The day I decided I am quitting college and becoming a professional adventurer...

Or maybe not... But I felt very tempted today...

The world is so incredibly amazing! I absolutley love it! And I am so grateful that God had made all of these wonderful places. I am always astuonded at the amazing imagination that he must have. And I have been so incredibly blessed to see some really beautfiul things in my life. Wadi Mujib in Jordan is just another miracle that God has created for us to enjoy and wonder at as one of his marvelous creations.

Unfortunatly I don't have any of my own pictures from todays trip (the one above is courtsey of Google search) since 1) my camera is feeling a little sick and 2) it really wouldn't have been a good idea to bring a camera on this treck anyway...

It is about an hour and a half hike through a river until you reach a waterfall. The canyon is breathtaking with patterns on the wall in different coloured sand that looks like beautiful abrstact landscape painting. Being in Jordan just makes you appreciate all the water even more. It is the perfect temperture for hiking. Warm enough to trek through comfortably and cool enough to keep you going through the narrow canyon. At certain points we were scrambling up waterfalls with help of ropes and at other points we were lying on our backs floating down the river enjoying the scenerary. I only wish it could have lasted longer. There are other hikes they offer which include rock climbing and repelling (read: experiencing heaven) but to my very deep disappointment BYU rules don't allow students to join these hikes.

Today was magical though. I wish I could do this for the rest of my life; just enjoy being a part of nature and experiencing it hands on. This is definitly at the top of amazing things I have done in Jordan. Absolutely breathtaking, I was smiling the entire trip.

That time I brought a kitten home...

It's been about two weeks since the kitten incident.

One day I was coming home after a visit to the local Greek Orthodox church meeting with a few friends when suddenly we heard a little meow. In Jordan that isn't really a very rare incident, but as soon as I saw it was a kitten there wasn't much I could do. The cats here in general aren't very friendly, not like in Egypt were they would usually let you pet them. But this little kitten was too little to be scared and came up to us looking utterly pitiful.

I picked it up and asked my roommate who was with me if it was alright if I took it home. She said "One night only" and I said "Okay" with no intention of keeping it for one night only...

So we brought the poor thing home and gave it a bath. Unfortunately I was far to excited about the kitten to think about taking any "before" picture but have tried to render it through a paint program picture:

Not quite sure I did it justice...

But after three washes with mild baby shampoo it actually started to look like a kitten!

Our biggest concern (me and the roommates) was that we had to think of where he was going to live when we left in three months. This problem was solved the very next day when we mentioned to our teacher that we had found a stray kitten and he said he would love to have it for his baby girl when we leave. 

With that main issue solved the roommates realized that the kitten was staying. We've even had the vet over for a visit and he declared the cat was a healthy, five week old male (six weeks now) and will have his first vaccine in a couple of weeks. 

We still haven't quite settled on a name. He goes by Bissa a lot (Jordanian for cat). But Sorokh has also been suggested (Arabic for Rocket). We might have stuck to that name if we hadn't discovered that it is also used in street lingo for sexy chick... seeing as he is a boy there wasn't really any sense in calling him that...

An Old Castle and Some Caves

A few of us went on a little field trip to Wadi Al-Seer and Iraq Al-Ameen last week. There are some ruins of a castle from about 200 BC there that a group of French archaeologists partially restored. Of course I was super thrilled to be around ruins again, but I only got a few pictures because the batteries died in my camera.

We also went to some caves that have been used for a very long time for very different reasons. There is evidence of housing, burials, church and meeting functions and the Ottomans even used them as stables for their horses. There was also a lot of bats that I wish I could have gotten a good picture of. 

At the end of our trip we went to visit a local workshop run by women to raise money and create work for women in need. The place was really interesting with some very cool handmade crafts like paper, soap, pottery and they even offer to do dinners for those interested, which includes music and traditional dancing. I hope we can come back here some evening and do that. 

My favorite part though was a group of kids playing football in the streets who let us join them.

How to survive an Arabic dinner...

Eating slowly is the trick...

Last Sunday some of the people who attended to aforementioned football game were invited home to dinner by one of the locals. Eight of us took taxis to a remote town an hour away called Sahaab and were greeted warmly by Aiman and his family.

They took us into a room on the side of the house that I assume is the guest room. Everything inside it was purple and there was one table in the middle of the room and no chairs. Instead, they had cushion-like-chairs all around the walls (also purple) that were very comfortable. In Arabic culture it is offensive to point your feet at someone so finding a comfortable position without doing this was a little challenging, but it was easy to get used to.

We talked for a while discussing the game and being introduced to the family (which included a mum, brothers, sisters, brother's wife, and children), until it was time for dinner. The menu for the day was mansef, the traditional meal of Jordan. I had it the first week I was in Jordan at a restaurant and loved it. 

It is a rice and meat dish that is fairly simple to make. If I have understood it correctly you boil the rice along  with some spices while boiling the meat (either goat or sheep) in a sort of yogurt broth in another pot. Then you pour the broth over the rice and sprinkle cilantro and roasted nuts on top of it. I actually got to help prepare this meal (the putting together part of it) and it was wonderful! Especially when they scooped out the two boiled sheep's heads from the pot and placed them neatly in the middle of the tray of rice. 

They filled three large trays with this, brought it out and exclaimed "tfadlou!", the Arabic equivalent to "bon appetit" or "værsågod". Instantly my mind flashed back to warning I had heard from people who had eaten at Arab houses before. "Eat slowly. Very, very, slowly..." I tried very hard to follow their advice but realized that even this tactic would only help so much. They started off by filling up my plate and kept reloading it every time I took a bite. It was kind of like trying to defeat the Hydra, but instead if heads it was bites of food; for every one spoonful I ate, three more were put on my plate to replace it.  

About halfway through the meal one of our hosts asked "bidkum lisaan il kharoof". Translation: "Do y'all want the sheep's tongue?". Three of us tried it. I'm still not sure if it was a good idea or not. I thought, I might as well since I would be able to say that I have eaten sheep's tongue but looking back on it now I'm not sure if I want to admit to that. The taste really wasn't that bad, and the texture was even okay, it was more the idea of it that still makes me a bit queasy... Later on they offered the brain as well and that time only two of us accepted. I chickened out on this one... I don't know... maybe next time I am invited to eat mansef I'll give it a go, but I was already having a hard time keeping all my food down with the amount that I had eaten and the small bite of sheep's tongue... Anyway, this is what I missed out on:

Okay, imagine the fullest you have ever been... then multiply it by six! And then they came out with fruit... not just an apple each, but a plate filled with apples (note the plural), an apricot, an orange, a banana, and a mango... each... By this time some of our hosts started pitying us and told us to hide the fruits in our bags while Aiman, the main host, wasn't looking. Which we did. And then they brought out nuts... a plate full of them for each of us... 

It was a super fun experience. I just loved how wonderful all the people were. Super kind, and friendly and warm hearted. There definitely is a different culture of hosting here. There isn't just supposed to be enough food for everyone, there is supposed to be more than we could ever be able to eat. This just doesn't happen in the west because no one wants to spend money on something they know will go to waste, but in the minds of the Arabs it isn't waste, it was there way of showing how welcome their guests are and how much they want them to feel welcome. It was a wonderful night, with the people, and the food, and the cultural experience. Definitely one I will remember.

Then I went to a football match...

Tuesday night Jordan played Australia in the Asian qualifier round for the World Cup in Brasil. Since the match was going to be held locally in a stadium not too far away from where we were staying, some of us decided to go to it. 

We were at the stadium about two hours before the game was to start and it was already filling up quickly and by the time we had oriented ourselves enough to by tickets from the scalpers surrounding the stadium the doors were crowded with fans trying to get in. 

We soon realized being foreigners in this situation was a huge benefit. At one point we found ourselves stuck in a pit outside the gate we were waiting to get into and the police led us out of it and placed us against the wall making sure that no one could get to us and then sent in a SWAT team of sorts to chase all the other people away leaving a path for us to be hurried into the stadium before they closed the door again on the returning crowd.

Once inside the stadium things were a little calmer. I think we were placed in a section that was unofficially called the "Family and Foreigners Area". I was a little worried that this might mean that people wouldn't be quite as engaged in the match but luckily this turned out not to be true. Jordanians are very passionate about their sport. 

Since Jordan was playing Australia no one really expected Jordan to win and the Australian keeper had already been quoted as saying that the trip to Jordan was basically a vacation for him. However, the Jordan team was wonderful! And they ended up winning the game 2-1! Which means that Jordan actually has a chance of making it to the World Cup! 

The BYU students proudly showing off the Jordan paraphernalia and pride.

Waiting for the game to start.

Sunset over the stadium.

Kind of sad I missed the Jordanian shopping spree for these t-shirts but I did buy a Jordanian scarf to sport later on.

Winning the match was amazing and of course the excitement in the stadium was almost tangible. It was a pretty historic day for Jordan (I even have a reading assignment about it for my homework since it was on the front page of the newspapers the next day). Fireworks were going off and people were cheering and giving random people hugs. We'd made friends with some of the people around us and they all wanted pictures of us and then the random people around that we hadn't talked to wanted pictures too so at this point we kind of started feeling like celebrities. When we finally began to leave the stadium the police came again and helped us out. They lead us a little away from the crowd and then made us wait until everyone else had cleared the stadium so that it would be clear for us to leave. 

I've always been afraid of policemen but after this experience I have really come to love the policemen here in Jordan.

The Jordanian policemen, or gendarmerie...

Once we left the stadium things started getting crazy. At first we stopped when people asked for pictures, trying to be polite and laughing at how ridiculously fascinated people were about the little group of Americans (and one random Norwegian) leaving the stadium. Then they started getting a little too fascinated. We tried to keep moving but at one time we found ourselves completely surrounded. Then some nice Arabs escorted us into a nearby bakery and closed the door. We were then quarantined for about 20 minutes while the streets calmed down a little. Then the police came and escorted us into a van and drove us home. They were very nice. 

Us and the nice bakery people!

The end.

PS. Sorry for freaking people out. I am alive and well. And happy. Wohoo! 

The only climbing gym in the Middle East...

... and we found it!

Rock climbing in Jordan: Check!

I really have been trying to get into rock climbing a little lately, although I was less successful at accomplishing this in Norway than I was hoping. But, before leaving for Jordan I looked up what kind of possibilities they offered here, and although it was fairly limited, last week me and three friends found the gym.

The picture shows basically how high I got... but oh well.. It was still really fun. It is kind of incredible to think that this is the first rock climbing gym in the Middle East and basically the only one of it's kind here. There are other places to go rock climbing with simple rock climbing walls but this is the only actual gym, with several walls and bouldering opportunities and all that good stuff. 

Okay... I might have got a little higher than this...

Needless to say the people I was with are better than me... But that is just all the more inspiring!

Also, on a side note. Non creepy men in Jordan do exist. They work at the climbing gym! First conversation I have had in the Middle East were I wasn't worried that the man I was talking to was going to propose to me or offer I marry someone he knows. It was wonderful! Not that I think all men here are creepy... they just think different and so it is hard to know how to behave appropriately. The men that worked here were just... chill.

Hopefully I will be going back soon!

Fruit salad has a whole different meaning here

 So far this marvelous restaurant has been discovered in two different places in Amman. It specializes in fruit. And ice cream. And i'shta (the cream of all creams in the Middle East).

When they come out with a serving bowl filled with fruit and ice cream and cream and nuts and berries, I kind of have to stop myself crying out of pure joy.

It takes three of us to be able to finish this thing.

I really don't mind eating my five fruit a day here.

A nice summarizing video

A video made by one of the students summarizing the events of our field trip...

...ignore the fact that I fall about half way through the clip...

Oldest Mosaic Map, Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea

On my first Saturday in Jordan I got to experience the first of the two field trips that we have planned for this Study Abroad. Yet another reminder that the focus of this program is the Arabic language not the Jordanian history and fun facts, although, as a true archaeologist in the making I try to fit in a little of this too.

First stop on the itinerary was Madaba and a short visit to a Greek Orthodox church which houses the oldest mosaic map that has been discovered thus far. It is a picture of the Holy Land used by the early pilgrims during the crusades to get an orientation of the lands they were travelling. I saw a similar map when I was in Greece last year but it was focusing on the travels of Paul instead.

The picture of of the map in Greece (my camera was out of batteries when we were in Madaba so I don't have any pictures from it)

After Madaba we headed to Mount Nebo. The drive there followed the road known as the Kingæs Highway, which is actaully mentioned in the bible. 

"Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's high way, until we be past thy borders"

Numbers 21:22

Mount Nebo was magical. The view was beautiful and stunning and almost everything a view should be. The picture below almost does it justice. I loved being able to visit this site after having hiked Sinai in Egypt. It's like I've experienced both ends of the journey of Moses. The beginning when he got his calling from God through the Burning Bush on Sinai, and the end where he finished his work on this earth on the top of Mount Nebo. Wow, just thinking about it now makes me super excited! I realize these may not be the exact places, especially Mount Sinai, but I still think it kind of counts. There is so much history in these countries that just come to life when you get to be there to experience it yourself. Looking out over the view of the Promised Land from Mount Nebo and imagining to be Moses seeing the country that the Israelites would be given is such an enlightening experience. I wish the sky was clearer but according to our Dil the Boss we were extremely lucky to see as much as we did. The heat here causes the air to become less clear and so it is hard to see very far, although supposedly one could see the beginning of the hills of Jerusalem from where we stood.

View of the Holy Land

Memorial marker for Moses

I guess this is how I felt one poses when on Mount Nebo

Stone tools! There is a small museum at the top of the mountain with artifacts found during the excavation of a church that was discovered at the site. Supposedly the mosaics are to die for, but the housing for them was being remodeled. I will just have to come back in 2014...

After Mount Nebo we headed off to our third holy site for the day: The River Jordan. It is a small, lazy river but would have been much larger in the days of Jesus. Today it is drained by both Israelis and Jordanians before it reaches the point in the picture, as well as filled with waste water from the surrounding agriculture. The river is actually one of Jordan's main sources of water. (Okay, I'm only writing all of these details because I had to read an article about it for one of my Arabic classes). The weirdest part of the experience of the Jordan was looking across the three meter wide river into Israel. I've looked across and crossed plenty of borders before but never stood so close but felt so far away. Part of it was probably the fact that there was a river between, but most of it was because although the crossing of the river looked easy I knew that it would be one of the hardest things to actually do because f the extreme security they have on the boarders here. Not quite the same as driving across the boarder to Sweden...

When we first got to the river people were actually getting baptized! There is a hotel right across from the Jordanian view point and apparently the guests there could rent a white robe and go into the river itself and get baptized, under heavy supervision from security forces of course.  What a weird experience that would be. It was also possible to enter the river from the Jordanian side so I got to touch the water. Another check on my Bucket List: Touch the Jordanian River and not get shot: Check.

Russian orthodox church on the banks of the River Jordan. There were churches of all types everywhere around this area.

This is the site that Byzantine traditions believed Jesus was baptized, it would of course have been filled with water and acted as a little pool on the side of the river itself.

People on the Israeli side getting baptized. There were about five of them when we first came.

A dove! By the river. I thought that was kind of wonderful.

The next and final adventure of the day was the Dead Sea. Okay, so I have read about the Dead sea tons of times and imagined what it must be like to just simply float by myself but it just can't be imagined properly. Really, I could try to explain the feeling of letting go of the ground beneath me and expecting to sink, at least a little, and then realize I am perfectly buoyant, but it just has to be experienced. One thing people had never told me about the Dead Sea though is how absolutely horrible it tastes and how it makes every single cut and soar you have burn. Do not drink the water! I guess with 20% salinity not many people would be tempted but I accidentally splashed a little and some landed on my lips and the taste was brutal. One of the other students on the trip suggested drinking the water could be a form of torture and I'm pretty sure I'd break quickly if that was used on me.

And of course no trip to the Dead Sea would be complete without a good exfoliating mud bath. 

So final story of this post: They sell buckets of mud at the beach for those who are interested but one of the students managed to find some under the sand in a certain area of the beach. After we had all covered ourselves with it the mud bucket man came down to tell us that the mud we were using was from a waste drain he was standing next too. We unanimously decided that he was only saying this because he was mad at us for finding our own mud and not buying his...