Considering I have been quite incompetent in updating this blog in the last month, I do not blame you if you have stopped looking for updates. But for that one lone set of eyes still dedicated to my letters: here is your update on, well, myself.
The last time I wrote it was March 14th, my lovely 21st birthday. However, I am pretty sure I only wrote about the sheer possibilities of my birthday happenings. WELL, ladies and gents, let me try to give you a giant, yet organized and skim-able gist of my past month.
March, in general, has been quite nutty. Not only was it my birthday, but it also contained the birthdays of many CIEE students, which is quite evident from the looks of my bank account. Birthdays in Jordan all follow a similar ten-part recipe:
1 part singing
2 parts company
5 parts alcohol
2 parts food (mostly in cake format, though sometimes Kanafé—see below--, and sometimes French fries)
Lest I say, much fun has been had. Besides birthdays, I have also gone on many amazing jaw-dropping trips.
#1 Ajloun. This is a nature preserve. There is also a castle. Here are some photos.
#2 Wadi Rum. This is the desert that you think of when people talk about Jordan. The Bedouins, the desert, the wadis/valleys, the sugary chai, and of course: THE CAMELS. This trip was an overnight trip which, at one point, I was not sure I would ever be warm again. This is when I really came to the realization that I came to Jordan unprepared for cold. Because the desert was very cold at night. Thankfully, some Bedouin lent me his camel-jacket and aint NOTHING getting through that thing. Anyway. Riding camels through the desert was definitely something I advise every human to do, as well as getting up and watching the sunrise. It was astounding—and it was so much fun to climb over everything…I want to learn to climb professionally.
#3 TURKEY.
Istanbul.
At the last minute sometime in March I decided to go to Turkey for CIEE’s made-up “Spring Break.” I went to Istanbul and stayed with my Dad’s friend (who, with his personal assistant, Hediye) was unbelievably generous. We stayed in his house for four days while Hediye organized a personal driver for us named Oral, who was a riot, for free, and twenty-four. Istanbul, albeit rainy our first four days, was absolutely wonderful. We visited all the touristy sites: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, The Grand Bazaar (The Scarf Epicenter), The Bosphorous Sea, Taksim Square, Istiqlal Street, Sultanhamet, The Dolmabahce palace, some absolutely wonderful breakfast nooks, and some great live Turkish music bars. We also got home-cooked meals, free breakfasts, and hot showers! The generosity of the Turkish folk was just way more than I could have expected and I hope to eventually repay them for everything.
Antalya.
After some debate, the four girls I was travelling with decided to forgo a 9-hour bus ride and buy some plane tickets to Antalya to stay in treehouses and get some sun. Yes. That’s right. TREEHOUSES.
…Six hours, a car ride, plane, and three buses later we arrived at the Bayram Treehouse Pension where we ate awesome food, sat by the fire, drank fat Efes beers, and skinny-dipped in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the beach was a whole quarter mile walk away and you had to walk through the 1st and 2nd century ruins in order to reach the beach. Haha, it was just beautiful. I would work there in a second if I had time/did not have to return to Jordan. When I told the Turkish workers that, they pointed at the “Help Wanted” sign and demanded I stay. In any case, this place was just incredible. Good company, GREAT breakfast nooks, quiet and lovely. Though our trip wasn’t over yet.
Istanbul Part Two.
Six hours and, three buses, and one cab ride later, we arrived back in Istanbul to stay with my Dad’s friend’s sister-in-law’s apartment. Yes. That’s right. In Taksim Square. I loved them, and their apartment. Their generosity was again, humbling. We brought them cookies, and they brought us all over Istanbul—and danced until 4 in the morning, flipped a coin of fate which decided we should go back to sleep (though everyone else in Turkey on a Thursday was still up and about) to prepare for our journey the next day. We went back to the Grand Bazaar, haggled, ate more food, and enjoyed our last day in Turkey (and it was sunny!). Finally at 8:30 we called a taxi and headed to the plane back to Amman…
The lessons learned this week include:
1. I love nature. I think living in the city has made me realize how much I miss hiking, running in the hot sun and in the soggy rain, and napping in the grass.
2. I can speak Arabic. For some reason, Turks don’t speak anything else but Turkish. Between the 4 girls, we could speak 6 languages: Hebrew, Russian, English, Arabic, Spanish, and French. But they only spoke Turkish. Thankfully our 10-word vocabulary of Turkish got us around. But when I returned to Amman, I realized how much I actually know. It’s worth a pat on the back. J
3. Turkish men are much more direct than Jordanian men. Too many times I was directly hit on by Turkish men. They are much more direct, a little more dangerous, and kinda smelly.
4. Pick the people you travel with wisely. I found out a lot about the ladies I travelled with. Good and bad. Travel brings out the best and worst in people. As Meredith (one of the girls I travelled with) said, “you can find out a lot about people from how they deal with two things: rainy days, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”Enough said.
5. I want to live in Turkey. I plan on coming back and getting an apartment here. It is the perfect mix of middle-eastern culture and European style. I adore it. So much art, so much life!
6. “Your niceness brings out the niceness in others.” Ercan (the boyfriend of the sister-in-law of my father’s friend) told me this when I told him he was too generous. Once I wrote in a journal entry of mine that there was not a shortage of genuinely nice people in the world. This saying, along with my own past thought, has certainly been solidified throughout this experience. I could not have planned any of these events—they have all just fallen into place because of the generosity of others. It was beautiful.
This concludes the epically long update on my life. Now I am back in Amman, back to my schedule. It is crazy to think, but I only have four more weeks of the program here. I decided after travelling with the girls I would book an independent trip to Aqaba for one to just chill by myself, read, swim, scuba, and snorkel in the heat. Hopefully it will be sunny. Five weeks, and I will be in Israel/West Bank, then to Sweden, then home to Seattle. Time is speeding up. But I’m ready.
I love love love this.
ReplyDeleteIt is true, Gabby, you of all people can easily bring out the niceness in others.
Traveling does have this immediate way of bringing out an amiable demeanor from others. You are desperate for direction and lodging so you put on your smiling, trusting and confused-looking face which attracts locals to take you under their wing. All they ask in return is your respect and glowing excitement you bring into their household. Sounds like a reasonable trade :)
As a Seattlite, I breathe rain. As far as Christmas lights, I always want to try and fix that one broken light even if it takes going through the entire strand, twisting and replacing each bulb, until I succeed.
Sending warmth and smiles your way always.