Hey everyone!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted and, of course, a lot
has happened since then. After coming back from Jerusalem, it was hard to
figure out what adventure would top that, until I got the green light from my
parents to go to Beirut.
Beirut has seen a lot in the past few decades – with its
sectarian conflicts, civil war and life with Hezbollah. But it’s also extremely
resilient. I have a friend on the program who attended the American University
in Beirut this summer and she’s been raving about Lebanon all semester. So we
bought the tickets, booked the hostel and crossed our fingers that no bombings
would occur between then and when we left Beirut.
But, make plans, and God laughs.
Or in this case, a
Sunni group decides to bomb the Iranian embassy in south of Beirut two days
before departure. Read here for more information about what happened: Here
Because we’d be staying up in the northern part of Beirut,
which is predominantly Sunni, we figured retaliation could possibly be targeted
at those areas. Instead of taking chances, risking the airport road closing and
being at the wrong place at the wrong time, we ended up holding off on our
trip. Womp womp.
Instead, we spent the weekend pretending we were in Beirut
by doing fun things such as going salsa dancing, watching “The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire” and hanging out at the Roman Theatre in downtown Amman (being
ridiculous tourists even though we’d been there for about three months at the
time.)
The week after that was Thanksgiving! It was weird to still
have class on Thanksgiving, but at least it was the weekend. My roommates and I
hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,
everything classically American. (My roommates happen to be fantastic cooks).
To continue the weekend, we went pretend Black Friday
shopping but just ended up having a relaxing day of leftovers and “It’s Always
Sunny in Philadelphia” (sort of fitting because Amman was once called
Philadelphia). That Saturday, we went up to an elementary school a little
outside of town for a community service project. We spent the day painting,
worked to level out the schoolyard and other beautification projects. I loved
being able to do some work for the community that I’ve lived in these past few
months. Seeing the impact our actions had on the neighborhood and the entire
school – which had been requesting aid for seven years – made me grateful for
all I’ve been able to do here.
And then came my birthday weekend. I was at first a little
wary to turn 21 in a Muslim country – I was convinced before coming here that
it would be extremely anti-climactic. But it wasn’t. To start off, the entire
day was rainy. It was the first time it rained consistently since getting here,
and it was insane. The streets flooded, traffic was impossible and I finally
got to break out the rain boots. We went out for dinner (amazing) and ate way
too much food. After that we went dancing and, to say the least it was a fantastic
birthday.
That Friday, our landlady had us up for a big birthday
dinner. It always astounds me how amazing her cooking is. She invites over so
many people for the celebration, and we spent the night talking in Arabic and
English and eating all of the fantastic food she prepared – my favorite is her
chicken wings. She also made a killer dish with fish, onions and rice that’s
cooked upside down so it’s all really delicious. For dessert, she made
pineapple upside down cake, a chocolate custard dish that reminded me of Culvers
(ooh, I’m ready to have Culvers again) and these almond cake things that left
me comatose with sugar and over-stuffed-ness. It’s been great to have a
landlady take care of us on our birthdays – almost like home!
That next morning, we headed down to Kerak, which is a town
about an hour south of Amman. It’s one of the last few places we have to visit,
because we’d heard the people were pretty sketchy and had driven the tourism
out of the town. We could understand why—apart from a few others, my friend and
I were the only ones at the castle, which wasn’t that easy to get to without
speaking Arabic.
A guide took us around, speaking formal Arabic to us, and we
learned a ton about the castle that was both Crusader and then updated during
the Mamluk period. The castle was gigantic – 1,500 soldiers lived in the
barracks, which were gigantic, and the kitchen, which included a huge oven and
a place to make olive oil and wine. So cool.
Now, there’s only 12 days left until I come home! What’s
happening in that time? Well, we’ve got Arabic finals this week on top of a few
more classes, and then next week I have my history and Islam finals! Not sure
I’m ready to leave!
P.S. – sorry for the lack of pictures! My iPhoto has decided
it wants to go home so it’s quit out on me… Until then feel free to see the
pictures I posted on Instagram: http://instagram.com/lydiaramsey125
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