Is it morning yet?

I woke up at two thirty this morning to some guy playing with the loudspeakers on the masjid minaret. I'm not sure what all he said, but I heard "Helloooooo! Kayf halokum?!" The Arabic equivalent of "Hey, how's it going everybody?" The loudspeakers are loud, they're audible for miles, designed to wake up people who don't want to wake up for prayers at dawn, and directly above our dormitory. He carried on for a while, but I didn't hear any sirens.

Everybody else slept through it; you learn quickly here to sleep through the athan. I tried to sleep, prayed witr, made every du'a I could think of, recited Qur'an, tried to sleep again, had a snack (bread and zatar), oiled my hair, and wrote a lot of emails. I'm still awake, darnit, and I have a tajweed class today. And a very hoarse throat still.

Figiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Spitting Camel.

I can never think of post titles. I don't think we should have to have them.
(Thanks to CrazyNewt for suggesting an awesome, eye-catching title. I have a huge mental block lately.)

As quickly as the Turkish group arrived, they're gone again, after only two weeks. The college is closed for the next several weeks, and there are only three or four other people in the dorm. It is blessedly quiet, for once, and miraculously the internet is also turned on. Good thing, because the college library is also closed, so I can't use the computers there.

I have a week of intensive classes with one other student, and then a weeks' vacation before the next semester, when another Turkish group arrives. Our college is planning an umrah trip to Mecca during the last week of the vacation, but we don't know yet if it will happen. It is very difficult for single women to get into Saudi Arabia.

We went on a lot of bus trips around Jordan while the Turkish students were here. We visited all sorts of neat places - Ahl al Kahf, Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, the Roman ruins at Jerash (actually just the gate, the girls wanted to go shopping instead), Ajloun Castle (one of Salahadin's castles), the shrines of three Sahaba and a battle site in Karak, tons of masajid and shrines, and other places that I can't remember right now. I am too tired to write about it now, but I did ride a camel, and almost fell into the Dead Sea (luckily someone caught me, and it isn't very deep around the edges).

I miss the Turkish girls, but I am very tired, and I am glad for the quiet. Alhumdulillah.