Amman

After watching some bad American movies with Evann (my roomie for the night who also couldn't sleep), we rallied with Monica and Nicole in the next room and headed into Amman.

The walk downtown from our hotel was our first real experience as American women in Jordan. For the entire mile-long walk downtown, we saw maybe two women and dozens of men. When we actually got downtown, the proportion of men to women was even greater. Evern though we were all very conservatively dressed, we stuck out like sore American thumbs.

The walk was...different. Even though Amman is the wealthiest city in Jordan, it looks to naive Americans like it's in a serious state of disrepair. The buildings are all made from the same white-washed, crumbling cement. Buildings are stacked nearly on top of each other high into the hillsides, and many look close to collapse. The air was thick with pollution (likely from the plumes of exhaust trailing behind the cars) and had a very particular smell: sewage, food, and many people and animals living in close quarters. That being said - Amman is stunning. It used to be controlled by the Romans way back when, and contemporary buildings spring up right next to Roman ruins.

We were obviously curious about how we would be received by men in the city. The men - though some leered (Monica had a guy get right up next to her and his "niiiiiiiiiiiiiice" - it wasn't threatening really - mostly funny), were generally very helpful, friendly, and genuinely interested in what brought four little American girls to their fair city.

Wehn we got downtown, we found an amazing little outdoor resetaurant where they served hummus and falafal. It was super cheap and friggin amazing. After lunch we set off in search of the Roman Colleseum. After a few wrong turns and detours (there was a fire downtown that morning) we found the Colliseum. We also found an old, toothless man who said he would take us on a tour of the ruins. ("You! Me! Tour!") He walked us through two museums and the colliseum itself which sat six thousand people back in the day. He was really proud of any artifact that was made in Amman. He would say "Gun...British...Sword...AMMAN!" When we came to a very old sheesha pipe he said "Work finished. Smoke-a da pipe." We laughed. He was confused. He also apparently thought I wasn't comprehending what he was saying because he stopped towards the end of the tour and asked me if I spoke English. I hated him.

After the collesium we went off in search of teh Temple of Hercules - which the guidebook said we shouldn't miss and the locals said they had no idea what we were talking about. It was hot as hades and we set up the hill in search of the temple that we swear we caught glimnpses of earlier. We walked through a neighborhood and kids would come out of their houses and shout out of their windows "Welcome to Jordan!" IT was adorable - until some of the older children started practicing words that they must have picked up in a Samuel L. Jackson movie.

After huffing and puffing our way tot he top oif the hill, we couldn't find that damn temple. So we settled for some overpriced guava juice at a cafe. We couldn't catch a cab to save our lives. We later leartned that some taxi drivers won't pick up groups of four women because that would mean that one of the women would have to sit in the front. Luckily, we finally found a cab driver who wasn't too concerned about getting our lady business on his front seat and headed back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, we met and had dinner with our travel group. Our guide, Kath, is an adorable young woman from Australia - you would have loved her! Folks on the tour are mostly from the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand. We had dinner at an amazing place called "Books and Cafe." Outdoor patio - lit mostly by lanterns and moonlight, with a kick ass view of the hills that surround Amman. It. Was. Awesome.