Wadi Ruma and Petra (Day 2)

Well I left off on the last blog with me going to sleep at Wadi Rum.  The whole day was fantastic up till that point.  First, it was really cold, which was not that bad after I got under my cover but there were other things that hindered my sleep that night. There are wild cats, dogs and other kinds of animals all around the Wadi Rum campsite.  The whole night I heard dogs barking, cats meowing and some mysterious animal screeching/screaming.  Although I do think I managed to get an hour or two of sleep.
       From there though it got much better.  When we woke up at 7:00, the Bedouins had breakfast ready for us.  It was a good breakfast consisting of eggs, pita bread, something weird, jams and honey. After the hearty breakfast we headed to the amazing city of Petra. Petra was established by the Nebataeans, ancient Arabs. It is the site where Arabs believe that Moses struck the rock to get water to come out.  The city is very mysterious and interesting because all the archaeologists and historians can not come into agreement about what the main buildings were used for.  The most famous of all the buildings, the Treasury, is thought to be a treasury building, a palace, a temple and a few other things. What ever it was, it is amazing how that ancient civilization made the massive carving in the rock cliff.  I will not bore you with all the other history that we were enlightened on during the tour of Petra but it was all very interesting while there.
       So I was sitting on the bus driving into the city of Petra out in the middle of the vast desert.  At first, driving through the modern city of Petra, it is a normal Jordanian city.  With houses built on hillsides, stores along the rode, and people walking the street.  Then we got off the bus and headed down a path to the big rocks(mountains).  While walking down that path we were surrounded by Bedouins selling Petra souvenirs.  They are very good salesman.  They were yelling at us to buy stuff the whole walk down.  I walked into one of the stores with a couple friends ( I had my Keffiyeh on my head with the bands but my friends did not). Right when we got into the shop the owner told my friends to sit down and started tying a keffiyeh to their heads without asking them.  He then asked for 7 dinar from both of them.  His sales technique worked.

first rock carvings

    So then we entered the historical Petra. We started the tour by walking down an open pathway.  about 100 meters down I saw the first rock carvings.  They were small but it was neat. Image to the right is a picture of a house with a grave to the right. All graves are 5 steps to the right.

first rock carvings(sorry for it being sideways)

So after that we reached the closed pathway.  That was the scene from Indiana Jones when he was reaching the Holy Grail site.  So we all felt weird standing in that spot. The picture is below. the first one is of us and the entrance guards and the other one is from the Indiana Jones shot.

the path we walked through

entrance gaurds

As we were walking through the path our tour guide was telling us the history of all the sites. Here are a few more picks of the pathway.

pathway

pathway

So after about 30 minutes walking through this rock surrounded pathway, our tour guide told us to look down and walk forward.  As I was walking with my head down, light came into my eyes. The cliffs opened up and the sun was shining down on us.  I looked up at he sun and in the distance saw the famous and magnificent treasury building.  It was larger and cooler than I ever expected. I was in complete awe. Than about 5 Bedouin salesman came up to me trying to sale fake coins.  They would not leave me alone till I left that area. But it was funny, I enjoyed it.

first look of the treasury

roof of the treasury

After spending 10 minutes looking at the Treasury building, we headed off to the restaurant and ate a good buffet lunch.  A group of 5 of us rushed through lunch so we could have enough time to see a lot more of Petra.  We had about 3 hours of free time. So the first thing we did was walk up to the monastery, which we really did not know anything about. So we started walking up and soon realized that it was going to be an exhausting walk.  There are 800 steps to get to the top of the mountain where the monastery is. About half way up we stopped at a good point to look at the view overlooking the area. At that point I bought a bottle of water and poured all over my keffiyeh to keep my head cool.

pic of me half way up with the water soaked keffiyeh

By the way, about every 50 meters there were Bedouins with little souvenir shops on the pathway.  As they asked if i wanted to buy anything I would tell them in Arabic later maybe. Just remember this.

Finally, 800 steps and a half hour later( we walked very fast) we made it to the monastery.  It was just as amazing if not more than the Treasury. When I first saw it, I thought to my self " why is this not famous", then I thought "I guess not many people come up here".  I was very glad I made the walk up. It was astonishing. And unlike the Treasury, we could walk inside the monastery. It was a big open space inside. 

Here are the pics. The most amazing thing about it was how big the door was, fit for a king.

monastery

Me in the monastery doorway

So once again we spent about 30 minutes up there admiring the rock architecture.  Then Jordan and I headed back down the mountain.  On the way down I bought an old dagger made with silver and it has a cool Arabic inscription on the blade with the name of the local Arab tribe. It is a neat dagger with historical meaning. So as I was walking down the pathway vendors were yelling at me "You said you would buy something later". They were holding me to my word, so I ended up buying a couple little things from some of them.  Then it got kind of fun. Part of Bedouin culture is to offer guests tea for free.  So Jordan and I sat down and drank fresh brewed tea over a fire with the small families.  One family we came across was very nice to talk with.  We sat down and talked with them.  As I sat down the wife put a couple tea cups in a small bowl of water and rinsed them off with her fingers.  She served us tea and we talked in Arabic for about 10 minutes till I ran out of things I knew how to say.  Then we spoke in English while drinking the tea for about another half hour.  They kept on pouring me tea.  That was probably my favorite part of the day. They even invited us to come live in a cave with them. Then they started laughing.

The Bedouin woman who served us tea on the cliffside

It was 3:00 then and we had to be back at the bus at 4:00 so we left.  It is an hour and a half walk back to the bus. So Jordan and I walked down the rest of the stairs rather quickly and then came across a guy with a couple camels.  We both payed the guy 10 dinar to ride the camel back to the treasury site and made him promise to take a picture once we got there.  I practice my Arabic with the guy on the quarter-mile ride back. The camel ride through Petra was a once in a lifetime thing so I had to do it and camels are very neat animals with their huge feet and funny faces.

So after getting off the camel I had Jordan take one more picture of me by the treasury and then we headed back down valley pathway.

So after getting off the camel I had Jordan take one more picture of me and the treasury building

From there we quickly walked back to the bus.  At the bus all the other students were gathered around a table with some water, fruit and other snacks on it. I ate about 4 helpings of stuff and drank two bottles of water and felt much better. After that we all boarded the busses and headed home, well back to our Jordanian homes. I took about an hour nap on the way home and then thought about the wonderful two day trip on the rest of the way home. Once I arrived back at the house my host mom had a meal ready for me to eat.  After I ate that I went directly to bed to get back the sleep that I lost. 

Wadi Rum and Petra (Day 1)

!يا سلام
Wow!
Last night I arrived back to my host family's house from the most incredible weekend I have ever experienced.  My study abroad program CIEE took us students on a trip to red sand dessert of Wadi Rum for one day which was Friday and to the historical city of Petra for one day which was Saturday. I saw sights that nothing I have ever seen can compare with.  From the vastness of Wadi Rum to the intriguing massive sights of Petra.
As the title states I will only talk about day one in this particular blog.  There were so many story-worthy experiences from both days to put them on one blog. I am going to do this blog a little different because I took so many pictures I want to use them.  I will post pictures and tell what is going on. So this is going to be more of a photo album than a blog.

       So all of us students met at the gate of the University of Jordan at 7:30 and left on a couple busses at 8:00 to Wadi Rum.

Wadi Rum Restaurant 

We started driving out of Amman and about two hours out the window view became beautiful.  We were surrounded by dessert land with mountains all around. I don't really know how to explain it, it was neat because of the openness.
Anyways, we arrived in Wadi Rum at around noon and ate lunch at the restaurant pictured on the left. The food was okay but once again it was the view of the vast dessert from the outside patio of the restaurant that made it such an enjoyable meal.  The view I had from the restaurant is shown below.

Restaurant view

After eating lunch we watched a short video on the history of Wadi Rum. It was the most interesting thing of the whole trip (lol).

We then split into two separate groups-- one group went to ride camels and the other group went to ride in trucks.
I was in the Camel riding group first, which I was happy about.  The camel ride was a neat experience.  I was on a tall camel riding through the dessert.






                                                                                                               

camel guide

After the long hour and a half camel we took a break by stoping at a Bedouin camp and drinking chai with them. Then we switched with the other group and got into the trucks.  I loved the truck ride because it moved through a large part of the dessert and I got to see a large amount of the majestic mountains and the sandy desert.  Our first stop in the trucks was a viewing and rock climbing spot. The first picture is me taking a picture of the other students when I climbed up high on the other side. The rock climb was really fun for me because I have never done anything like it before. I have done the little rock climbing walls but it did not come close to this.

Just being a sheik

Looking down on the other rock climbers

After that stop we went to a more historic place and looked at 

ancient writings on one of the rocks.  It was neat but it was not 

really my cup of tea

ancient rock writings

After that we went to a huge sand dune.  There were a couple eager kids that wanted to get to the top that started off running. They quit running after about a quarter of the way up.  It took us about 10 minutes to get to the top of the huge sand dune.  Once we got up there, I went over to a rock cliff and jumped over about 15 feet to the soft sand. I hit the sand and just slider, it was fun.  Once everyone made it to the top we just sat up there and rested for about 10 minutes and enjoyed the view. Then the fun began.  We all one-by-one started to run down the huge hill of sand. I was running and jumping.  It is hard to explain, but you could jump and fall for a long distance and be fine because you would land on the soft sand.  It was one of the funner parts for me. The picture underneath is me on the huge sand dune.

We finally ended the tour by riding to a big rock to sit on and watch the "most beautiful sunset on Earth".  Watching the sun go down and looking at the dark red sand all around was quite amazing. I will give some pictures but it does not quite do it justice. 

But the night did not end with the sunset.  After the sunset we all walked back to camp. The camp consisted of a bunch of 3 person tents on one side and the other side was a social area to eat and socialize.  Right when we got back we ate some food that the Bedouins cooked for us.  After that the night got more festive.  Our Jordanian instructors and Bedouin hosts showed us how to dance with them. I stepped in for the big circle dance.  It was a good experience. After the dancing a few of us were still awake so we gathered around the fire and talked about the wonderful day. Then at about 11:30 it got really cold so we went to bed. 

this was the Bedouin friend that I made at the Wadi Rum camp

To be continued......

First week of Classes

Hello,

I have now been in Amman, Jordan for about two weeks.  I had one week of orientation and this last week I had my classes.  Since I last posted (about the Dead Sea) nothing too interesting has happened.

Like I said though, I started classes last Sunday.  On Sunday, Tuesday and Thursdays I have my local Jordanian Arabic dialect class.  It is the class that I am most interested in because I want to learn how to talk to the people in this city that I am living in. That was my biggest original goal for coming to this country.  It is going to be difficult because it is a lot different than the Standard Arabic I previously learned.

Sunday through Thursday I have my Modern Standard Arabic class.  There I learn the formal Arabic language, which is usually just used on the news, in classrooms and with government officials.  But by learning that, it is easier to pick up on the other dialects because they all have to same root system.  My formal Arabic class is the hardest one I am taking.  It is very difficult because our teacher speaks only in Arabic very often. But in time I figure I will catch on.

The other two classes I am taking are Area Studies classes.  They are “America and the Arabs” and “Israeli and Palestinian conflict”.  Both those classes will be interesting to me because they involve issues with my career goal of being a Middle Eastern diplomat.  Both of the professors are well-educated and good speakers.  For the final in the Israel and Palestine class I have to write a 25-page paper. 

Well that is enough about my school life, now I’ll talk about some interesting stuff.

First I will talk a little about my host family.  I am extremely happy about the family I got put in.  My host mom-Ma’ma, host brother Fadi, host sister Widad, and a couple Syrian houseguests live in the house with me.  They are all nice and treat me well and they are Christians. Ma’ma has two other daughters named Nadia and Wafaa that both have little children that come and visit us often.  Their 5 and 7 year old children treat me like an older brother and always want to play with me.

The view from my bedroom window

Again

Ma’ma cooks fantastic meals and always makes me eat about 3 servings worth, I am going to come back to the states weighing about 20 pounds more.

The most exiting thing so far for me is getting to school in the mornings.  I get in a little white car, which is a public transportation vehicle, and go to a place called dewar dekhali.  That ride costs me 35 quirsh(Jordanian cents).  Then I get on the white bus and it takes me to the main gate of the university, which costs me another 35 quirsh.  The driving is so crazy her that I am not even going to attempt to describe it.  Sometimes I am forced to use a regular taxi and they usually try to take extra money.  So I have to stand my ground and tell him in Arabic that I am paying the amount on the meter.  Sometimes they get mad and yell.

Last night I went to a bar on Rainbow Street.  I had a glass of local Jordanian wine, which I enjoyed.  About 20 of us students went to the bar together and celebrated our first week of class being over.

A church down the street

I will end with a funny little story.  For my classes I have 3 required books to get.  So my buddies and I went to the bookstore and asked for the books.  The clerk went and got one book and put it on the copy machine and printed us off three new copies.  That is how all the bookstores are here.  They don’t abide by copyright laws which makes it cheap for me.

-John Michael Middleton

The Dead Sea

Landscape of Jordan

dead sea in background

Dead sea from a mountain

Again

Israel in the distance

A map of everything i the area

again

us Mizzou students

Us mizzou students floating in the salty sea

my first shwarma

Me floating

I went to the Dead Sea with my CIEE classmates yesterday.  This will be real short because I just want to upload the pictures.  But I will say it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I swam out in the sea and just floated.  The water was so salty that it was nearly impossible to go underwater because I just floated back up.  Standing on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea, I looked across and could clearly see the land of Israel. The pictures will speak for themselves.

Arrival in Jordan

   After a very interesting and tiring last couple of days, I finally landed in at the Amman, Jordan International Airport.   I am now sitting on my bed at the Hotel I am being put up in for the night.
    My original plans were to depart from St. Louis at 12:30 on the 19th and arrive in Jordan at 6:20 on the 20th.  My CIEE orientation was supposed to start in the morning of the 21st.
   But nothing worked out as I planned.  My flight got cancelled at St. Louis and I was not able to make another flight to get me to an international airport that would take me to Jordan that night.  So I had to schedule my flight leaving St. Louis at 5:30PM on the 20th and would arrive in Jordan at 6:30 PM on the 21st.  So I ended up taking that option.  I left St. Louis and landed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.  I then had a two hour layover and boarded the Royal Jordanian Airbus 340, which took me to Jordan.  It was an 11 hour flight from Chicago to Amman.  The flight was enjoyable, I got two meals, watched a couple movies, and got about an hour nap.
   I had an interesting time once I got out of the airport. I was met by a CIEE representative who drove me to the Landmark Hotel. It was with out a doubt the craziest car ride I have ever experienced.  The road laws are a little bit relaxed here in Amman.
    Once I arrived at the hotel, I checked in and went up to my room and took a much needed shower. I then changed into some nicer clothes and went down to be buffet restaurant and had my first tasted of Jordanian cuisine.  It was very good.  And now I am in my bed typing this and about to go to bed.

Flying over Athens, Greece

Flying into Tel-Aviv 

Over Tel-Aviv

the clothes I packed for the semester

Over Jordan

Scratch that. I was not able connect to the internet to post that So now I am at my host families house.  It is very nice. They have three bedrooms, a fully kitchen, a dining and sitting room, and a tv room.  My family is a Christian family. My host mom and her son Fadi live here.  They are nice and hospitable people.  Right when I arrived at the house my mom had food ready for me to eat and it was tasty.