By: An Jimenez
Written on January 13th, 2018
What a day! Here’s the breakdown:
9:30 AM
Woke up after a solid 10 hour sleep (we were exhausted from yesterday’s Dead Sea excursion). Packed our bags and headed out for a long day.
10:30 AM
Ate a fantastic brunch at a place called Shams El Balad (thanks for the recommendation, Abla). We ordered sweet potato tahini salad, zucchini and pesto flatbread, hummus and peppers wrap, labeneh balls, grilled haloumi (personal favorite), and hot chocolate and pita bread to go around. Coincidentally, we ran into another person from Boston in the restaurant!
12:00 PM
Spent one hour taking photos at this iconic spot next to Jafra restaurant with lots of flower pots and umbrellas.
1:00 PM
Visited the Roman Amphitheater in Downtown Amman. Before entering the amphitheater, we kicked around a soccer ball with a couple of local kids in the plaza and then headed inside to climb up the hundred-something steps of the theater.
2:30 PM
Quick break on Rainbow street where we grabbed fruit smoothies and called a Careem driver to take us to our next destination: Jerash (Careem is the Uber for Amman).
4:00 PM
Arrived at Jerash, another city about an hour away from Amman where the ancient Roman ruins are located. Here’s where things get interesting: in some smaller cities, neither Uber nor Careem work, and Jerash happened to be one of them. Before getting out of the Careem, we told our driver, Firas, that we may not be able to get back to Amman since neither app works, and that’s when he offered to see the ancient ruins with us and drive us back afterwards (favor #1). In fact, it was his first time in Jerash as well, so the four of us discovered the ruins together.
For 1.5 hours, Lucy, Srimayi, Firas, and I trekked around the incredible ancient ruins of what used to be a city from the Byzantine empire. We walked through the Temple of Zeus, Oval Forum, Arch of Hadrian, Temple of Artemis, the hippodrome, and the Northern Tetrapylon. At one point, he asked if the three of us wanted a picture together with the ruins, and he took Lucy’s DSLR, took our photo, and then ended up strapping the Nikon around his neck and taking artistic pictures for us the entire rest of the visit (favor #2). See below for Firas Photography.
Firas didn’t know much English, but we were able to communicate through broken Arabic and English and LOTS of hand motions. Words we learned how to say in Arabic from Firas (favor #3): horse, no problem, can I help you?, I need help, boy, girl, and friend. Firas had to call his sister (an English teacher at a university) a couple of times to do some translating, but the language barrier helped both Firas and the three of us practice English and Arabic respectively.
5:30 PM
Left Jerash and started driving back to Amman since the ruins exhibition was closed and the sun set. Firas played American tunes on the car ride back, and we stopped at a coffee shop where he treated us all to cups of Turkish coffee (favor #4). We arrived home around 7 PM, and thanked Firas for his hospitality and friendliness. Before leaving, we told him: “Enta esdi qaina” which means “You are our friend.”
It’s only been a week here, but we’ve already made quite a number of friends both in school and out (some even call us family). This experience has been nothing short of eye-opening, and I can’t properly express my gratitude for it. Many shukrans.