Gee, Why Don't You Just 'Notice the Teeth'

We had to be out of our apartments and in a taxi by 9:30. And for some slightly jet lagged students, it wasn't awful, but definitely not ideal. We started our adventure alone having to tell the drivers where to go. Today, our taxi driving was wonderful. We heard us speaking English and spoke to us in Arabic, which the other girl in my cab didn't know any. So it was a difficult task. He spoke very, very, very broken English so was able to talk a little bit. Otherwise we just kind of nodded along. Sometimes we get really cranky taxi drivers and its not very fun. But for the most part, they really like to engage in conversations, whether in English or Arabic (which the Arabic comes from the other students who know a lot more). Its really cool to talk to the people here. Most of them are really friendly. Like our taxi driver today wanted us to stop to get "Ashai wa nana" (how you would pronounce it, not Arabic writing) which is tea with mint but we told no its was okay. It was really sweet and funny at the same time. We drove to some ancient ruins which was pretty fascinating. We saw the Temple of Hercules (but I mean, nothing compares to seeing the things in Greece, but I still appreciate it here) and there was also a first century church and Umayyad Mosque that I can't remember for the life of me how old it was. Pretty old though. Fairly sure its the 8th Century when it was built. The top, of course, has been rebuilt. I wish I could record everything they say because its so hard to remember the names and details, especially with the Arabic names. Our tour guide person kept getting these calls and he kept apologizing and he told us, no joke, that it was because he had two wives. Yeah, yeah, of course you have two wives that call you all the time and interrupt the tours. Man, like I want two wives. But these Arabs, seriously they answer the phone like no matter what. After that we went into a very small tiny museum which was just alright. Like i said, its hard to beat Greece and their huge museums filled to the brim. It was smoldering out today, at least for me. And I know everyone says "oh its fine, its a dry heat" but that is a lie. I mean, yes its dry, but that does not make it any better. Not. At. All. I was probably a little dehydrated though but after that we walked down to a restaurant where I had some delicious hummus and pita and drank tons of water. That took up all morning and we had to go straight to the apartments to catch a taxi to our University. So we got there and they showed us around. The university is built on a hill so it really sucks walking up and down it to get from one place to another. And the times we have classes changes, so its really weird. Like our Arabic class is weird. We all have Israeli Conflicts at the same time every day Sunday-Thursday, but my Arabic class, the intermediate 201 class has it Sunday-Tuesday from 1:25-4 (SO LONG!) and then Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30-11:05. I don't get it at all, but its whatever. And then from 11:15-1:20 every day we have our other class. So weird. I wish that ours was more in the morning so we got out and get to see more things later in the day, since its harder to plan things with a time crunch in the morning along with sleeping in. But oh well. It is what it is. After that we had to find our way back home after getting off the bus, but it wasn't awful. Then we went to this coffee/hookah place and hung out together playing cards. They didn't have food though and by the time we finished I was starving. Oh, and by the way, I still haven't smoked hookah nor do I plan to. Just a friendly reminder since that totally isn't my thing. Everyone else does it except one other girl in my group, so I guess we're kind of like the loners for it. Maybe we're weird for it, but hey, I'm just not feeling it. But then I wandered around to get food and then got a Falafel sandwich again and then had some Baklava (or Block of lava thing going on if Marina is reading this) and then I got Kilafel or something similar that word, not entirely sure, which is like baked cheese on the bottom and like phyla (not sure if that is how you spell it) dough on top that is like crunchy. It sounds weird but its actually made with sugar so its really sweet and so delicious. Kind of a weird texture. Then I ran back to the room and ate and now I'm writing this and getting ready for bed since my first day of school is tomorrow. WHAT? On the third day we like have run around and I don't even know whats going on. So wonderful. And its so hot. I'm dying. 

ANDDDD I didn't realize my memory card on my camera is so samll or the pictures take up tons of room or whatever, I don't care, so I have to upload to my computer and since I'm paranoid that if I delete them from my camera and they are only on my computer my computer will crash and I will lose them. Therefore, after that confusing sentence, I uploaded them to facebook, and now the element of surprise will be gone. Oh well. 

So that's cool. And I mean, I guess that's all that I have for today. 

So maa'salam

xoxox

Hercules Temple (for Mom and Bryan, its not very exciting as the things in Greece...)

 The Old Mosque

 The ceiling of the mosque was made out of pine trees which is really cool. Its very beautiful inside and is very interesting since I've already seen cool things in Greece this is a big difference, so much more exciting for me than Hercules temple.

This is Hercules hand and in the top right is part of his elbow

This cracked us all up. In the museum at the temple they had something about the teeth. The whole big paragraph was about the fossils of teeth and there were two different signs since there was one with horse teeth and another with like rhinos or something. Then literally right next to the other signs was this one that says "Notice the teeth". Huh, really? I never really would have gotten that out of that whole speil about fossilizing teeth and the evidence of it. Who would have guessed?