Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ali and Duwa

Our neighbors, Ali and his daughter Duwa invited us over for dinner.  They served us Maqlubay, cucumber and tomato salad, and beef wraped in eggplant with a tomato sauce.  It was delicious! Every time we eat at someones house we can barely move by the end of the meal.  The more you eat, the happier they are, and every time you finish your plate, they throw on another heaping helping.  They are the nicest people we have met.  Ali doesn't speak any English, but he sure does love Michael.  This night has been one of the best opportunities Michael has had to practice his Arabic.  

Yasmine, Robin, Michael, Me, Lamise and Duwa
Ali and his daughter, Duwa are from Iran.  His wife and other daughters currently are living in Australia.  He is here in Jordan, waiting until he can join them.   Duwa is visiting from Australia for a few months. She told me she doesn't want to go back though, because it has been hard for her to find friends in Australia. 
Lamise and her sister Yasmine are from Palestine and they have both lived in the states for a number of years.  Yasmine speaks very good English with next to no accent and Lamise and Duwa are very fluent as well.  Lamise is halarious.  She is one of the most liberal Muslim women I have met, and also one of my favorites. 

Amman Citadel with Robin

Robin, the new intern from the U, and I went to the Roman Theater today.  I love this place.  





The temple of Hercules as seen from the Roman Theater.  This is where we headed next.  It was quite the hike. 
There is a nice museum at the theater.  It is filled with traditional Middle East clothing and jewelry dating as far back as the time of Christ.  


We hiked our way up to the Citadel, where the temple of Hercules is located.  This was the first time I had been here, besides when Michael and I came for an event at night.  We never saw the sights though, and I was amazed at how much is here.   It is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited places.  Through artifacts found on site, archaeologists have determined settlement at the Citadel to extend 7,000 years. 


The Temple of Hercules was built between 162-166 AD. Surprisingly, I found out that it is supposedly larger than any temple in Rome itself.   
The massive structure faces east and the temple portico is framed by six 33-foot tall columns.

An Early Bronze Age Cave, commonly used as burial tombs.   

Two headed bust from plaster and bitumen
 Found at Ain Ghazl-Amman 1985
Pre- Pottery Neolithic, 6500 B.C




These statues are from the Iron age II.

Interesting tidbit of information  I found at art-and-archaeology.com:

The Hill of the Citadel (Jabal al-Qal'a) in the middle of Amman was occupied as early as the Neolithic period, and fortified during the Bronze Age (1800 BC). The ruins on the hill today are Roman through early Islamic. The name "Amman" comes from "Rabbath Ammon," or "Great City of the Ammonites," who settled in the region some time after 1200 BC. The Bible records that King David captured the city in the early 10th century BC; Uriah the Hittite, husband of King David's paramour Bathsheba, was killed here after the king ordered him to the front line of battle.
In ancient times, Amman with its surrounding region was successively ruled by the then-superpowers of the Middle East: Assyria (8th century BC), Babylonia (6th century), the Ptolemies, the Seleucids (third century BC), Rome (1st century BC), and the Umayyads (7th century AD). Renamed "Philadelphia" after himself by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the city was incorporated into Pompey the Great's province of Syria, and later into the province of Arabia created by Trajan (106 AD). As the southernmost city of the Decapolis, Philadelphia prospered during Imperial times due to its advantageous location alongside Trajan's new trade and administrative road, the Via Nova Traiana.
When Transjordan passed into Arab rule in the 7th century AD, its Umayyad rulers restored the city's original name of Amman. Neglected under the Abbasids and abandoned by the Mamlukes, the city's fortunes did not revive until the late 19th century, under the Ottoman empire. Amman became the capital of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, and of the newly-created Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1947. Greater Amman (the core city plus suburbs) today remains by far the most important urban area in Jordan, containing over half of the country's population or about 3 million out of 5 million people.

The tallest flagpole in the world!  Well, according to the Jordanians. 416 feet is pretty impressive. 





This is a Byzantine basilica built between the 5th and 6th centuries AD.  Some reconstruction has been done on the roof and some aesthetic features.  
The view of the Roman Theater from the Citadel.
Timers are a great invention on cameras. 
The rolling city of Amman


Thursday, September 6, 2012

Mr. Michael


Michael is almost done with his first week of school!  And it has been a surprisingly wonderful week.  Despite what people have told us about all the students having major behavioral problems, Michael has been able to control all of them so far and has actually enjoyed teaching.  We are very grateful he decided to teach juniors and seniors because there is a huge maturity level differences between them and the freshman and sophomores.  Also Economics is an elective and contributes to his smaller classes.  He has a class the first four periods of the day which leaves the last two for prep time.  He is very grateful that his class sizes are very small.  1st period: 13 students, 2nd period: 7 students, 3 period: 12 students, 4th period: 11 students.  Not too bad! There are obviously those troublemakers, but they haven't been uncontrollable.  From day one Michael didn't put up with any cheek and I think that has made all the difference.  Plus every classroom has an interactive white board, which ya gotta admit, is pretty awesome.  No A/C, but who needs it when you can draw on your computer screen! 

So far so good! Here's to the coming year! 

Aqaba and the Red Sea

We loved Aqaba.  Our first hotel was in the town, and the beach was full of Shebab, so I didn't feel comfortable swimming at all during the day.  We went down to the beach that night for a little swim, hoping there would be less people.  There weren't, but we went swimming anyway.  So we took off our shoes (first mistake) and walked in.  It wasn't the sandiest beach I have ever been to and walking on the rocks was not so fun.  Finally we got to a point where we could lift our legs and float out farther.  Just at that moment something stung Michael.  His face said it all.  He said he'd never felt a sting like that ever in his life.  It was a quick swim.  Turns out he got stung by a sea urchin.  Thankfully it wasn't bad at all.  We soaked his foot in hot water when got back to the hotel.  
 Me and my alien camel.
Some kid succored me into a camel ride in the middle of the city. I rode a camel!!
The next day we bought some snorkeling gear and changed hotels.  We found one on the south beach away from the the locals and it had it's own private beach where we could snorkel.  


The coral and the fish were beautiful! And you would not believe the amount of sea urchins we saw.  It is a miracle that we didn't get stung every step we took into the ocean the night before.  
We spent hours on end snorkeling.  We found Nemo and his anemone, Dory, and a couple blowfish, along with hundreds of other kinds of fish.  At one point we were swimming in a school of fish that had to be about 10,000 little fish!  It was amazing. 





Our hotel had a private beach, which was very nice, except for the old European lady who though private meant nude.  At least Michael wasn't around.  It was scarring. 
I drug my beach chair into the water and found this little guy right by my feet. 
The sunset over Israel.  It was breathtaking. 


Here's where we parked our yacht. No big deal. 

Some snorkeling videos: