The Citadel

Hello again. I appear to be blogging for a second time. The above picture is the temple of hercules on Citadel hill (القلعة) in central Amman where we visited last weekend. It was a great time to say the least. This city is full of ancient history, especially from the Roman empire. The Romans were pros at choosing naturally strategic places to set up shop. In times of war this citadel would only be accessible from one side because of the steep inclines on the other sides. That, however, didn't dissuade modern Jordanians from building super narrow roads with dangerously tight switchbacks around the rest of the hill. But the greatest part of visiting ruins in Jordan is that you get to climb and prance all over them with impunity, err... as long as you paid your 2 bucks at the door, that is. For example, this:

Me after declaring myself mayor of this ancient city

Here is Lindsey bringing back history, one block at a time

After this, we went to a restaurant downtown. We're going to have to publish some pics of downtown. It looks like a disaster, and I love it. Anyway, I was bemused to see that the Al-Qahira (Arabic for Cairo) restaurant made it a point to inform their customers that they no longer have any type of relations with Denmark. This is in retaliation for a Danish newspaper's publishing of the Mohammed cartoons. Man! Amid a global credit crunch, energy and food crisis, I don't know how the Danish are going to fare this embargo! The food was great, though. Maybe from now on we'll demand all our meals be served Dane-free.

To see the whole batch of Citadel photos, they're on Flickr

Lastly, we found a radioshack and got ourselves a power converter. Now we'll be able to play Mario Kart on our Nintendo DS all summer long!

Same difference

Brett really doesn’t like that saying, but it seemed to fit so I'm going to leave it. Obviously Brett and I made it here to Jordan ok (even though the journey is WAY gross) so here are some things that I’ve learned so far:
1. Deodorant is optional.
2. The "no cuts, no butts" rule means nothing to these people. While lines have helped people navigate Disneyland, bathrooms, and pretty much anything with a crowd, they have no place here. People more or less gather in crowds, and they’ll cut in front of you without any warning.
3. Smoking is enjoyed by everyone and prohibited nowhere.
4. Did I mention that lines mean nothing? Well, this goes for the roads too. People drive where they feel like. Those white lines on the road are strictly decoration.
5. If you are driving a car, you are honking a horn. While in America we mainly use the horn when we think some “idiot” on the road has done something wrong, people in Jordan use it for any and every reason. I think this is what they use in place of the lines on the road. They honk to let other cars know they’re there.
6. If you are a white woman, you will be gawked at.
7. Jordanian hotel rooms don’t come with a Holy Bible. (Weird, I know.)
Those are some things I’ve picked up on so far. I’ll make sure to keep up on my findings.



There are a bunch of BYU students here studying Arabic and we met up with one of the couples today. The girl told us a story about how she almost died (literally) from eating something in Syria. That really made me nervous. But, she gave us some great tips on buying and preparing food, so that’s good. We also went to the mall today. (That’s right. There are actually 2 malls here). They had quite a few American stores and a movie theater with American movies. In addition to the american stores and movies there are American restaurants here like Applebee’s, KFC, Carl’s Jr., Popeye’s Chicken, Pizza Hut, Fuddrucker’s, and some others. So although there are a lot of weird things going on here, there are some things that make it less weird.



As far clothing goes, a lot of the women wear the head scarf, but there are a lot that don't. I've seen women wearing Burqa's covering their whole body with small slits for their eyes and gloves covering their hands and I've seen women in jeans and a t-shirt.



Brett is loving his internship. He is going to be doing a presentation about security cooperation between the U.S. and Jordan to some students from Tufts University next week. His boss is really nice and a lot of people have complimented him on his Arabic.


I guess that’s all for now. I haven’t taken any pictures yet (sorry), but when I do I will post them on here.

I'm it!

I got "tagged" by Debbie, so here it is:
3 Joys:
1. Brett
2. Puppies or pretty much any baby animals
3. Family/Friends that make me laugh so hard I cry

3 Fears:
1. Sharks (jaws ruined me for life)
2. Brett dying before me
3. Mediocrity

3 Goals:
1. Become proficient in another language.
2. Figure out what I want to do in the future (career wise). This does not mean I don't want to have kids, so don't panic. Having kids one day is a given, but figuring out a career is a whole other ball game.
3. Find a cure for cancer... wait, do these have to be realistic? It would be nice though...

3 Current Obsessions/collections:
1. Veronica Mars
2. Twilight Series of books and the Twilight movie
3. Xbox (I couldn't think of another CURRENT obsession, so that's Brett's obsession)

3 Random surprising facts about yourself:
1. I have a really long tongue
2. I had a short lived job as a professional kidnapper (Thanks, Will)
3. I was once a "ring girl" for an ultimate fighting championship. (I was not scantily clad though.)

I tag Caraline, Stephanie, Lindsey, Brown Sugar, and Mimi.
Post these rules on your blog. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

Ok, so...

I realize that I just recently posted something, but I figured that since the word is out, that I would post our exciting news....

We're going to be living in Jordan this summer. So if you were ever thinking, "Hey, wouldn't it be nice to go to the Middle East?" But then you thought, "But just buying a plane ticket over there is so expensive, and then I have to worry about where to stay." Well, worry no more. We'll be in Jordan, and I would be more than happy to play host to some friends! Alright, I realize that most of you are probably not to keen on the idea, but I thought I would put it out there any way. 

Brett is going to be working with a N.G.O (non-governmental organization)on non-proliferation, which is what he is studying. Needless to say, he's super excited. He'll get to use his Arabic and work in something he's really interested in. As for me, I'm going to attempt to continue working from home and trying to find things to occupy my time. Does that mean I'm going to wander off in the Middle East all by my lonesome? Doubtful. We'll see how I feel about things once I get there. Jordan is supposed to be the safest country over there, but that's not to say that there aren't dangers, especially for women. All my "well-fitting" clothing will probably stay here in the states, and although we'll be close to a beach, I doubt I'll be packing anything in the ways of a 2 piece swimsuit to try to achieve a nice tan. (We all know I don't really tan anyway). 

While I am still a little apprehensive about this whole thing, I'm also excited. I have always loved and wanted to visit Egypt and now we'll be not too far away, so we can possibly visit. Plus, Jordan has incredible adventures of it's own to offer. The world-famous Sphinx may not be in Jordan, but the place where Moses stood and looked out on the Promised Land is. Plus, there's that Temple that was featured in an Indiana Jones movie. So, I'm pretty pumped to experience some of this history first hand. After all, Mark Twain once said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Hopefully I discover that sailing away from the safe harbor washes away my fears of such an incredibly historic place. 

Growing up is hard to do

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about growing up and getting older. It seems to keep popping up lately. It all began when I found my old journal and I was reading an entry from when I turned 19. Apparently I felt old even then. Unfortunately, I haven't stopped having birthdays since then either, so now here I am having my quarter life crisis. (And that's only if I live to be 100). Getting old is not something that I necessarily look forward to. For whatever reason, I'm one of those fools that thought the idea of Neverland seemed like a great idea. I don't feel old all the time, but it seems like it's been coming up a lot lately. For instance, the other day I was interviewing a high school girl for my column. She was in the orchestra at Gilbert high school, so I said that I was in the orchestra when I was there but I graduated back in 2001. When she heard this her reaction was a drawn out"woah..." as in "wow, you're really old." That made me feel super awesome. Then last Tuesday, Brett and I were able to get VIP passes to the Jimmy Eat World/Paramore concert. The audience was saturated with high school girls squealing about Paramore and Brett and I found ourselves in the thick of it because we were at the front of the crowd. There were a couple of guys that looked our age who asked us before the show started, "Do you guys feel old here?" Who are these people that ask those kinds of questions?! Now, not only do I feel old, but apparently I LOOK old. That's just great. Well, as it turned out, one of the guys was older than us and the other one was a flaming homosexual... so maybe they were both gay... that's beside the point though. The point is, we might be old and look old, but at least we're not gay. 

Here goes!

Alright Debbie, Connie, Alexis, Mimi and others who have been pushing for a blog. Apparently I have had one for a while, but that's not the point. The point is that I am finally writing something for the whole world to read. What do most people write a first blog about? I'm guessing people's first blogs are much like this one... They start off telling people to get off their case about not having a blog and then they try to think about what to write... So, looks like I'm doing well so far. 

I guess I'll just update people on what is going on with me and Brett. Brett is going to school at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and loving every minute of it. Well, except for his occasional bouts with one of his groups. Turns out that in graduate school you still have to do group work. Bummer. But, not to worry. I think Brett may have gone out and gotten himself Xbox live today to go with the Xbox that I didn't even know he had until he moved out here. How did that happen? The world may never know...although I have the sneaking suspicion that one Jesse and/or Curt Walker may know something about it...but I digress. 

So, Brett's going to school learning about how many bombs it would take to destroy the world and I'm taking it nice and easy. I still write a column once a week for the Gilbert Republic and I'm trying to get another online job doing editing for Rio Salado College. The reason I'm not going out to find something else is because I foresee a lot of moving around in our future and I didn't want to get something and then have to quit a few months later and try to find another job again. With these online/at-home jobs, I can do them wherever we are. Jordan has internet access, right? Anyway, Brett and I are having fun here in Monterey, and I will try to get some pictures on this thing soon. (As soon as I figure out how to work this whole thing).