Halfway done....how?

This week has been full of exciting adventures and we are officially over half done with this program now. I can't believe how fast time is flying. I feel like I have barely had time to turn around twice and already we have been here two months!!! I can't believe it and I have so much more I want to stuff into these last two months...I just hope I can find space for all my plans. Hopefully, it will all work out (and I can get enough of the delicious food to last me for the rest of my life).

Last Saturday was my service day. I volunteered all day at a diplomatic bazaar which supported the orphanage that I volunteer at on Wednesdays. I sold raffle tickets with Nick Hafen from my program. Selling raffle tickets was definitely not the most fun thing that I have ever done, and people were very unwilling to buy anything. But we kept trying to sell and we met a lot of really fun people from all over the world. We met Indonesians, Australians, Brazilians, Ukrainians, Canadians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Russians, Chinese, Japanese (they were the nicest and bought the most), Indians, Dutch, Egyptians, British, and even more. They even had a stand from Mongolia (but I know exactly zero words at this point so that was not an effective sale place). The best part (aside from helping out an orphanage) was the fact that they set up a food court outside the large building with a both of native food from each country. I had the best samosa I have ever had in my life! It was something sent direct from heaven. I also enjoyed fried noodles from China as well as shrimp chips from there, kushiyas (delectable chicken dumplings) from Brazil, peanut butter chicken goodness from Indonesia (as well as noodles from there), pad Thai and mango-rice-coconut milk dessert from Thailand, and Oreo cheesecake. Some Americans things you just can't deny. Cheesecake here is an extremely rare commodity that must be enjoyed at any time it is made available.

Each country also set up a booth inside selling crafts and goods specific to their countries. Although everything was too expensive to afford, it was fun to walk around and talk to all the workers and have them explain why they were selling what they were selling. Why those few select items matter so much to their culture and their country. They were so excited to explain their different arts, cultures, and traditions to us as well as try to teach us bits and pieces of whatever languages they spoke. It was a great worldwide adventure in the period of 8 hours. It was interesting to try to be a salesman for a day and try to sell things in Arabic and English to people who spoke those languages as broken as I do. Lots of pantomiming and hilarity ensued. I am glad that I was able to work there, it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about countries all over the world. A valid and awesome use for a day.

Sunday was the day we started our weeklong classes and discussion on women's issues. It was a very insightful and interesting week. Although I wouldn't say it was always good and happy. We discussed veiling, women's education and rights, violence against women around the world, feminism, women in the media, abortions, etc. Class was never boring and was never lacking for conversation. Also, it hit me this week how much Arabic I can actually speak because I could talk about all those subjects. Maybe not a lot, but there was enough that I could say that I felt good about it. I still attribute that to prayers and God blessing me being able to understand and speak the language.

On Thursday, I gave a presentation on veiling and its various meanings and applications. I had to get all my information from native Jordanian sources. I talked to a lot of women about their opinions on the veil and how they feel about it. Every women that I talked with was a Muslim and all wore the hijab. Each made sure that I know it was their choice to wear the veil. They wear it out of sense of modesty and decency. They feel it shows their respect for God by wearing it. They also shared with me how wearing the hijab protected them from men in public places, put them on an equal playing field. There are far fewer cat calls, attacks, and assaults according to them then there would be otherwise. They say it takes the sex appeal out the equation between men and women in education, the workforce, and in public places. They said the hijab is a beautiful thing and that as a long as a woman has a choice to wear it or not, it is a great thing. They all agreed that one should never be forced to wear it. Families or governments should not force their dress codes upon people, it has to be the individual person's decision. I completely agree with what they said, and I totally respect their decision to wear it. And their ideal of modesty and dress. I also talked with a very conservative man and that was a much harder conversation to have. His view was that veils are required and any woman who does not wear one is a sinner. And he used a lot worse words and ideas that that. His ideal world is one where all countries have laws similar to Iran or Saudi Arabia where women are always veiled public places and the mixing of men and women outside of the home is extremely limited if it exists at all. Women should stay in the home when possible and that is that. It was good to hear his opinion and get his side of issue. However, I had a real hard time not fighting back and disagreeing with much of what he was saying.

I ate at Gabri Restaurant this past week on Garden Street, which some claim has the best mansaf (not made at somebody's individual home). However, I disagree. The food was really good, but not as good as other places that I have tried. Also, it was more expensive. So it was worth going once, but I will not go again. For restaurant mansaf, I will only go to Matam Al-Quds. That is my recommendation for anyone that comes to Amman. Of course, if you can make friends and they are willing to make it for you from scratch, that is preferable.

This week I have also enjoyed speaking Arabic more and more with people I have gotten to know better. I have some real Arab friends now and that makes a lot of difference. Some of them speak English so we have Arabizi (Arabic/English) conversations while others don't speak any English so that makes it a lot more of a challenge. Lots more acting and guessing on what a correct word for the conversation might be. Both are helping me to learn better bit-by-bit. The scary fact is that there isn't much time left for improvement and learning. There is only a limited time to keep speaking Arabic here and then it will be over. I hope to improve a lot more still.

I also did finally buy some movies this week from the movie store. I got some Arab films that I really like (and some I haven't seen yet) as well as a few cartoons that I can watch in English or Arabic. And then some modern fun movies just because. I hope that watching some of the movies in Arabic will help increase my understanding and speaking (according to all the people here, that is how they learned English). Hopefully, it works in the reverse as well.

Well, it was a great week and we just finished watching World War Z in honor of the season(I got Hocus Pocus to watch here in honor of the season). I didn't have very much time to write today, but I will write more next week since we are going to the Dead Sea and the Baptismal Sites as well as some other sites. I also have plans to finally go get a hair cut this week as well as try to go hit up some more places to eat and see and a lot more people to talk with and get to know.

The Adventures Continue ( and Be Excited for Christmas...I Found Some Awesome Presents!)

Hey everyone! This week has been going great!!! So much stuff has been going on, it has hard to keep track of it all and sort it out to the right day. All the days tend to mesh together now, but life is good and everything is really fun, so no complaints.
I guess I should start first with last Saturday. I visited the city of Madaba again because it is just awesome. The mosaics, the fact it is 1/3 Christian, the mosaics, the cheaper prices, the mosaics, getting out of the city, you get it. I did make some really great new friends on my trip out there. I made friends with a guy named Nidal (in the picture) who runs a small souvenir shop a couple hundred yards downhill from the Church of St. George (famous for all of its mosaics, especially the ancient map of the Holy Land still used by archaeologists to date things today). We stopped to talk with him and found out he had the cheapest souvenirs of anyone I have ever talked with in Jordan. The secret was that everything was handmade by him or his wife or other family. They can get away with selling it really cheap because they don’t pay much at all for it. He is extremely talented at doing colored sand art after learning how to do it while serving in the army. He then went on to sell his sand art all throughout the Middle East and beyond and made lots and lots of money for his intricate designs. After spending about 20 years traveling the world and selling his trade and working as an engineer, he came back to settle down in the city he grew up in – Madaba. He married and had a daughter (and some other children as well but they weren’t working with him that day). He decided to set up a shop in Madaba that his wife could run while he was away and he could run on the weekends to add to his family’s livelihood. He still also runs a shop in Amman, the airport, and ships his art around the world as he receives requests. Anyway, at this shop there is a bunch of jewelry, dolls, and sand art. His wife and daughter make the dolls, the dolls’ clothes, and he does the sand art. The dolls are exquisite – some are handcrafted entirely and some have a Barbie-like base that she accessorizes and then makes the clothes for. Because they are a conservative family, all the dolls are extremely modest, and that is a fact that I appreciated. The sand art is the real attraction though. They are exquisite and he sells them for only a $1.50 - $3 a pop. He can make a desert scene with mountains and camels and individual names in about 5 minutes while carrying out an involved conversation. It was quite impressive. He dumps in one color as a base and then just swirls a bunch of different colors as he adds more to fill up the bottle. He has a special tool that he used to make the camels so that the legs and body and head are the right proportions. It has some kind of super glue in it so that the camels will never lose their form. He then continues swirling and adding more sand until it reaches the top. He then compacts it down two or three time while adding more until he is satisfied. Then, he pours this extremely strong glue on top and mixes the top sand with it until it become rock solid like a brick. Then it is finished. I watched him make it for about an hour. He said that if I ever come back that I can learn how to make the basic design in about four hours. He recommended that I take this talent home and make them in Arizona (because there is a lot of sand there as well) and sell them. He has had “apprentices” such as this many times before. They now sell all over Jordan as well as Malaysia, China, Kuwait, Canada, and India. He was excited about the prospect of having one pupil in America, so I will have to see if I can make time to get back there. It is quite a drive though.
Sorry, I didn’t have time this week to do my daily blog on people that I wanted to do, so now you will just have to deal with a mix of both. However, I am putting in pictures so hopefully that makes it all better, at least a little bit.
I met another friend as well in Madaba. He is a Christian, tourist shop owner whose sons seem to own all the other stores around his and they have a monopoly around the main mosaics that are tourist attractions so I think that he is doing quite fine. I talked with him with a girl named Jan from my program for about an hour while we looked at all the souvenirs. I ended up getting lots of Christmas presents for people and because we talked with him, he slashed the prices way down. I was able to get 45 JD worth of stuff for 33 after further bargaining, which is really pretty good. He was a lot of fun to talk to and made sure to stay in Arabic the whole time at our request. He was excited to tell us about the history of Madaba and how Christians are treated here in Jordan. He had no complaints, he loves living here and feels free to worship and live as he pleases. I learned this week that 10% of the Parliament is required to be Christians despite Christians only being 6% of the population. He felt that Christians were adequately represented and their concerns were taken care of in Jordan.
This past week we discussed the politics and government of Jordan in issues class, it was quite interesting. We talked about the Parliament, the king, demonstrations, political parties, etc. We even talked about the Secret Police. Apparently, most of the taxi drivers and a lot of the people other places are part of them and they monitor everything that people say. They can then turn you in and that’s history. People don’t really ever backtalk the government and now I know why. That did come as kind of a shock this week, but I guess it makes sense.
This week I also tried paintballing for the first time. I have never gone before, I am not quite sure why. I went with my roommate Spencer and his friend Deen. They have a special outdoor arena out by the airport where we each paid 15 JD for equipment, paintballs, and to rent the place out for an hour. It was set up like an extreme army training course or something – lots of tunnels, things to duck and dodge around, cargo nets leading up to a giant tower (that was complete suicide trying to climb up). It was a ton of fun and I would really to like to go again sometime. I do have one good welt on my foot. Deen was great a shooting my foot for some reason, so my converse have yellow splatters on them now. It adds character, right? Everything else was covered up by thick pants and coats and a face mask that they lent us, so I was good to go and none of my other clothes have fun paint splatters on them. Just the shoes. I also went with Deen and Spencer and Julia downtown the day before paintballing to see climb all over the Roman Amphitheater and see the view of Amman from the top as well as eat at Hashem’s and have sugarcane juice. Sugarcane juice was a brand new experience that is for sure, sweet and delicious, almost too sickly sweet to be honest. Hashem’s was just as good with exquisite hummus and beans and falafel. So good. It was also fun to get to know Deen. He was really nice, he is an Iraqi refugee who fled to Syria and then just recently had to flee the war there to here. He is still trying to pick up the pieces of his life and put them back together. It is hard, refugees are treated like second class citizens here. It is hard for them to find any welcome whatsoever and it is illegal for them to have a job. But Deen is doing what he can and is making the best of it. He is very optimistic about the future and thinks things will still work out somehow.
I also went down to volunteer at a garden /community center this week that caters to the mentally handicapped. Every that goes there has to be over 18 years old. There is a lot of great infrastructure here for handicapped individuals all the way from birth to graduation, but once they turn 18, there is nothing. The family is on its own to take care of them. This garden was set up by an American women who married an Arab man at the age of 18 (she is now about 60). She wanted to find an opportunity to offer support to the families who have the struggle of taking care of handicapped adults. They have a small building for classes and activities as well as a sand lot for sports and a garden. They work under the philosophy that gardening is good therapy and I have to say it seems to work. Also the sports and the games seem to help a lot. All the people that came that day were amazing and so happy. They enjoyed everything that we did with them and were so happy. We even got in some Arabic practice with those who could speak. The center also tries to run off of the produce that it sells as well as selling sticks in bundles called “fire starters” in the fall from its trees. We also helped to pick up sticks from around the garden, cut them up, and bundle them up so that they can sell them in the near future. It was a lot of fun and I plan on going every Tuesday and making this part of my weekly schedule.
I didn’t get to volunteer at the orphanage this week, they were too busy preparing for a giant bazaar they throw on with all the embassies in Jordan. I am going to volunteer at that tomorrow so look forward to stories of what is there.
This week, we had the midterm. And boy did that keep me up at night wondering what to study or do for it. Our professor Dil, said he wasn’t interested in us cramming and in fact instructed us not to. He asked us just to come to class and take the test, he wanted to know where we were honestly at in our Arabic learning. It was so hard for me not to just study all week ferociously for the only midterm I will have this semester. But I managed to keep it down to just going over lots of vocab words and some of the harder news articles that we have had. The midterm itself wasn’t too bad, although the format was really different. There was 10 sections, but we did each section by itself (or in pairs) and only had five minutes to get it done. There was translation sections, listening sections, transliteration sections, and grammar sections. We were given 15 additional minutes at the end to go over everything and fix what we did wrong in red pen (so I don’t know if we get points for it or not) but it was an interesting midterm and nothing to get stressed about. I feel more confident that I have actually learned things this semester and not just struggled the whole time.
Today was a new adventure as well. I have been selected to spend the rest of each Friday going to church up in Al-Husan which is about an hour bus ride north of Amman. The branch up there is much smaller but I really enjoyed the experience. I got a lot more out of it (it was all in Arabic) and was able to make some comments and pray in Arabic because there wasn’t too many people. It was a lot of fun. I also felt the Spirit so strongly, Heavenly Father truly knows His children, wherever they may be. Even here in Jordan when the branch only has about 13 people plus 5 students from BYU, God still loves them and provides a way for them to worship and blesses them for their obedience. It was an amazing thing to have strengthen my testimony and to see their faith and perseverance in doing what is right. I am looking forward to going there each week from now on, it is going to be awesome!
Anyway, I was really distracted while writing this because there were a lot of people at my apartment watching movies and playing games and just having fun. I tried to write what happened this week so I hope you enjoyed this.

Ok, if you want to see pictures, you will just have to look them up on Instagram or Facebook, our internet is not working to upload them right now. Sorry.

Possibly the Best Week of My Entire Life - A Whirlwind Tour of the Famous Sites of Jordan

You know those "City Passes" they offer for San Diego or for L.A. that let you into so many amusement parks as well as get you food or tour bus transportation or whatever. The goal of the program is to experience as much as possible in one week, catch all the major highlights in case you never come back the rest of your life so that you can remember the greatest week of your life for eternity, trip-wise anyway. Well, that is what we just did as part of my program here in Jordan. We did the ultimate Jordan "Country Pass" to catch all the major sites as quickly and effectively as possible complete with food, dance, music, camel rides, "jeep" rides (they weren't jeeps but oh well), authentic food, snorkeling, all things hiking and exploring ruins, etc. Just picture a week of awesomeness but no time to stop and smell the roses because of how much stuff they tried to pack into a few days. I shall attempt to now explain the highlights of our trip and what I got out of it, but bear with me if it takes more than one post or if I have to further edit this post to adequately cover everything in the future. Also, if you want a picture record of our trip, I posted lots of them on Facebook, more than 100. I tried to only post the best pictures that I have, but since I am biased, I ended up posting more than I intended. Hopefully, you all still enjoy them and this post.

First and foremost, (ok I just really like that transition and wanted to use it), let me talk about why we got to have a field trip. The Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha was this past week. It always comes about a month or so after the end of Ramadan and commemorates Abraham not having to sacrifice his son Ishmael (that's right not Issac according to this tradition) but being provided a lamb to do so instead. It also coincides with the infamous hajj that millions of Muslims make each year to Mecca to perform one of the Five Pillars of Islam as instructed to do so by the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him) (the proper way to always say his name, kind of a title they always smush together whenever they talk about him). Basically, all the pious Muslims fasted last Friday to start off the holiday and contemplated their lives and actions. If they give their required yearly donation of 2% of their monetary holdings (called zakaat) on this day, it counts for giving it every day of the year. That is what my speaking partner was telling me anyway. Then most people have at least the next three days off work (or week) as part of a national holiday to celebrate the holiday. Each family also sacrifices a sheep that day to remember the blessings of God and the sacrifice of Abraham. It must be done in a halal way (Islam's form of kosher) by speaking prescribed words, slitting the throat in a specific way, keeping the sheep calm before its death, holding it in a certain way, letting the blood drain in a certain way, etc. They then divide the meat up into thirds. A third goes to the poor, a third goes to feeding extended family when they visit over the week-long holiday, and a third goes to the family themselves in order to eat. The next days are spent visiting family and having them visit you in some sort of crazy super prolonged version of the American Thanksgiving dinner. Each relative must visit your house and be fed, and you must visit each relative's house in turn and be fed. It takes a great amount of collaboration and a lot of the people here were stressed about getting it all to work out. All the members of the family get new clothes to wear for the holiday to show off for relatives and others. They eat all the lamb that has been slaughtered as well as traditional sweets. One of these is called mamoul, and it is delicious. It is a like a sweet, butter cookie stuffed with dates and spices. Picture a oatmeal raisin cookies on steroids but sweeter and better texture and you might kind of get the idea. I have had a lot of those this past week. Parents also buy their children or nieces and nephews gifts - toys, school supplies, etc. - kind of like we do with Christmas presents in our own traditions. It is a basically a long week of family, giving, eating, religious tradition, celebration, etc. Most companies, banks, businesses, and all of the government is closed for the break, so we got the week off from regular classes enabling us to go on our extended field trip. We did miss the streets running with blood from the sacrifices, which was something I kind of wanted to see. But I will admit Petra did not disappoint, not even a little bit. So now without further ado, I present what we did for the Eid instead of slaughtering sheep and visiting relatives (it would have taken us quite a good deal longer).

Day 1: Saturday. We visited two Crusader castles as well as Little Petra. Our first stop was Karak, possibly the best preserved Crusader castle in Jordan. It was really fun to explore all the different little rooms, passages, alcoves, and paths. The castle must have been absolutely huge! The imprint it has left behind is quite stunning. However, the architectural know-how of the Crusaders was not all that impressive. It was built out of all different-shaped stones that didn't match or really go together and cheap mortar. However, they must have done something right because quite a bit of it is still standing, even it is the same boring dirt color and texture and flavor in the air. The first thing you see is the fortress wall with it towers and arrow slits. You have to cross over the dry moat in order to enter the ruins. Apparently, even though there is no water here, some architectural features of Europe just have to keep being used, in this case a moat. Shooting people from the arrow slits down on the dry ground would still have been fairly easy I guess. In the back of the complex, there was the remnants of the old jail. That was really fun to explore and see the different levels. There were lot of fun arches, arrow slits, and constructs to climb around on and explore. We spent about an hour exploring the castle before being hustled off to our next stop: Shobak.

On the way to Shobak, we stopped at the nicest rest stop I have ever been to in my life. It doubled as a really expensive, nice gift shop with all the normal tourist souvenirs of Jordan - kuffiyas, head scarves, mosaics, decorated ostrich eggs, Dead Sea products, fancy chess and backgammon sets, traditional dress, magnets, jewelry, etc. It also had the normal pit stop food and drinks for about twice the normal price. It had some of the nicest bathrooms in Jordan, complete with a guy that handed you paper towels after you washed your hands (he expected to be tipped so I didn't take one...I just shook my hands dry). It was a nice place to take a break and explore for a little bit, built to astound the most arrogant of tourists.

When we finally got to Shobak, it did not disappoint. The castle is in a much greater state of disrepair than the one at Karak, but had a lot more nooks and crannies to explore because of what has fallen down or remained standing. Lots of maze-like rooms and passages that you weren't sure led much of anywhere but were surrounded by the same type of stones of all the rest of the Crusader fortresses. You also had a quite an impressive view of the whole surrounding countryside, which was the purpose of the castles anyway. Each one was built on top of the tallest peak in the region so they could survey all the lands around and have an easy way to defend against any and all attackers. Unfortunately for them, Salahadin was a military genius and took back all the land regardless, but the thought and strategy was sound for the time. There was this super awesome secret passageway about halfway into the castle that led all the way down the mountain to where an ancient spring must have been. The point was that if the castle was besieged, people inside could still sneak out and access a water supply to bring back into the fortress. Without water, the fortress would obviously fall pretty fast. However, the tunnel was very dilapidated. At one point there might have been stairs, but now there is a huge giant death tube that leads a mile down into the mountain at a very steep grade. You have to hold to the sides of the wall and take small steps in order to go down. All in the pitch black. For some reason, my flashlight has gone missing, so I had to borrow someone else's to hike down the tunnel (the majority of the time it was in my mouth so I could steady myself with both hands). The flashlight I borrowed was about as bright as a flickering candle of miniscule size, so pretty much it looked like I had walked into a horror movie of epic proportions surrounded by darkness and a deep tunnel that led down into the bowels of the Earth. But I found it very exciting. However, one of the wives on the program did break her foot and people had to carry her the whole way down and out. I was one of the last people to do the trek so I was missed all the excitement. The bummer about taking the tunnel down is that I didn't want to climb my way all the way back up, so we had to hike all the way back up the mountain in order to get back on the bus. It was quite a hike, but it was fun. After finishing at the castle, it was time to head to Little Petra.

Little Petra is just like it sounds - Petra in the miniature complete with slot canyons, tombs, temples, and lots of very nice Bedouin people selling everything you can think of. They think that Little Petra had the purpose of housing visitors before they entered the real Petra to conduct business or affairs of state. They carry the Arab tradition of hospitality so if someone is visiting you, you have to guarantee water, food, protection from the elements and from enemies, and whatever else the guests might need to be comfortable. These rules apply to everyone, not only if you know the person. We could probably learn a good deal about how to treat people from this example in the States, we are so much more standoffish. Anyway, we stopped at a giant cistern first that could supposedly hold about a "million cubic meters" of water according to our tour guide. It was huge, but I don't know if it was quite that huge. It still acts as a cistern 2,000 years later, so we could enter the cistern and go part of the way down but then had to stop because it was half-filled with water. Like every acoustic place we visit, Dil started singing a hymn so we all joined in and enjoyed the nice sound. His hymn of choice seems to be "Amazing Grace" so I will soon learn the words to all the verses because we sing it so often. After visiting the cistern, we headed to the rest of Little Petra. It was a lot of fun to climb all around the mountains that surrounded the carvings. The Nabateans have a serious fascination with building steps. Steps leading absolutely nowhere and just carved out of the mountain, some of them even only start halfway up the canyon so I have no idea how they got up there. But I had fun climbing the steps that I could climb and then figuring out how to get to the top of the canyon for some awesome views. There was a hike that led to the "Best View of the World" (Petra altogether had about four of these, so which one is the best is up for debate I guess) and it was pretty cool. It led to a nice view of the canyon beyond the carvings. It was fun to spend time there and just relax.

After that we headed to the modern city of Petra to our hotel. It was a pretty nice hotel, all the modern amenities included. The only thing lacking was once again the shower, absolutely no pressure, you have to scrub and scrub and scrub in order for it to do any good. After a day of hiking, it is something I sorely needed as well. I then headed down with some friends to the shops outside of Petra and had fun going through all the different souvenirs. I ended up getting more kuffiyas and a traditional Arab men's outfit. The kuffiyas I can also just wear as scarves, but the thoub I have no idea when I will wear it. I will have to find some excuse. Anyway, after that we went to dinner. The hotel provided dinner and I have to say they do not disappoint. They had the best of everything - Western and Middle Eastern food. There was fish and chicken and Middle Eastern meatballs as well as all sorts of fun things to make salad out of. It also had the best version of bread pudding I have had in a very long time (not as good as Cracker's but it came close). It was heaven and the most diverse food I will probably eat while here in Jordan. Also, it was all you-can-eat. Can it get any better than that? I submit that it cannot. We played some cards that night as well as two truths and a lie before heading to bed, tired and full, and excited about adventures in Petra the next day.

Ok, first off, let me say that Petra definitely lives up to its claim to fame as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It deserves that title through and through, no question about it. There is so much to see and do, and one day was not quite enough to do it justice. That being said, it costs as much to get into as a day at Disneyland, so keep that in mind if you ever decide to visit. We paid the fee as part of the study abroad costs, so I didn't have to worry about it this time around. Our hotel was only about a block away from the entrance so we walked down and then entered. From there, there is about a kilometer hike before you get to the infamous siq that was made famous by Indiana Jones riding his horse looking for the Holy Grail. It is a slot canyon that goes for another couple kilometers. The whole entire distance has small carvings made to various Gods and Goddesses. The main God and Goddess were represented by two rectangles. I firmly believe they represent stairs, because I hiked about a million of them throughout that day at least. After hiking through the Siq, it opens up to the view of the most infamous part of Petra, the Treasury (again we have Indiana Jones to thank for that, although I can solemnly testify that there is only a small little 20-square-foot so room carved out the mountain - no Nazis, no swinging swords to duck under, no leap of faith, and no Holy Grail - so be forewarned before you visit if you thought the movie was accurate, haha). The Treasury is magnificent and awe-inspiring. It is absolutely huge and mind-blowing to picture people carving that out of stone. Keep in mind, all the structures at Petra were once just bare mountain face, they then carved back to give us what we see today, so picture Mount Rushmore but without having the use of dynamite or cranes or modern tools of any sort, they just carved with with ancient tools and solid engineering. So awesome to think about. Anyway, it was cool to see the little divets in the mountain where the Nabateans built scaffolding so that they could construct the edifice. They add a certain flair to the structure. Do you want to know why the Treasure has the name it does? Ok, I'll tell you. Local legends say the urn at the top contains buried money and treasure of unfathomable amounts, put there as part of the deceased's request. Oh yeah, all the carvings in Petra were made for tombs, the big ones were just made by the really rich people. They lived in much more simpler structures and built really fancy tombs so that they would be remembered and get to heaven with no problem, kind of the same idea as the Egyptians with the Pyramids. Ok aside over, Bedouins have been shooting at the urn for centuries trying to knock the treasure down, but with no luck. Of course, now that is illegal since it is a protected archaeological site, but the myth remains and the name stuck. After admiring the Treasury for a half hour, we hiked further back into the canyon where our leader Dil pointed out the beginnings of all the various hikes in Petra. There are a lot of them, but there were only three we were permitted to go on because of our one day time constraint. The first hike I went on was to visit the Royal Tombs and the Treasury overlook. There were a lot of stairs involved, the Nabateans did not believe in switchbacks let me tell you. That is a marvelous American invention that I am now truly grateful for. After a short hike, we got to the Royal Tombs and explored them. Dil again led us in singing "Amazing Grace" and after deciding we don't know the words very well, he led us in singing "Nearer My God To Thee". Again, the acoustics were simply exquisite and it sounds awesome. This time though, we had an audience of tourists from all over the world who stopped and clapped for us when we finished, that was a little embarrassing. After seeing the Royal Tombs, we started up the mountain to trek back to see the Treasure from above. It's quite a hike, but the result was beautiful. There was a very nice Bedouin man at the top who showed us the best place to sit and take pictures from and tried to sell us cold drinks and trinkets (I held my resolve to not spend money though). After that, we went back down all the stairs and over to the remains of a Byzantine cathedral. Its claim to fame for us was that BYU helped to excavate it in the last decade or so and dedicated the materials and labor to do so. We spent some time there admiring the mosaics (again still amazing) and the old baptistry, etc. before starting our long trek out to the Monastery. The Monastery is my favorite structure in all of Petra, it just is simply gigantic and perfect and awesome. The climb to get there is whole other story - it takes quite a lot of strength and grit and determination. About halfway up, we saw a little offshoot trail that we followed to an ancient temple with a really cool lion carving. Again, the room was the perfect shape. So even though we had left Dil far behind, we sang "I Stand All Amazed" and marveled at how much better acoustics can make your voice sound. Even though we were a couple hundred meters from the main trail, apparently our voices carried so that we had a crowd waiting for us when we got back down to the normal trail. Oh well, that's what you get for singing in public places. After that we finished our trudge up to the Monastery and then found a cool, old, abandoned tomb to admire the Monastery from and have lunch. I had the lunch of champions - graham crackers and Nutella and peanut butter. Best decision ever to pack those things in my opinion. After that, we hiked up the two different peaks for views of the desert and canyons beyond Petra. It was simply beautiful wilderness on all sides with a nice view of the Monastery from the top. These again were called the "Best View in the World" so I had to get pictures and we had to debate if they were really that awesome or not. Consensus was that they were. So don't miss them if you have the chance to go to Petra, what's another few hundred steps anyway? After getting out breaths back, we ran back down the trail and all the way to the main shopping center of Petra to use the bathrooms. We then went on our last hike up to the "High Place" where the Nabateans practiced animal sacrifices way back when. "High Place" is an accurate description because once again our friends, the stairs, were there to greet us at every turn. It took a good deal longer to do this hike than it normally would have because of how tired we all were, also our legs were shaking. But it was well worth it. As you get to the top, the Nabateans carved two obelisks out of a neighboring peak. They carved down hundreds of feet and just left those standing. How they did it? I don't know, best guess is to quote "National Treasure" that the aliens helped them, haha. AFter passing these and getting to the very top, we stopped and enjoyed the view. I was hiking with a guy named Michael at the time and he caught the heart of a sweet, old Bedouin woman at the top. She was a grandmother and must have been close to 70 or older, but it was love at first sight for her. She would not stop talking with him, sitting next to him, holding his hand and even tried to kiss him as we left. It was quite entertaining. She also demonstrated for us how the Nabateans used to carry out their sacrifices by slicing the animals' throats in a specific place and way. The view from the top was simply astounding, you could see most of the structures of Petra from way above and get an idea of the enormity of the place. It was truly once a great city teeming with life and business of every kind. We then hiked back down and past the Treasury and snapped a few more pictures because it changes colors depending on the lighting and time of day and started our hike back out of the Siq. Let me tell you, the morning was nice and not too many people. In the late afternoon, the place is teeming with people from all the world, picture the Grand Canyon with families, Native Americans hawking their wares, avid hikers, older folks enjoying traveling the world as part of retirement, and busses full of Asian tourists. We pushed our way past all of them and then got out of Petra enjoying a nice ice cream across from the entrance to cool off and refresh ourselves. It was one of the best days of my life to do so many amazing hikes and see so many amazing things, but it wasn't over yet.

After going back to the hotel and changing, I head with some of the other guys in the program down to the Turkish bath. Our guide had got us a deal for half off there, and I have always wanted to try one out, so figured now was the time. Even half off, it still cost 12 dinar or about $16 for a couple hours of pure heaven, but it was worth it. First, you change into a swimming suit and then sit in steam room for about an hour. It was nice to sweat out all the dirt from Petra and just relax for a long time. After that, we were grabbed one-by-one for the rest of the experience. My person, took this rough glove and dumped a bunch of spices into it and then exfoliated my skin. It was a little rough for my taste, like rubbing one of these volcano rocks all over your body, but it did the job. All the dead skin came off me and I was left with completely new skin and smelt awesome. After, I was laid down on a hot table to relax before they took me back and used a different glove covered in soap to scrub me down and get any last remnants of dirt or dead skin off of me. Then I was laid down on a hot table and given about a 20 minute or so massage. It was miraculous. After that, I got to take a nice, long hot shower with actual pressure and very nice soaps and shampoos before changing back into normal clothes and feeling like a completely new man. It was definitely worth every cent I spent and left me feeling refreshed and invigorated. Maybe do it in a different country though that has more water and it wouldn't be quite so expensive. I don't know though. I then went back to the hotel and enjoyed the most scrumptious all-you-can-eat buffet with a mix of Western and Eastern foods round two. So good. I went to bed that night satisfied and content with life.

The next day I got up early and headed to a Crusader castle that was about a twenty minute walk from the hotel. This one was in complete ruins, but still fun to play around in. I had this dog follow me the whole way and he proved pretty useful at showing me the best trail to get there, you have to cross a bridge over a giant chasm to get there, and there is only one way to get to the bridge. Luckily, the dog knew the way and didn't have any trouble getting me there. Oh, so the dinners were awesome. But Arabs are not good at doing breakfast. I am sorry, I can't eat beans that early in the morning or weird salads or strange meat concoctions. Later on in the day I am adventurous, but the first couple hours of the day I have to eat something mundane and normal to settle my stomach. I can't be fully Arab because they don't believe in that. After having fun exploring the castle, it was time to get back on the bus and head out of Petra. We stopped at the very top of the mountain and got some pictures of the entire valley below. Our next stop was to head to the desert and have the legitimate Bedouin experience in Wadi Rum.

Wadi Rum is the place where Laurence of Arabia did his amazing deeds and the movie was filmed. So if you have seen the film, you know what the true desert looks like and have an idea of what we spent all day exploring and enjoying. It is sand and barren and mountains and the people living there are a special breed of people that live by their own rules and laws, but they are very nice to foreigners. We got to camp and the very first thing we did was to get into the back of some old pickup trucks or “Jeeps” as the natives called them and take a nice four hour tour of the desert. They never went very fast or were as rickety as I was hoping for, but I guess safety and prudence demands we can’t drive like Uncle Joe in the rhino. We stopped at a giant sand dune and had fun trying to climb to the top to enjoy the view and then race back down again and try not to fall down. After that we stopped at some ancient petroglyphs that served as a guide to the nearest water supply back in the day. Next, we stopped at some mountains and our guides served us a lunch of cheese, pita bread, hummus, tomatoes, and fruit. Dil brought some mamoul that we had for dessert and then it was back in the “jeeps” to head to an amazing natural arch. I will say this for Jordan, it is nice sometimes to not have as many restrictions on natural reserve areas. We were able to climb up the arch and admire the view from the top and what a view it was. We then head to a slot canyon where there is a monument to Laurence of Arabia as well as the first King of Jordan. We head back to the camp next and checked into our “tents”. Tents is probably not close the right word for what we stayed in. They were like Harry Potter tents complete with the most comfortable bed I have slept in while in Jordan, end tables, a closet, a working bathroom with shower and toilet and sink (had some of the best water pressure I have seen in Jordan as well) and were made out of very sturdy fabric. After getting comfortable in our “tents” I headed back to the common area before we started our camel ride. It wasn’t much of a camel ride, maybe about a kilometer max, but it was still fun to have the experience. Also, it made for really cool pictures as we rode into the sunset and stopped by some outcroppings that we could climb and admire the sunset from. We then trotted back into camp and waited for dinner. Dinner was amazing. They made us makloube (I have no idea how to spell it). Basically, it is an amazing rice dish that is cooked upside down so the juices of the lamb meat saturates throughout the rice and then they flip right side up before serving it to us. Simply delectable. They also had a number of traditional side dishes. The best one was some coleslaw that had coconut in it, I ate three helping of it. Also, I had some pretty sweet backlava for dessert. After dinner, it was time for dancing and music. We learned how to do a more complex debka or traditional Arab dance and also had fun doing some modern Arab dance (they do not dance like white people, but it is definitely different from anything I have seen in the States as well). We dance for hours before I got tired and retired to bed. As I said, the bed was the most comfortable thing I have slept on in this country and that was a blessing to my sore back. I woke up at four in the morning so I could go out and see the stars (the moon was too bright earlier in the night). Because Wadi Rum is so remote you can see million of starts and it was amazing just to lay down in the sand and admire the heavens and think of all the many wonderful blessings that God has given me in my life. I watched the stars until the sun rose and then enjoyed the sunrise (and got more pictures, I even figured out how to do panoramas with my cell phone so you’re welcome if you are into that type of thing and want to look it up on my Facebook). That concluded our adventures in the desert, where I had felt right back at home before we headed to the beach.

After being in the driest desert of my life, the beach provided quite a nice contrast and the Gulf of Aqaba felt like some weird mixing of European culture and practice with the conservatism of Islamic values. There were ladies wearing hijab swimsuits that covered their whole bodies (no worries about having the perfect beach body that way I guess) and bikinis and everything in between. Our program reserved a boat to take a tour of the Gulf where our guide pointed out the borders of Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Like the four corners, but instead of states they were countries. We then settled down in some calmer waters (that weren’t many to be found that day) and were given the chance to go snorkeling. I have never snorkeled before in my life, so it took me about ten minutes to get used to the idea of breathing with my face still under the water and not through my nose. My first few attempts ended up in mouth fulls of salt water, but I eventually got the hang of it. We stopped right next to a shipwreck so we could put our face in and see that. About 100 yards away was an amazing coral reef with the biggest assortment of fish I have seen in my life. There were so many colors and sizes and shapes. It was like Sea World on steroids times ten and I can honestly say was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. A coral reef is simply beautiful and one of God’s greatest creations on this earth. I could have spent all day with my face in the water looking at the formations and the fishes, but we only had two hours and weren’t allowed to snorkel the whole time. I did have some fun doing jumps off the front of the boat as well into the nice, salty water. We then headed back to shore and had a nice catered lunch. We had amazing lamb and chicken kebobs as well as exquisite fish. I had forgotten how much I love fish while here in Jordan because there simply aren’t any due to the lack of water situation. Being on the beach and getting fresh fish with lemon and cooked in Arab spices was like stepping into one of the best dreams of my life and I had about four helpings to prove it. We were given an hour next to peruse the shops of Aqaba and find souvenirs like coral jewelry. I got some Christmas presents for people, so be excited because it might be you. I had fun haggling with one of the shop owners and got my purchase to go down from 27 dinar ($38) to 21 dinar ($32). Awesome! Then we got back on the bus and headed back to the big city of Amman after having enjoyed one of the best and vacations of my entire life and seeing such diverse and amazing things. We did stop at that rest stop again on the way and once again I refused to pay the man for some paper towels to dry off my hands (maybe I’m just a cheapskate).

Getting back to Amman was a shock to my system as was getting back into the scheme of homework and focusing and speaking Arabic about certain, specific topics and not just random stuff. I did speak Arabic with Bedouins while on the trip, but it was relaxed and easy conversation without a really point I was trying to get to. Now I had to readjust my brain to get back to speaking purposefully again. It was so nice to get a break though and was well needed. So many once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I will cherish forever and I would do again in a heartbeat if I had the money and resources to do so. My week did not stop being amazing then though, Heavenly Father heard my prayers and I was able to make some Arab friends after getting back thanks to Julia and Matt in my program inviting me to tag along with them.

The past few days, I have hung out for multiple hours each day with a Palestinian family who lives here in Amman. I have gotten to know Yeahyea really well as well as Muhammad. The former is 18 and the latter 16. They are really fun and easy to talk to about anything and are forgiving about the language mistakes we are still consistently making. Also, they agree the Arabic is the hardest language in all the world, so that was refreshing to hear. After shopping with them, playing cards with them, exploring downtown with them, and just talking with them, they invited us to attend dinner today. And oh my goodness, talk about the best Arabic experience of my life. Their father has passed away, but the household is still full. The mother is still alive as are her 5 sons and one daughter (two of whom are married with the cutest kids ever) and they are the nicest people I have ever met. They spoke Arabic in a way we could understand and there was never any lull in the conversation or awkward silence. The food they gave us was also amazing (I hold to the fact that Arabs cannot make bad food ever). They made kebsa and kufta and a salad out of cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon, and mint and this yogurt dipping sauce. Kebsa is kind of like makloube but with dates mixed in with the rice and chicken instead of lamb. You dump the yogurt sauce over the food and it adds a kind of tang. Kufta is this Palestinian meatloaf made with tomatoes, potatoes, and delicious spices. They made us eat about 5 helpings each and we all felt like we were going to explode. They only ate one serving, but were insistent that we keep eating until we were almost sick. I have only ever felt that full on Thanksgiving before. But it didn’t stop there, after clearing away the main meal. They sent one of their sons out to buy chips so we could eat and talk. And then they went out and got hot peanuts (a new find that I quite enjoy) and roasted pumpkin seeds. I have never felt like I was going to explode as much as I was today. I was stuffed and had the biggest food baby of my life. That is how they could tell we were really full is because we all had visible food babies in our stomachs, they even made that joke in Arabic without any of our prompting. I have also discovered the wonder of Pepsi this week. I have to say I might start taking from Aunt Tiff’s stash on Sunday at Grandma’s house because Pepsi is delicious and guarantees I won’t get sick later. Also, since water is not clean enough here, the Pepsi is a nice alternative from getting sick from the dirty water. We spent over 6 hours at the house and they continued feeding us the whole time. It is Arab hospitality at its finest, but was quite a stretch for all of us. So much food. It was so nice to be able to speak
Arabic though in such a setting. There was the normal dinner table talk as well as introductions back and forth as well as discussing work, studies, dreams, aspirations, marriage and dating plans, politics, sports, tv shows, films, etc. In six hours, you can cover quite a bit of topics. They even said they would invite us back next Friday for mansaf (my favorite). I will just have to not eat the whole day before so I can enjoy the food properly and not offend my hosts for having such a small stomach.

Today, I also enjoyed watching the Sunday morning session of General Conference as part of church. I have now seen every session except for the Priesthood Session. I will say Conference was amazing as always and I hope everyone noticed the numerous references to the Middle East in various talks as well as the Phoenix Temple being dedicated in the near future. Speaking of that, we will have to go on a trip there over Christmas break and do a session or something. We then had a potluck afterward to enjoy the company of the Arab and English branch intermingling. My first mistake was eating at that potluck before the giant dinner that I had. However, they did have Texas sheet cake and some delicious chicken curry dish, so I couldn’t resist. I might have had multiple helpings of the curry dish, please don’t judge. Again, I might be fatter when I get home than when I left, you will all just have to deal with that sight when the time comes, haha.

That ends the perfect week of my past life here in Jordan. It was wonderful, relaxing, exciting, invigorating, awe-inspiring, food-filled, strenuous, and fun all at the same time. I will cherish it forever as I said previously and am looking forward to hitting up the Dead Sea in a couple weeks and Israel in a couple months. This whole study abroad has been a dream come true and I am enjoying every minute of it. My Arabic is also getting better step-by-step so I appreciate all your prayers on my behalf. Please keep it up, because it is making all the difference!

Sorry for the post being so long, I hope you enjoyed it! Write again next week!

Life is Beautiful!

What a great week!

It all started off with a trip to Jerash - the Disneyland of Roman ruins here in Amman. I could have stayed there all day and then many more days. It was like history actually came to life and said, "I'm awesome!" - or something like that. Let me tell you those Roman engineers earned their pay, every cent of it. The ampitheaters all still worked perfectly, you could still stand at the bottom anywhere on the stage and whisper, and you could hear perfectly at the very top. It was surreal. It was kind of nice to not have microphone feedback or any of that, but I digress. The ride to Jerash is about an hour bus ride north of Amman through the countryside. It is so interesting to see how life works here - the valleys where all the water is happens to be green (well, relatively), the mountains are barren desert of Biblical descriptions. The contrast is part of the appeal for me in this country and part of the world. Anyway, you get to Jerash and drive through a modern city until you hit classical Roman architecture. The first you thing you see is the Hippordrome that was built to welcome Herod back in the day. It is grand, arrogant, and everything worthy of his name and presence. I wonder what you have to do nowadays in order to get an entrance like that. It looks like the very inspiration for the Triumphant Arch of Paris, just saying. After you enter, you get to see the grand Roman Colonnade. A huge circle surrounded by pillars with two major streets going off of it. Each pillar is an exquisite work of art and all join together to form something amazing (although I did imagine Hercules running in trying to catch a discus and then knocking them all down. Just saying. Then you see the Temple of Zeus, the North and South Ampitheaters, the Temple of Aphrodite, the City Fountain, the Baths, the bridges, the Entrance Gates, perfect roads, old butcher shops, Byzantine churches, ancient mosques, and so much more. They actually say most people suffer from ruins fatigue because of everything that is there and I have to say writing about it would probably do the same thing for all of you. Suffice it to say it was amazing and a dream come true. The pictures are on Facebook and I have a lot more to put up at some point in the future when my internet will actually allow me to do so. Anyway, look at the pictures and know that it wad a day very well spent and one I hope to repeat in the future after the rainy season when apparently all of Jerash turns green. That will be spectacular. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who ever gets the chance to come to Jordan. The other plus side is we were blessed to go on a day where there were no crowds, we almost had the whole place to ourselves. It was a perfect day and a perfect break from the stresses of school and Arabic.

This week was interesting. I definitely enjoyed the group presentation that we were asked to give. We were given the assignment to figure out daily TV viewing habits of people in Jordan. The results were really interesting. A lot of people here work really long days, like 10 or 12 hours so they don't have much time to watch TV or movies or anything. Most of them replied that they watch the news or sports. Although they believe all the news is a total lie because of governmental censors so I'm not sure quite why they watch it, but they do. If they aren't watching those two, they love TV programs from Syria, Turkey or Egypt. One guys described the Turkish version of "24" to me complete with the spy-ness and everything although with added drama because Arabs love their drama and love shows (picture Hispanics and their Telenovas). They also love shows they are satires of the colonization that has still so much affect on their everyday lives from 100 years ago. There also some TV shows made here in Jordan, but they are only on YouTube. One is called FeMale and addresses women/men relationships here in Jordan - the craziness of it and the difficulty of it as compared to the Western world. There is another one where a guy goes around and asks people for jokes on the street, each episode he is searching for a specific type of person to ask so children, women, men, university students, taxi drivers, etc. Again, it is only a YouTube phenomenon though. Women here also really love "Friends" oddly enough (that classic 90's tv show that I also still get a kick out of). They love watching how relationships must work in the USA (so they don't have it exactly right, but the stereotypes they got down). They don't get many of the jokes because they have to do with American culture, but still they enjoy it. For our presentation, we just found short clips of a bunch of different shows that people told us about and then described our conversations, the show themselves, who watches that show and then watched the clip. We ended up with the highest grade that we have gotten yet on a presentation, it was sweet! It was also a lot of fun asking people about television. The rest of the week was spent discussing media issues in the Middle East and in Jordan and that was also fascinating. We debated about the purpose of censorship and when it might be ok and when it is not ok. We discussed the power of social media and how it was one of the major causes for the Arab Spring. The discussions were interesting and I enjoyed it. I came to the realization this week that everyone makes as many mistakes as I do when I'm speaking, so I might as well just speak up all the time, so I started doing it. I enjoyed class so much more because of it. I also have started to relax when I start talking with other people and that has been a nice change as well. I didn't do my blog interviews this week because I didn't plan out my time schedule very well, but the plan is to fully instigate this aspect of my study abroad experience post-Petra. Speaking of which, that is this week, and I am so beyond excited!!! We are going to Petra, Wadi Rum (to camp out with Bedouins, off-road in the desert, see the stars, etc.) and then go snorkeling in Aqaba. It is going to be the best week ever and I am so excited!

Ok, other things that happened this week. I had a great conversation with an old shop owner in Wast al-Balad about the meanings of the kuffiya and why it matters so much to the people here in this part of the world. I bought a really nice one I plan to use during my trip this week to avoid the massive sunburns that I am so famous for. We went over what colors different countries where, what dignitaries where vs. what business leaders where. It was fascinating. I also had a great time today going out with friends from the Arab branch, the Patkimions - we went and had food at Taj Mall talked about how life is different in America, China (YaoYao who is from China on my program was there) and here in Jordan. It was a fun conversation and there are definitely differences galore. It was really fun. I also had the chance to have another Fruit Salad - this one with Nutella and everything delicious on it. It couldn't have been any better of a day. I also found something fun for Grandma Hughes to add to her different collections of things.

This week I started to gain confidence in my Arabic which was a nice break from feeling so low at other points due to not understanding or struggling speaking or feeling everyone else is better than me or whatever. I know whatever good things happen are because of the Lord and have nothing to do with my own strength. Not in the least.

Ok, I am sorry I didn't have the time to write all I wanted to write this week, but I have to go finish packing for tomorrow, we leave around 6:45 in the morning and that is going to come really early! Look forward to my pictures and stories of my adventures next week!!!