Day 58

Group shot in the Amman Theater

Thursday. The 27^th of October.

Our last day in Jordan. This trip has gone by really quick. It feels like we never really left Israel, probably because were only about twenty miles away from it. Same routine morning as usual; wake up, breakfast, bus. Our first stop this morning was Amman Theater. It is the largest theater East of Ephesus. Mohammed talked to us for a few minutes, told us some pointless yet interesting facts. Then we were allowed to wander. But most of us stayed sitting in the theater and sang songs and listened to some of our classmates perform. There are a lot of really talented kids here. Sadly my camera was dead so I didn’t get any pictures from the day. But luckily Whitney was so kind to take a few of me. Joy. We left the theater and walked down the main road for a bit, it was our ‘shopping’ time. But really we just followed the group down the street, there wasn’t really anything to buy anyways. We then stopped at a gift shop for about half an hour, where I once again got Sarah another gift. I didn’t actually buy anything for myself in Jordan. Our lunch was delivered to us while we were there. KFC. Barf. Even worse we had to eat on the bus, thus the whole bus smelled like grossness. And now that everyone knows I’m a vegetarian they felt bad for me and tried to offer me their random snacks. Harper asked me multiple times if I wanted anything, along with about ten other people. Hate the attention. I just ate one of my granola bars and some of Whitney’s crackers, which was sufficient enough. We then drove to the Jordan River and walked around there a bit. It is where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. We finally drove home after that last stop. It took a while to get back through customs for a bunch of people. But I got through easily and they even welcomed me back. We got back early in the afternoon, so we just lounged around for the rest of the day.

Day 57

With AnnaLeah and Katie at the King Abdullah Mosque

Inside w/ Elyse, Katilyn, Lauren, Leslie, Katie

Outside the mosque with Whitney

The Citadel with Wendy

Zarqa River

Jerash entrance gate

At the stadium with Katie, Lauren, Leslie, Kaitlyn, and Andrea

The show that we watched

Jerash

Jerash with Katie, Katilyn, and Lauren

Jerash with Leslie

Jerash with the roomie Danielle

Wednesday. The 26^th of October.

This morning we didn’t have to get up too early, but we didn’t get a wake up call so I had to get ready pretty fast. Took the quickest shower of my life. But I wasn’t late at all, but we have left late every morning because people have not woken up. Our first stop was at the King Abdullah Mosque. Even though all the girls had to wear long sleeves and scarf’s, they still made us wear these awful black trench coat/dresses. We had a lecture on Islam by our guide while we all sat on the floor; everyone seemed to be struggling to keep their eyes open. It was a very pretty mosque. After that we hit up the Citadel. It was just a fortified city on top of a hill. Many different groups occupied it. Not really that exciting. But Wendy, Leslie, and I did have a nice little photo shoot. You can refer to Whitney’s blogs for pics. We stopped at the Zarqa River for a few minutes and had a discussion about Jacom in Genesis 32. We had lunch in a really nice resturant, but before we went in my tour guide asked on the bus if anyone was a vegetarian. I wasn’t going to raise my hand, but a ton of people on the bus were already looking and pointing at me. So now every single person knows. Including the doctor and my professors. But it shouldn’t be a problem, I just don’t like having the attention on me. After lunch we then finally got to Jerash. We had the option of watching a little performance about the Roman army, we had to pay for it ourselves. Pretty much everyone ended up going to it. Not gunna lie it was super lame. Seemed like they just rounded up a few random Jordanian men and had them pretend to sword fight. I guess there were a few entertaining parts, but it was not worth the ten dollar’s I paid for it. Once the show finished we walked over to the main part of Jerash, I didn’t really have high hopes for it. But it ended up being really awesome, it was a huge site and the ruins were extensive. I had a lot of fun wondering around the site, there was one column where you could put your fingers under it and feel it moving from little seismic waves in the Earth. Once we finished there we had the option of going to the Royal Automobile Museum or back to the hotel. I skipped out on the Museum, shocking I know but I’m not that fascinated by cars. I went back to the hotel with Andy-Jo where we met up with two boys that she knows that are on the Arabic program in Jordan. A bunch of kid’s from their group came over to the hotel and took us all out. Just the four of us were in our group though, the two boys (who’s names I can’t remember) took us to a sketchy falafel place down an alley. It was pretty good, not as good as Jerusalem’s though. The best part was that they paid for us the entire night because we were their guests. It was super nice of them, they were fun boys. But the cute one had a girlfriend-bummer. It was really fun listening to them speak Arabic to all of the shopkeepers. They made it a really fun night, even though I didn’t know them at all. They even paid for a taxi ride back to the hotel for us. We said bye to them and then ended up going to an ice cream place called fruit salad next to our hotel. We split a nutella dish between Andy-Jo, and the Quist sisters. There was one tiny scoop of ice cream then the rest was fruit. It was good, but I was pretty disappointed with the lack of ice cream. But I should have known better, I mean the place was called fruit salad. And that was the end of my night.

Day 56

Entrance to Petra

Elephant?

The Treasury

Treasury with Kara and Anna-Leah

With Katie and Lauren

The Monastery

Awkward tourist photo with Lauren

End of the World

End of the World with Jessica, Lauren, and Elyse

Tuesday. The 25^th of October.

This morning I was planning on getting up and showering but obviously decided sleep was of better value to me. Today was all about Petra. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then go watch Indiana Jones. It is also the best site in all of Jordan. It was a built/carved by the Nabateans and is known for all of the tombs carved into the rocks. It is sort of like a Grand Canyon experience walking to it, going through the canyon. The Nabatean’s were pretty smart if you ask me, not only did they create one of the seven wonders of the world, but they also had an extensive pipe system for their water. I was impressed. The treasury was just as cool as you would expect. We walked pretty much the entire site. There were a ton of people and kids trying to sell us junk the entire time, but it provided some entertainment. One girl was trying to trade me a necklace for something out of my backpack, she wanted lipstick but I for sure didn’t have any of that. At the end of the tour we had lunch and then free time. We decided to walk to the Monastery. Okay it definitely was not a walk, it was a struggle. It took us a minimum of forty minutes climb up the wretched stairs. We stopped so many times, that we were even called grandmas by one shopkeeper. But most of the little shack/shop keepers were giving us encouragement; like it’s only ten more minutes, you can do it! It was rough. But once we got to the top it was totally worth it. The Monestary was just as cool as the treasury and we were on the very top of the cliffs. We had climbed so far up that it provided really great view. After we wobbled down the mountain, we dragged ourselves back to the buses. But on the way there we stopped at a bathroom. It was not a great moment for me. I may have accidently walked into the men’s bathroom where my some males I know happened to be. Let’s just say it was pretty embarrassing.  So awkward. But I think I have almost fully recovered from that traumatic experience. We had a long bus ride after that back up to Amman. We checked into our hotel, Leslie was also reunited with her Fiancée, Jesse Foster Thomas, so that was exciting for us all. Danielle and I happened to get one of the best rooms. We had a little entryway with couches and a TV and then we had another room with our beds. Apparently it was much nicer than most of the other kids rooms. We then had dinner in the hotel, the food here has been surprisingly really good. I was expecting Turkey nastiness, but I have been happily satisfied. I went out and walked around the city with a few people after that. It really wasn’t exciting, we stuck to one street and most things were closed. We ran into just about every single person on our program while we were out. It was still sorta fun, I guess. Better than staying in the hotel or anything. There was apparently a little party in someone’s room for Caleb’s birthday, but I just went to bed. Fun stuff.

Day 55

Mt. Nebo

Mt. Nebo with Melissa

Mosaic at a temple, Mt. Nebo

Watching Mosaic's being made

Lauren and I love mosaics!

Map mosaic at St. Georges

St. George's Greek Orthodox Church

Mukawir, Dead sea in the background-kinda too foggy to see in this picture

Mukawir, the sun is reflecting of the Dead Sea

Brielle, Leslie, Elyse, Andy-Jo, Kaitlyn, Lauren

Mukawir with Adam

Monday. The 24^th of October.

This morning we got up and finished getting ready for Jordan. I decided to take some motion sickness medicine before we got on the bus, which ended up making me exhausted the entire day. So I slept a bunch on the bus, but we really didn’t spend too much time on it. We only drove for about forty minutes before we hit the boarder, where customs took quite a while. We picked up our new guide Mohammad, he was like an older version of Fahti. But he actually knew what he was talking about, although it got annoying at times when he had us looking at random buildings on the side of the road that we couldn’t care less about. But he was super nice, he even bought us treats on the last day. We drove to our first site of Mt. Nebo. Where Moses viewed the Promise Land before he died. We then drove to a warehouse type place where mosaics are made by people who are disabled. The mosaic’s were super cool and we got to watch them being made. After that we drove to Madaba and went to St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church where there was a giant mosaic map covering the floor. Apparently Jordan is way into Mosaics. Next we went to Mukawir. It’s a plateau fortress that we had to hike. It was quite a little hike, but once we got to the top it was a great view. This is thought to be where John the Baptist was beheaded. We had a super long bus ride after that and didn’t get dinner until about nine when we got to our hotel. Our hotel was super cool, it was an old Bedouin town. It was all outdoors, so you had to walk outside to a little building for your room. It was a pretty nice hotel. My roommate for the whole trip was Danielle Quist, we did just fine. I wondered the ground’s with Lauren for a bit and used the internet before I went to bed.