What's your name?

There's a conversation I have every week or so it comes about when I introduce myself, it goes a little something like this:

Me:    I'm Rachel
Guy:  Wa...?
Me:    Ray-Chill
Guy:  Way...
Me:    Ray-shill
Guy:  Rassha?
Me:    rA-chill
Guy:  rash..?
Me:    Ray-shell
Guy:  reachelle
Me:    rA-shell
Guy:  reeshelle?
Me:    Yes! Rachelle
Guy:  Oh Rachelle? Jewish?
Me:   I'm not jewish
Guy:  don't worry, it's ok, no problem, you are safe here
Me:   thanks, I know, but I'm not jewish
Guy:  ok, sure *knowing nod*

I went to a modern art gallery... and I liked it.

I went to the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. It was good, really good. This is surprising for me, I enjoy art, and I like galleries, but I don't like going to anywhere that has modern art. In London I avoid the Tate and go to the National Portrait Gallery, in New York I skipped the Museum of Modern Art and went to the Metropolitan. As wanky as that last sentence sounds, I just don't like modern art. There has been a recent blog post getting attention from someone who also just doesn't get it.

I did a one year course in the foundation of visual arts, I liked painting and drawing and printmaking, but I hated all the wanking on about crap, all the wallowing in lake me. I chose instead to do graphic design. Design takes information from the client and communicates it in the right way to reach the audience. I thought it had more point.

Anyway, I digress. In the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (two buildings with a sculpture part in the middle) has beautiful modern art from all over the Middle East. It's interesting, it's skilled, and it looks good. Sure there is concept, but I don't feel like I need to 'get' anything, I could just look at it and think that's cool, or I like that.

Here are some pictures... (sorry I didn't get the details of the artist, artwork title, country or origin or anything useful like that)

Fortunately for me there was a calligraphy exhibition in one of the gallery spaces.

The exhibition included some works from Iraqi calligrapher Hassan Massoudy, I had some of his work in postcard form up on my wall in my house in Edinburgh... I think I still have the postcards somewhere, anyway he's ace.

Started Arabic classes and found a flat

I stayed in Hotel Farah in downtown Amman for 3 weeks, it was ace, there was an abundance of travellers coming though with information, inspiration and stories. I wanted to get a homestay with an Arabic family so I would learn Arabic faster. I met one family who were awesome and lovely, but they all spoke English perfectly, they lived way out of town, and when dropping me off the dad hit on me. Stink. 

So I have moved in with and American chick who has been living here for 4 years. She lives 20 minutes walk away from my school and 20 minutes downhill walk to downtown. The only disadvantage it that it is uphill to get home. 

This is Farah Hotel, I totally recommend it.

My room is twice the size of the 6 bed dorm I was in, and it's also a bit cheaper too. Bonus. 

I started Arabic classes at the Modern Language Centre, the first class they put me in was at 9am and had 3 chicks of above average attractiveness (Australian, Tanzanian & French) who all live here and are light years ahead of me in Arabic. So I asked to move class. They had no other beginners, so I'm now in a 11am class by myself. It's hard but it is good. My teacher is incredibly patient, she has to be. 

I'm so glad I learnt the alphabet before I came, otherwise I would be totally lost. I enjoy the writing bit. I don't mean I enjoy spelling or grammar or reading or learning words, I mean I enjoy drawing the letters. Today I did some dictation on the whiteboard. I tried to make the word for giraffe (zrafa) look like a weird looking giraffe. The teacher did not find it as ingenious and witty as I did. 

This is a pretty mural I pass on my walk to school

Classes are 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. It's a weird having so much free time. I'm reading books at a snail's pace. At the moment I'm reading a great book by a Gaza doctor called I shall not Hate. I've also been doing some research and writing for Wikipedia, I hope to get better at it and do some more.

I finish classes at the end of May, I have lined up a volunteer position teaching in Nablus, West Bank. 

I enjoyed the lowest place on earth

I went to the Dead Sea a week or so ago, I've just been a bit slow getting this up online. Amman is about an hour's drive away from the Dead Sea. Which is 423 metres below sea level, and the lowest place on earth. Here's a map, look how close I am to Jerusalem, it's only about 2 hours as the crow flys. It feels wrong to call it a sea it's only 18km at it's widest point (Lake Taupo is 33km wide and 46km long) I could totally see the other side.

I went with a group from my hotel, we stopped off at a church, apparently famous for mosaics and pilgrimage, but as they were in the middle of service and it's an orthodox church, their services go on for hours, literally hours, we didn't get to see the original mosaics, only reproductions in the nearby museum which were pretty cool. 

The town was celebrating something, I don't know what, but they had a lot of signs up... perhaps Easter? 

Then we stopped into a shop that showed us how they make their mosaics, again, pretty darn cool. 

A hill where Moses hung out? Yeah, I know I should remember more of this, or I could look it up, but this blog will never get posted if I have to start researching where I have been. This is a view of the West Bank from Jordan. 

And finally we get to the Dead Sea. Yay! 

It really is as floaty as they say.

We came in through a hotel complex, and onto a private beach, you can see the fence on the left that stops the plebs from getting in. On the private beach we can wear immodest clothes. I thought I had grabbed the ziplock bag containing my black bikini only to discover when I got there it was the ziplock bag containing my black long-john top. Thankfully lovely Australian Catherine let me borrow her shorts and my bra could pass as a bikini top. 

I covered myself in dead sea mud, really it was the only an excuse to legitimately black up I think I'll ever have. It didn't make my skin soft nor smooth, in fact I had to buy moisturiser the next day. 

When I got back to the hotel my hair was crunchy with salt. Yummo. The Dead Sea is awesome sauce.