could muster to get out was that they should hop on top and pull the people out before they flipped the car. Thankfully there was only the driver inside the car, and thankfully they listened. Abu Fares ushered me away from the scene and into the car, and I stopped thinking about the fact that I wasn't brave enough to help almost as soon as we had left. I think it was easier that way.
Our final stop on our journey back from Petra led us to a handicrafts store that we had been to once before. The first time I was there I had been looking at a mosaic with a sticker price of 50JD. A series of successful bargaining ensued. There are two handicraft stores next to each other and they both carry very similar products. I lied and said that I had found a similar mosaic at the other store for 35JD and if he didn't match the price I would walk back to the other store right then and buy it. He was resistant to lower the price and only as I was walking out the door did he say that he would sell it to me for 35. In an embarrassing turn of events I did not have 35JD on me to pay for the mosaic so I ended up walking out the door empty-handed, but with my head held high as I had won the exchange. We returned to the store and this time I had enough money. I approached the salesman with the Mosaic and told him that I was ready to pay the price that we had settled on in our last encounter. However, this time, the guy said that we had agreed on 40JD and that was his final offer. I had anticipated that this would happen, and I started to argue with him and tried to get him to admit that he had lied. When he wouldn't admit, I told him that I would walk next door and happily give them 40JD of my money just to spite him. This and a small push from Abu Fares got the guy to agree to the price of 35JD and to admit that I was a quality bargainer. This meant a lot to me because up until this trip I have been the world's worst bargainer and so this was quite the milestone.

Petra by Night

Thursday, I set out with Abu Fares to see Petra. Petra is roughly three hours away from Amman and seeing it usually requires an overnight trip. On the way to Petra we stopped at about 5 bazaars so that Abu Fares could rest, smoke a cigarette, and get a free cup of Turkish coffee from the owners. At each bazaar seemingly knew at least one person who he was "dear friends" with which seemed to me like a pretty good way to repeatedly squeeze a free cup of coffee out of someone. We then stopped at the As Shoubak castle which is a crusader castle about 20 minutes away from Petra. It was the first crusader castle that I had been to. Though most of the castle is gone, I still found it very interesting to walk around the castle and get a little taste of what it was like to be a Crusader. On second thought, I wasn't very successful at this. Though it's cool to look out the narrow windows down to the valley below and imagine Saladin's army attacking the castle, it's pretty hard to get into the mindset of a 12th century knight who has built a castle on a barren hilltop and is trying in vain to recapture the Holy Land. Nonetheless, I find the crusades really interesting and they were pretty influential in shaping the region and people's perspectives of the West.
We got to the town around Petra and I sat in the car as Abu Fares picked a hotel for us to stay in that night. Sadly, he picked the Venus Hotel. I mention the name of the hotel because it was probably the single worst hotel that I have ever stayed in. If you are going to Petra, do not stay in the Venus Hotel. The room was tiny and the only light in the room was broken. The room also had such amenities as a broken refrigerator and dirty water. Also I was 75-80% sure that the bed would have bed bugs so I decided to sleep on top of the bed rather than get inside. Also I tried to cover as much of my body as I could so that I wouldn't get bitten by the bed bugs that were surely living inside of the bed. In retrospect, sleeping on top of the bed would have had no impact on the bed bug situation but at the time it gave me a small amount of comfort.
The point of driving down Thursday was that I was able to attend a tour called Petra by Night. The tour started at 8:30 p.m. and the idea is that you walk from the entrance to the treasury as candles on the ground guide your way. The Treasury is the most iconic and most famous part of Petra. It was featured in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade and is probably what you are thinking about if you are currently envisioning Petra. The treasury is surprisingly far from the entrance. It's about a 2 km walk and the trail leads you through the Siq which is a really cool and surprisingly narrow pass between mountains and cliffs. This was about all that I could see at the time, but I went back to see Petra the next day and was really able to enjoy the site.
Walking through the Siq to get to the treasury is awesome. That word is thrown around casually a fair amount, but in this context I mean it was truly an awe inspiring experience. It's incredible to walk through the narrow pass, waiting in anticipation for the treasury to appear. You walk through one of the narrowest parts of the Siq, until finally it opens up and before you is the treasury: iconic, imposing, and awe inspiring. There were candles across the ground so that you could see the treasury but you couldn't make out many of the details. When everyone had finally reached the treasury, we gathered and sat silently as we listened to live, traditional Arabic music being played in front of the monument.
Seeing the treasury like this made me feel really bad about myself, and just generally inept. I realized that I probably couldn't construct a simple pulley system or a fishing rod in 2012, and these guys could carve out this incredible building out of the side of a mountain with no technology over 3000 years ago.
 Additionally, sitting there really gave me the opportunity to reflect back on my trip so far. Being in Jordan was eye-opening, enriching, interesting, and brought with it a whirlwind of new experiences, people, and culture. But, for whatever reason, sitting and looking at the treasury with the candles flickering and the music playing really made me realize how hard it is to be alone. I haven't seen anyone that I know or have ever met before in the last two weeks, and even though meeting new people has been nice, it really isn't the same. Jordan has been an incredible experience, but it really has been hard. Though it sounds about as cliche as you can get, even while surrounded by a crowd of people I really felt alone, and it's a feeling that no texts or e-mails from family or friends can completely alleviate.

Side note: I tried to take pictures while walking in the Siq and of the Treasury but none of them came out well so the only ones I have to post are of the castle.