Jordan

Quite a bit to say, and I didn't keep a detailed journal so this may be a bit scattered, but here we go:

Arrival: On the taxi ride into Amman, there was a crossroads with three signs. "To Amman", "To Saudi Arabia", and "To Iraq". Little bit freaky. Jordan is literally sandwiched between Iraq and the Gaza strip, and is as close as I'll come to either.

Day 1: Slept. I got in at 3 the morning before and had stayed up all night in St Andrews, so I slept until 5, when Shawn came home and we went out for dinner (fuul, or beans, and hummus) and chatted. Met his flatmate Sushi, a half-Jordanian half-Thai guy with limitless energy.

Day 2: Explored downtown Amman, wandered around the marketplace, saw some sights. Didn't have a spare key to the apartment so had to climb to and from the balcony to get in and out, which was kinda odd with lots of arab guys in the street. This night a few of Shawn's friends came over and there was some fascinating conversation. Dealt a lot with identity, as Jordanians are a mix of Palestinian refugees and Bedouins, Muslims and Christians. In this context, what does it mean to be Arab? Or even Muslim, as a lot of the traditions originate with the Bedouins and predate Islam. How can Palestinians integrate into the whole? Also a lot of talk of the inefficiency and stupidity of the monarchy (which is absolute and amusingly uncriticized in the press...apparently they found Shawn's blog and made him take down some posts about Jordan--ahhh, to be a politically repressed nation!). Also questions of how Jordan will fare in the financial crisis and how it can become more independent or self sufficient, as now something like 1/5 of the country's economy comes from foreign aid. This being said, Amman is 100 times more Western than Cairo, and although poverty and unemployment are high you can see the cultural assimilation very clearly.

Day 3: Shawn had the day semi-off, so hung out with him. Went to the passport office and he was told to come back in a week (the standard reply for everything). Went shopping for vests for his recycling project (his main employment, a scheme to get scavengers to bring in recyclable goods that can be shredded and exported, or used in gardening, etc). Had some shisha and used the internet, as well as printing out the text of the tattoo he wanted to get.

Day 4: Bussed to Jerash, an old Roman town with the most complete ruins I've ever seen. Pictures to come. Explored the Roman city and more of the current one, which was out of the way and so much more authentic-seeming than Amman. Read Plato's Republic a bit in a Roman theatre, which felt badass, and experienced major cognitive dissonance with a Bedouin playing the bagpipes and female Jordanian tourists in headscarves dancing and singing "We Will Rock You" in dubious English. Came back to Amman (after some difficulty with busses and "third circle" sounding a lot like "Zirca", another city) and went with Shawn and co to get his tattoo. In Arabic, a quote from Kahlil Gibran: "Of the two treasures of the world, truth and beauty, I found the first in the heart of a lover and the second in the hand of a laborer". Very Shawn. He says he wants to get a tattoo for every country he spends a lot of time in, and this seems to take care of both souvenir and having-a-tattoo-that-means-something, so I'm all for it. Tattoo's are haram in Islam and there is only one real (aka not out-of-a-basement) artist in Jordan.

Day 5: Bussed to Madaba, a more Southern town famous for Roman/Byzantine/Crusader/Islamic mosaics. They were alright, but the town itself was awesome. Running mainly along one street, you could imagine it being an oasis on a long road between cities and gradually growing up over the centuries. Spent some time in a shisha place reading and chatting with some locals, no easy feat in that I had 10 words or so of Arabic and they had just a bit more English. But people overall in Jordan were extremely friendly and inquisitive, and despite language barriers (which were slight--the fact that people in an out-of-the-way city spoke some English is indicative of the fact that EVERYONE did) it was fairly easy to communicate.

Day 6: Went olive picking at an orchard owned by one of Shawn's friend's family, and they fed us and we slept there in exchange. It was good--reminded me of Costa Rica, hard, mindless physical labour with visible results and the rewards that it entails. It was in the far North of Jordan, and while the South is the impressive Lawrence of Arabia-style deserts, the North is very much mediterranean and reminded me of California, Greece, and Spain all at once. Conversations in this circle tended to be extremely political. I felt like I learned a lot, especially about the reason, but have a nagging and growing suspicion that politics as they are bore me more than just a little bit. As a means for understanding culture and people's behavior or history, great, but not as an ends.

Day 7: Went rock climbing with the same group; the friend whose family owned the olive orchard does all sorts of nature tours, and we went along with him and a tourist group. It was fun, a bit of a thrill, although all in all not as scary as I thought it might be. I'd liken it to a roller coaster ride. Went out to dinner and hung out with people...it was the last night in Jordan.

So: All in all, nothing spectacular, but a welcome break. I spent a lot of time alone and that was incredible self-reflection time, though it's sent me into a bit of a loner mood. Shawn is extremely burnt out and worked most of the time, so it wasn't nearly the connection time that Egypt was. Made me step back and think about what I want to do in St Andrews and generally, seeing all the things people were doing and the connections between them.

Now I'm back, with priorities 1 and 2 being 1984, which goes up next Tuesday, and a presentation for next Thursday about the effects of war on the environment. Life back to just where it was before, which is bizarre. I feel like I'm starting to get a tiny bit jaded by all the travel...need to find a new approach. We shall see.