A Year Away

2007-07-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

moving back to my old blog :) http://bleary-eyed08.blogspot.com

2007-05-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. I'm no longer adjusting to living in Amman :) now i'm adjusting to the idea of leaving it. I can't believe how fast my Fulbright has gone! I guess I've done much of what I came here to do, I'm certainly more relaxed. I've had a lovely week of lunches and coffees and dinners on terraces, plenty of sunsets to appreciate, Friday morning brunch in my garden, and plenty of visitors and trips.

My research finally got off the ground in March and I've been doing surveys at the Women and Childrens Health Centers in the Refugee Camp. I'm single once more except for a brief "hiccup" in Turkey :) and oh yeah...had Da Cheong and Ariane visit me and we had a crazy old time between meeting bedouins in Wadi Rum and learning how to make Turkish Coffee in Madaba and sorting out pants by the Dead Sea. Good times... :) In two weeks Greg arrives and we head back out to Petra, Wadi Rum, and even Jerusalem this time.

Just came back from a trip to Turkey and Bulgaria, got to see Dancho and Gala. A nice reprieve from getting harassed in the streets. :) and i got to eat Pork!! its been too long.

Anyways more new photos posted :) Check them out at this Link

2007-02-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

Happy chinese new year :) Had a lovely dinner last night, made chinese food and dumplings for 30 dear friends here in Jordan. I'll post more photos later, the cooking was insane, but the evening was a blast. We topped off the night with Lilie's beautiful dessert: fried banana mango spring rolls dipped in melted nutella...YUM.

I've also posted some photos of our cooking lessons (been giving roland some basic asian cooking lessons...it's been a blast) for you curious folk you can see some of our creations on my flickr site

update

2007-02-12T01:57:00.000-08:00

It's February!! :) who knew time could fly by so fast. It's been a blur these last few months living here. I had my reality check yesterday when I went to the medical bookstore to buy some books for my upcoming sub-internships and my psychiatry rotation. Just a few more months and I'll be back in Ohio on the wards and Jordan will be a distant dream or somewhat fuzzy blurred memory. It's been a good trip so far, not totally what i had expected when i chose to accept this grant but I'm happy nonetheless about where i'm sitting at this point. I'm at the moment planning some health education classes at the community center- talks on nutrition, diabetes, and high blood pressure. I'm realizing just how much I enjoy doing health education and prevention topics, perhaps the family med/prev med route isn't such a bad idea for me afterall. the paths that life takes sometimes suprises me, but i suppose it keeps things interesting :)

2007-01-26T03:30:00.000-08:00

New Year and Christmas have come and gone. Spent the Christmas break in Palestine :) FUN but very cold, who'd have thought we'd get snow in jerusalem! Quite a sight I must say seeing that ancient city coated in white. Now back in Jordan seeking a routine between arabic classes and trying (STILL) to get my research off the ground and running. My time here is half-up and i can hardly believe it. I dont want to think about leaving yet but there it is....med school looming in the horizon once again...financial aid paperwork, electives to sign up for, step 2 cs, and the prospect of choosing residency programs *sigh* In the meantime I'm relishing all my free time...my ability to do absolutely nothing on a friday morning, the lazy walks in the park and evenings in with roland, and the time to throw lots of dinner parties for friends here. I still have time i suppose, hopefully a few more trips planned, india, turkey and bulgaria. we shall see...

2006-12-21T03:01:00.000-08:00

Qasid term is over and I'm now on a bit of a Christmas Break. It's been a rough few weeks, but the last week has been fantastic! After our finals/graduation ceremony we went to Fuhais, this small Christian town outside Amman. It's really strange to be in a Muslim country for Christmas, there's almost no signs of it as you walk around the street. No Christmas songs, no trees, no lights, no red and green decor. So we retreated to fuhais where the houses were strung with colorful lights, the town had a large Christmas Tree at its center and we even found a shop selling little lit up plastic santas. We ate at a small restaurant known for its fatteh, (yum) followed by a narguila session with arak in its vase instead of water. PHOTOS HERE.

The following day I headed up to Damascus with Lillie. We walked/shopped around Old Damascus, saw the Ummawi Mosque and one of hte oldest still operating covered souq's in the world. The city was charming, beautiful architecture, small streets and old houses, and so much green. We ate at Beit Jabrii in the old part of town and even got to watch what looked like some sort of food show taking place. Old guy in a hat raving about the dishes in front of the camera. I bought some gifts and an adorable little sheesha :P We wandered around the city for some time, got lost a few times, took a bus and ended up in who knows where LOL all in all a great time. We took the service car back to Amman the same evening and ended up with this older muslim woman from Salt who spent the whole time muttering to herself and asking us to repeat after her, all i could catch was something about the sky above nad the earth below, LOL. At the Syrian Border our driver went to buy a bunch of duty free cigarettes which she proceeded to hide from him by stuffing them one by one down her chilbab (full black robes they use over their clothing). :) otherwise uneventful border crossing. SYRIA PHOTOS

Saturday-Monday, Lil, Amanda, and I took our little road trip. Amanda had won a free 3day car rental..unfortunately we all only had moderate knowledge regarding driving a stick shift :P it was an interesting drive to stay the least, esp getting through Amman's crazy driving scene. We headed up towards Madaba in the West and to the Ma'in Hot Springs. This place was amazing, one waterfall was sooo hot, about 65C we ended up in the slightly cooler one. It was so nice sitting in the warm springs and standing under the waterfall, it was like the highest waterpressure shower I could imagine :P MORE PHOTOS

The evening was spent in Madaba in a cute little motel with "the most comfortable beds in Jordan"
according to the Lonely Planet guide. THey were quite nice :P we slept well after our feast at Harout Jdoudna Restaurant.

Day 2 was spent driving out to the dead sea. Driving in these long winding paths down into the valley is awesome, although a bit frightening at times. Especially with the sheep crossing and the bedouin dogs trying to "herd" our car towards their sheep. We ended up at the public beach at the Dead Sea. It's the most hilariousexperience to float in that water, you're just so buoyant :P it's difficult to keep your feet down, they keep wanting to float up. :) good times.

Day 3 we drove back down to the jordan valley up the road by the border crossings. It was strange seeing Israel/the West bank just across the river. We stopped at Pella, wonderful ruins of the former decapolis cities of Rome along with several other layers of occupation. We ate St. Peter's fish...divine. A whole fried fish with lemon MM it's supposedly the same fish that Christ used to feed the multitudes. EIther way, it was fantastic fish. We ate lunch watching a couple bedouins grazing their large herd of sheep :P The pictures are quite entertaining. THen we drove north to Umm Qais another ruins site, large ottoman village (19th c) along with Roman ruins including 2 theaters. Its situated near the borders of Lebanon, Syria,Israel, and Jordan...so lots of checkpoints and lots of security. From the ruins we were able to see the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee into the Golan Heights as well. We had just enough time to wander around the ruins and even catch a sunset before we headed south to Irbid to visit a Fulbrighter colleague on our way back to Amman. PHOTOS

Yesterday Was our Christmas Party, thrown together with 2 days of planning, but a smashing success :P. We had such a great time cooking lots of food, making eggnog, roasting chestnuts, exchanging some hilarious white elephant gifts which include a beanie hat with tufts of synthetic hair, ninja turtles uno (my contribution :P), and nunchucks. We even had a tree and some santa hats...PHOTOS here

to View all Photo Sets CLICK HERE

2006-11-14T06:50:00.000-08:00

well it's been awhile since my last post. Things have picked up quite a bit since Ramadan ended and I seem to be insanely busy these days with everything EXCEPT my research :) Most exciting thing I'm trying to get launched is a project at the Community Center I volunteer at that will involve photography and focus groups with the women and children that live there. I want to hold some discussions with the kids about gender roles in their community and maybe teach them a little photography, a colleague of mine will be speaking to the women. So lots of work there in terms of more grant writing and pitching the proposal to various organizations in the area. I've also started volunteering at the Red Crescent hospital under the head nurse who's from Iraq. He's had some amazing experiences and it'll give me a great chance to keep up some medical skills as well as work on my spoken Arabic as I follow patients. The docs will be rounding with me in English on the 20 or so patients there. So, it's been fun, lots of Arabic classes still and I'm still teaching English to young kids at the community center. I'm so behind on my work!! Anyways, hope all is well in your worlds....take care...Abi

2006-10-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

Some photos from last weekends get together, Cannabai with emily and Musa'b and the next picture is from our 1am downtown meal at Hashim's :) (fyi most of my beirut photos on flickr, just missing the ones from the beirut nightlife)

2006-10-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

EID MUBARAK! Ramadan is over with :) Hoorah! I can drink coffee all day once again. I suppose it hasn't been so bad, the after iftar get togethers are great. This past weekend we had iftar at a friends house followed by some sheesha and tea at a lounge/club and then at 1 am we headed to the downtown. I was suprised to find out that downtown amman is more lively and vibrant at 1 am than it is at 1pm! A friend of ours is related to the owner of a little hole in the wall (literally a half dozen plastic tables set up in a little alley way downtown) called Mat3am Hashim which is one of the oldest establishments in Jordan (founded in the 50's) and is known for having the best falafel and hummus in town. We ended up chowing down there for the evening before heading home. (i have photos...will post as soon as i'm back in amman)

So Now i'm here with my fellow fulbrighters in the beautiful city of Beirut, sitting at an internet cafe by the sea, backstreet boys playing in the background, and my handy little camera. THis place is fantastic!! It's so nice to get out of amman for a bit to see the SEA, wear short sleeves, enjoy the cafes and clubs in lebanon. The next few days will be packed with all of our sightseeing activities from byblos to tripoli, I can barely believe it. On the way back we're taking a tiny detour and spending 3-4 hrs in Damascus near the mosque downtown for some serious shopping. I want a nice sheesha with case and accessories i hear it costs a little under 10 bucks there if u do some hard core bargaining.

Anyways, take care y'all

2006-10-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

Photo Album set up online at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rootednowhere/sets
I also have them linked on the side panel of this blog :) Enjoy!!

the first photos I've posted are from my trip today to Madaba. We tried to go to Nebo, but we came right around Iftar and Mt. Nebo was closed...so we took views of the jordan valley from down the road a ways....

2006-10-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

Rendered photo of our new flat. The left section is our dining room area, the middle the hallway to the 2 bedrooms and the kitchen and the right hand side is of our living room

Some of the fulbrighters enjoying Hummus and Falafel in Paris Circle in Jebel Webdei (from left to right: Ali; Mara (my roommate), Lillie, Emily, and Amanda)

View from Books@Cafe in First Circle near downtown Amman

2006-09-26T23:33:00.001-07:00

Ramadan is here :) It's an interesting holiday. All the work hours change so that everyone gets out earlier to make it home for Iftar in the evening, noone is eating, drinking any liquids, or even smoking in public from sunrise to sunset. It makes for some insane driving and lots of grumpy hungry and nicotine deprived people. Up to a few yrs ago you could actually get arrested for eating in public during Ramadan! The evenings are awesome though, "christmas" lights everywhere, lots of food, lots of really sweet sweets. I dont think I'm cut out for fasting though, I need coffee and water :P It's been ok so far, but 30 days is a long time :) I might have to start sneaking food/drinks in.
Qasid is intense, lots and lots of work, about 2.5 hrs of class and just as much time is needed for my homework. I have to wear a hijab for this crazy school...not sure what the deal is they're a bit strange...but oh well. My first day my head scarf fell off in class :P hahaha oh well they understood and helped me out, LOL you'd think with so many pins in place that it would stay put but it slipped off my head as a single unit. I think I've got the hang of it now, hasn't fallen off since. My classes are 7 am to 9:30 am then colloquial arabic at 7:30 to 9:30 pm with some university classes and volunteering interspersed in the middle. Needless to say I'm back to my same crazy schedule.
As for internet access...well still not connected. It's a LONG insane story with lots of papershuffling and angry phone calls, perhaps for another day. :)

2006-09-13T02:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a Crazy Crazy week here. I'm all moved in and after 3 hrs of paper shuffling and multiple multiple customer service reps I will have DSL at my new apartment in "7 to 10 days" so probably 2 weeks from now. So in the meantime I'm using internet cafes and the research center for my internet access.
It's still a bit of adjustment living here, more so than i anticipated. :)
1. Food: Grocery shopping has been fun, but I can't remember the last time I went to a butcher for my meat, I really dont know what part of a cow/lamb I need for what I cook. :D Oh and silly me didn't realize that being in a country whose religion is officially Islam, Ramadan is nationally observed so I guess I'll be fasting from sunrise to sunset for the month of Ramadan. I think however, that I will carry some water in my bag given the temperatures :P THey tell me i'll probably have to sneak my drink of water in the bathroom though. Should be interesting. I wonder what this place will be like with the nation not eating, drinking, or smoking all day. I think hungry and nicotine-deprived folks are a rather cranky bunch.
2. Transportation is currently my biggest obstacle; I'm trying to learn the bus system and it's getting frustrating, I keep getting lost!! On the flipside, my arabic is improving with the constant need to ask "Where am I?" and "how do i get to X"
3. CLothing: been fiddling with my head scarf so that I dont look like a complete fool this sunday. Turns out that our language center requires us to cover our hair since it's in a religious neighborhood and a religious school, I'm not so sure yet about enrolling, but we have an informational meeting on saturday when I'll decide.
4. And last but not least, Language. My Arabic is improving, but I really cannot get past 5 minute conversations, I quickly run out of vocabulary! I'm hoping that between my Qasid classes 4hrs/day, 5 days/week and my conversation lessons at the french cultural center 2 hrs/day, 4 days/week that I'll come out speaking somewhat decently. Right now my Arabic sounds like a slow 4 yr old's. :P
Well, I should get going, I need to run some errands and they take me forever b/c I keep getting lost :P

2006-09-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m back in Jordan. Same familiar sites and smells. My plane arrived just at sunset, I love watching sunsets over the desert, so many shades of red sloping across the horizon. I was picked up by a Fulbright Rep, lol, after fighting my way through dozens of luggage couriers who tried taking my bags away to “help” me in hopes for a tip or two. The drive is about 30 km from the airport to the research center I’m parking at for the next 2 weeks as I go through orientation and go apartment hunting. So many old memories ☺ I saw the internet café where I used to go every morning, the Mcdonalds with the belly dancing Birdie character, the shopping district (Sweifieh) where I bought some clothes and shoes during my last trip, and now I’m here at ACOR. I still know my way around the kitchen :P whipped up a quick dinner and chatted with the current residents. There are 2 other fulbrighters already here, a few archaeologists, some near eastern languages/civilization folks, and other random folks. ACOR is always an interesting place to be, everyone is here for different reasons, all from different parts of the world here to dig up the secrets buried in the desert ☺
We’ll see what the morning brings. The wireless signal is pretty bad upstairs in my room, so hopefully I’ll be able to find a stronger signal downstairs in the morning. I’m sure I’ll be up at some odd hour seeing that I’m still jet lagged. 3 countries/cultures that span the globe in 3 weeks :P I’ve gone around the world (sorta). I think I’m still too dizzy to digest it all. Last week I was in Japan sitting on the beach in my old neighborhood, eating onigiri and drinking Georgia Coffee, few days later I was shopping at a good ol’ American mall with my family and eating at a good ol’American steakhouse, and now I’m sitting in the room listening to the evening Call to prayer :P

Tic-Toc

2006-08-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

Well I have been back stateside since Tuesday, I can't believe that I have just 3 days to pack for Jordan! I haven't even finished UNpacking from Japan, much less started planning what i need for a year abroad. I think it'll be fairly straightforward, just mostly electronics. :) got my laptop, camera, ipod, rice cooker, wireless router, voice recorder, chargers, transformers, and plugs all set. Clothes, shoes, toiletries...bah, not so critical :)
I dont think I've mentally adjusted to the idea of spending a year in the middle east yet. My summer has flown by so fast, I'm not quite sure where it went or what I did in the last 3 months. My brother's off to gainesville tomorrow, and I'm so sad at not being able to see him for a year, we hung out a lot this summer. Just 3 more days of my mom's wonderful cooking as well! I'm sure that everyone's right in that I'll be JUST FINE once i arrive in Amman, but I have anxiety nonetheless :P
I suppose that there's nothing I can do except go along with things and see what suprises are in store for me in the next 10-11 months. :) thanks to all of you who've been such great support :D

2006-08-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

some more pics..., a random photo of our main highway, a cute shot of my baby brother eating his blanky, and a few from the convention center beach near my house.

new toy

2006-08-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I simply couldn't resist :P at half off I bought my new little baby and i'm just waiting for the batteries to charge so i can test it out...hehehe..

Okinawa

2006-08-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Just some photos from the last few days. The chic with the shades is my 4 yr old sister Alyssa and the baby is Patrick my new baby brother. The first photo is from "club red" :) Gate 2 Street club full of your usual mix of locals and marines. I went with 2 old OCS classmates, Nana and Roshni. We had a nice time, no table dancing this time, but we ended up staying out til almost 5am, LOL, we topped off the evening with a visit at a local Yakitori food stand where I had my first Okinawa Corn Dog in 3 yrs :P *sigh* life's good :D

2006-08-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Well I can hardly believe I'm back home after my 3 yr hiatus, but it's like I never left :) Everything about Okinawa feels so famliar and so comforting, guess it's truly home for me. It's been an exhausting 24 hrs between airports. It's interesting getting to know my sisters, they're wonderful. hehe and little baby patrick is adorable, he's the most content and smiley baby I've ever met. All he does is smile and stick things in his mouth. and Alyssa, the 4 yr old, is ADORAbLE, such a quiet little chinese girl and very smart. I've never seen 4 yr olds log into laptops and click on links to game pages to do online puzzles and games. And she's so organized!! puts her stuff away so neatly without being told...why couldn't I be like that :P She's amazing and speaks in 3 languages, I'm not sure she knows which one is which yet. The others are the same, they all speak a gradient of english, tagalog, and japanese, I have to try all three or combinations of each usually to get a point across. :)

So I'm just prepping to hit the streets, i'm in electronic heaven, the food is UNBELIEVABLE (i think it's what i've missed most about okinawa, even teh convenience store Onigiris look appetizing), and pens pens pens are on my shopping list :P

Will post photos soon.

2006-07-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Welcome to my new bloggy. I'll be posting updates as well as photos throughout my stay in Japan and in Jordan, hope y'all stay in touch. :)