Jerusalem and Some Book Reviews

Marhaba, So I'm off to Jordan for a special needs conference on wednesday and while there I'm sneaking over to Jerusalem for a night. It seems to me that growing up in the US as a Christian that Jerusalem has this incredible mystical aura around it. It is our Mecca. No doubt going to Israel is a risk, and I already backed down once for fear of loosing my job but the draw is too powerful. I've been reading "Eat, Pray, Love", and this quote seems to encompass how I feel: (side note: yes J, I do like the book and I can't understand why you didn't) "Traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless, newborn baby--I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to--I just don't care." Next on my list is a book called "Girls of Riyadh", which was recommended to me by a Saudi friend. The book was highly controversial when released in arabic here in Saudi and the writer is now living in the US until the dust settles. You all should check it out if you get the chance. I haven't been up to much recently. Mostly just working and tutoring. Last weekend I went to the Australian Ball in Bahrain with my ex-pat buddies. It was a great excuse to get dressed up and have a blast. I'm a little dizzy with happiness from how well my great adventure is turning out. I'm so happy I took a risk, I totally recommend it. :)

Condom Wine and Jordan Pics

I'm really starting to like Saudi (its nearly impossible to explain how such a weird place can be so awesome). I was so worried about my social life but I'd say it might even be better than it was last school year. It took me about a month and a half, but I feel like I've made the adjustment, which was harder than I had originally thought it would be. I think of myself as a flexible and adaptable person but I really had to change gears. For a while I was really pissed that it was so hard to keep in touch with people. Many of my coworkers said that my friends would forget about me but I totally didn't think it would happen. I figured they must have had shittier friends than me and with today's technology it would be easy to keep in touch. So I guess I was kinda pissed and hurt that some people wouldn't take 5 minutes to shoot me an email. I kept thinking 'I'm not dead, I just moved away! And if people can forget about me so quickly were they ever my friend?'. Some people have done a really good job, and for the others I know it's not personal but just, "out of sight, out of mind." I've heard its something everyone goes through out here.

It seems like I spend a lot of time talking about booze but you end up thinking about it in a dry country!! Today I learned the recipe for 'condom wine'. You mix the ingredients (yeast, water, sugar, grape fruit juice) up in a one of those huge water dispenser bottles then cover it up with a condom. Something in the yeast makes the condom fill with air and when it deflates (or is no longer erect) your home brew is done. I've got another friend that knows how to concoct just about any hard alcohol and we've been kicking around the idea of opening a bar on our compound. As if I haven't already proven what my thoughts are revolving around, I'll be heading to Oktoberfest in Bahrain tomorrow. Can you believe I got a huge discount on my hotel because my friend and I both are named Sarah?? ('such a good arabic name' the guy said) I wanted to tell them my mom named me Sarah because it means princess in HEBREW, but didn't want to lose my cheap rate!

Jordan

Hello from Jordan! My trip has been super interesting and full of contrasts. I spent the first few days in Aqaba with way too much time on my hands. I started to really over think things and was feeling really restless and homesick (for Seattle). I really got into this mood where I was hating the middle east. I took a walk around town and bunch of nasty guys made yucky comments to me and I was totally fed up. But Aqaba wasn't all bad, my friend Matt said my face lit up like a Christmas tree when I went to the liquor store (I even did a little jig). I also went scuba diving in the red sea and saw many creatures in addition to a huge wreck and a sunken panzer tank! I saw a really cool movie at my friend's work (he's a professor at the first film school in Jordan). The movie was called Offside was an Iranian film about a bunch of muslim girls that have to dress up as men to get into a soccer game. It really made me think because it is also illegal for women to attend professional soccer games in Saudi (I was shocked when my friend who coaches the local professional Saudi team said I wouldn't be allowed into the stadium, abaya or not). Just when I was ready to write my vacation off as a total waste, I went to Petra and did a 180! I don't think I can explain in words how magic the place is. We found a random Bedouin to show us around the perimeter of the city on horseback. It felt awesome running an arabian horse through the desert! We rode to the highest place in Petra and then climbed down through the boulders in the mountains down into the famous city carved in stone. It was amazing because no other tourists take this long alternate route into Petra. Our guide met us on the other end of the city and we rode the horses back to the parking lot. We'd been wanting to stay the night in the desert and really hit it off with our guide, so we were pumped to hear that he and his brother were willing to take us camping in little Petra that night (I love spontaneous adventures!). We loaded up the car at our guide's house and met many of the children in his extended family (they were amazing and so excited to meet the gringos!). It was dark when we finished weaving our way through the desert and arrived at the campsite. We lit candles in paper bags filled with sand and put them around our mat. We started setting up the tent and the guys began cooking the Bedouin style dinner but I was entranced by the sky. I'd never seen stars like that before. I ended up off by myself laying down looking up at the sky. I was just drinking it in when our guide's brother turned a song on his cell phone and handed it to me and walked off. It was just the song I needed to hear and I found myself hoping the guys wouldn't notice my watery eyes. I usually come to some type of realization when I travel but this epiphany seemed special. It's more complicated than this, but put simply, it was a sense of peace. We stayed up late, laughing, telling stories, eating barbeque and drinking tea. It was an enchanting night. I did end up practically freezing to death once I headed off to bed and I was awoken by a pack of dogs fighting and barking. The next day I woke up sore from sleeping on the ground and from horseback riding. We drove out to the dead sea and ate lunch at an over priced resort. I've been trying to figure out what exactly I'm looking for out here in the middle east. And it all started to come together for me in the lowest place on earth. I soaked my feet in the salty water because I heard that its supposed to have healing properties. Maybe this means I won't break them anymore! I chose not to get all the way in because I've heard it sometimes burns your 'special parts' (if you're a girl) and I just wasn't willing to take the risk. Tomorrow I head back to the Kingdom. I'm so excited to drink water and coffee in open spaces now that Ramadan is over!