The City On The "Hill"

This past weekend was my 26th (shhhh) birthday. Islamically there is no precedent for celebrating the anniversary of one's birth, so many if not most people in the Middle East don't necessarily celebrate them after a person has reached maturity. However Western Culture has a large effect on Jordan and my family here being still rather cosmo for conservatives decided it was in my best interest to keep to my traditions. They attempted to surprise me with a cake, however my husband isn't the best liar and is usually none too subtle. I tested my theory by attempting to enter the kitchen and was called back hastily by aforementioned partner.

The cake tasted like packing foam, but its the thought that counts :)

Btw, do I look 26? Don't answer that. Shadi had promised me that he would do something special for my birthday since it was our first as a couple. So, the next day we took pubic transport to the city of Umm Qais to see the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Gadara. Our bus driver was a bit lazy and dropped us off on the wrong side of the hill instead of the entrance, so from there we hiked past abandoned and sacked roman tombs filled with donkey doo and food remnants. Im slightly appalled at the state of this historic site as residents seem to be using it as a midnight party hideout and the tourism board just up the hill completely ignores it. The only consideration I noticed was the choppy bricking up of one entrance within the tombs, presumably the one that belongs to the roman buried within it. Once we get to the hilltop we are lost as it seems to be deserted. We wander downhill through an abandoned Ottoman village. A veritable ghost town and one I should have been taking proper pictures of I think, but Shadi was convinced it was a recent area that was cleared out by the tourism board. (Ottoman Umm Qais) Once we got the entrance however we realized we'd made a complete circle but I wasn't upset; that Ottoman village was purdy cool. While waiting to purchase tickets we met a Mormon family from BYU who were studying abroad at a school in Irbid. They had their baby son with them and some humanitarian volunteers as well. Shadi and I helped them with their arabic questions and also discovered to our delight that residents and their spouses have free fare (explains the lack of respect for the area).

Road to the former temple of the Gods & a Byzantine Church

Warrior #1 at the amphitheater :D

Business district

My habibi

From the "hillside" the Palestinian Golan Heights and Lake Tiberius or Sea of Galilee

Along the way there were lizards of every variety scuttling along the ruins and, naturally, I attempted to catch one. No dice. At the entrance though we had found roadkill of a different kind; a yellow  European chameleon. While researching for this post, I discovered to my delight this website and organization within Jordan The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature. Click there to see the flora and fauna of my new home :)  After an hour we were starving so we climbed the hill to the Umm Qais Resthouse, a well-placed restaurant that overlooked both the city and the valley below with the border of Jordan and Palestine just beneath our seats and Lake Tiberius in view, some 2 miles away and 700 feet below sea-level, the 2nd lowest lake on earth following the Dead Sea.

For those of you who are uneducated in the Biblical histories, this lake is the scene for many of the miracles that Prophet Jesus performed, including walking on water, healing the possessed man from Gadara

And He (Jesus) asked him (the man), "What is thy name?" And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion: for we are many." -Gospel of Mark 5:9, Luke 8:30 & Matthew 8:28-34.

recruiting 4 of his "Apostles" fishing in the sea


                 ¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”   
                                                                                                                 -Gospel of Mark 1:17


and his famous Sermon on the Mount was also reputed to be along the hillside overlooking the lake. Such events are also corroborated in the Qur'an. So, needless to say this was a very cool place to be having a birthday meal. Afterwards we discover the bill at 13 dinar is nearly doubled
due to an unmentioned taxation and now we know how they make their money on such a cheap menu. Food was good though, so hard to complain. We give our table to a Jordanian woman and her mother who just returned from living in Denver and say goodbye to our Mormon friends to head off to Irbid. We stopped by the Museum of Archaeology and Antiquities to see the recovered artifacts from Gadara along the way. The building itself, Beit Rousan, was the former home of the Ottoman Governor before the fall of the Empire and the subsequent abandoning of the town.

These babies are the great (50x) grandfruit of Roman pomegranates. Tasty, too.

The courtyard of the Ottoman Beit Rousan with Roman artifacts.

Ceres, the patron Goddess of Gadara.

After catching a bus back to Irbid, we arrange to meet an expat-lady named Sherri I met on a website for people living abroad Expat Blog: Jordan in her new apartment. She and her husband Ayman lived in the US for 15 years until moving here last spring. They have a pair of fraternal twins (Hanna and Zain) and a 6 year old girl named Layla. We only intended a short visit, but liked them so much we ended up staying 3 hours including dinner! We hope to see them again soon. Upon getting home we spoke to my parents via Skype, giving them the scoop on the day, my birthday the night before, and of meeting a supercool relative of Shadi's that past Tuesday, a man named Ahmed who'd married an American woman and lived in the States with her for 44 years until she passed 2 years ago. He's 78, remarried, and is now the father of 2 toddler girls. The Arab Charlie Chaplin. He once managed a restaurant inside the Watergate Hotel and his first day was when the scandal broke. He also knows Bob Dole pretty well, too. Yesterday was an engagement party for my cousin, another Ahmed, which was another different experience. I finally saw what the girls at the salon were getting all dolled up for. In Jordan, the women's party for engagement parties involves the bride dressed up in a barbie-doll type ball gown and her hair and makeup done up nearly resembling a drag queen while the guests sing and clap to folk songs. Candy was also thrown at me an everyone else in attendance.

Yes, its this bad, only without pink hair and Hello Kitty.