Philadelphia, New Home of the Circassians

كل شيء يمكن أن يكون إستثنائيا إذا كانت الطريقة التي ترى وتشعر بها

Amman

Amman, Jordan is an absolute beautiful place. I didn’t know what to expect being my first time abroad and outside the united states. I arrived in the Jordanian International Airport and it was crowded, full of energy, and well organized like any other modern airport. Ton's of coffee shops, book stores, restaurants. It had the feel of any big city American airport. Eventually I spotted my chaperon holding a sign with my name on it. Professor Furgali, would be one on my chaperons for the next 4 months and would accompany me as a historian, guide, and translator on my travels throughout Jordan. We exchanged brief formalities and shortly thereafter we sped off across the darkly light desert highway that lead to my hotel in downtown Amman. I stayed in an hotel for about for about 2 weeks before relocating to an apartment located on the Princess sumaya university campus. One of my friends Mohammed lived close by the hotel and we would meet up on the weekends and take walks downtown to shop in old stores, coffee shops, souqs and eat in middle-eastern restuarants. I remember a couple of weekends we went bowling and roller skating where Usher's R&B song "Love in this Club" was jammin out.... I was surpisingly shocked and I literally could not recognize at times that I was outside the US. There were Mcdonald's and Burger King's, the familiar corporations that reminded me of home. Also as a part of the student exchange program, the school had organized each weekend for me to visit an historical site within Jordan. Me, Professor Furgali and Yusuf, the driver, were together every weekend. We visited some amazing historical places and modern resorts. My first site was visiting Petra one of the filming sites for the movie Indiana Jones. Just walking through the ancient passageway that leads to the entrance of the ancient city was eerily exciting not knowing what to expect or what you'll encounter on the 30 minute hike. You are completely surrounded by huge dark rock walls and with the limited light that passes through the narrow walkway you are forced to pay careful atttention to the dimmly light path to maintain the course. It's about a 30 minute walk through the passage until finally the sun light slowly returns as you approach the exit to immediately come face-to-face with an ancient masterpiece that is directly reflecting the sun back into the tunnel forcing you to squint as you try to take in the full scope of the building while not allowing the sunlight to burn your eyes. At the moment you exit the long tunnel you just stand and stare at the ancient building and want to touch the perfectly chiseled columns and steps. You want to feel and know all the history of this ancient place. I remember spending the whole day there. I packed my lunch and a couple of water bottles and remember taking a couple of camel rides around Petra, talking with locals and just enjoying the experience. On my next Jordanian trip my driver Yusuf had arranged for me to spend some time with his family to experience an traditional Jordanian meal and to go falcon hunting. I had never seen or held a falcon before or even knew that people could hunt with falcons. I’m from the southern united states where we hunt with Black and Tan, Blue tick and red bone hounds so falcon hunting was completely foreign to me. We spent a couple of hours in the desert hunting but didn't catch anything. We mainly spent time driving through the desert taking in different sites, just enjoying the weekend. The interesting thing that I remember is that it wasn't hot in the middle of the desert. I remember wearing a short sleeve short and some sandles and some sweat pants. It was all about the experience. Then I remember another weekend we visited the Roman ruins. It was my first visit to an ancient roman site. It was amazing to walk through ancient columns and sitting in the theatre imagining what life was like a thousands of years ago. I remember on another weekend we went to visit the grave site of the Prophet Job(Ayuub), in a small country town with a small mosque. It was almost like a museum but the most most memorable part of the trip was that the area was surrounded by fruit trees, and I remember eating apricots until I got sick. Interesting enough it was the first time I had eaten apricot and they were delicious. Then on another weekend, I remember visiting the Port of Aqaba. We stayed in the resort where I swam in gulf of Aqaba or the red sea. It was also interesting that being in Aqaba you can cross into Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. It's feels almost like being in the center of the world or literally the middle-east. Also on another weekend trip we visited Mount Nebo. Supposedly it is the place where the Prophet Moses lived and was buried in his final days. . It was an interesting, remote and isolated place overlooking the red sea. Overall, Jordan is one of those interesting modern, historical and ancient places that contains something interesting for every traveler. I will definitely visit again and make up for the places that I didn't get a chance to visit.

Philadelphia, New Home of the Circassians

Amman

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