From left to right: Emily (she was staring me down.....kind of scary), Daniel (yes, he was a mummy out of toilet paper), and me!
Poetry slams, many nights of movies, many nights of studying, Jewish folk dancing, falling asleep in any chair available, and general mayhem in the city of Jerusalem. Many a cat was seen (as usual) and I even have a new puppy! She lives outside of the lower gate and I even attempted to sneak her into the center but thought I may receive some reprimands from the president of the university, so she yet lives outside the gate.
This week was our large field trip to Jordan, and what an adventure it was! We had an hour long bus ride to the Jordanian border where an incident of great indecency took place (ask me in person). Fortunately, our border crossing took less than 45 minutes this time (unlike Egypt back into Israel which took about 3 hours) and off we were to Petra!
On the way to our hotel in Petra we were treated with a stop to a Crusader's castle and even a stop at Mt. Nebo where Moses was translated (trust me, he was because I did not see him there!) Oh yes, we stormed the castle, had great pictures with much attitude present, and then got back on the bus for another 2 hour drive to the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel was not as pleasant as the ones in Egypt.....and the rules for Egypt still applied (much personal interpretation was instituted on this fact). I have to say in general, no restroom we stopped at was clean, and no bed that I slept in probably had clean sheets.....
The hotel in Petra we will just name as "that which shall not be named." However, down the street was a very nice hotel which had supposedly the best ice cream of all time. Personally I was disappointed, it tasted more of butter than anything else (not that I eat butter straight, just that i recognize the flavor). I still favor Magnum Bars and BYU creamery ice cream to be honest. After getting some ice cream many members of our group decided to pay for massages at a local Turkish Bath. I think it goes without saying that I did not attend. Instead a large group of girls (myself included) walked up and down the street for a little while and then sat by the pool and talked. A rather fulfilling evening if I do say so myself, and I didn't even have one bug bite! (this did not last however.....)
The next morning we headed off to Petra (this site may be seen in the third Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Unfortunately I did not find any old crusaders or a Holy Grail (trust me, I looked). The inside to the structure itself was rather disappointing, only a large room of nothingness and dirt.
Yes, that is really Petra in the background!
However, the rest of the area was covered in caves and dwellings! I even hiked 872 stairs (no I did not count them personally, that would have been just to painful to know) to a monastery. Once again, the Middle East has a rather strange definition of stairs.....we are not talking stairs in the Tanner Building or up to your bedroom but rather boulder like stairs which seem to laugh at you as you sweat in the sun. The weather, fortunately was about 90 degrees F, and I have to say I was rather grateful for it (no I'm not being sarcastic). It made me miss Arizona and remember why I simply do not like the snow.
At the monastery I met a little girl of about 10 years old who made a living for her and her family by selling necklaces that her mother makes for 2$. She told me that she wanted to grow up to be a doctor and that she has been working very hard in her Bedouin school to be able to do so. She talked to many of the girls in my group who are aspiring to be nurses and was very excited when they told her all of the classes she would need to take. It made me think how much I take my education for granted. To watch this little girl speak with such enthusiasm about her aspirations and to know that she rarely has the chance to ever see a school outside of her tent in Petra was heartbreaking to me.
My new best friend at Petra who wants to be a doctor.After spending 7 hours at Petra, we rode horses back to the bus (mine was apparently stubborn and the owner said I wasn't allowed to try riding by myself), we headed off to Amman. The food at the hotel was interesting as usual.....but they did have very good fake pizza which I enjoyed. I then spent the night in the hotel attempting to do homework, but eventually gave into the sleepiness.
The next day we traveled to a Roman city called Jerash. It was absolutely incredible and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing those momentous structures that a truly breathtaking. We then stopped by the area where Jacob wrestled the angel (Genesis 32), and then met with the branch president of Jordan. He was inspiring and helped me to understand that maybe this trip is helping to prepare me to bring the Gospel in full force to the Middle East.
That night we (myself, Rachel, Stephanie, and Cali) decided to buy many many movies with discount prices, run around the strip mall, and through the streets of Amman. It's rather strange to walk through the city because total we saw about 3 women the entire time. Furthermore, because we are from America and do not follow the Islamic customs of wearing clothing that extends to our wrists as well as the covering of our heads, we had many men honking at us, attempting to stop us and talk, lots of staring and cat calls. Personally, I thought that the advances were worse than Egypt and more terrifying since we did not have a boy with us. We eventually found ice cream (main food group for the week) and enjoyed trying to speak Arabic/English to the store owner. Afterwards we were followed home for about a block and a half by a rather strange and scary man. We decided to walk back to the hotel by a different route and ended up safely back in our rooms and curled up in our beds to watch Hitch.
So here's a riddle: What do you do at 5:30 pm in Amman, Jordan if you are a BYU student at the Jerusalem Center??? Answer: go to the strip mall and ride the kids' rides!!!
This is the site where many churches recognize the baptism of Christ. Definitely not what I had envisioned.
This week, unfortunately, will be filled with studying for finals........not a very happy week if you ask me. My last final is on Friday and will be over at 3! Then on July 5 we are going snorkeling in the Red Sea and on July 13 off to Galilee for two weeks!!! Hooray!!!!!
