Saeed eid al-shakr!

It’s hard to believe how quickly time is going by- the semester ends in three weeks! Wow. The past couple weeks have been a blur of Arabic midterms and a research paper on the Iran-Iraq War. Admittedly, my stress level about academics here is SO much lower than it is at home; I wasn’t even stressed while forcing myself to churn out another three pages on said 1980s Middle Eastern conflict. Tired of writing, yes, stressed out, no. The paper got turned in on time and I did well on midterms, so low-stress mode works just fine.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I hope that everyone had a safe and pleasant holiday yesterday. I came home from school at about 6pm and napped for a couple hours, which was much needed. I was invited to a couple of Thanksgiving feasts last night but opted for staying in and hanging out with my roommate and neighbors instead. Getting into the holiday spirit, I bought some cranberry sauce and my roommate made chocolate pumpkin bread. Even if we were sans turkey, we at least had a couple of the essential ingredients. I definitely missed my family more than usual yesterday, but it was a decent Thanksgiving.

This evening I met a few friends at the Hussein Cultural Center to see “The Queen,” which was showing for free as part of a European film festival. Good movie- an interesting look at the British Royal family and the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death. Tomorrow I may go back and see a Greek film set in the 1920s about a group of brides making the voyage to America to meet their new, yet unseen, American husbands. We’ll see.

Overall, this has been and probably will be a quiet weekend. I can’t think of much else to report, so I’ll leave you with some pictures from our trip to see Umayyad sites a couple weeks ago. Ciao!

Take note of the road signs behind us. Iraq? Saudi Arabia? Take your pick.


Qasr 'Amra. It was used as a royal country home of sorts during the Umayyad period (680-750 AD) and is particularly special because of its baths and the amazingly well-preserved frescoes inside. The domes are characteristic of Umayyad architecture.


Castle Harraneh. They claim not to be sure what it was used for- royal home? Meeting place? Fortress? I'd personally go with the last choice, given the narrow arrow-ready windows and the sheer size of the place. If you look closely, you can see one of my classmates sitting on the top of the castle above the entryway.


Azraq Castle. The door that I'm opening is interesting because it is made of basalt (as is the entire castle) but was designed such that it is remarkably easy to open and close, given its weight. Very architecturally advanced for that time period.


Ostriches! They were next to the restaurant where we stopped for lunch. Unlike many semi-wild animals, the ostriches were just as interested in us as we were in them. As my classmate in the foreground is demonstrating, the appropriate thing to do when interacting with ostriches is of course to stick one's finger into the cage.