Hike through Wadi Hidan Part 2 in a multi part series

The guide explained that we will make a stop to pick up ice, juice and some other stuff and then we will on our way.  As he was talking I could tell that he did not have a native Arabic accent and I had heard that accent before.  As he walked into the store, it finally clicked.  His walk reminded me of a guide I had met when I was in Jordan last time in Feynan.

I remembered a guide who stopped by the Feynan Eco Lodge a few times as he took his hiking party down to Petra.  I had talked with him briefly when he stopped at the lodge.  I was pretty sure it was him.

When he came back to the bus he sat across the aisle from me, so I asked him if he took hiking parties through Feynan.

“Yes,” and he looked at me with recognition.

“You were the guy who spent a couple of months at the Feynon Eco Lodge.”

 It is kind of strange that the only guide I know in all Amman would be the guide on my first hike from Amman.  

We got to talking joined by the English professor.  The guide explained that he is originally from Chechenia.  His grandfather migrated to Jordan in the 1800.  He mentioned that some tribes from Chechenia migrated around that time with some settling in Turkey, others in Syria and a couple in Jordan.  This was before Jordan got independence so they were considered as part of Jordan.

He explained that Chechens are proud of their heritage, culture and language.  He said his daughter, five years old, had just started speaking Arabic because they only spoke Chechen at home.  But now she had started school and so had started picking up Arabic.  He also spoke Chechen with his friend Hamadi.  It seems quite remarkable that the language and I assume culture had been preserved for three generations.

I also learned that there were a number of Circassian tribes in the area as well.  However, they had mixed much more with the other groups and did not preserve as much the culture and language.

It is quite interesting what you learn when you engage people in meaningful conversations.

As I have mentioned before, the terrain in Jordan is quite rugged with mountains everywhere.  The roads snake and wind up and down the rock littered mountains, most of them barren with no trees or vegetation.  The valleys, give a glimpse of green vegetation with fields that grow surprisingly plenty of vegetables in the poor rocky soil and the limited supply of water painstakingly, pumped, siphoned and brought to the fields.  It is quite amazing how these vegetables are coerced out of the ground.

The slender roads have been carved into these mountains winding endlessly up a mountain along the ridge to eventually descend rolling rapidly towards the bottom just to cross over to the next mountain and start a new journey on a new hillside.

The ravines on the edge of the roads are deep with no barriers.  It is easy to imagine tumbling down and rolling and rolling; sometime seeming scary and other times feeling like just another event written in destiny on a land that has seen many tribes and nations come and go; that has seen many battles; that has seen much cruelty through the ages and much generosity.  A lively mix of history buried in the mountains.  The never ending history winds just like the roads and one is lost in imagination and day dreaming tumbling towards the destination or is it towards destiny.

Hike through Wadi Hidan Part 1 in a multi part series

I know this has nothing to do with the studies at Qasid, but I like to write about hikes :), and I am here and it is part of the studies in a way.

I did a hike through Wadi Hidan with the group Tropical Desert Trips.  I love these types of adventures and this one turned out to be great.  Signing up for the trip took some work.  Here is the story.  

We got a week off for Eid.  So I was looking for something to do.  There were a few overnight trips, but they all started on Friday since they catered to expats who don’t celebrate Eid which started Saturday.  This Eid is four days long but the first day is the most important.  

While it appears that you can sign up on the web, it actually requires going to the office and paying in cash.  I did this on Saturday.  When I walked in the office I saw another student from my grammar class with a couple of her friends.  They were going on the same trip as well.  We were told we had to be at the office at 6:30 on Monday.

Well finding a cab during Eid that early took a while, but I did get to the office at 6:29, which I knew would be too early.  People take their time around here.

I introduced myself to a guy who appeared to be the guide, named Murad and he introduced me to a guide in training called Hamadi, although that was not his real name.  I did not get a good look at Hamadi, but later as I talked with him and heard more about him from Murad, he reminded me of Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men.

Murad for some reason looked familiar, but I could not place him.  I thought that I might have seen his picture on the web site, but could not place the picture either.

My fellow students from Qasid were already there; Tara who is in my grammar class, probably weights about 85 pounds, with her friends Kelly and Rosie.  They looked very sleepy.

Murad asked if anyone knew how to make American coffee.  I volunteered.  American coffee is drip coffee.  There was an old machine in the kitchen so I made coffee for everyone and there were some cookies.

I served coffee.  Two other guys showed up, Milton from Chile and his friend from France, I forgot his name.  They were speaking French so I started conversing with them.  They thought my French was pretty good, but I explained that I had forgotten most of it.  They both worked at a water treatment facility.   A Jordanian couple was hanging out by themselves outside so I did not get to talk to them till later.  He is an electrical engineer working in Saudi Arabia.

A couple walked in, Ben and Debbie I believe.  Ben was retired but used to work in IT.  Debbie is a professor at the University of Jordan teaching communications.  I served them coffee and cookies.

Debbie wanted to know if Hakim still owned the place.

“I don’t know” I said.

She looked surprised and said: “Last time we took a trip Hakim was here.”

I said: “Probably, but this is the first time I’ve been here.”

“So you don’t work here?”

“No, I am just serving coffee.  Nobody knows how to make coffee so I volunteered”

We had to fill out the required legal paper work, and then we were off to the bus.

We were joined by another guy; Abdu’Allah, a friend of the guide and a full time lawyer who helped out on hiking trips during weekends and holidays.

We got moving around 7:30.

End of week 3

So after 3 weeks, finally starting to settle in a bit and develop somewhat of a routine and get just a little bit more comfortable.
It's amazing how the little things make you happy.  When I got here I was not aware that this was going to be like a dorm, although it is a building with four apartments on each floor and each apartment with 3 bedrooms and one full bath and one half bath.  In other words one shower for four people.
Better than last time I went to college when I had to camp while looking for housing.
However, last time I was prepared to camp.  This time I was not prepared for no towels, one sheet to cover the bed and one "comforter".  Two very small pillows. 
The kitchen has some cooking utensils, a few cups, plates bowls and a full set of silverware.

So the first day I had to dry myself with my tee shirts. 
Now I have a bath towel and regular towel. 
One king size sheet and one double.  I have queen size bed, but cannot find queen size sheets.
And everything is clean now, been washed a couple of times.
And yes, I have a full size pillow and two new pillow covers.  Wow, the luxury.
So it feels really good to have all this stuff :).  Even though the sheets are 50% polyester.  I could not find 100% cotton around here.  I think you have to go to the expensive mall for that.

I forgot what it is like to live with a bunch of college age kids.  I had to show one of them how to use the washer.  I don't think the other two have done laundry yet.  I cleaned the kitchen and the shower.  I don't think they realize how dirty they were.

But life is good.  I will write about the school, classes and the learning next time Insha'Allah.

Living in Amman so far

After a week here, some observations.
You develop good leg muscles.
Amman is built on several hills/mountains, I think like six or seven.  Each is a separate neighborhood.  So proper Amman is on Jabal Amman.  So whenever you go anywhere you are climbing or going down a pretty steep incline, even if you are staying in the same neighborhood.  Just to give you an idea, when I was here last time, the hotel I stayed at was almost at the top of Jabal Webdeh (probably not the right spelling).  To get to downtown Amman using a short cut (there are a lot of shortcuts and sometimes the difference is a lot between the real road and shortcut.)  Anyway to get to downtown Amman, I went down about three steep streets, about 3 blocks.  Then I went into a garage and took the elevator 10 stories down to get to downtown Amman.  Now if you don't take the short cut it is probably half an hour walk equaling the 10  stories vs less than 10 minutes. Going back up it's probably even more time, like 40 or 45 minutes.

The second thing you become used to quickly is conserving water.  Water is rationed in Amman.  So each house/apartment has tanks, two cubic meters, 2,000 liters or about 500 gallons.  I think the water is turned on once a week, like Wednesday or Thursday and the tank gets filled and then the water is off.  If you run out of water you have to pay a truck to bring water to the house.  It costs about $60 to fill the tank.

Third.  It's hard to find good espresso.  I have tried and finally spoke to another espresso lover who has been here for a while.  He has not found a good place and I think he makes his own and gets his coffee shipped from somewhere.  He is my grammar teacher.  We did not finish the conversation because class started.

The food is not the healthiest in general, although the local stuff can be healthy.  The super market stuff usually has all the chemicals, preservatives etc.  Same goes for soap.  While there is good soap in Jordan and exported to US, at the local super market I could not find any soap that did not have fragrance, and other stuff that I don't care for.  Cleaning stuff is worst.  Now I understand why the eco-lodge is having a very hard time getting detergent and cleaning material free of phosphates etc.  Although I hear ecover is making an entry in this market.

There is a Safeway about a mile away so I will have to check that out to see if there is anything better than the local carefour which is about 10 minutes away. 

Update

I have been thinking about what to write in the blogs.  Most the stuff going on is school related, no hiking adventures or Bedou stories as in the other blog.  So the dilemma is what to write that is interesting and valuable to the readers.  I have decided that I will focus on three areas: 1) how I am going about acclimating my self to being in a new city, 2) something about the school and how I am handling it after so many years, interaction with college age students, etc.  3) any interesting things that happen along the way.  So here it goes - things that I have done so far to get to know the place.

The first few days were kind of tough not knowing anything.  I even ended up eating at a chicken fast food place in the mall because I was hungry after a full day of placement tests.  I had coffee in the mall as well costing me one a quarter Jordanian Dinar (JD).  It did come with a bottle of water that I did not ask for and I got Arabic coffee instead of the coffee with milk that I asked for even though when I asked the waiter he said quite assuredly that they had coffee with milk.  I think they did have coffee with milk, but since I did not specifically ask for it I got the Arabic coffee.

With regards to coffee I have found a place next door to the school which has the same coffee, just stronger for 40 Quirch, 100 Quirsh in one JD.

Today I located a felafel joint across the street from the school.  They are not the best felafel but above average so it will do.  I am told there are a few restaurants in the area that I have not tried yet.

It's about a five minute walk to the mall here.  Not a big mall but it does have a super market in it, carefour (not sure of the spelling) so convenient.  Even more convenient is that you can cut through the mall to get to the school.  So on the way back I can pick up any groceries that I need.

Cooking is a challenge, time, kitchen, utensils etc.  and my roommates don't know how to cook.  Actually they know little besides studying which they do a lot.  They are all just out of college so, age 22, 23.

As usual I stand out at College and there is that thing about people wondering what I am doing here.  I hope the gold thing does not come up again (reference to my JordanTrip2014) blog.

I also located a bank across from the school to exchange money.

Although I can communicate in Arabic it is quite obvious to the locals that I am not a local.  Some of them immediately start speaking English to me or try to speak English, others do humor me and talk in Arabic or they don't know English and so stick with Arabic.  I am training myself to respond in Arabic even if they start speaking English.

OK.  Enough for tonight.  Maybe next time I will talk about the program.

First day and second day

I arrived here late on Monday, around 10 PM.
I met my roommates, 3 of them.  All college age but doing this program on their own, meaning it is not for credit.

On Wednesday Qasid arranged a road trip for the students.  We went to Ajloun Castle passing Jarash, which has the best preserved Roman ruins, on the way.  There is a lot of history here and I can't remember all the details.  Salah Adeen built the main castle and from it you can see for distances on a clear day.  We explored around the castle and kind of got to know each other.  Then we had lunch at this great restaurant, great lunch.

I met people from Norway, Turkey, England, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and of course US.  I am sure there are students from other places as well.  Some are here to study, some just want to be in the Middle East while figuring out what to do.  I think the majority are here from Universities to do a study abroad program to learn Arabic.

It takes a while to get over jet lag.  It's Friday, weekend and I am still jet lagged.  Here the weekend is Friday and Saturday. 

I think I got to know about a half dozen people in Amman from the last time I was here.  Mainly the people who work at the main office of the eco lodge.  Well guess what, I go to the Friday prayer at the mosque and I run into one of them.  What are the odds?

Anyway short post to get the blog going.

Classes start Sunday.

About the blog

This blog is mainly about my study abroad experience.

I've been meaning to improve my Classical Arabic, both reading and writing for a while now.  Finally I am taking the first step and have enrolled in Classical Arabic study program in Amman Jordan at the Qasid Arabic Institutes which is rated among the top in the world.

I did look at other programs but decided to try this one.

So here I am.