My home in Jordan

Widad is holding the baby on the left, Nadia is next holding a baby, Qustandi is next holding a baby, Majida  is standing behind the boy(George), Fadi is next to Majida, and Wafaa is on the right end with her baby. 

اهلا و ساهلا
Hello, I hope you are all doing great, I know I am.  On this blog I will tell you about my host family I am staying with because I think that is a very important aspect of my life over here.  I already touched on my family a little bit on an earlier blog but I will go into more details on this one.  I figure since I have been here for 6 1/2 weeks(wow, time has flew by) I can write in a better way about my family.
      I will start out by saying that they are great.  To be completely honest, I have not found one thing to complain about yet.  I would almost complain about my mom forcing me to eat all the time, but after thinking about it and after eating the food, I realized it is not really something to complain about.
The family at the house is composed of four people which are all Christians: My host mom--Majida, my host brother--Fadi, my host sister--Widad, and me. On top of that there is a lady that stays here most of the time that helps keep the house in order--Rani.  Majida has two other daughters that are married and their names are Nadia and Wafaa and I see at least once a week.  Majida also has a son studying for his doctorate in business in Australia, so I have not seen him at all.
       Rani(the house cleaner) stays at the house most the time and sleeps here also.  She has another job though where she works a couple days a week.  She came from Sri Lanka to Jordan in order to work.  She speaks a little bit of Arabic and a little bit of English so I try to talk to her often.  She has an interesting life.  My host family treats her like she is just another member of the family.
      Nadia lives with her husband about 30 minutes away but she brings her kids over here quite often.  Her kids are George-7 and Mark-5 and Dani-1.  They are both really smart kids and can speak great English and of course Arabic.  They treat me like an Uncle and are always wanting to play with me which reminds me of home.
      Wafaa also has two children: Andre and Jaliil.  They come over sometimes but not as often as Nadia and her kids. Her children are also great.  I actually went to the birthday party of Andre which was a neat experience.
     Widad lives here at the house.  She is not here very much though because she is busily involved with her church.  Since I have been here, she has went on a missions trip to Africa and India.  She told me about India and how much she loved it there.  When I have any problems Widad can usually help; she worked at the US embassy here in Jordan so she speaks English well.  So if I am having a complete miscommunication with Ma'ma, Widad steps in and translates.
     Fadi also lives here at the house.  Similar to Widad, he is not here much.  He is always busy working.  He works for a phone company and he also breeds and sells Huskies. I got to see three of his puppies that he sold a couple days ago.  They are great looking dogs.  Like Widad, Fadi can speak English well so he always helps me out also.  He jokes around with me like my real brother and always offers to bring food such as Shawarma home to me.
      Than there is Majida--my host mom.  In the first 5 minutes I arrived in the house, she told me to call her Ma'ma.  She is usually at the house.  I would say always but on Thursdays she goes to the souk or market.  Sometimes she also goes and visits her daughters.  Besides that she is always at the house, therefore we spend a lot of time together.  Throughout the week when I get done with classes I come home and sit in the tv room with her and usually some houseguest.  We usually watch dramatic shows in Arabic.  Hopefully, I am catching on and learning the language by watching the shows.  While we are watching tv, we usually have a few very small conversations.  I don't think I mentioned that Ma'ma only speaks Arabic (and French which doesn't help me) so our conversations are always fun and challenging.  I will admit though that the conversations usually consist of the subject of me eating or drinking tea.  I know I have improved greatly though since I got here because we had a conversation about politics this morning.  Her main hobby is cooking ( I think) so she watches a lot of cooking shows and cooks a lot of different dishes.  They are all Arabic dishes except one time she made me a hamburger.  Most of everything she has cooked I have liked.  There might of been two things that I did not like, but since this is about new experiences, I ate it anyways.
       Until last week we had 2 Syrian house guests staying with us.  They were both very nice as well.  They left back to Syria last week.

         They now treat me like a member of the family and I feel like I am at home( except of course for a few things and people).


Until next time......
-John Michael Middleton

      

Biblical Jordan

Well, I went on my final CIEE sponsored adventure around the historical country of Jordan.  First, they took us to Wadi Rum and Petra. Secondly, they took us to the old Roman empire, ruined cities of Jerash and Umm Qais.  Lastly, today they took us to four of the "Biblical Jordan" sites.  

        The other two trips were amazing because of the amazing views, incredible buildings and the history attached to them. The vastness of the red sands and mountains of Wadi Rum was breathtaking.  The incredible rock carved architecture hidden in the mountains and deep history of Petra was awe-striking to me.  The old Roman ruins was interesting and the view of Syria, the Golan Heights, and Israel in the distance was beautiful at Umm Qais.  All those trips were wonderful but the trip I took today to biblical Jordan had a deeper meaning to me.  I am a Christian, so being at these sites that I have always read about in the bible was amazing.  I am named after John the Baptist and today I saw the spot where he started his life and where his life was ended.  To sum it up, I really enjoyed todays trip.

       Like normal, we all met at the main gate of the UJ campus at 8:00AM and got on the bus and headed to the destination. The first spot we visited was the River of Jordan.  As you should know Israel and Jordan border each other, the river is the official border between the two countries.  Well, we pulled up to the area where the river is and had to go through a little security check because crossing the border is just a small 5 meter swim across the river.  After that we got out of the bus and started walking down a small path surrounded by trees and grass, (this was weird for me because I am used to being surrounded by barren ground over here).  Before we started walking down the path the guide warned us to stay on the path because it used to be a huge mine field (because of the border).  Of course that was nice to hear(sarcasm).  Eventually after walking down this secluded trail we made it to the Baptism site of Jesus Christ. It was pretty cool to see that and I felt amazing standing in the spot that such an important part of Jesus's life happened.  But to be completely honest, I was a little disappointed because  the tributary that is supposed to flow to the baptism site was really low so the water there was kind of dirty.  Here is a picture to show you what I mean. 

Me at the Baptism site

The spot where Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist

The mosaic map showing how the river flows into the baptism spot

Then we walked another 50 meters and made it to the large part of the River.  From here it was 3 meters to be in Israeli territory.  To get to the river I first had to walk under a pavilion which was full of Koreans having a church service.  Then I walked down a quick flight of stairs and was at the river. There is a little deck there which has stairs that lead down into the river so people can walk into it.  It is weird though because there is not a marker to show what is Israeli and what is Jordanian land so you could just walk right on over.  Although, on our deck there was a Jordanian army guard and on the other side there was an Israeli army guard.  So I did not test the waters to see how far I could go across. One of the guys in our group took his shirt off and got in the river and swam a little( he stayed on the Jordanian side).  Also, on the other side there were tourists that were doing baptism ceremonies.  I just got in the river a little bit and stuck my arm in it. 

me touching the river with Israel in the background

Israel border flag

Jordan River with Israel in the background

Got a picture with the Jordanian guard

We then left the river site and headed to Mount Nebo. After a scary bus ride up a swerving mountain road we made it the the top of Mount Nebo. I was standing on the spot that Moses climbed up to see the promised land but was not able to enter himself.  This was also the spot where God buried Moses at 120 years old.  On a clear day from Mount Nebo you can see Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.  Which means it is a great view from that mountain.  Unfortunately, I was not able to see that far because it was a very cloudy day.  

This was a monument of the staff of Moses with the serpent  on it.  It is a symbol of healing. 

Mt. Nebo map

Today's view from Mount Nebo

The entrance pillar

After Mount Nebo we headed to the city of Madaba which has the historical St. George Church.  This church has the oldest mosaic map of the Holy land dating back to 600AD.  There is not a whole lot to tell about this.  We all went into the church and the walls are covered with different mosaics of Jesus and other Christian art.  On the floor of the church was the famous mosaic map.  It was neat but not really my cup of tea. Here are some pics. 

St. George church

The 1500 year old mosaic map of the Holy Land

After visiting the church we headed over the the restaurant in Madaba.  The restaurants name was Haret Jdnoudna.  I am just stating the name because it was a phenomenal restaurant with delicious food(eventually).  We all got to our tables and sat down( which was weird for us because normally on these trips we eat buffets).  Right away the servers started bringing us freshly baked hot bread.  Then They started loading our tables with salad and then another type of salad and then another.  By the end they had served us 5 different salads (at this point I was disappointed, after ten minutes of green stuff, I wanted some meat). Let me note, the whole time we were eating they kept on bringing more and more fresh tasty bread to us.  After the salads, they started bringing us bowls of hummus and some type of eggplant hummus which was good.  Finally, after 20 minutes of all that the servers brought out the main course which I had so politely been waiting for.  It was plates of spiced chicken, lamb kabob and lamb sausage kabob.  It was delicious.  After that they brought us a dessert that was very good as well. Sorry to go on so much about the food but it was so good. 

After that we headed to Machaerus which was the mountain where King Herod had his palace and prison.  It was the prison that John the Baptist was put into and where he was beheaded.  It was a very neat site. It was kind of fun too because we had to climb the mountain to get there, there is no path for a bus.  There is an easy walking path that winds around the mountain and than there is a "short cut" that cuts straight up the mountain. Naturally, I took the short cut. After I climbed up the side of the huge rock I made it to the top first. I felt like a mountain goat climbing up there. Once I got to the top I saw what remains of the ancient fortress.  There were about 6 columns and a base structure which led down to a basement that looked to be 20 feet deep.  That was the prison where John the Baptist was imprisoned. From on top of the mountain it was a great view, so we all just hung out up there for a while admiring the excellent view and taking pictures.  

The mountain from a distance

Me at the remains of the Palace

View from the fortress

The fortress prison

The mountain path I climbed to get to the top

standing on the pillar

After spending about half an hour up top we all headed down to the bus and went back home.  I was quite tired from all the walking of the trip so I took a nap on the way home.  This was an amazing trip. 

Well, this was my last adventure with CIEE so my blogs are hopefully going to change. Now instead of writing about my touristy adventures in Jordan, I will start writing about my life here in Jordan and how it compares to my life in the States. 

Until next time....

--John Michael Middleton

Rome in Jordan

Me in Jordan with Israel and Syria in the background

Hello again,
This blog will consist of two parts.  One will be about a birthday party I went to and the other will be about me visiting a couple sites in Jordan that have Roman ruins.

     Thursday was the birthday of my host mom's grandson.  My host mom's name is Majida and her daughter's name that has the son with the birtday is Wafaa.  At around 4:30 PM I rode over with Majida and Fadi(Majida's son) to Wafaa's house.  Well, we arrived and went inside and Wafaa and her husband samii and their children were the only people there for about an hour and a half.  So I did not think it would be a big party.  Then 6:00 rolled around and about 15 other relatives came rolling into the house.  There were 5 other men my age there that were also in college which I had conversations with them.  The conversations were interesting because they were mainly about politics. After about 15 minutes of everyone arriving, the men were in one room sitting and talking ( they were all talking in Arabic so I only understood bits and pieces) and the women and children were in the other room.  As we were sitting down talking, one of the men my age came in with a tray of beer and served us all a glass of that.
      After about two hours of socializing, Wafaa came in and told us the food was ready.  The meal consisted of 3 different dishes and 5 different sides.  I don't really know what any of it was called but it was all tasty.  The food was really good so I stuffed myself with the main course.  Than when everyone was done eating, they replaced the dinner with desserts.  Everyone gathered around the table and song happy birthday and some other Arabic stuff that I didn't know.  Now it was time to eat the dessert. There were about 5 desserts and a chocolate fountain with a tower of fruit to dip in it. Once again, I stuffed my self with desserts.  Then after dessert I sat out side with the men my age and talked with them for another two hours.  It was an interesting and fun experience. I enjoyed myself.


      Alright now time for the Roman stuff.  This morning (Saturday) I arrived at the gate of the University of Jordan and met the other CIEE students to ride the bus to Umm Qais. Umm Qais is a beautiful place to visit.  Before today, I had only been in Amman and south of Amman which is dessert land.  So today when we were riding towards northern Jordan I was amazed, there was green grass and green trees covering the mountains around me.  After about a two hour drive we arrived at Umm Qais. When we arrived the first objects I noticed were the Roman and Greek pillars. Than I walked over to the ledge of the mountain and looked at the amazing view.  In the distance I could see green mountains and a large body of water.  What I saw was the bordering counties of Jordan,Syria, Israel, the Israeli occupied Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee.  People in America think it is cool to stand at the border of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.  Well that is neat but this was absolutely breathtaking.  After looking out at the view for ten minutes, the guide came over and told us some history about the mountain we were on.  It was the mountain that Jesus cast the demons out of the man and into the pigs that ran down the mountain into the Sea of Galilee.

Umm Qais Roman Theatre 

Umm Qais 

Syria, Israel, Sea of Galilee in the distance

After Umm Qais we took the bus to the city of Jerash and ate at a very nice restaurant.  Than we headed over to the Roman ruins site of Jerash.  Jerash was established in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. A large portion of Jerash was destroyed during the Earthquake of 749 AD.  But a few of the great Roman and Greek Architecture is still in tact.  When we first got there I was reminded of Petra because there were people surrounding us trying to sale us Jerash souvenirs.  There was this one guy that followed us around for ten minutes playing home made wooden flutes.  He would give them to us and let us play them and then ask for money.  Once we entered the ruined city we lost him.  The first part of the city is a oval shaped race track for chariot races and horse races, the Hippodrome. We quickly left that part and made it to an open area with about 70 pillars making a circular courtyard.

The pillars making the circular courtyard

At the entrance with the man trying to sale flutes

After the courtyard we headed up to the temple of Zeus, which was not in very good shape. From the temple we walked over to the most popular spot of the ancient city--the Roman Amphitheater.  To get there we walked under one arch into a small room and turned the corner in another small room. By that point I could hear bagpipes and drums playing.  I then walked into the theatre.  There were two men in there playing the bagpipes and a drum.  The theatre consists of an upper stage and a lower stage, and sitting area for five thousand people.  There is no roof, it is an open area but the theatre is designed so that the sound echoes off the walls and is very loud to the viewers.  From there I walked up to the top of the viewing area and looked down.  Up there I could hear the people talking down there on the lower stage.  Their design worked.  Here are some pics of the theatre. 

upper stage

top of the theatre, could hear people talking in normal voices from the bottom

theatre

From the theatre we walked to the temple of Artemis.  It was the highest spot of the city. Artemis was the god that the Greeks believed protected the city of Jerash.  So her temple was made with the best columns and biggest area. There was not really much to it though.  

Artemis' sacrifice alter

stairs leading up to the temple of Artemis

Artemis' temple from the outside

Then from the temple we walked back to the original spot and ended the tour. It was a neat place to see. Now I don't have to go to Rome anymore lol. 

Here are some more pictures of Jerash.

casual herd of goats 

Jerash road going East to West

Greek writing(zoom in)

more greek writing

Until next time......

-John Michael Middleton

Wadi Ruma and Petra (Day 2)

Well I left off on the last blog with me going to sleep at Wadi Rum.  The whole day was fantastic up till that point.  First, it was really cold, which was not that bad after I got under my cover but there were other things that hindered my sleep that night. There are wild cats, dogs and other kinds of animals all around the Wadi Rum campsite.  The whole night I heard dogs barking, cats meowing and some mysterious animal screeching/screaming.  Although I do think I managed to get an hour or two of sleep.
       From there though it got much better.  When we woke up at 7:00, the Bedouins had breakfast ready for us.  It was a good breakfast consisting of eggs, pita bread, something weird, jams and honey. After the hearty breakfast we headed to the amazing city of Petra. Petra was established by the Nebataeans, ancient Arabs. It is the site where Arabs believe that Moses struck the rock to get water to come out.  The city is very mysterious and interesting because all the archaeologists and historians can not come into agreement about what the main buildings were used for.  The most famous of all the buildings, the Treasury, is thought to be a treasury building, a palace, a temple and a few other things. What ever it was, it is amazing how that ancient civilization made the massive carving in the rock cliff.  I will not bore you with all the other history that we were enlightened on during the tour of Petra but it was all very interesting while there.
       So I was sitting on the bus driving into the city of Petra out in the middle of the vast desert.  At first, driving through the modern city of Petra, it is a normal Jordanian city.  With houses built on hillsides, stores along the rode, and people walking the street.  Then we got off the bus and headed down a path to the big rocks(mountains).  While walking down that path we were surrounded by Bedouins selling Petra souvenirs.  They are very good salesman.  They were yelling at us to buy stuff the whole walk down.  I walked into one of the stores with a couple friends ( I had my Keffiyeh on my head with the bands but my friends did not). Right when we got into the shop the owner told my friends to sit down and started tying a keffiyeh to their heads without asking them.  He then asked for 7 dinar from both of them.  His sales technique worked.

first rock carvings

    So then we entered the historical Petra. We started the tour by walking down an open pathway.  about 100 meters down I saw the first rock carvings.  They were small but it was neat. Image to the right is a picture of a house with a grave to the right. All graves are 5 steps to the right.

first rock carvings(sorry for it being sideways)

So after that we reached the closed pathway.  That was the scene from Indiana Jones when he was reaching the Holy Grail site.  So we all felt weird standing in that spot. The picture is below. the first one is of us and the entrance guards and the other one is from the Indiana Jones shot.

the path we walked through

entrance gaurds

As we were walking through the path our tour guide was telling us the history of all the sites. Here are a few more picks of the pathway.

pathway

pathway

So after about 30 minutes walking through this rock surrounded pathway, our tour guide told us to look down and walk forward.  As I was walking with my head down, light came into my eyes. The cliffs opened up and the sun was shining down on us.  I looked up at he sun and in the distance saw the famous and magnificent treasury building.  It was larger and cooler than I ever expected. I was in complete awe. Than about 5 Bedouin salesman came up to me trying to sale fake coins.  They would not leave me alone till I left that area. But it was funny, I enjoyed it.

first look of the treasury

roof of the treasury

After spending 10 minutes looking at the Treasury building, we headed off to the restaurant and ate a good buffet lunch.  A group of 5 of us rushed through lunch so we could have enough time to see a lot more of Petra.  We had about 3 hours of free time. So the first thing we did was walk up to the monastery, which we really did not know anything about. So we started walking up and soon realized that it was going to be an exhausting walk.  There are 800 steps to get to the top of the mountain where the monastery is. About half way up we stopped at a good point to look at the view overlooking the area. At that point I bought a bottle of water and poured all over my keffiyeh to keep my head cool.

pic of me half way up with the water soaked keffiyeh

By the way, about every 50 meters there were Bedouins with little souvenir shops on the pathway.  As they asked if i wanted to buy anything I would tell them in Arabic later maybe. Just remember this.

Finally, 800 steps and a half hour later( we walked very fast) we made it to the monastery.  It was just as amazing if not more than the Treasury. When I first saw it, I thought to my self " why is this not famous", then I thought "I guess not many people come up here".  I was very glad I made the walk up. It was astonishing. And unlike the Treasury, we could walk inside the monastery. It was a big open space inside. 

Here are the pics. The most amazing thing about it was how big the door was, fit for a king.

monastery

Me in the monastery doorway

So once again we spent about 30 minutes up there admiring the rock architecture.  Then Jordan and I headed back down the mountain.  On the way down I bought an old dagger made with silver and it has a cool Arabic inscription on the blade with the name of the local Arab tribe. It is a neat dagger with historical meaning. So as I was walking down the pathway vendors were yelling at me "You said you would buy something later". They were holding me to my word, so I ended up buying a couple little things from some of them.  Then it got kind of fun. Part of Bedouin culture is to offer guests tea for free.  So Jordan and I sat down and drank fresh brewed tea over a fire with the small families.  One family we came across was very nice to talk with.  We sat down and talked with them.  As I sat down the wife put a couple tea cups in a small bowl of water and rinsed them off with her fingers.  She served us tea and we talked in Arabic for about 10 minutes till I ran out of things I knew how to say.  Then we spoke in English while drinking the tea for about another half hour.  They kept on pouring me tea.  That was probably my favorite part of the day. They even invited us to come live in a cave with them. Then they started laughing.

The Bedouin woman who served us tea on the cliffside

It was 3:00 then and we had to be back at the bus at 4:00 so we left.  It is an hour and a half walk back to the bus. So Jordan and I walked down the rest of the stairs rather quickly and then came across a guy with a couple camels.  We both payed the guy 10 dinar to ride the camel back to the treasury site and made him promise to take a picture once we got there.  I practice my Arabic with the guy on the quarter-mile ride back. The camel ride through Petra was a once in a lifetime thing so I had to do it and camels are very neat animals with their huge feet and funny faces.

So after getting off the camel I had Jordan take one more picture of me by the treasury and then we headed back down valley pathway.

So after getting off the camel I had Jordan take one more picture of me and the treasury building

From there we quickly walked back to the bus.  At the bus all the other students were gathered around a table with some water, fruit and other snacks on it. I ate about 4 helpings of stuff and drank two bottles of water and felt much better. After that we all boarded the busses and headed home, well back to our Jordanian homes. I took about an hour nap on the way home and then thought about the wonderful two day trip on the rest of the way home. Once I arrived back at the house my host mom had a meal ready for me to eat.  After I ate that I went directly to bed to get back the sleep that I lost.