Rain and Ajloun

Jordan is still great! We are slowly (actually very quickly) approaching finals. There is still as much homework as before and I am feeling pretty good. Life is good. I think my Arabic is getting better,.. ? It's kind of hard to tell from my perspective though. Not much has happened since last post. I registered for classes, I went grocery shopping which was kind of a big deal since I had putting that off for ever haha, and I've been out talking to mostly the same people. 

This was taken from the street across from my apartment

 It was my roommate's birthday a couple of weeks ago so we went and ate at TGI Fridays in City Mall (سيتي مول). It was the same as in America. I think. I'd actually never eaten there before but the food looked and tasted super American. I ordered a burger. I did take a picture but that's boring and you guys can see that whenever so it didn't make the blog. After dinner though, we went out to find a taxi and we saw this cute puppy that I was seriously considering buying and bringing it back to America. So cute! 

 Here's the pic. Sorry about the flash

 Then last Saturday (Halloween) we went to Wust El-Balad and had lunch there in a little restaurant in a hidden corner. I got this mendi chicken with those little sides you're seeing and rice. And I decided I could live off of Arab food. As long as there is a sauce and rice I'm happy :)

 This is still in the Wust. I find this very pretty

 Last Wednesday, a couple of the speaking partners and students went to a restaurant called Istanbul next to the university. This is a traditional Turkish and Arab drink that's just frothy yogurt and salt. I liked it alright. Though the salt was a little weird. I do like the cup though :)

 This is what I ordered. It is a Turkish dish called Mantie and is kind of like ravioli served with yogurt. It was very delicious. 

Thursday Morning I woke up early and walked to school around 7:00. Then I heard the rain start shortly after. I had no idea that it would be this heavy of a rainfall though. And how lucky I was to go early and do homework. Because I was one of about 5 dry students when class started. I took a couple of pictures from the room in which I was studying. Traffic was pretty bad as you may imagine.

Here's another photo of the other side. I think the water got to around a foot and a half deep in this area. I heard that in other parts of town it was a lot worse though. 

 That night we went to rainbow street to this little Fateera restaurant to celebrate Ej's birthday. (That's a fateera. It's like a pizza except with thinner bread on top and bottom)  

Yesterday we went to Ajloun in the North. (See map) First we went to the castle but we couldn't really see anything because it was raining and super foggy. Here are a couple pictures of the castle when you can actually see.

And here is a picture of the inside.  

 Noelle and me outside the castle. 

Then we went to a forest. It was so green and beautiful! This is me with Erik, Noelle and Blake.

Then we went to an olive press or ma'asra (معصرة ). All of those are filled with olives.

 Then the olives go through this little machine which presses out all the oils then spits out everything else to the side of the building. 

 There's the oil running if you look closely.

 This is Connor taking a picture of Kyle and all the kids at the olive press. 

 This was our luxurious bus. 

 Luke and Miles eating a pomegranate.. 

 Our next stop, we went on a walk and I was again surprised at how green everything was. We saw fig, olive and pomegranate trees and it kind of felt like Cilaos (Reunion). 

 They were all smiling at other people trying to catch pomegranate seeds in their mouths. 

 Mother and her son picking olives. The olives fall on that tarp on the ground.

 This olive tree was over 500 years old!

Another bus shot

And here are a couple of pictures I took on a walk I went on in my area today. It was so pretty.