Visual Catch-Up!

Since didn't post every single day and it is hard to describe everything - here is a visual summary of what Amman and Jordan is like thus far (with a few comments of course):

First off, here are two pictures of the girls' apartment. This one is of the living room (note the leopard print bachelor pad-esque furniture).

This is our dining room (Leyla is on the left and I am on the right).
And here is a picture of almost everyone from Cornell! From the top left: me, Yacoub, Nasr, Khalid & Cory (bottom row) Selowa, Reem, Jafar & Leyla. This was Saturday when we went to a mosque in southern Amman.
A nice view of Jordan! The entire area of Amman is made up of seven hills which are covered mostly by similar looking building as seen below. It is hard to capture the view with a camera since the hills roll into the distance but it's not a bad view I have to say.
Here I am with brown hair! Forgot to mention I dyed it (for those of you who haven't seen me since the holiday) in an attempt to blend in and maybe, just maybe, look a little Jordanian. Far-fetched I know but a girl can dream. This is outside our hotel and Leyla is to my left and Sarah to my right.
Goat heads! This country is not at all ashamed about showcasing meat in the windows. On Saturday we were walking from the Hussein Mosque to Central Amman and wanted to sit and maybe grab a bite to eat. So I saw a nicer looking restaurant and issued everyone to come in. We all sat down upstairs and then when the waiter came over we first asked to see a menu, which apparently was asking too much. So H'anan asked if they had anything vegetarian (considering she is a vegetarian and all). The waiter looked at her for a moment then said ...la ("no" in Arabic). Any hummus? La. Any falafel? La. Turns out we had walked into a place that only sells meat from sheep. We should have noticed this small detail earlier considering there were pictures of sheep on the walls and every other table had a heaping of bones on their plates. The waiter said, "We have a head, half a head, the legs, stomach, brains..." Uhhh... la!! Nasr was feeling adventurous and ordered some legs - on which we could identify a full hoof and tasted like non-chewy fat. What was even better was there was this beautiful woman at another table in a hijab basically devouring what looked to be a sheep's head. Mmm.
Here is a nice one of the building when the sun is hitting them just right...
Arab coffee! If you know me, you know I love coffee. But Arab coffee? La. It is so incredibly strong that I simply cannot handle it unless doused in cream and lots of sugar. What is worse is about halfway down in the cup there is this sludge like mud that is purposely not drained out when making the coffee. So when you buy a cup, which is already small, you can really only drink half of it without choking or begging for a piece of gum. I'll stick to Turkish coffee for now - maybe eventually I enter the major leagues and be able to handle the real stuff.
More delicious food! This is half of the remains of Kanafa (top half) which is this excellent sweet dish with tons of cheese. Also it is basically fried. Sounds a bit disgusting I'm sure but it is to die for!! Also, if you eat it too much you might die. On the bottom is baklava, which I have eaten before and loved, but this might be this most incredible baklava in the world. No lie.
This is a picture of the Hussein Mosque in Central Amman. It is the part of Amman we have already been to about 5 times and will likely go almost every day. On the right is a citadel that is a part of every mosque here. Five times a day the call of prayer is played from the green part on the top. Essentially the only words I understand that play every time at the beginning are "Allahhhu Akbarrrrr" (God is Great). Unfortunately I tend to repeat things I hear so without thinking I repeat it a kind of sing it too which probably is fairly offensive when you think about it. I have to try to consciously avoid that from now on haha. The citadel idea is quite cool though in my opinion because when you look at the hills of buildings you can pick out exactly where all the mosques are.
Here is an example of the millions of pictures of the king (and often of his son as well) placed everywhere. King Abdullah is on the right and his son (still quite young it looks like) is on the left. This is the most standard picture - of their portraits - but there are also variations such as the King in his military uniform, in sports clothes, with his family, shooting a gun, etc. I'll have to post a picture of him with his wife too because man, is she gorgeous. Most likely in my top 10 most beautiful women I have ever seen (or in this case seen in a picture) in the world.
Here is a juice stand! It is exactly like India when it comes to juice. Except I don't think they made banana juice in India and that seems to be pretty popular here. Sooooo good.
Last picture! This is from the second day when we went as a group to Jerusalem Restaurant in downtown Amman. It is very popular locally and the food was super cheap. The most popular dish, and also the best in my opinion, is called Mensef (second dish from where the camera is). It is rice with either chicken or lamb on top. The meat is also incredibly tender and delicious. I don't think I will have any problem being full and happy at all times when in Jordan.
Today was our first day or real class but since class doesn't start for the other students for another week it was nothing eventful. I'm glad we are back in class although homework is a buzzkill sometimes. Right now I am looking forward to dinner though - seems there are quite a bit of good cooks from our group and we have been eating homemade group dinners for the past few nights which I love doing.

Back to homework for now! Masalama!