Catchin' up.

Phew! I just got back from a tourism marathon and I am beat! Petra AND Wadi Rum in less than 48 hours. AWESOME! Especially Wadi Rum. I really want to update on that, but it's gonna take a day or two to get my pictures organized. So in the meantime here is the update I've been meaning to do but haven't done yet:

So I've learned that even halfway across the world life tends to go on as usual. Work has been going pretty well. We had our parent teacher conferences a little while back. As stressful as it was, I ended up coming out of it with a positive feeling. I mean, I felt like I had been hit by a truck, but a mostly positive truck. I'm getting a fairly steady routine going here (to be honest I feel more like a primary school teacher than I would like to) but it's good. Every now and then I'll be catchin a cab, buyin lunch (falafel usually), or navigating Jabal Webdeih on a Friday, look up and say to myself: "Holy shit, I'm in Jordan!"
There have been problems of course. Like when your oven runs out of gas and you spend a week trying to catch the gas truck. In Amman all ovens run on propane (taste the meat, not the heat). So when you run out of gas you have to catch the gas truck. It drives around the neighborhood playing this really annoying song and you have to catch it on the street like an ice cream truck. I don't know how many times I heard that damn song and ran five blocks before I lost it. But eventually I got the sucker, and got a phone number for him so I'm good now.
Hmmm.... I'm sure that a million things have happened since my last update but I'm drawing a blank..... so yalla pictures!

1st circle on a typical work morning right near my stop for work.

Sometimes the cab driver will drive me down to Rainbow st. where I have my favorite coffee spot. Often they won't because of traffic, so I have my second choice for coffee around the corner from here. Of course I get a FREE cup at work, but that's my booster...

Cool looking hotel

Apparently, this is a night club.

Then all of a sudden my friend Tessa from high school serendipitously got a 6 week job  in Amman! So it has been awesome to have a fellow Booninite in Jordan. Boononian? Boony? What's the term?

So we hit the Citadel in Jabal Al Qu'la (the Roman ruins). There's even so much more to see in the day!

Yeah I climb Roman ruins...

Amphitheater. I have got to get down there!

"Oh snap, that's where I work!"

creepy

Used to be a giant statue of Hercules, but now all that's left is his hand and elbow.

Museum?! Sign me up!

There's baby bones in there!

This would look SO good in my apartment...

Tessa had a duel with a lion

They have man bones too...

... but you have to audition.

I LOVE when they have swords and armor in museums.

Amman

I found a hole

and I got stuck in a hole.

 

Roman ruins are coooool...

A  week or so later Tessa and I went down to the Dead Sea for a concert. "Dead Sea Nights," like "Citadel Nights" from earlier. It was cool, right on the sea, and super warm. Oh yeah did I mention it's cold here now? Seriously, I've been rockin' my North Face. It even rained for three days straight last week. So cool!

Really good music

So..... that's the dead sea (the pic doesn't do it justice).

You can't really see it, but that's Jerusalem on the left and Nazareth on the right (And the dead sea beach in the foreground).

This guy was awesome. He was apparently a doctor of something.

Ok khalas old stuff.

So I will do MY BEST to not be so slow on the updates. I have an insane amount to update from the last two days alone and imma get it here ASAP. In the meantime here's a little teaser,

This is where I ate lunch today:

And this is me 5 min. before I got in the taxi to Amman.

yup....

Hey the weather actually does change!

All of my NC people have been talking about 40degrees and less, and rain (oh what I would give). I remember hating it too, but trust me, 85-90 in late September without rain is not that much fun either... BUT the last few days have actually cooled off. Relatively, lemme check my Celsius to Fahrenheit chart.... so as far as I can tell it has been a pretty steady 30C (86F (the f is for freedom))since I got here. With highs around 33C (91.4F). But the last few days have cooled down to, I dunno 27ish C (80.6F).

"Yeah but it's the dry heat (Bill Paxton in "Aliens" for you non-nerds)!"

And then... for only the second time since I got here... three days in a row... BOOM!

Look, clouds!

On Friday it looked AND smelled like rain. I made sure to stay outside or at least close to a window just in case and eventually... nothing happened. But apparently it rained in Jabal Amman around 6th circle because that's all my Firsties talked about for the first half-hour of class.

On Sunday we went back to City Mall and I made a crucial purchase, booyah!:

Alhumdillah! We're gonna eat tonight!

Also note the water cooler, another crucial purchase made way earlier (don't drink the tap water dunce). I made a phone call to my parents outside while my friends went to pinkberry and I SWEAR I felt a drop of rain. Nobody believed me though... could've been some AC coolant I guess.

Then I taught for a couple days, woke up this morning, and saw this:

Yeah that's a dust storm.

When I first got here I wondered where all this dust came from, guess I know now. Apparently it's not that common, but it will last a few days. Time to close those windows!

To get to work I have to cross the main intersection of Jabal Webdeh and Jabal Amman. People stop around to chill, pee, whatever, but I had to snap a pic of this cab driver:

When it's time, it's time...

alright, to finish up I saw some better street art (more to come):

and a cat:

sorry it's so fuzzy

Long overdue update...

 So first let me apologize to my friends and family for not updating this sooner. Since school started I feel like I have been trapped in a massive sandstorm (a haboob if you will). Little kids are exhausting! I can't believe it's already been almost three weeks of teaching already. My classes are going... ok. There are definitely some cultural differences between the school system here and back home that take some MAJOR getting used to.  On the first day my 1st graders were so adorable! Yeah... that lasted about five minutes. The good news is that my principal and co-workers are all very nice and supportive. Overall I feel like I am very well taken care of and have a good network of resources to draw from. Also at my school there's a lady whose sole job is to make coffee at a moments notice. Arabic coffee too.. strong stuff. She doesn't speak any English but it only took a day before she started to grab the big cup when she sees me coming (mish sukar). So yeah, it's a challenge, not without its perks, and it will get easier (inshallah).
Today we tried using a ball in my first grade class. Kids who can sit quietly and raise their hand (without shouting "Mr. Will! Mr. Will! Mr. Will!") get to catch the ball and talk. At one moment I had the surreal experience of training a dog. "You want the ball? Can you sit? Stay... STAY! Ok speak. Good boy." worked pretty well actually...  First graders just don't know how a classroom is supposed to function so it takes a lot of work.
There are def some good moments. During recess teachers are expected to be in different places on the playground to monitor kids (ie break up fights, and believe me there are FIGHTS). At first I was kinda ticked that I had to do the "duty" but it is quickly becoming one of the best parts of my day. Today I sat in the shade and ended up hanging out with 5 of my first graders watching the soccer game and talking about sharks. Ironically 3 of them are some of my most difficult kids IN class.
So lets see... updates updates...
Went to the city mall and bought a DVD player (got 5 seasons of sunny in philly for like $15 US too, pretty sweet). This mall is HUGE. Pretty westernized. Still couldn't find any comic books. Young males aren't allowed in by themselves because apparently they have problems with women getting harassed. Waiting outside I saw a bunch of boys get turned away. Even had a couple teens ask me if I could get them in (foreigners are ok apparently). Ate at a TGIFridays. Never done that before, never would do it back home, but damn it was awesome.
Lots of interesting taxi rides (people laugh at me when I call them cabs).
I've been doing a bit of socializing. Had a couple nights out, went to a house party, met a slew of ex-pats.
Did some downtown stuff, bought a fan. Been eating lots of good, cheap food.
Went to the police station and got my visa extended. That was an experience. Seriously THE FILTHIEST bathroom I have ever been in.
I bought a phone card! Mad cheap so if anybody wants to chit chat let me know....
The internet at my apt is terrible but I plan on buying some superwebs when I get paid in about a week so I should be a lot more in touch and able to get back on updating this blog.
I haven't been taking many pictures lately (since I started actually working here I think I've shifted out of tourist mode) but here's what I got:

Little cartoon I drew

"Al Daktoor."

 Caught the end of a wedding ceremony

 View from waiting at the stairs to walk to work with James and Carly

 View from my friend Helena's new apt

 Look, grass!

 And cats...

 and cats...

 and kittens...

 and angry cats...

 and more cats (there were at least three more under the dumpsters).

Oh yeah, I was in the NY Times dontchaknow: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/09/04/travel/20110904-surfacing-amman-3.html

Keepin busy...

So I know what grades I'm teaching, FINALLY, 1st and 3rd grade English. Little 'uns. I'll be working with a co-teacher Jessica from America. The last week has been a little frustrating. I'm still not entirely sure what this job is going to entail.  But I shouldn't complain, I'm sure once I get in the classroom things will start falling in to place. We have one meeting tomorrow as a dept and then a week break for Eid, 1st grade orientation the following Saturday and then students on September 5th. So for this next week I will just be working to get prepared for the students (and drawing in my free time). I found a great coffee shop near work that's open during Ramadan so I'll probably be spending a fair amount of time there this week. To be honest, I am looking forward to the end of Ramadan so that I can start getting a feel for what Amman is normally like (and so that I can start finding places that are open during the day). Mostly I've just been working, attending meetings, and re-adjusting my sleep schedule. And sweating... lots of sweating.
Rollin and I are settled into our new apartment and it is great! I'm really enjoying it. It's spacious and comfortable and our landlord has been super helpful with everything. Anyway, I had a chunk of pictures on my camera so I figured I'd dump them here:

Of course I'm still taking pictures of stray cats.

James, Carly and I went on a journey to buy teaching supplies. Naturally when we found the place it was closed because of Ramadan.

More stairs. There was an old lady chillin' at the bottom of these. These alleys and staircases practically take you through people's back yards.

There are all sorts of abandoned buildings tucked away.

Tents set up for "Citadel Nights," a nightly event during Ramadan at the Roman ruins. More of that below...

One of the cool things about living in Amman is you'll be walking to buy a bottle of water and look to your left and go "Oh look, ruins from the Roman empire."

Interesting graffiti

A cool house

I think this was a cafe

I was compelled to take this picture. Note that the guy's face is photo shopped on.

We went to a workshop in Abdoun, which is a reeeeeaaaallly nice (ie rich) neighborhood. There are a lot of embassies there so the houses are really fancy. We passed the American embassy and it looked like a freaking fortress. I wanted to get a picture but there were signs everywhere saying not to. Here are a few pics from the bus ride there:

Abdoun bridge. It has another name but I don't know what it is.

We had the worst luck getting a cab from work yesterday and ended up walking for a while. We ended up on a street that had tons of pet bird stores. I saw the scrappiest, angriest parrot that I have ever seen.

Kinda sad really.

When I need a haircut I am definitely coming to this place.

Not sure who would actually hang this in their house.

So my boss Moeen had told us about the Citadel Nights and we had been meaning to go but kept putting it off. Since Ramadan is ending soon James, Carly and I made a point of checking it out last night. It was really cool! Unlike street festivals in the US it was extremely relaxed. There were a lot of people there but it didn't feel crowded. It was pretty quiet and people were just relaxing, talking, eating, smoking hookah and just chillin. The absence of alcohol prob contributed to the laid back atmosphere.

Jabal Al-Qu'la has an amazing view. I definitely need to come back during the day.

Right when we got there these dudes showed up dressed like Romans to give a tour of the ruins. There was one guy explaining the history along the way but I didn't understand any of it.

Spectacular view of the Roman amphitheater. They still do performances here, I HAVE to go.

Amman

Lots of people were sending up Chinese lanterns.

People were climbing all over the ruins. James and I waited until they thinned out and tried to go up  but we got stopped by some guy that worked there. After we walked away more people climbed up. What the eff!?

We got seats for the musical performance.

Arabic music is really cool.

We caught a cab home and our driver got cut off by a Saudi. When he got cut off he said "Saudi! Hamar! Donkey, big donkey!" There are definitely some anti-Saudi sentiments here.