Snow Day in Amman يوم الثلج في عمان

What's up, people? Ok, so recently, Amman got absolutely bombarded with snow - a pretty seldom occurrence in one of the world's most water scarce countries. Apparently it happened once about three years back, but that was just as rare.  Word on the street is that the snow was enough to ensure no seasonal water shortages this year, but I'm not an expert.  Attached are some pictures I snatched of the action.  Some are more artsy than others.  Let me know what you think...

view from my house roof

I feel like there is so much accidental symbolism in this innocent picture. The three were attempting to build a snowman.  The carefree children are perfectly yin yang and seem to have abandoned the idea of 'constructing' something. They are instead enjoying the moment.  The grown-up is consumed by black.  Her head is down, she is more concerned with accomplishing her task, and is clearly missing out on the experience.  At what age do we lose the ability just to simply frolic and instead preoccupy ourselves with the sad delusion that happiness only comes from results?  This is what I see.  Perhaps its just three people playing in the snow.

snow Eagle???

Our house guard complete with sword and shield. Although, the more I look at it, the more he appears a school teacher with book and pointer.  (Olives for eyes)

The Dying Sea

This past weekend I went hiking in a Wadi near the Dying Sea.  Here are some of the highlight photos.

saltcicles

sweet cave up inside the Wadi

(Jordan) الاردن

Here are some pictures showing what I've been up to. When I can pick my head up from all the applications I'm filling out, maybe I can write down some thought to go along with them.  Until that time comes, please enjoy the visuals.

Above: View from the Citadel, Roman theatre is visible

Below: King Hussein Mosque on a misty day

Jordanian Cuisine

?

Hummus and 'fool' (ground beans)

Rolled cabbage with rice inside

Me jumping, Japanese Anime style

Café Conversation

More to follow on my trip to the Dead Sea this weekend...

International Hop-Scotch

Guess what!  I've fallen a month behind on my blog posts!  Big surprise.  Has happened before.  I've decided that in order to catch up I will temporarily turn this into a photo blog so that those following me back home can at least see the cool places I've been. Meaning minimum commentary. I'll try to give some context, however.  Please enjoy!

Here is the outline of my trip.  I left Madrid early in the morning by train after a long night of clubbing with the twins.  My body ached and I had a hangover.  On top of that I had only 30 euro cash and didn't know I had a debit card, but I was determined to see more of Spain.  I was northward bound for Bilbao in the Basque country.  I would spend a night in each city before leaving the country on the 1st of January.  From Bilbao I would go further north by bus to the Atlantic coast and corner with France where lies San Sebastian.  After this I would take a 9 hour train to Barcelona.  In Barcelona I spent New Years Eve and the following day I flew to Bulgaria to see my Bulgarian family.  After two relaxing weeks in Bulgaria, I flew to Jordan to start the second semester of my sophomore year.

There will be some pictures that are more artistic than others as I was learning how to use my camera.  Please enjoy the pics...

Bilbao...

The first sight as you disembark at the train station... 

two artistic shots while waiting for the metro into town...

Monument of Miguel de Unamuno - a great Spanish author

shots of guggenheim and the surrounding works

you can see my reflection if you look closely!

some more artistic shots of walking La Ría at night...

a dark walkway...

An interesting sign on a municipal bus.  I thought it screamed Dickinson College as it says, in nearly every language imaginable, "Merry Christmas."  And then I remembered the Family Guy episode where Peter says, "I think the lesson here is, it really doesn't matter where you're from, as long as we're all the same religion."  Just a funny thought.

The next day I went by bus to San Sebastian.  Here are the best...

My camera malfunctioned during the day so unfortunately I only managed to get night shots of questionable quality...

Then Barcelona...

La Segrada Familia

       

 Last summer I saw the quote "La belleza es tu cabeza" meaning Beauty is in your mind but this has cleverly been changed to "La belleza es tu cerveza," meaning Beauty is in your beer.  Gotta love the Spanish.

 Above: Some skyline shots of Barcelona
Below: The street lights by night

To take these pictures I had to walk out into the middle of the street during the crossing time and pause for nearly thirty seconds at a time as my frustratingly slow camera would blur most of my picture attempts.  It was much more of an exhilarating experience than I expected.  Extreme photography! 

A picture of the most chill Giraffe I've ever seen.

After two days in Barca, I head to Sofia, Bulgaria.

My Christmas tree this year :)

Beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Inside of Cathedral

More to come with thoughts on Jordan...