Amman

For our school break we decided to go to Jordan for one whole week :). At the airport we got a taxi and headed to our hotel to wait for my mom to arrive. Our taxi driver was a very nice talkative man. He talked to Jose the entire way to our hotel. Here's the part of the conversation:

Taxi driver: "Who is she?" (asking about me)
Jose: "My wife"
Taxi driver: "Your cousin?"
Jose: "NO, my wife!" "She's not my cousin"
Taxi driver: "Oh, not your cousin?"
Jose: "NO, you don't marry your cousin"
Taxi driver: "We can marry our cousin"
Jose: "That's weird"
Me: "NO IT'S NOT, its just different"
Taxi driver: "In our country we can marry our cousin." "Not in your country?"
Jose: "No in our country we don't marry our cousins"

I thought that Jose's and the taxi driver's reaction to each others statements was funny since they were both equally surprised/shocked. As for me, since I started teaching here I learned that it's common for the locals (Arabs) to marry their cousins. That's why I wasn't surprised, if anything I was a bit worried that Jose had insulted the taxi driver by saying that it was "weird."

That first day we only drove around the city and ate out. We found that Jordanians make their own lanes while driving, honk all the time, and are very nice and friendly. 

We spent our second day checking out the ruins in Jerash and driving to Ajloun to check out an amazing castle.

Ruins in Jerash

My mom and me

Jose

Castle in Ajloun

View from the castle

Below are pictures that may be considered disturbing to some people.  Continue reading if you wish to see them. 

On our third day in Amman Jose woke up early and went out for a drive. Since our vacation happened to be during Eid al Adha "Festival of Sacrifice" he saw a family preparing to slaughter sheep. He got off to take a peek and was invited to have tea and watch the sheep be slaughtered. They slaughtered a total of 5 sheep and explained that they would be keeping 1 of the sheep and giving the rest to the poor "because the poor don't have the luxury to taste meat everyday." They told Jose that the way they kill the sheep is in a very peaceful manner and that after they slit the throat of the animal they allow it to bleed out for five minutes to allow the soul to leave the body.

Man is blowing air into dead sheep to make it easier to skin.

Skinning dead sheep

Jose with owners of the sheep.