Rest in Peace

Before I say anything, I just want to mention my friend from Drake, Ben Backstrom. He was the victim of a violent crime and died last night in the hospital. He was a fantastic guy and he and I would always share conversations over Rolling Rocks in the bar. I was like him in Middle School, kind of dorky, picked on a lot and I knew he had a rough time at Drake at times. I could have been there for him more and I needed to be and for that Benny, I am sorry. Rest in peace Benny boy, all of us at Drake will miss you very much, you were a phenomenal guy and had so much to offer everyone around you.

Now, I'd like to talk a little bit about the TV series here which honestly, are just hilarious. There is one channel that my family always switches on when we have friends or family over called Zweina Balidna which translates to "Our Nation's Pride." Basically, all it is is a bunch of video clips of the Jordanian military and King Abdullah II with Arabic music in the background. I actually saw my host dad, Amaar, on the channel one time marching with the military, great stuff. WWE Raw (wrestling) is also very popular here, not so much with my family but if there is ever a good match on, cafes will switch it on and people get really into it. The majority of people here get confused when you tell them it's fake so I've stopped bursting their bubble; they are very passionate about their wrestlers. Also, Egypt is kind of the Hollywood of the Middle East and the majority of their movies are just ridiculous. Usually, people get drunk off of one drink, sex is usually this dirty, secretive act, and there's some form of hashish (pot, green, grass, Mary Jane, Marijuana) in every movie, very funny stuff.

My ISP is coming along well, I have about 22 pages written consisting of the Introduction, the Methodology, and the Findings which are the chunkier parts of the ISP so now I just have to do my Literature Review, Conclusion, Bibliography, Appendices, etc. No worries, it's all coming along smoothly.

An Average Day

Things are going so far so good here. I've gotten a few interviews and I'm doing 5 more today and at least 2 tomorrow. I've heard some very interesting points of views ranging from a more "moderate" view to a clearly hard-line view. With the first interview I had, the interviewee had some very interesting quotes that I wrote down such as: "the concept of being a civilian in Israel does not exist" (speaking about how it's a "military state"), "the only way you could have a good and healthy relationship with an Israeli is if you were a subdued servant or if Israel was moved to the far western Sahara desert," and finally, "and those stupid assholes chose Palestine" (speaking about the choice of Palestine as the location for the creation of an Israeli state). I thought that last quote was pretty intense, he sad it in kind of a giggly anger which kind of freaked me out. I really enjoy doing these interviews. The only problem is that sometimes the students who are living with the host parents I interview are in the same room and even though I'm being chill and unbiased, sometimes they pitch in and start antagonizing my interviewee, no good. I think I'm going to request them to leave from now on since it's such a touchy and uncomfortable subject at times.

Now, here's a day in the life of me in Jordan (not during the ISP period). Every morning, I'd wake up around 8:00 and skip breakfast. I'd take a 5-7 minute walk with my computer bag to a roundabout close to my house and then wait 10-20 minutes for a taxi (taxis are pretty rare around my place). After arriving at SIT, either we'd have Arabic in the morning or in the afternoon depending on the day, 3 hours of Arabic every day (hour and a half of Ameia and an hour and a half of FusHa). The days with Arabic in the morning, we'd have Thematic Seminar in the afternoon where a speaker would come in and talk to us about the religion, society, culture, etc. of Jordan. On days when Arabic is in the afternoon, we'd have our Field Study Seminar in the morning where we learned about how to do our ISP: interviews, surveys, ethical research, etc. Every day for lunch, we'd either go to the super market close by SIT, to the roundabout a few blocks away, or to Reem (supposedly the top shwarma stand in the Middle East). SIT is right next to the British and Venezuelan Embassies and we're located in Abdoun (that's the name of the part of Amman). After school, some friends and I would usually shoot over to a cafe for homework and argeelah, then I'd head home and spend the rest of my night with my family. That's pretty much an average day during the school week here in Jordan. Also, the work week here starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday which causes some confusion but you get used to it after a while. Um, the end. Ma salaama.

Independent Study Project (ISP)

So school is over. No more classes whatsoever and now we're all starting with our ISP period. We have about a month to do literature review, interviews and surveys, and to type up a 35-40 page ISP paper based on our research. The topic I have chosen to focus on is the Jordanian view of the Israeli people, government, and the Israeli entity as a whole. I am planning on conducting the bulk of my research through 15-25 interviews of average, working (or studying) Jordanians over the age of 18. I am not going to interview scholars or academics on the politics of Jordan and Israel because I am looking for the opinions of the average Jordanian. I'm finding my interviewees through my family, family friends, and host families/friends of host families of other students in the program. I am also planning on interviewing a nice mix of both Jordanians of Jordanian decent, and those of Palestinian decent (supposedly 45% of Jordanians are of Palestinian decent but some say it's up to 70%). I am not planning on doing a lot of literature review since nobody has published articles on the solely Jordanian view of Israel but I am planning on talking about the history of their relationship in this section. These are the questions I will be asking for my interviews:

1. What are your views of the Israeli government?
2. Could you please elaborate on these issues? Why do you feel this way?
3. What are your views of the Israeli people?
4. Could you please elaborate on these issues? Why do you feel this way?
5. Do you see a separation between the Israeli people and their government? Why or why not?
6. How do you feel about the Israeli government’s actions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?
7. If there is one thing you could say to the Israeli government leaders, what would it be?
8. If there is one thing you could say to the American government leaders, what would it be?
9.Have you ever met a Jew?
10. What was their occupation?
11. How has this encounter affected your view of the Jewish population?
12. Have you ever met an Israeli?
13. What was their occupation?
14. How has this encounter affected your view of the Israeli population?
15. Do you differentiate between Jewish and Israeli?
16. Do you have any other comments on anything we have discussed?
17. If this was read by influential political leaders, what would you want to say to them?

I've already spoken to a few Jordanians just in regular conversations about this issue and I've faced a couple different views. Some can differentiate between the Israeli people and their government and sometimes even support some Israeli's initiatives to help the Palestinian population. But most I've spoken to show a severe disdain (to put it gently) for the Israeli entity as a whole and actually believe that the Israeli people WANT war, and not peace. This interests me very much and both the director of SIT and my adviser have warned me against what I may hear. I'm not too worried, living in America, you get used to ignorance, misunderstanding, and unwarranted hatred towards things people don't understand. Something I believe fervently is this: people only hate what they don't understand. I think this project is going to partially prove my point but hopefully I can use this project later to help people understand one another a little better. Then again, this is me thinking optimistically which I don't do very often so bear with me. So what do you think of the topic? I'm pumped to start my interviews tomorrow.

South Jordan and Cultural Insensitivity

Alright, I'm sorry it took me so long to post but I've been pretty busy getting everything together. South Jordan was unbelievable. We started of our trip by visiting Kerak, some ruins on the way to the south. We then went to Petra where we learned about the old city and the Nebateaens who ran the trade metropolis of the Middle East. Petra (the old city) connected Europe to Asia to Africa and actually covered a huge chunk of the Middle East. It is truly impossible to visit all of Petra in one day, it would probably take around 3 days to not only see all of the old city but to truly appreciate it. First, you walk through the Siq which is a gorgeous canyon of sandstone and other minerals, after about half an hour or so of walking, you emerge to see the Treasury building. The reason the Treasury building is so remarkable is because it's in such good condition and is the first building you see after the Siq. Some friends and I then walked a couple kilometers and climbed close to 1500 steps to reach the Monastery. The Monastery is another of the better intact buildings at Petra and is actually two times or so the size of the Treasury. Both however are truly breath-taking and the landscape and scenery where Petra was built is one of the more beautiful things I've seen. After Petra, we headed to Wadi Rum. We slept in tents, sang by the campfire, went driving over dunes in jeeps, climbed these massive rock formations, rode camels, and watched the sunset over the Wadi. Wadi Rum means "Rum Valley" (not the alcohol, it's just a name) but the locals call it Wadi Qamr, "Valley of the Moon," because at night, the Wadi is illuminated by the stars and the moon. A few of us also climbed one of the rock formations early in the morning and watched the sunrise while doing yoga over Wadi Rum. First time doing yoga, pretty fun, not gonna lie. After Wadi Rum, we headed to Aqaba where we first snorkeled in the Red Sea. We all had free time after that where we went to a great seafood restaurant called "Ali Baba." After Aqaba, we headed to Dana Nature Reserve where we again slept in tents and hung out by the campfire. We also climbed one on the mountains next to our site and watched the sunset over the reserve, I think that could truly be categorized as an awesome experience. We were going to do another hike the next morning but Dr. Raed (the SIT director) got very sick, hospital, the works, and so we all decided to head home early to let him relax.

South Jordan was an amazing time and truly gorgeous. The one thing that bothered me however were the tourists; the mass amounts of tour groups, tour guides, and culturally-insensitive people trudging around Petra and Aqaba. I know I'm technically a tourist as well, but I see myself more as a student who is learning about the tourist scene in Jordan. The Middle East is a fantastic region of the world and I'd recommend anybody to go, but what people need to learn, what foreigners need to learn, is that this is a different culture. Locals don't wear shorts or tank-tops, this is wrong according to their culture and to their faith so it annoys me when I see this. I actually saw a girl wearing a tank-top, really short jean-shorts, and then she had the nerve to put a hijab on. I guess I just don't understand how certain people think. I always encourage travel and new experiences, but don't do it if you're just going to be ignorant of the culture you're in. Tour groups don't allow you to experience a culture, they allow you to stare at a culture from behind a glass wall. This to me is not travel. I'm sorry about that little rant but I felt like I had to get that out. Anyway, I have some pictures for you guys; there were too much for the blog so I did another Flickr page. Hope you enjoy them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48644224@N08/sets/72157623699184727/

Alright, that's all for now but I'll be posting again soon since school is almost over for us and the ISP period starts next week. Ma salaama.

Wadi Mujib and South Jordan

Today, a good amount of the SIT kids went to Wadi Mujib which is the lowest natural reserve in the world, right next to the Dead Sea. It was beautiful. We did a river walk through this canyon which a lot of the stone looked like polished wood, truly insane. We trekked through and did a little climbing until we reached the waterfall at the end (we didn't have a guide so we couldn't get up the waterfall but we had fun just hanging out). I discovered that if you go to the back of the waterfall and jump into one of the streams, it pushes you under water and forces you out the other side, very fun. Some of the kids were skeptical at first but I convinced some of them to join in purposely losing your footing to jump into a raging waterfall, I'd recommend it to anyone.
Tomorrow, the SIT students are heading out way to early (again) to south Jordan. We will spend 4 days exploring Aqaba, Wadi Rum, and Petra. A couple of the guys and I are planning on renting jet skis in Aqaba to ride on the Red Sea, we'll go swimming, eat fresh sea food, etc. Also, we'll be spending a night in tents in Wadi Rum where we'll play music around the camp fire and I think roast marshmallows In Sha'Allah (God Willing, hopefully). We're also going to try to get to Petra early in the morning so that there will be less tourists there and also so that we see the Treasury building right when the sunrise hits it, I can't wait. After south Jordan, we have a couple more days of classes where we'll all be presenting our projects; then our Independent Study Project period begins. I'll tell you more about what I'm doing later. I won't have a computer in south Jordan so I'll make sure to post a good one for you when I get back, pictures, stories, all that stuff. Ma salaama.