Andrew and Nancy in Amman!

On Lettuce

2006-10-09T22:42:00.000-06:00

Before we left for Jordan, they told us to avoid the salads. No lettuce. None.
Before I went to Russia, they told us to steer clear of salds. No lettuce. None!

Crystal and I would often talk about salad when we were in Jordan. In fact, Crystal wrote on her blog, "Salad is the most wonderful thing ever. I tried to get a cafe rio grilled chicken salad on the way home from the airport but they were already closed. Yesterday I got one for lunch and it was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. Forget about desserts...I just missed lettuce." And it is true. It's hard to have salad taken away from you when that is really one of the most common vegetables eaten in the United States.

Now, I like more vegetables than salad. I get harrassed by my in-laws for my like of broccoli. But salad, I really do have to admit that I enjoy. A lot.

In the Middle East it can make you sick. In Russia it can make you sick. Why? Because the water they use to grow the lettuce is sometimes a little less-than clean. Things get inside and can't get out. Unlike other vegetables, lettuce is pretty hard to bleach. It is so pourous that it just sucks in whatever moisture is around that: bleach, water, e. coli, etc. Believe me, you don't want to eat over-bleached vegetables, and it's easy to over-bleach lettuce.

Funny how the idea of that happening is so "third world" and then it happens here! I kind of find it funny just because America seems to hold so much pride in being a "developed" nation. I guess these things can happen anywhere.

So, before you think of coming to America, let me warn you: don't eat the lettuce. No lettuce. None!

That said, I think I will continue to eat salad. I can't help it. I'm with Crystal. I went for four months not having a salad.. By golly, I'm going to eat it here!

The Moral of this Story

2006-10-09T21:41:00.000-06:00

This is one of those stories where you get to hear the moral first. And the moral of the story is: don't wait for like 2 months or more after you're done a trip to finish writing about it. Now Turkey is in this blur of planes and multiple countries and no sleep. It was a good trip, but honestly, all the days are kind of blurring together. So this post will be more like me describnig pictures and then if I think of any cool stories, they'll also be told. Unfortunately, I can't really recall which day we did what. Know that we were there. We took pictures. I just didn't write anything down until now. Oops!

Us at an architecture museum just off the hipodrome

This was a pretty small museum, but it was pretty inexpensive, too. The best part was that it was in an old Ottoman style house, which is always quite nice and very interesting to look at. That's the Blue Mosque in the background.

There are little graveyards sprinkled throughout Istanbul. Most of them are of royalty. Some of them you have to pay to get inside to see the shrines for the kings. It's pretty cool, especially reading about them. Most of them did poetry. Most of the wrestled. A few of them had big noses and long beards. None of the plaques said anything really special about the kings--just that they wrote poetry when they weren't wrestling.

Here is a fenced-in gravesite within a fenced-in graveyard within a walled-off courtyard. Really, I think that might be overdoing it.

Andrew and I also went to the Grand Bazaar, a must-see in Istanbul. While we were walking there (it isn't far from where we stayed), Andrew described to me how he and his parents got lost trying to find it but really it was pretty easy to find and he knew right where it is. Well, we ended up by a mosque somewhere that had a nice park where we could consult our guidebook. Yup, it sure is hard to find. We had to ask someone how to get there. We did find it and it was really quite neat.

Andrew checking the map, checking it twice

Well, we finally made t to the Bazaar, which is completely roofed. It's about 60 streets all walled in with roofs and doors and everything. The Grand Bazaar is the first market that Andrew went to in the Middle East. He was there about a year ago with his parents. He thought that is what the Bazaars were like all over the Middle East. So, when we first arrived in Jordan, and we decide to check out the Suq (Bazaar in Jordanian Arabic). We got in a taxi and Andrew asked the driver to take us to the Suq. So, he does. He drives us right to the center of the Suq, which happens to be an open-air district. Tons of shops, just like the Grand Bazaar, but no roofs over the street. Andrew was very confused. He asked the driver, "Where's the Suq?" the driver retorted, "Right here." We still weren't out of his taxi and made no movements like we were going to get out. I mean, here we are, fresh meat in an Arab country...like we're going to get out of a taxi when we aren't sure where we are. The driver gave a heavy sigh and says, "This is the Suq." He started pointing to different buildings saying, "That's a suq and that's a suq. Everywhere is a Suq." Yeah, the Grand Bazaar is quite different than the open-air markets we went to in Jordan and Egypt.

Inside the Grand Bazaar

Stained glass lamps are a hot comodity over there!

We went to some other museums. Right behind Topkopi palace, closer to the gardens where Andrew and I went everyday, there is this little series of museums. You buy your ticket at the gate and the museum, I swear, seems to go on forever! There were probably 5 different buildings that we went into, just full of artifacts (which were much better labeled than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo).

We weren't very impressed with the mummy though. This mummy is about 1/2 the age of the ones we saw in Cairo. And he has no skin. The ones in Cairo had skin, hair, painted eyebrows. It was pretty amazing to think that you're looking at King Ramses. That's pretty old. And he looked pretty good for being thousands of years gone. This mummy looks a little more like a skeleton. Of course, that is probably why Egypt is famous for mummies and Turkey is not.

In tact mummy

Oh, and here I am by a replica of the Trojan horse, not in Troy, of course. This museum had some really cool models of things--such as the Trojan horse. They had things from all over the place because the Ottoman Empire was huge. They have things from Jordan and China and, well, just about everywhere.

Me and my horse

Dolmabahce palace could be a whole post in and of itself, except that we weren't allowed to take any pictures, so...let's just say this palace is grand! They have a chandelier that weighs a ton! I'm serious. It weighs 1 ton. They had to do some of the work in wood and paint it to look like marble instead of actually using marble because the palace is so huge and heavy that they were afraid it would sink into the Bosphorus. It's a valid fear because it sits on the Bosphorus. It kind of reminded me of my Grandma Conrad's house because a lot of the rooms were named after colors. Not that my Grandma's house was that big, but as kids, we would distinguish the rooms as "the yellow room," "the red room," "the blue room" and so forth because of how they were decorated. This palace also has a red room, which is quite noticably red, as well as a blue room. It has multiple wings for family (men and women in separate areas), the hammam (bathrooms--turkish baths are huge), and for guests. This took up pretty much half of our day.

Us and Dolmabahce

Hagia Sopiha is a sight for sore eyes. She sits right across from the Blue Mosque, which is absolutely brilliant . She doesn't hold a candle to it. She's red brick, comely...kind of boring. But then you go inside and it is a treasure trove. The stained glass windows are remarkable! And the art is really pretty cool. Hagia Sophia (St. Sophia) was originally a Christian church. It was taken over and converted into a mosque. Instead of destroying the original art though, the muslims just covered it up. They put plaster over the mosaics and hung wooden signs with arabic caligraphy over crosses. They turned some of the crosses into stars. It's actually quite remarkable what they did.

Here's me in a swirling mass of people

(note the arabic sign hanging from the ceiling and the angel in the archway just behind it)

Some of the Mosaics that they've recovered

There is a pillar in Hagia Sophia that is said to bring good luck. Traditionally the soldiers would come to the church/mosque/what-have-you (I'm not sure what it's considered anymore) and would put their thumb on the pillar and then do a full 360 degree rotation. So, today people do the same thing except that now it is so worn down that you have to stick your thumb inside a hole that has worn through the copper plate and into the marble itself and then twist your hand around 360 degrees.

I did it!

Istanbul is really quite a few islands. There's the European side and the Asian side, which everyone knows about, but there are also a ton of little islands scattered in between. Andrew and I decided to check out the beaches. We got off the ferry at the wrong time and went to some small-town island with 100% locals there. We didn't realize that no tourists were getting off the ferry until we had gotten off the ferry. Apparently there is a tourist beach that is actually pretty nice. Our beach was nice, too...but rather rocky. And, after our time in Dubai, no beach will ever be able to compete. So, we weren't very impressed with the beach, but it was really fun to get to observe the Turkish people. There were no cars on the island (that we saw). It was just a cute little island.

A little island somewhere within Istanbul

Andrew and I went on a cruise down the Bosphorus starting at the bridge by the New Mosque and going under the first Inter-continental bridge and almost to the second one and then back again. It was pretty cool. We had a party boat. Our captai was pumping some strange dance beat the whole trip. I memorized the chorus and could sing along at the time, I'm not sure I could now though.

Before the ferry ride we decided to take a walk on the bridge. They have little piers under the bridge with restaurants all over it. We should have known better than to venture down there because we were bombarded by waiters the minute we were in sight. We couldn't help it though. We wanted to take a picture of us on the Bosphorus. How much closer could we get than jumping in (which we had done when we went to the beach).

Us on the Bosphorus

As we walked back to our hotel for the last time, I made Andrew take a picture of this house. People actually live in it. I was obsessed with the run-down houses in Istanbul. I couldn't believe the conditions people were living under! If that house was in America, it would be condemned for sure!

Run-down house

Here's a quick shot of our hotel lobby. The hotel is actually an old Ottoman style house, nestled in a ghetto...note the picture above. But it was really cool! The electricity was shoddy, but the architecture was neat!

Ottoman style room

At long last, we left Istanbul and headed back to Amman, thus beginning our 3 or 4 or 5 (I really can't remember) run of sleepless, bedless nights. When we arrived in Amman, we decided to visit the falafel dudes one last time. They were so shocked to see us. It was awesome! They were pretty worried, too. They were afraid our flight got cancelled and we were stranded...after we convinced them that we were okay, they let us eat.

When we were leaving, Mohammed (the 13 year old kid who works there) kept pretending to cry and saying, "Oh, I will miss you. Sniff, sniff." I personally think that he was fighting back tears for real. I know I was. It was hard to have to say goodbye a second time. Leaving home is always hard no matter where home is.

Our last Jordanian meal

After lunch we went to Mecca Mall to get another Cinnabon (they're the second-best in the world! Who wouldn't?) and some books to read on the plane. Arabs just aren't readers. I had assumed that they would be, but they aren't. It was hard to find a good bookstore there. After we felt that we had wasted enough time, and were so tired because we had been up for 48 hours, we went to the Steed's house and crashed for a few hours. Sleep never felt so good! But, alas, the few hours soon expired and we were off to find a taxi and take all of our luggage to the Abdali bus station.

Yes, leaving was definitely hard. I fought tears saying goodbye to the Steeds. I fought tears on the bus. Sometimes I really just miss living over there and wish that I could be there right now. Other times I sure am glad to be home! Home...it's such a strange word. Home is everywhere!

Not Constantinople

2006-08-23T13:12:00.000-06:00

Here we are in Istanbul, easily the most European city we've set foot in since leaving Austria in May. Our hotel is located in the Golden Horn just a few minutes walk from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. It is a wonderful location. The streets are cobblestone and the all the buildings in sight are very European...but our hotel is an old Ottoman-style house. It is quite amazing--on the inside, at least--but there are a few downfalls (namely hardly any lights, small rooms, etc). I've posted a picture here but we'll have to get some better shots. It really doesn't do the place justice.

Hotel Amber

On Monday we headed out to explore Topkapi Palace. The gardens are amazing and extend much farther than the grounds of the "palace." There is a park that Andrew and I have walked through almost everyday that is part of the Topkapi grounds, but you don't have to pay to go in so they are much better!

Me by a hollow (still alive) tree in Topkapi

We went on a tour through the Harem first off. The Harem is the name for the living quarters for the Sultan and his family. It housed the slaves (who were apparently paid) and his wifes (no more than 4 at a time) and his children. I wouldn't mind living in a harem myself after looking at this one.

Our guide was pretty humorous. He didn't speak English very well. Surprizingly no one speaks English very well here. Combine that with my lack of Turkish and it is pretty much a recipe for disaster. I would have thought a lot more people would have spoken English...or Italian...or Russian...or Arabic...or anything a lot better than they do, but that's okay. Anyway, in each room our guide would say, "Yes, my guest, we are in the bathroom of the king. I mean, the hammam of the sultan. I mean the Turkish bath where His Highness would be massag-ed and bath-ed." It was funny because he would say "Yes, my guest" even though there were upwards of 60 of us and he would say it in each room. Then he would say the same thing in 2-3 different ways (see the hammam example). Before moving on to the next room he would say, "Yes, my guest, we are to see the room of the mother of the sultan. The sultan's mother room." Then we would go into the next room and he would say, "Yes, my guest, we are in the room of the mother of the sultan. The room where the sultan's mother lives. The room of..." I think you get the picture.

Us in the Harem

Andrew and I then went on to explore the rest of the palace. There were quite a few rooms that we were, unfortunately, not allowed to take any pictures...but we had a good time looking around at all the treasures and enjoying the gardens and fountains.

Topkapi courtyard

**On a side note: Andrew and I went to McDonald's (on the Asia side) the next day, and who do you suppose we saw? Yes, my guest, we saw our tour guide. In a city of 10 million people we ran into the guide of our tour. The one who was giving us a tour of the Harem.**

After grabbing a bite to eat we headed off to the Cistern. Andrew likened it to scenes in Pirates of the Carribean and The Phantom of the Opera. I likened it to being really slippery, but it was kind of like those movies, too, as well as one of the Adams Family films...a lot of movies have cisterns in them. Probably because they are really cool.

Me in the Cistern

I was not in the best outfit for going into the Cistern. The Cistern is an underground building used for storing water. Thus, it is wet. They've built platforms so you can walk around without getting too wet, but water still drips from the ceiling and the fish splash water up onto the platforms (I'm sure it is not malicious). So, I am wearing a long skirt and a pair of flip-flops that are over 2 years old, are paper-thin, and have absolutely no grip on them. There were times when I held onto Andrew's arm and he just pulled me along. It was that slippery. But, it was definately worth seeing.

Sideways Medusa Head--one of the treasures of the Cistern

On our way home from the Cistern we stopped by the Blue Mosque. It is really cool inside, but I think that I liked the Muhammed-ali Mosque in Egypt better. I almost think because it was more reverent. I can't really tell. The mosque in Cairo was based off the Blue Mosque, and I think that the Blue Mosque is more inviting because it is a lot lighter and open. But the people here aren't quite as into the religion as they seem to be in other places in the Middle East. People were letting their kids chase each other around and things were pretty crazy.

Us in the Blue Mosque

Between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia are these beautiful gardens and a wonderful fountain. I like to pull Andrew into the park every time we walk by (which happens to be every single day). They are just really pretty. I'm not sure if you'll all agree but I haven't seen water, sprinklers, grass, or flowers for quite a long time. The park is beautiful!

Hagia Sophia as seen from the Blue Mosque

Good ol' Dubai

2006-08-21T09:24:00.000-06:00

Dubai seems to me to be a city of "new" wealth. Everything about the city screams newness! We arrived at the airport and it was definitely a lot better kept-up than Amman or Egypt. It was also quite a bit hotter! We were a little worried about finding our hotel since we didn't have an address, but we followed the directions given on the internet site: "tell the taxi driver it is by the clock tower." Andrew and I, thinking that this was an Arab country so it definitely has some history, thought that the clock tower would be some old fashioned tower. We were wrong. And amazed.

The Clock Tower

As you can tell, the clock tower is anything but old. And once we got to the tower, our hotel was in plain sight. I think we fell asleep almost as soon as we got in our hotel room. The heat, even at 1:00 A.M. was quite oppressive.

The next day we took advantage of the hotel's free shuttle to the beach. As we were sitting in the lobby, Andrew picked up the paper and read that the day before had been the hottest day of the year. It had reached an even 46 degrees Celsius (114 F), there was a nice load of sand dumped on the city from the "empty quarter" during a sand storm, and it had been overall a pretty miserable day. We were glad we had missed it.

We knew that it would be hot at the beach, and that we would probably burn so I insisted that we lather up with sun screen. It's probably expired by now or something since it's the same sun screen I used as a lifeguard when I was like 16...but apparently it still works well since we didn't really burn at all.

Anyway, the beach was beautiful. It was clean, the water was clear. There were no rocks or seaweed. It took us forever to find anything resembling a stone, shell, or living creature. The water was nice and warm. It was perfect. We had 4 hours of ocean bliss. The best part was that the beach was pretty uncrowded! I've never been in a more deserted beach in my life! We didn't figure out why until the next day...but it was definitely a good time at the beach, regardless of circumstances.

Jumeirah Beach

Star fish

Nancy on the beach

Andrew building a castle

Us

Andrew in the sand

At 12:30, we decided that we should probably pack up to leave since the shuttle was coming at 1:00 to pick us up. We were drying off under some palm trees when in the distance we hear some disgusting gagging noises. Not too far away, at the showers, a man was puking his guts out. Like I wanted a shower now. Andrew and I headed to the showers anyway and rinsed off our feet while the lifeguards tended to the poor man.

We left the beach and commenced waiting outside for the shuttle. Soon beads of sweat started forming on our faces. Then those beads of sweat began dripping down our faces. We realized that our shirts we soaked. Our pants were soaked. Our hair was soaked. And we had just dried off. We decided to go to a near-by cafe and buy some AC. This was done by purchasing the cheapest thing on the menu and eating it as slowly as possible. Luckily the cheapest thing on the menu was ice cream. We were cooled inside and out! But after finishing our ice cream we had to head back outside to wait. Why was the shuttle taking so long? Why of all days did it have to be late?

We went and waited by the road once again. Drenched in our own sweat. Ringing out our shirts to dab our foreheads. Fanning ourselves with our hands. It was horrible. Finally the shuttle came. We filed in and turned the AC vents to face us. We were exhausted. I saw a billboard, that I wish I had caught on film...but was much too tired to do so, that had the traditional "men at work" sign on it, only instead of working then men were sitting under umbrellas. The sign said, "Men at rest. 12:00-4:00 P.M. Sunday-Saturday." Or something to that effect. I conceded with the sign and quickly fell asleep. It seemed to take forever to get the hotel but we finally made it there.

We somehow stumbled up to our room, drank more water than imaginable, and fell asleep. I slept for six hours, woke up and was still exhausted. I'm pretty sure we were suffering from heat exhaustion. At least it wasn't heat stroke, which I suspect was the level of the man vomiting at the beach.

The next day, a nice Indonesian couple staying at the hotel said that it had been 52 degrees (125 F) at noon the day before. I haven't been able to verify that, but if it is true, that would explain our reaction to the heat. I'm sure I sweated out more water than I had taken in that day. The other days we were in Dubai were all around 45-47 degrees and the heat was manegable...but our first day there was utter insanity. I've never been hotter. Nor have I ever sweat so much in my life! The beach was worth it, but it may have been nice to have done it on a slightly cooler day.

Dubai reminds me a lot of Las Vegas, architecture-wise. That, or a museum of art. It is just amazing the array of buildings they have. And then you go in the buildings and they are just as extravagant. Although I'm sure Dubai has slums, we didn't find them. Everywhere we went was pristine. And boy, did we go everywhere!

On Friday we set out to go to church. We had an address, and although our hotel didn't seem to use the numbering system, Dubai actually has a nice grid-like address system. We gave the address to the taxi driver and set out for our short taxi ride to the church. We ended up in a fancy neighbourhood, which could be right...but we couldn't find the villa the church was supposedly in. We drove all around the neighbourhood and asked everyone we saw if they were familiar with the address...costing us a pretty penny. Alas, we could not find the church and didn't have a number to reach anyone with. At 80 dihrams, we decided to call off the search. It was getting much too expensive. (Not too expensive though. USD outweighs the dihram 3 to 1!) The ride cost us 4 times the amount our trip from the airport cost us! And airport rides are outrageously priced.

Some Interesting architecture

Not only did we skip church on Friday, we went to the mall in the evening. We had planned to go the day before but were busy dealing with heat exhaustion. We didn't buy anything though since everything was too far out of our budget range. We did, however, watch an interesting fashion show. A fashion show for hijabs. It was pretty cool. It was a contest for local designers so there were judges for the hijabs. I really wonder how they judged though since all the outfits were black, to the ankle, to the wrists, and hooded. They did add some flair here and there, but really, it was a close call all around. They did a "casual wear" section and a "formal wear" section. Some of the formal wear was pretty scandalous! Seriously, some of the gowns I wouldn't wear...low cut, strapless... They were covered by capes, but I still would not venture out in those gowns.

Fashion show: evening gown section

After the mall, Andrew and I went to the Clock Tower to take some pictures. Dubai has a mascot and he is placed all over the city. His name is Modesh and he has a catchy smile! The fountain has quite a few of these Modesh mascots so we decided to pose with them all. It was pretty fun...people thought we were crazy, but Dubai is kind of a crazy city, so I suppose we just fit right in.

Me and a Modesh dancing

Andrew, Modesh, and a camel

Andrew and I had learned our lesson and refused to venture out during the day, leaving our next days (Friday and Saturday) just mornings and evenings. Besides which, Andrew had developed an ear infection from swimming and getting water stuck in his ear so I had to take care of him.

This involved finding the nearest hospital. I went to the front desk and asked where the hospital was. The clerk was unfamiliar with that term in English. He questioned what I wanted. I said, "My husband is sick. We need a doctor." The clerk informed me that what I needed was a "poly-clinic" and said the nearest one was "Sunny Poly-clinic" and was five minutes (insert ambiguous hand gesture here) that way. I was like, "What way?" and he's like (repeat ambiguous hand gesture) "That way." I'm like (mimicking hand gesture), "Oh, that way?" and he's like (repeating hand gesture), "Yeah, that way."

I went up and retrieved Andrew. He was in pain, swollen, and deaf in one ear. Cool things can happen in just a few days. I told him that I found out about the hospital. It should be cheap. It was close. But I had no idea where it was. Then I told him again. And then I told him again. And then I said, "Never mind. Let's go." So we went to the desk. I stopped to ask another person where the clinic was. They gave me the same ambiguous hand gesture saying it was five minutes that way. Great, I thought, Andrew and I have walked these streets countless times. We had staked out all the pharmacies for self-help just the night before. There was no clinic in sight from the hotel. So, we walked five minutes in what we deduced was that way. After walking for a few minutes we saw a fancier-looking hotel and I decided to ask the clerk inside for directions. He had no idea what I was talking about but was really nice about it. He phoned the local directory to get the number for the clinic and then asked for directions from his hotel to the clinic. He then walked us outside and said, "Turn right at the next street, walk down the whole block and it should be the last building. You'll see a pharmacy with a sign saying, "Ben Sina" and it will be right after it."

I was dubious because we had visited that pharmacy and they told us to go see a doctor but had not said that there was a doctor right next door. Plus, we didn't even see the clinic when we were there...but we followed the directions to a tee considering they were a lot better than the directions we received before. We got to the end of the block and didn't see the clinic so we kept walking. I stopped and said, "This is dumb. It should be right here! Why can't we find it?!?" A man on a bicycle stopped and said, in a nice Punjabi accent, "What are you looking for?" I sighed...would he really know where it was? "The Sunny Clinic," I said. "It's right here." He said and pointed to a sign high up on the building we had just passed. Yup. It read "Sunny Clinic." I thanked the man and dragged a confused Andrew to the sign. We looked at all the signs plastered on the apartment complex. That's right, folks. Apartment complex. We found one that said, "Sunny Clinic. Floor M. Entrance E." Cool, a little computer printed flyer telling us where the clinic was. No wonder we missed it.

We found the clinic by walking through completely unmarked doors. We were ushered into a waiting room where we were almost completely alone, except for the company of one woman who stood up and rushed out of the room as soon as we entered. She was the doctor...she was wearing a sari, but that's okay...she was still the doctor. She looked at Andrew and gave him a prescription. We paid the clinic 50 dihrams and went to the clinic nextdoor to get his prescription. We then walked across the parking lot and...into our hotel. That's right. Our hotel was right there. Why they didn't say, "Take a sharp right until you get to the apartment building with the blue balconies and then go into a door marked "E" and go to floor "M." is a question I'll never know the answer to...but we got Andrew the help he needed and he's feeling a lot better.

That evening we were able to go to the suqs downtown and found a clock with Arabic numbers, hurrah! We walked through the long gold suq and were bombarded by numerous people trying to sell us stuff. It wasn't nearly as bad as Egypt or Jordan. They were pretty wimpy, as street sellers go. I think that's because selling without a license is actually an enforced thing in Dubai, so we had people making us offers but then a police officer would walk by and the seller would disappear. It was interesting. But it was nice to not be bothered!

Dubai was nice, but if I had to live there, I would insist on having a few things:
1) a car with AC
2) AC in the house
3) 24 hour access to a pool
4) an ice machine

Excluding #3, I never thought that I would want any of those things. I've always thought that I could do without AC and ice, but in Dubai that's really a death sentence. How did people live before air conditioning, you ask? Simple...windmills. It's true. Without a cooling system you couldn't live there!

Language-wise, if you don't speak a lick of Arabic, you'll feel right at home. 80% of the city's population is foreign. Most people we saw on the streets and roads and everywhere were Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Thai, or Indonesian. Andrew spoke Arabic to two people the whole time we were there - our first taxi driver was actually from Syria, and another taxi driver was from Pakistan who spoke mostly English. Andrew started in Arabic with him, so he struggled through the conversation in Arabic the whole time, amazed that a Westerner like Andrew actually spoke the language. He insisted that we must have had Lebanese or Syrian ancestors or something!

Best point of the lack of Arabic: in one of the pharmacies we went to, a native Arab lady came in and asked the pharmacists if anyone spoke Arabic. One of the Indians affirmed, so she stayed. Even in her home country, she couldn't get by on Arabic. Wow!

So, if anyone wants to come out here for a lucrative job offer, we say go for it. It's hot, but it's a cool, organized, modern city, and English is pretty much all you need to survive (plus AC and all that other stuff I mentioned...)

Goodbye, Jordan

2006-08-15T03:12:00.000-06:00

Hopefully this post doesn't get too sappy. But it is our last day here, which is rather sad. Soon we'll have to head back to Orem, BYU, school, and work--real life. There are a lot of things that I'm going to miss about living in Jordan:

-Signs in more than one language...

-Our bridge (the yellow and blue one in the picture above)
-Falafel on every street corner
-All the history, both Biblical and political
-Petra
-The Dead Sea
-Crazily decorated taxis
-Sunshine everyday
-The company of the Slades
-The Call to Prayer
-Our Branch
-Singing every verse of every song we sing in church

A super-crazy taxi

There are also a number of things I'm looking forward to when I get home:
-Water
-Sunshine with a chance of rain
-Having something to do everyday
-Our own mode of transportation
-Salad, and any other foods that aren't fried
-A little less dust
-A dryer
-Milk that doesn't go bad 2 days after you buy it
-My family

Well, I suppose I'm glad to be heading home, but Jordan has become a part of us, so now when we go home we'll miss it, too!

The next leg of our journey

2006-08-15T02:52:00.000-06:00

We're busy finishing packing, cleaning the apartment (I just found a huge cockroach under the table! Gross!) and thinking about leaving Jordan. A sad thought, but there is a golden lining: we'll be traveling through the United Arab Emirates and Turkey on our way home.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 16th we will leaved Jordan and fly to Dubai in the UAE. We're not really sure what we'll be doing in Dubai since everything is super expensive. I know that we're planning on visiting some near-by Emirates, hanging out at the beach and the pool at our hotel, and basically relaxing. We also plan on finding the chapel and going to church on Friday. That should be an experience!

We fly out of Dubai on the 20th. Turkey should be more of an interesting experience. Andrew has been there before so he has some good ideas of what we can do while we're there. We should also have internet connection in our hotel, so that's exciting! Maybe we can post something while in Turkey!

We head back to Jordan on the 25th at 1 am. We'll probably be spending that morning sleeping in some forgotten corner of the airport and then will head into Amman to pick up our suitcases from the Steeds, who will be watching all our luggage while we're traveling. We will probably take a nap at their house because sleeping in airports isn't very efficient. Then we leave very early in the morning on the 27th, which means that we'll be spending the night of the 26th in another airport. It should be fun.

While we are a little nervous to fly in light of recent events, it looks like it is one of the safest times to fly. Security will be at its highest so we have little to worry about. The ban on carry-ons has been lifted for now so we should be fine to bring all of our suitcases home...without any liquids, of course. We look forward to seeing you all and sharing our experiences with you!

The Last Hurrah!

2006-08-15T02:36:00.000-06:00

We are quite happy about the fact that we are leaving this apartment. In addition to the funeral wailings, they have started digging up the road in front of our house. It certainly is noisy in our neighbourhood. It is interesting how they are going about paving the road. They kind of just work around the cars that are parked in the street and people will drive right through the construction honking their horns at the tractors...I think it might work a bit better if they would close the road for a few hours and get everything done without interruption, but I'm no civil engineer, so what do I know?

Road Construction

Anyway, to celebrate our last evening with the Slades, we decided to go out for dinner. Jason suggested that we go out but no one would say what we were thinking for dinner. We all sat in silence waiting for someone to make a group decision. Finally Jason said, "Well, what do you guys want? Pizza?" Crystal, Andrew and I all said, at virtually the same time, "That's exactly what I was thinking!" So, we all headed to Pizza Hut, or as they say here: Bitza Hoot. It was a very enjoyable evening. We all had fun watching Ezra goof off and dance around.

Ezra doing the pizza dance

The Slades

Our lovely dinner: with ketchup

When we want ketchup the most, we can't get it. I like to have ketchup with my french fries, but here they tend to be a little stingy on the ketchup packets giving you only two for a whole thing of fries. Hardly enough ketchup if you ask me. Instead they use mayonaise, which I find disgusting. Who has plain mayo on fries? Gross! But then, when you think you have no need for ketchup, like when you are eating pizza, they give you a whole bottle.

Us and Ezra

Here is Ezra's infamous mean face. He's so funny!

Funeral Wail -- 24 hours and counting

2006-08-13T12:19:00.000-06:00

For the last 24 hours we've been listening to an on-going wail. It's kind of off and on and because it's been going on for so long we kind of tend to block it out. All of a sudden we'll hear it again and think, "Wow, it's way too early for the 'Call to prayer.'" At first we thought that maybe it was a political campaign of sorts but there wasn't anything in the news about that. Then we thought that maybe the Call to Prayer times really had changed (rather dramatically) but after checking the schedule we found that it had not. So, after hearing it again this evening we went out onto our balcony to record it. As we were doing so we noticed quite a few fancy cars parking and then people walking toward some unknown location.

A Sample of the Wail

Andrew said, "Do you want to go for a walk?" Normally I'm the one who says this, but since he said it, I jumped on the opportunity. So, we headed out to find out what was going on.

We walked down to the traffic circle and started following people up the street (where cars were double and triple parked!) to an apartment building not far from ours. Everyone was dressed rather nicely and going into the courtyard of this apartment. Since Andrew and I were not-so-nicely dressed and we were uninvited, we decided to just ask the guard what was going on. The conversation went like this:

Andrew (in Arabic): What's happening?
Guard (in English): What?
Andrew (in Arabic): What's happening?
Guard (in English): What?
Andrew (in English): What's happening?
Guard (in broken English): There's man dead.
Andrew (in Arabic): Oh, there's a funeral.
Guard (in Arabic, confused): You speak Arabic?

So, it's a funeral. We kind of walked by the courtyard very slowly to observe what we could. They had carpeted the ground (this is outside, mind you) and there were flowers and stringed Christmas lights arranged very nicely. Everyone was hugging each other (well, the men were hugging the men and the women were hugging the women) but that was about all we could see.

Oh, no: Out again!

2006-08-13T06:12:00.000-06:00

Yes, we ran out of water today...again. Hopefully this is the last time. Afterall, this is our last week here so we really shouldn't even have a chance to run out of water again. However, since this is us we might run out even though we fill up tomorrow and are leaving on Wednesday. Crazily enough we've only had two weeks here that we haven't run out of water. I'm not sure whether or not to count this next week as the third week or not. I mean, we won't (crossing our fingers) run out of water, but if we stayed the whole week, we probably would run out of water. It's a toss up!

A few weeks ago we decided to keep all of our water bottles to see how much we were drinking. We collected quite a few--and most of those are 2 litres! That's not all the bottles in the house, and we have thrown a few away...but that is a lot of them. We call it our water bottle graveyard. (aka: weapons of little-to-no destruction).

The Water Bottle Graveyard

Water Bottle Battles

2006-08-13T05:54:00.000-06:00

We have a lot of fun things that we do in our apartment to keep Ezra (and ourselves) entertained. Ezra and I will play a game kind of like hide-and-go-seek, but instead of Ezra ever finding me, I jump out and scare him and chase him all around the apartment. Ezra also likes to get "stuck." This involves tickle torture. We also have been known to engage in pillow fights.

Here are Ezra and Andrew having a water bottle battle.

No one was harmed in the making of this film.

Party time!

2006-08-13T05:12:00.000-06:00

We are really in the last stretch here! Last Thursday was the last day of classes so we had a party! Andrew was both happy that the semester is closing but sad that we will be leaving soon. He took the camera to school to catch some pictures of class in action.

Hael's Amiiya Class

Hael and Feryal
(discussing the behavior of Rachel and Alison, no doubt)

Crystal and I came to campus to meet everyone there. When we arrived a good Arabic feast was laid out already, complete with various types of humus and foul, pita bread, falafel, some pastries stuffed with meat and potatoes, vegetables, sesame cookies, and kanafa (which Crystal and I both think is really gross). It was really good. Jordan doesn't have any very good baklava, at least not in my opinion. Andrew and I found some good baklava once...mostly though they sell huge pieces of dessert that look like baklava but inside have the same cheese that they put in the kanafa. Even though the desserts were kind of disappointing, it was fun to socialize with everyone once again.

Our Feast

People Socializing

I even got to "meet" the King!

Some of the Action

After we were all stuffed and getting ready to go, the students paused on the steps of the Language Center for a final picture. It was hard to get everyone to stand still and we had so many people taking pictures so the students didn't know where to look, but this one (of the three I took) ended up okay. Andrew is on the back row, the second on the left.

Everyone at the Language Center

After we left, Andrew and I wandered through campus to take a few pictures of some landmarks. The campus is really quite beautiful. There are so many trees (in comparison to the rest of the city!) and so it tends to be a lot cooler. The students hang out all over campus all day. They sprawl all over the sidewalks, under the trees, on the benches...

The Clock Tower

Our final picture of the main gate. No longer will we be harassed for our ID cards or teased by the guards because we can't speak Arabic (well, Andrew can but I struggle...). No longer will we take the bus to the University and get over-charged. No longer will we fight our way through traffic to get to the pedestrian tunnel to get to the Falafel Dude's place. No more sitting outside the Language Center waiting for class to get out. Sad, but joyful at the same time.

The main gate: Al Bab a-raisi

(It reads, "The Jordanian University" : Al Jamia Al-Orduniya)

Transportation stress continued...

2006-08-09T11:36:00.000-06:00

Transportation woes continue here in Amman. Last week it was impossible to get a taxi. The Palmers just had a hellish taxi experience. It was our turn today.

As a BYU group, we were all invited to a special screening of a documentary on Palestine and the West Bank. It was going to be really interesting. It was going to be at 7:00 PM. It was going to be at the house of one of the members of the church here, who lives next to some hotel in Shmeisani, a large neighborhood of Amman.

So, Nancy and I went out and got a taxi at 6:30 - plenty of time to spare. The only thing we knew about our destination was an older name for the hotel (which has since been bought out be some other company) - the Taiki Hotel. We flagged down a taxi after fighting with other would-be taxi hailers for 10ish minutes. I told the guy to take us to the Taiki Hotel in Shmeisani and he nodded, acknowledging he knew where the hotel was. Great! We'd get there on time - early, actually.

Two minutes into the drive, he asked me where the hotel was. He got angry when I told him I had no idea. I called Kirk, our program director, and got the real name of the hotel - Star Plaza Hotel. I told the driver and he said "Ah, okay," once again acknowledging that he knew where to go.

Two minutes later, he started yelling at me, demanding to know the address of the hotel. I told him I had no idea, and that he was supposed to know. He yelled back that he didn't have to know - that was my responsibility, to know Amman. I got sick of him, so I asked him to let us out. We weren't at Shmeisani yet - we could get another taxi and still get there.

He refused. He told me that he'd make a deal - he'd take us to the downtown area of Shmeisani and let us get out there, and someone there would be bound to know. I agreed.

As we continued driving, he sped past the exit for Shmeisani. I immediately asked him why, and he responded by telling me he was avoiding traffic. I was wary.

He took us to the good old diwar al-dakhliya - the dreaded place of last week. He saw the first hotel there - the elaborate Royal Jordanian - and said "Here's a hotel - that's the one you want - get out." I knew we weren't in Shmeisani, so I told him, but he said that he couldn't go there. I gave up and got out. Paying him was a hassle - it was 85 piasters, so I gave him a dinar. He "didn't have any change" and wouldn't let me try paying him with any coins I had. So, we were trapped at the interior circle, had just been ripped off 15 cents, and were far from where we wanted to go.

I flagged the first taxi I saw. He pulled over, but after telling him we wanted to go to Shmeisani, he refused and drove away. Ugh. So, we waited for another taxi, who also pulled over and then refused. Nobody wanted to take us.

We went out to the main road and tried getting a taxi there, but rush hour traffic was at a standstill. Any taxis stuck there already had people there. We went to a side road and tried getting a taxi, but failed again. It was 7:10 and we were stuck. We gave up.

The problem with giving up this time was the same as last time - we couldn't get home either. We crossed the death-defying interior circle in rush hour, luckily found a minibus, and headed back up towards home. The fare-dude on the bus ripped us off though and avoided us so we couldn't call his cheating. Grrr...

We decided to not go home yet, but go on to the UJ and eat at the Pizza Hut above the Egyptian falafel place. Good pizza, but the waiter messed up our order and overcharged us. Ugh - ripped off three times in an hour!

Coming home should have been easy - we only live two stops from the UJ - 3-5 minutes. So, with our luck for the evening, what were the chances of a high speed car accident resulting in the chrushing and explosion of two cars, completely stopping traffic, right before our bus stop? Yeah. It happened. We were stuck in the bus for 20 more minutes.

We finally made it home safely, not doing anything we had planned on. Rats! I can't wait until August is over and taxis go back to normal (of course, we won't be here for that...)

Egyptian falafel dudes

2006-08-09T08:09:00.000-06:00

As part of the intensive Arabic language study abroad, I have to have 10-12 hours of Arabic speaking time every week. Lots of BYU students just go find random people on campus and start talking. Some have host families that they can talk with all the time. Others, like me, have a harder time getting this requirement done. Fortunately, I've had a great source of Arabic speaking practice: a falafel restaurant across the street from the University of Jordan.

It all started during my first week here. It was lunchtime, I was hungry, and so I set out to find someplace to eat other than the snack stands in front of the UJ. I went across the street to where all the restaurants are and found an alley in between Pizza Hut and Popeye's Fried Chicken (good old globalization). At the back of the alley I saw a food establishment-looking place. While I stared at it, a big white haired man yelled at me in English, asking if I wanted falafel. I said yes and walked over.

When I got over to him, he introduced himself as Franco - hardly an Arabc name - from Egypt. After talking for a while, I discovered that he owned a pizzeria in Milan for 8 years and spoke some Italian. So, we hit it off.

While we were talking, a younger, skinnier Egyptian worker came out, and introduced himself as Marco (he overheard the Italy conversation). I ordered my falafel sandwich (hummus, falafel, cucumbers, tomatoes, and french fries all in a warm, soft, pita bread) and left, not really thinking to go back, for some dumb reason.

I didn't really go back until Jason arrived a couple weeks later. During our lunch break during his first day of school, I took him to the "Italian/Egyptian falafel place" as I called it. Franco and Marco immediately asked where I had been (and had remembered my name! Wow!). I got a falafel sandwich and ate it happily.

The next day, we returned. While we sat in the back courtyard, Marco (the young guy, whose real name is Rida) came and sat with us and talked to us for an hour, all in Arabic. After, we talked with Franco, Marco, and the 4 other Egyptian workers there for another hour. Thus began our daily lunch break at the Egyptian falafel place.

After a few weeks, public school got out and two kids started working at the restaurant - 17 year old Fadi and his 15 year old younger brother Mohammed. Instead of being Egyptian like most other workers there, they were Palestinian Jordanian. We soon discovered that their dad was the co-owner of the restaurant, with Franco (or Fikri, his real name) being the other owner. During the summer the kids work there, cooking and cleaning and working at the cash register and stuff. We quickly hit it off, and the kids would look forward to our visits.

Almost every day this summer, Jason and I have gone to this restaurant to eat their great food and hang out with the workers, kids, and customers. It's been great for my language skills, and gave me a good perspective into normal Arab life. I can also eat like an Arab, using pita bread as my only utensil (as can Nancy). Since I went every day to buy food as an excuse for talking with them, I had to try foods other than my traditional falafel sandwich. Here are some of the variations:

-Classic Falafel Sandwich, Andrew style (without pickles, cauliflower, or eggplant)
-Falafel Sandwich Kabeer (big falafel sandwich rolled in a large, thin, crepe-like bread)
-Falafel Sandwich on bread
-Foul sandwich (falafel sandwich minus hummus, plus foul)
-Ground beef, tomatoes, and onions (that's exactly what they call it in Arabic too - it's like thick spaghetti sauce that you eat with pita)

After trying the foul (pronounced "fool" - فول), I decided it was probably one of my favorite Arabic foods. So, the Egyptian falafel dudes convinced me to eat like a normal Arab. Most people who eat lunch there sit out in the back, eating hummus, foul, and falafel with pita bread - all from single plates at each table. So, I got a bowl of foul and a bowl of 6 falafel balls and two large, warm, fresh pitas. 'Twas bliss.

Since then, my usual is the foul/falafel/pita thing. Even Nancy is converted. She's come a few times with me. They occasionally give me a few extra falafel balls to take home to Nancy.

They are all great friends with me now. I talk with Marco/Rida about his love life, Mohammed and Fadi about their goals and ambitions, and Franco/Fikri about business. They're already sad about us leaving so soon, as are we! Where will I be able to get such great Arabic conversation and food every day!?

Here are some pictures of the Egyptian/Palestinian falafel dudes. They're great!

Fadi and Franco

I sit in those chairs in the back, behind Franco

Me and Mohammed?

One of the other Egyptian workers. He didn't really talk with me until a month into my frequent visits, and he introduced himself way back in the beginning, and when he started talking with me, he already knew my name and everything about me, and assumed I knew the same about him. Unfortunately, I don't know his name. I think it's Mohammed, but I may be wrong. Oops!

Marco

Notice the bowl of falafel balls in the corner. Yum! He's talking with his girlfriend who's on a business trip in Turkey (she's Palestinian)

Mohammed

I didn't believe him when he said he was 15. I made him show me his ID. He's really 15. Really, really, short guy. Funny guy too!

Days of the week

2006-08-08T04:51:00.000-06:00

Well, we are on our last week here in Jordan. It's pretty crazy that we've been here this long. Soon I'll have to readjust to American culture. I think the hardest thing for me will be getting the days of the week straight again. I just got them straight here. Switching up the days of the week is not a very nice thing to do to your brain.

While back in America, Kirk said, "Classes start Sunday." Everyone's reaction was, "What?!? We can't have class on Sunday!"

But Sunday here is like Monday. It's the first day of the work week after the weekend. Our weekend typically falls over Friday and Saturday. We go to church on Friday--so Friday is like Sunday, but also like Saturday because it's the first day of the weekend. That means that Saturday is really Saturday because it's our day of play. But it's kind of like Sunday because it's the last day of the weekend. Thursdays make us really excited because they are like Fridays--the last day of the work week! Mondays are like Tuesdays. Tuesdays are like Wednesdays, leaving Wednesdays to be like Thursdays. (We like Thursdays because that means it's Friday!)

Sometimes on Friday afternoons we plan to call home only to realize that no one will be home because it isn't Sunday morning for them--it's actual Friday. But then it's hard to remember to call home on Sunday because that's kind of like Monday so we have Family Home Evening. Sometimes we forget to have FHE on Sunday because Sunday isn't called Monday and we forget (because FHE is on Monday) so we have it on Monday instead.

It feels strange to go shopping on Sundays...to not go to church on Sundays...to go to school and work on Sundays...it's just odd! But then again it's sometimes hard to remember to go to church on Friday (Sunday)...

We fly home on Sunday, but we'll have gone to church on the Friday before so it won't feel like Sunday. It will feel like Monday. So I'll still be all confused when I get home!

I just know that we're going to show up at church at 9 AM Friday morning and be the only ones there. We'll stand around for a few minutes wondering why no one is there, and then it will hit us: It's Friday-Friday, not Friday-Sunday! Hopefully we'll be able to remember to go to church on Sunday!

Cooking at Kirk's

2006-08-07T01:57:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we had a cooking class at Kirk's landlord's place. We decided to walk there because taking a taxi that far just didn't seem to make a lot of sense. The walk seemed a lot shorter than the first few times we did it--I think because we know the city better, it just seemed closer. Kirk's house is at the top of a huge hill. When you look at it, it looks more like a wall than a hill. It isn't too bad going up but we all were huffing and puffing a little.

Kirk's hill (note the sudden increase in up grade!)

Kirk's house is like a castle compared to our house. His landlord's house is even better! The kitchen was so Americanized! It was really clean and beautiful. They had security cameras and everything! And it was huge! We all fit nicely into their kitchen ready to have our first, and likely only, cooking lesson.

Preprepared Ingredients

Interestingly enough, what we made we won't be able to make in America. The main ingredient is a plant that has no known name in English - ملوخية or mulukhiya in Arabic. To me that means that it most likely isn't grown, used, or sold in the States. So, although the dish was good, we won't be able to make it at home. I think that we could replace spinach or grape leaves for whatever plant it was...although I'm not sure how well it would work.

PS - Andrew just did some intense Google searching and found that the plant we used last night is corchorus olitorius, or just corchorus in English. Maybe we'll have to find some mulukhiya seeds to grow back in the states.

Before

It was relatively easy to make though. You just put some cut up garlic in a pot with some salt, pepper, and oil (she said "a little" oil which translates to being a whole lot of oil in English) and then fry it for a few minutes until the garlic smells done. Then you put in the chicken and cook that in the oil while you cut up the leaves. You then put the leaves in the pot and add some water. Boil it until it looks done.

After

It was really an interesting dish and tasted really good. It was kind of slimy, like when you leave a flower in a vase too long and the water gets all gross. We ate it with rice. It was really filling. I was full after I had almost finished my bowl. But they serve up here like they do in Russia... Or anywhere in the world if you happen to be a missionary. Just when I was almost done the landlady came and dumped another spoonful in my bowl. I was already full so I was kind of sad about this because now I was obligated to eat at least some of it. At least here it is good manners to leave food in your bowl. That means that the host was so rich and food was so plentiful that it was not possible for you to eat everything. Phew! So I didn't quite finish all of my second bowl--I don't think I would have been able to! I think she wasn't offended. In any other culture the host might have been, but here, it's a pretty safe bet that she was flattered that I couldn't finish.

Our Brush with Disaster

2006-08-07T01:50:00.000-06:00

Ashley and Ben came over last night to play some games with us after going to Kirk's house. After they left, Andrew and I got ready for bed. As we were brushing our teeth we were in high spirits, kind of goofing around and laughing. We spat in the sink and then turned on the tap...and nothing happened! We stared at the tap in shock...looked at each other...looked back to the tap...and then remembered that there was no water! We had to use our drinking water to rinse our brushes off. Bummer!

Just another thing you can't do when you don't have water!

Thank goodness our tank filled early this morning. Sometimes it doesn't fill until late in the afternoon, but today it was full by 9 AM! I never thought something so simple could make me so happy!

Up on the housetop

2006-08-06T05:47:00.000-06:00

We seem to be out of water...again. This time we might actually be out instead of just needing to pump our water. Andrew and I went up onto the roof to check things out. Our roof is pretty scary. There are pipes and cables and satellites and tanks and solar panels everywhere. It's all pretty trashy. We're not completely positive which water tank is ours since there are three different kinds of tanks, but we think that they are these big metal boxes. Please note how rusted the tank on the left is. It is no wonder we are not supposed to drink the water.

Water Tanks?

There are also some more interesting double-decker tanks that we don't think would hold enough to get anyone through the week. This is a picture of a newer tank...some of them were really gross looking!

After tip-toeing around our roof for a while (there really isn't a good place to put your feet down firmly), Andrew went to get a shot of the city. In this shot we can see our neighbour's roof and understand how they can have parties up there. Do you see how nice and organized their water tanks are in that nice little line? Ours are not like that. Ours are sporadically placed here and there. Some plastic ones, some metal ones...some broken ones. I'm kind of jealous of their roof--and their nice-looking water tanks.

Our Neighbouring Apartment Building Roof

In case anyone is wondering why the tanks are on the roof, it is due to water pressure. Our dear friend gravity is the only thing that helps our water get through the pipes and into our apartment.

No better place to be!

2006-08-06T03:59:00.000-06:00

Andrew and I went downtown on a specific mission yesterday: to find a clock with Arabic-Indic numbers (those portrayed to the right). Since this is an Arabic-speaking country, and since there is such a clock in the Relief Society room we thought that it would be fairly easy to find our much-wanted clock. We left for downtown shortly after 1 o'clock via bus...a very cost-effective transportation method. Traffic was remarkably non-existent and the bus was not even full. Needless to say, we arrived downtown in record time and promptly started our clock-finding mission.

Andrew's watch--we want a clock like that!

As we explored the "stores" in the area, the ever-vigilant "store" owners would ask what we were looking for. Andrew would say, "We are looking for a clock that has Arabic numbers." The "store" owner would say, "We don't have them." Andrew would say, "Do you know where I can find one?" The "store" owners would then give one of three responses:
1) "No, but can I interest you in _______?"
2) "It's impossible." -or- "That's a very difficult task."
3) "Well, I have this friend of a friend. His store is just on the next street on the left or right side--I can't quite remember which, but he sells clocks--you'll see his store. And it's possible that he might have one."

After listening to answer #3 a few times we realized that there really isn't a friend of a friend. The "shop" owner just didn't want to tell us no. Since #3 was the most common answer we started saying, "Yeah, okay, thanks...we'll check that out." And then would just keep walking down the street completely ignoring the "shop" owner's advice.

***Please note: "Shop" is in quotation marks because "shop" is a very relative word here. A shop can be a collection of books spread out on the sidewalk. It can be a nook under a staircase. It can be a little hole in the wall. It can be a stand. Or it could be an actual store.***

We finally decided to give up our mission a few hours later and went to hydrate ourselves with some fresh juice. For 50 piasters you can get a cup of the most delicious freshly squeezed juices. The favorite here tends to be "cocktail" which is a mixture of pretty much all the fruit they have. It is really something. The funny thing is that there really is no competition here. You will walk down a street and everyone is selling exactly the same thing. They just sit around and socialize, but if you buy from one person, chances are that you will be yelled at by a few more for not coming to their shop. That's what happened here. We bought juice from the store on the left. The shop keeper on the right yelled at us as we walked by, "You should buy here! It is much better!" If he really wanted us to drink there he should have tried to get our business before we had our juice. Although he acted rather mad, I'm sure that he's still best friends with the other shop keeper.

Fresh Juice

After drinking our juice and picking up a few last minute souvenirs, Andrew and I realized that we had a 20 JD bill and two 10 piece coins. This is quite a tragedy if you are dependent on a taxi or bus to get home since no one ever seems to have the correct amount of change, if they have any change at all. We were stranded in downtown Amman. Not to be worried, we walked around to see if there was anything else we wanted to get. We knew that we wanted a kursi, or a Qur'an holder so decided to go look for one. Although we had seen plenty while we had been looking for the clock, certainly had a time finding one while we were looking for one. In the end, we didn't ever find one, but we did see some interesting things.

Brush with Crust

Young Bread Seller Balancing his Wares

We ended up buying two little key chains. Andrew bartered them down to 2 for 1.50, to which our store keeper agreed. Then Andrew said, "Oh, there's a slight problem...I only have a 20." This was a long shot, but much to our surprise the store keeper said, "Oh, that's not a problem." And he gave us our change without having to go borrow from the store down the street. It was pretty amazing since we had one shop keeper who couldn't even break a five without borrowing some change! Downtown is definitely a cool place to be. There are so many interesting things to see!

مستحيل

2006-08-05T02:11:00.000-06:00

So, since we are nearing the end of our stay here in Amman, we've had to do lots of last minute errands, which involve travel all around the city. When we first got here in May, that was easy; taxis were plentiful and traffic wasn't bad. This past Thursday was completely opposite from back in May. The word of the day was the title of this post - mustaheel, or impossible.

I drew a really simple map of Amman so you can follow along in my long adventures.

My after-school plan on Thursday was to go downtown to the 1st circle to the Wanadoo/Jordanian Telecom building to pay for our last month of internet and tell them to cancel our account after we leave. Then I was going to go to the Abdali bus station to ask about the special Airport Express bus (which, by the way, is a great deal - it leaves every 30 minutes from 7 AM to 9:30-10 PM and costs 1.5 JD per person - way better than the 20 JD+ taxis). On a normal day, that trip should have taken 20 minutes max.

So, after school, I went across the street to my favorite falafel store for a quick lunch. Then I began my adventure. I went out in front of the UJ to get a taxi to go to the 1st circle. It was pure chaos. Hundreds of students were fighting to get on minibusses and whatever taxis stopped. I fought for a taxi for 15 minutes and then decided that was mustaheel, so I squeezed myself on a minibus and decided to take it to the diwar al dakhliyya, or interior circle. This is the point where the bus route diverts from my desired path - the busses continue on to Abdali, but I wanted to go the 1st circle first before Wanadoo/JT closed (government buildings close at around 1-3 PM here...I had a time limit). Usually hundreds of empty taxis drive around this crazy traffic circle. My plan would have been perfect....

...had everyone else not thought of it too. Half the minibus got off with me and we joined the literally hundreds of people trying to get a taxi in front of the Ministry of the Interior building. The atmosphere was a lot tenser than the UJ - people were running around, swearing at each other - one guy actually pulled another guy who stole his waved-down taxi out of said taxi.

I walked up and down the street, trying to find the most strategic spot for getting my own taxi. Unfortunately, everytime I moved to a better spot, a taxi came to my former spot and picked up a person who came after me. Grrr... I was tempted to walk down to the 3rd circle and then walk over to the 1st, but there was no sidewalk. I was trapped. (PS - two of the hotels that were bombed back in November are on the road between the Interior and the 3rd circle, the one I was trying to walk down.)

I was stuck down there for 45 minutes, playing the taxi game. I got so frustrated that I decided to just go home and try it a different day, or never pay for the internet and skip the country. However, I ran into another problem: getting home. I couldn't get a taxi to the first circle - how could I get one home!? Mustaheel!

Luckily, there are minibusses, like the one I took to get the the black-hole circle, that go between Abdali and the UJ, passing conveniently in front of the Destour - my house. So, I crossed the deadly chaotic traffic circle and found the bus stop. Once again, literally hundreds of people were there, waiting for the same bus I was. I waited there for another 15 minutes as busses passed, packed as many people on as possible, and drove off. I finally forced myself up to the front of the crowd and forced myself on to the next bus and was hanging out the door all the way up to the Destour.

I made it home - mission failed. Not 2 minutes after getting off the bus, I saw an empty taxi. Mustaheel! I immediately changed my plans and waved it down. Whew! I finally got my taxi, after over an hour of trying and backtracking all the way home!

We drove back the the interior circle and I secretly laughed at the hundreds of people still fighting for taxis.

During the taxi ride to the 1st circle, we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, so I asked the taxi driver what the heck was going on. Apparently, every August, Jordan gets a huge influx of tourists from Saudi Arabic and the other Gulf states because their temperatures during the summer get up to 50 degrees C (122 F!!!), so they come to Jordan where the weather's great! A very common thing here now is the giant, gas guzzling SUVs with Saudi and Emirate plates - there are tons of them.

In addition to that, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Lebanon have come to Jordan, with and without cars, adding to the traffic and taxi strain.

I finally made it to the 1st circle and got everything taken care of in 5 minutes. I waited in front of the building for another 15 minutes until an empty taxi passed (ugh) and went to Abdali to ask about the aforementioned airport bus.

I then fought my way onto another minibus to the Destour - another chaotic struggle to get on the bus. I then finally made it home, after over 2.5 hours of wating and fighting and frustation and heat and everything!

Whew!

It's probably a good thing that we're leaving now, when taxis are impossible to find and the traffic is horrible.

Especially since last night we had a drunk taxi driver. It was the scariest taxi experience we've had here in Jordan.

If only all taxi drivers were nice and available and there was no traffic!

Water Woes Continue

2006-08-03T01:19:00.000-06:00

Again we have run out of water. This is interesting because it is only Thursday and we don't get water until Monday. We are convinced that our tank doesn't fill up all the way sometimes. After all, we've each only had 1 shower and done 2 loads of laundry this week along with a few bucket baths. Technically that doesn't amount to the quantity of water we should have had. So this morning Andrew heated up the water (because I hate fiddling with the water heater) and just after I had shampooed my hair...

Yup! The water stopped flowing! It's a good thing we had a bucket that we let fill up in the shower before we start showering (for toilet flushing purposes, mainly)...so that was used for the rinse off. Bummer...I'm still not convinced that everything is out of my hair but at least I can stand the smell of myself now.

Sometimes we go so long without showering that we can't stand the smell of each other. I'm quite positive that you did not want to know that, but seriously, we run out of water so often we conserve it like crazy! Oh, well...hopefully it just needs to be pumped. Whenever our bowab wakes up, he'll try that. Until then, no toilet flushes, no hand washes, no showers, no water for cooking, no dish washing, no mopping the floor. We are totally dependent on water! At least we have to buy purified water so we always have some of that on hand!

The "Seriousness" of the Situation

2006-08-01T23:53:00.000-06:00

We seem to have had some complaints, so I will deal with them matter-of-factly. If you look at the map you will notice that all the countries around here are fairly small. From Jordan we can see Tiberius. We can see Jerusalem. We can see Jericho. We can see the Syrian border. We share a border with Iraq. We've been welcomed by our cell phone company to Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia because, although we have never been to those countries, the borders are so disputed, they're overly friendly about it. "Hello, welcome to Saudi Arabia!" You know, I thought we were in the Sinai peninsula but I may have strayed to Saudi Arabia...no...Saudi Arabia's cell phone towers were just sending signals over the border...to what they may very well wish was part of their country, as we know is the case in Palestine, Jordan and Israel.

The truth is that Jordan is a very stable and safe country. We haven't been in a war since 1967 and enjoy staying out of sticky political situations. Unfortunately we are in the middle of a lot here. For a distance analogy, we are 81 miles (131 km) from Haifa. We are 135 miles (217 km) from Beirut. We are 109 miles (175 km) from Damascus. That's all pretty close. And we are up close and personal with Iraq and Iran, too!

For reference: From Calgary to Lethbridge, AB is 110 miles (177 km). From Orem to Logan, UT is 99 miles (160 km). In all seriousness we are very close to the conflict so although we are perfectly safe here it does not mean that there haven't been times when we've lost our cool. There are times when fireworks go off so close to our house that we all jump and say, "It's just fireworks..." Now, some of us might have a hard time admitting what we were thinking when we heard that noise, but since we have all said in a very relieved tone, "It's just fireworks..." I know that we were thinking they were bombs. But no one is going to bomb Jordan anytime soon. We can't see any fights from here. We haven't seen any airstrikes or anything exciting like that. We are perfectly safe...but the conflict does tend to make one at least a little nervous.

Our political view here is also an interesting one. We get to see the pro-Lebanon propaganda, complete with gruesome TV commercials and posters in the newspaper of dead babies. And Arabs do tend to enjoy heated political conversations. To be truthful, Arabs get heated over bargaining for tomatoes so day-to-day life is a lot more exciting than if we just had supermarkets with set prices.

We also get so see the pro-Israel propaganda that is issued by the States (yes, I said pro-Israel propaganda). To be honest, we don't know who is right or wrong in this conflict. But we do think that both sides are making serious mistakes and miscalculations thereby causing a lot more bloodshed than is really necessary over two soldiers. Perhaps both sides are wrong. Perhaps both sides could be viewed as terrorist groups. If I could make an open statement to the world, it would be this: grow up!

To be perfectly honest, both Israel and Hezbollah are Zionist, in my opinion. They both want a place to worship as they see fit. And they would really like that place to be the Middle East...and some of Europe...and anywhere else their ancient ancestors roamed thousands of years ago. It's ridiculous. The problem is that no one is willing to look at the present and into the future. They all want retribution of what they never really experienced having. They are longing for a past that cannot coexist with the future. The only solution they see to this is to blow each other up. That's fine. Eventually neither civilization will exist for they will be one big piece of desolated soil, obliverated by mines, bombs, and machine guns. As a Canadian of Swiss ancestry, I have a long line of neutrality when dealing with issues such as wars. I embrace my heritage when I say to Israel and Hezbollah: Have fun guys (just leave everyone else out of it)!

Riots at the UJ

2006-08-01T09:35:00.000-06:00

Yesterday there were huge riots at school again. This time, they were a lot worse than the previous times. Guards got injured as the students pressed them to the main gates of the university. I didn't see any of it, but Al-Jazeera did. Here's a 10 second clip of the riots from yesterday:

Accidental bus ride

2006-07-31T06:50:00.000-06:00

Transportation in Jordan can sometimes be a hassle...well, it's always a hassle. The main mode of public transportation is the ubiquitous minibus, which are privately owned and go pretty much anywhere. They usually follow a set route, but are sometimes negotiable, like the one we took to Wadi Mujib and the Dead Sea. You always risk not getting on the right bus.

Since I take the bus to and from school everyday, getting a wrong bus is a semi-common occurence for me, but is easily fixed, since the bus driver usually changes his route for me (weird stuff...)

We had a similar problem going to Jerash. When we got to the Abdali bus station, I started looking around for the line of Jerash minibusses. The destination is always written on the side of the bus, and I had seen Jerash busses before, so I knew that they existed. I soon found our lucky bus. On the side was written "Amman to Jerash Camp" and in my momentary ignorance, I figured that meant a military camp or a tourist campground. I asked the driver if it went by the main Jerash ruins and he replied affirmatively. So off we went...

It didn't take me long to figure out what the Jerash Camp really was. The bus was full of Palestinian refugees heading home to their ghetto refugee camp. Hmmm...that's kind of dangerous for Americans to go to, since they place direct blame for their situation on us and Israel. But we were already underway, so we decided to ride it out.

An old guy next to me asked me why we were on that bus - he already knew we were Americans. He then drilled me on America's policies with Israel and started getting angry with me. He used an analogy 3 different ways to explain his anger at Israel - "What if someone came and kicked you out of your house at night? Would you try to get it back?", "What if I stole your bag and drank all your water? Would you want your water back?" and "What if this was your bus and I stole it from you? Would you want it back? Would you fight for it?"

I just kept telling him that I didn't support Israel and didn't support America's policies towards them and that I was against the war in Lebanon and Palestine. He couldn't believe that an American would say such things.

It didn't help that he spoke to me exclusively in broken English - it made the others on the bus very wary. I responded to him in Arabic the whole time, and it was pretty funny when he asked me halfway through the conversation if I spoke Arabic.

Anyway, during his heated conversation, some guy got on the bus and sat in front of me. He heard that we were talking and turned around and yelled at the old guy "Do you know what you're talking to!? Do you know where he's from? He's a Zionist supporter from America!!". The old guy just said "Yeah, I know. It's okay - he likes Hizballah - he hates the Jews." That wasn't completely true - I definitely don't hate Jews (since I'm 1/4th-ish Jewsih), and I'm not completely against Hizballah - but I wasn't about to negate my "redeeming qualities" in front of the angry guy. He angrily turned around back in his seat and was mostly silent during the rest of the trip.

He only spoke up in response to the BBC news that was on the radio. Every time America, Bush, Condoleeza Rice, or Israel mentioned, he and half the bus would mumble something. Once, after Rice was mentioned in one news report, he turned to me and said "That's your stupid foreign minister coming here. What are you going to do about it?!" I just ignored him and remained silent for the rest of the trip.

It was a huge relief to get off that bus at Jerash. Fun experience, yes. Something I want to do again, not really. At least, not during an Israeli war.

The way home was easier and much more peaceful. We found a busy intersection where tons of people were waiting around for something. I asked if they were waiting for a bus to go to Amman, but one girl responded by telling me that there were no busses to Amman and that we had to find a ride. Some guy overheard our conversation and came to offer us a ride for 6 JD for all of us. Since we paid 40 piasters each coming up, that was way too expensive, so we declined his offer. I asked other bystanders, and they all agreed - there was no bus to Amman. We decided that there had to be a bus to Amman, so we walked down the main road to find the city bus station. After 10 minutes of walking, a large bus for Amman pulled over and we got in.

Our bus drove up to the intersection where everyone was waiting, and everyone got on - even the girl who denied the existence of such a bus. Unfortunately she didn't see us on the bus...I had so wanted to call her bluff!

Global Village

2006-07-31T04:53:00.000-06:00

The Global Village is something that I would compare to The Del Mar Fair, or any State Fair for that matter, but I've only ever been to that particular State Fair. There were a bunch of stands, mostly from Islamic countries, such as: India, Pakistan, Iraq, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Iran, Senegal, Kenya, Thailand, Yemen, Jordan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, China and Turkey. We may have missed a few in our list, and they aren't all Islamic countries...we aren't really sure why Kenya and Thailand were represented but that's okay. We're glad they were there anyway. Lebanon even had a sign, although there was nothing at their booth.

There were interesting things to buy (we just looked, mostly) at all the places. A lot of the booths sold similar things like the popular Indian-style clothing, and Pro-Palestinian things and vegetable cutters, but some of the booths were rather unique. Saudi Arabia had a nice display of daggers and diapers. Singapore sported some nice "shocking news for the Arabic's"! Shan: A steam BBQ and steam food maker--It's really a gift for fat worried people and heart patients [sic].

Buy this for your fat worried friends.

(If you click on the picture you might be able to see it better).

Some of the booths were really cool. Andrew and I really enjoyed Pakistan--India was not so cool, although we still liked it. We also liked Palestine, whereas Jordan was completely empty. We really liked Kenya's booth. They had a lot of really neat artwork. I saw a carved hippo that I really wanted. It was so cute (we neglected to take a picture). Andrew told the lady working the stand that we thought the hippo was cute. She said, "Her name is Willie. She is 20 JD." I didn't think that we could spend 20 JD on a carved hippo so Andrew told her that. She said, "Okay, how much will you give me for Willie?" Well, after she named that hippo, I really couldn't barter her down any further so we just left. Sad...but what would I do with a hippo anyway?

I went to India this summer! (I wish!)

That picture is for Josie who went to India this summer. I totally wanted to go visit her but it was not possible. She had a great time acutally being there and I had a great time pretending to be there. Although India did not have any saris or kameezes that I could afford (they had very few...and those were totally fancy. In India they mostly just had peasant skirts and gaucho pants) I did buy a salwar kameeze set and some bangles in Pakistan. Next time we go to the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, I'll be all decked out and ready to dance!

The closest I've been to Iraq

There were some places that I went that I probably won't get to go anytime soon, like Iraq. I like how Iraq chose to decorate their booth with broken walls and shut-up windows...sadly there was only art in the Iraq stand. Not that the art was bad...it was really neat. I just think it is sad that they aren't really exporting anything anymore. At least they had more than the Lebanon booth...Lebanon really isn't exporting anything. We went to go get cereal at the store but there was hardly any Poppins left in the whole store! War certainly does terrible things...

Jordan, on the other hand, had a very remarkable display of the Treasury in Petra. They were also blasting Arabic music. We thought, from the looks of their booth that the inside would be cool. We were wrong. The inside was virtually empty--they don't even have an excuse! We walked through the blasting music for nothing. Oh, well.

Jordan's display

We got to the Global Village fairly early in the evening. This was a good thing because our tickets were only 1 JD. Things started to liven up later in the evening (as most things here do). It was pretty amazing to see how many families were out with their children that late! More and more little shops opened in each country as it got later. We wandered through each booth like 3 times and noticed more and more things each time. The second time through Saudi Arabia we noticed their pet shop.

Aside from just shopping there were rides to go on (which we opted to not!). The rides looked about as sturdy as this bunny...who is in pretty sad shape!

Nappy Bunny

Herbal Toothpaste Advertisement

(And if you think that toothpaste is strange, there are commercials

on TV all the time for new flavors of toothpaste. Will your mouth

really taste clean after brushing with chocolate? I submit that it would not!)

Global Village was pretty big...they had shopping carts for people, and bicycles to take people around. Andrew and I were pretty tired near the end of our time in Global Village and looked for a bench to sit on. Unfortunately we never did find an available seat.

To the Bike-mobile!

Getting a taxi home was remarkably easy. We were worried about it while we were there since when we arrived we were one of few families there...but when we left the parking lot was packed. Taxis were lined up waiting to take people home and no one was leaving yet. It was great!

RACE: The Roman Army and Chariot Experience

2006-07-30T11:35:00.000-06:00

The Chariot Race

2006-07-30T11:23:00.000-06:00

Better Gladiator Fight

2006-07-30T11:22:00.000-06:00

First Gladiator Fight

2006-07-30T11:20:00.000-06:00

V-line break

2006-07-30T11:15:00.000-06:00

Replenishing the Army Lines

Jerash

2006-07-30T05:08:00.000-06:00

Jerash is one of Jordan's treasure troves; it's one of the best preserved Roman cities in the whole world. And I must admit, it really is very well preserved when compared to Rome. There were columns everywhere, the streets were original Roman-paved roads complete with underground sewage systems and ruts on the road. It's a complete ghost city.

The first thing we came to was the hippodrome. It was kind of awkward because we bought our tickets at the gate and passed a sign that said, "Make sure you got your tickets." and then we were at a loss of where to go. We hiked up to this wall and then saw a break in it and so walked through. It was completely empty...so we took a few pictures and walked through another gate. At last we saw some people. They were selling tickets for a show. We decided to get them since we are residents in Jordan. Our admission price to Jerash was only 50 piasters (instead of 8 JD for tourists!), and the tickets for the show were only 5 JD (instead of 20 JD for tourists!). The show was really pretty cool.

The men in the show are in the Jordanian army (from the looks of it we think that some of them are retired) and they march well, although their lines got off quite a bit. They "spoke" Latin and had pretty good costumes.

I'll do separate posts for the other videos so that they don't take as long to load. The show was about an hour long. We first had the legion 5 come out, and then watched some gladiators fight, and then saw a horse race. All through the show, the soundtrack from the movie Gladiator was playing. Apparently the Royal Family here really liked that film and thus rennovated the hippodrome and ordered the horse races, actually hiring the people who helped in the Ben Hur chariot races to train the Jordanian Special Forces who are assigned to Jerash...at least, that's what we were told by Prince Firas bin Raad when he visited BYU campus last semester.

The Hippodrome

We had a fairly rough day. We just didn't prepare well at all. I wore flip flops for the first time this summer, which probably wasn't a very good idea. None of us put on sunscreen and we had only 3 little water bottles and 2 packages of cookies between the five of us (Me, Andrew, Jason, Crystal, and Ezra). Needless to say we got more and more dehydrated as we went...but it was pretty cool all the same.

We first walked to the South Amphitheater. On the way, Andrew pretended to be a column and I squished into a statue niche to prove that I could. (Ezra was standing in one...and so we thought that we would see if I could also be a statue. I can, by the way!)

Andrew completes the column

Nancy in a niche

The amphitheater isn't much compared to the Colosseum or the amphitheater in Vienna, but considering the population of Gerasa at the time, and that there are 2 amphitheaters in the same city, it is pretty remarkable.

Nancy at the top of the Amphitheater looking out over the Oval Plaza

There is a wooden stage covering the original flooring because they were preparing for a big event in Jerash. Every year there is a Jerash Cultural Festival there where Arab musicians and artisans come and do concerts and so forth throughout the park. Unfortunately it was cancelled this year due to the war in Lebanon, since a lot of Arab singers are Lebanese (such as my namesake, Nancy Ajram). We were looking forward to going, but it was nice to go when the park was pretty unoccupied.

South Amphitheater

After the amphitheater, we hit a bunch of churches. Most of what's left of them is columns--there were so many columns! While we were in one of the churches the Call to Prayer sounded. There were so many mosques around (I think we spotted 5 minarets) so it was pretty crazy. It wasn't quite a mess as in downtown Cairo, but it was still pretty garbled. They were all going at the same time and I couldn't really hear the words from any particular one because they were all running together and echoing on the hills. It was really pretty cool.

For some reason we really liked the amphitheaters. The North Amphitheater was smaller but also very well preserved. The tunnels to get to the seating was really cool! When we walked in from the sunshine we couldn't see anything and almost fell down the staircase! There were also some really interesting reliefs on the seating.

Nancy on the Stairs

A fig tree happily growing in the tunnel at the North Amphitheater.
Hungry anyone?

A carving on the seating of the North Amphitheater

On the way out of the North Amphitheater we ran across a dead centipede. We saw so many millipedes and centipedes. I have never seen bigger bugs of this sort. They were probably as long as the palm of my hand and my fingers combined!

Centipede cemetery

One of the last things we walked by was the elaborate Nymphaeum. Andrew had me pretend to be a nymph sitting in the fountain...I'm that tiny blue dot in the fountain base.

For more pictures you can check out the Slade's blog (who went to Jerash with us), and the Palmer's blog (who went to Jerash the same day as us...but we didn't ever see them).

Still Life

2006-07-24T01:02:00.000-06:00

Real Life

At our shopping trip yesterday we got a lot of produce. After bleaching it we set it on the counter to dry. I had bleached our produce earlier that afternoon and left it on the counter. Then Crystal did her produce and left it with ours. When I walked into the kitchen to start dinner last night I thought it looked too funny...kind of like a still life picture, only less artistically arranged.

Still Life

Something fishy is going on

2006-07-24T00:53:00.000-06:00

While we were in Egypt, something fishy started happening in our kitchen. When we came home, the first thing we noticed was the smell...we started looking around at what the smell could be but could not find anything that would smell funny. Of course, we weren't really sure what we were looking for. We checked around for signs of mice. Nothing. We looked for rotten food. Nothing. We looked around our sink for molding stuff. Nothing.

Finally at breakfast a few days ago, I looked up at the ceiling. There was a little line of yellow gunk on the ceiling. It was so small I wasn't sure that it was actually the source of the smell but now I see that it actually was the culprit. That little yellow line has grown into somewhat of a monster and has taken over the whole area above our fridge. Water is starting to drip off of it so we called the landlord and someone should be stopping by shortly to check it out. We'll let you know what it is.

Gross! What is that?

You know you've been in Jordan too long when...

2006-07-23T13:20:00.000-06:00

Andrew and I finally went shopping today. It's been awhile...all we ate yesterday were some biscuits, so it was high time we went grocery shopping! We even splurged and got a baguette (30 piasters--big splurge!), so for dinner we made spaghetti--Italian style (not from scratch, but Italian none the less).

Andrew dished it out and we both stared at our plates for a few minutes. Sure, we had forks, but really, what were we to do? Andrew then broke out the baguette. Relieved, I quickly tore off a chunk of the baguette, opened it up and in a claw-like manner grabbed a handful of spaghetti. Andrew looked at me funny and said, "You've been here way too long."

Here's our list of ways you know you've been in Jordan too long:

1 - Your eating utensil is pita bread instead of a fork.
2 - You are really happy when you've gone a whole week without running out of water (this is week #2, by the way!)
3 - You tell the time based on the call to prayer. ("What time is it?" "Oh, it's..." "Allaaaaaa-hu akbar!" "...about 9:30.").
4 - You sit calmly in a taxi as it weaves through city traffic going well over 100 km/hr.
5- You'll run across the street with cars coming both ways to catch a taxi at a red light (very out of character for Nancy!).
6 - You watch Oprah and other shows you'd never watch at home like Jake 2.0.
7 - You feel uncomfortable in a t-shirt and change before leaving the house so you aren't immodest.
8 - You recognize all the Arabic songs, who sings them, and what the music video for each one is.
9 - You don't look twice at a herd of goats walking down the street and will pick your way through it if necessary.
10 - You hardly notice the gas truck any more.
11 - Your house has turned into a water bottle graveyard.
12 - It's 100 degrees out and you see babies wrapped up in quilts and think that it's normal.
13 - Instead of dancing to songs you all stand around and clap...just clap (and maybe let out a Xena yelp occasionally!)
14 - You understand that instead of yeilding, drivers just honk at blind corners, the tops of hills, when entering tunnels, and anywhere else you could get into a head-on collision, and you're ok with this.

We'll let you know if we think of any more.

One of the coolest places in Jordan - Wadi Mujib

2006-07-22T10:11:00.000-06:00

We have a three day break this weekend, but instead of going out to some far away place, we decided to go to a little-visited place in Jordan - the Wadi Mujib nature reserve. If you read about it it sounds really boring - it's just a big animal reserve on the shores of the Dead Sea. It's really quite amazing though.

All along the shore of the Dead Sea there are fresh water springs that flow into the huge body of salt water - water coming from the mountains (but not from runoff - who knows where it comes from?!). One of the larger creeks is Wadi Mujib Gorge - part of the main reserve - which is a long hike up the river through a narrow canyon, ending at a tall waterfall. Immagine Petra's Siq with a fast moving river coming down, like the Subway or the Narrows hike in Zions National Park. Pretty amazing stuff.

We hired a mini bus from the Muhajereen bus stop by the 3rd circle in Amman. We negotiated the price for the whole day - 50 JD. Slightly ludicrous, but we only had a group of 5 (the three male BYU students in Irbid, Curtis, Stephen, and Andrew (aka Sami) came with us), so we took it. It was nice, since we had the driver wait for us wherever we went.

After about an hour drive we made it to the trailhead and paid the 7 JD per person. Once again expensive. Oh well. After paying we started hiking. We walked on man-made, metal bridges for a couple minutes until we came to the edge of a cliff with a metal ladder hanging down. Thus began our long, wet hike.

Stephen getting in the water

Beginning of the hike - notice the same rope from the previous picture.

We had to swim twenty feet across to the other side of the river, where we could actually stand up and walk. We hiked in the shallow water for about 30 minutes, heading up the narrow canyon. The water gradually got whiter and rapider and deeper. We then got to some steep, small waterfalls/cliffs that we had to climb up.

Hiking up the small waterfalls

Sami stuck in one of the waterfalls

Some video of the beginning of the steep waterfalls

As we got closer to the main waterfall, the water got even faster and the cliffs that we had to climb up got higher. Ropes were provided on one of the difficult ascents. As we climbed, we took lots of breaks in the water, playing in the powerful mini waterfalls.

Nancy in mini waterfall

Me in mini waterfall

After climbing up all the rapid waterfalls, we made it to the main one, which was a lot more rapid and powerful than the other small ones (duh). We all had fun running through it, trying not to get knocked over or lose anything. Curtis's watch got ripped off his wrist - it's still up there somewhere (maybe we'll find it in our sink someday). Stephen lost his glasses, which Sami miraculously found under the pummeling waterfall. It was amazingly fun!

Me in the main waterfall

Us at the base of the waterfall

Us in a wall of very hard water

Me getting pummeled by the waterfall

Nancy falling in the waterfall

The cool waterfall

After a long while at the top, we headed back. This was a lot more difficult, and a lot more fun than coming up. The group that left before us took the ropes that we needed at the steep climbs, so we had to jump down some of them and slide down others. The undertow was really strong on some of the waterfalls, making it difficult to get away and continue. We were all completely bruised by the time we got to the end. My shoes didn't survive - too many fast currents, poweful waterfalls, twisted ankles, and big rocks.

That's Andrew's sock -
the sole had already floated down the river.

Once again at the beginning of the hike, we spent half an hour jumping back in the water from that first cliff with the metal ladder. The surrounding water was extremely deep and very warm - perfect cliff jumping water. Even Nancy jumped!

We then found our bus driver having a smoking/tea break with the guys at the trail head desk. We got back in the bus and went up to Amman Beach on the Dead Sea and met up with the Slades. We spent a little while floating in the Dead Sea again, but it wasn't as fun as the first time. We had so many stratches and scrapes and bruises from Wadi Mujib that the salt just stung. It hurt way too bad. I still love the Dead Sea, though.

Us floating in the Dead Sea Nancy exfoliating herself Us trying to get out at a very rocky/salty part!

After a while there, we found our driver, once again chilling with the ticket and security guys - with tea - and came back home. It was an amazing day! We highly reccomend Wadi Mujib to anyone thinking about going! It's an incredible place! (Just don't go to the Dead Sea directly after...ouch!)

Riots in Amman again

2006-07-21T12:44:00.000-06:00

So, the news reports are starting to come in from the riots all over the Middle East. The picture below, courtesy of al-Arabiyya, was taken at the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, which we visited a couple weeks ago during our long Islamic Cairo tour.

The yellow signs say "All of us with the resistance" with the Palestinian and Lebanese flags, while the red sign says "We are the Arab people"

The riots got violent in Cairo, and probably were semi-violent here in Amman, since more than 2000 people marched here today. We won't find out about the violence of the riots until tomorrow when the newspapers are printed, since Jordan doesn't have very good current local news online (the newspaper sites are just digital forms of the daily paper, so it's not too current). Fun stuff!

Friday prayers today were cool. I actually heard chanting and yelling from one of the mosques nearby. I'm just glad we weren't downtown, where the worst of it happens.

I love it out here! It's so much fun!

Safety Precautions

2006-07-21T06:06:00.000-06:00

Church was only 2 hours today. The Branch President wanted to be sure to give us plenty of time to get home before the anticipated riots and demonstrations began. So we had Sacrament Meeting and then skipped Sunday School and went straight to Priesthood and Relief Society. We were done by 11:30 and told to go straight home without stopping to mingle with the other branch members.

So, that's what we did! As soon as the men got out (kind of backwards here...the men are always the last ones finished instead of the RS!) we left. When we got to Zahran street, it was a battle for taxis! We always have problems finding empty taxis on that road so it always takes a long time to catch one, but today even empty ones wouldn't stop for us. It was kind of frustrating.

We finally found a cab and our driver was really nice. I have my suspicions that he supports Lebanon in this crisis since he had a sticker of a cedar of Lebanon on his back window. He was nice enough though and didn't seem to have any hard feelings against us being American.

Lunch time was interesting since we were home for Friday prayers. Usually we miss these because we are still at church...but today we got to hear them. It was pretty cool. On Fridays they do the call to prayer and then they say the actual sermon. It was neat to hear.

So, now we're at home sitting out the riots...tomorrow we head to Wadi Mujib. It should be fun!

The Cool Chair

2006-07-20T05:05:00.000-06:00

In our house we have a "Cool Chair"--the one where the cool people sit. It's the one holding one of the doors to the hallway shut; we still haven't quite figured out what that door is for. The first time we walked into the house we tried opening that door from the hallway and our bowab (doorman), Mahmoud, told us that we couldn't open that door. When we walked into the living room we realized why. Now every time someone new comes over, which doesn't happen very often, they try to open that door. It is pretty funny.

This is the chair that I sit on all day while I work. It's the chair that Andrew does his homework on. Andrew and I actually sit on the chair together a lot. We sit on the chair to read emails, co-write blog posts, watch the news...you name it, we're on that chair. It's kind of our study/office/living room all combined into one chair.

Because of this, Ezra also thinks that this chair is the epitome of coolness. Ezra will often just go and sit on the chair. Sometimes when I get up in the morning, he'll pull me over to the chair and then sit on my lap. Sometimes he wants to be on the chair with both Andrew and I. He'll come an wrestle with us on the chair. He'll come and cuddle on the chair. He'll come and steal our headphones so that he can also listen to the news. And sometimes he just uses it to reach the lightswitch.

Because of this, the Cool Chair has taken quite a lot of abuse. It sags more than the other chairs do (not that any of the chairs are incredibly great...) an the foam cushion is more misshapen than on the other chairs. But the Cool Chair is well-loved, so I suppose it was a sacrifice that had to be made. Being cool never was easy.

One bottle of pop, two bottles of pop...

2006-07-18T11:10:00.000-06:00

We aren't really sure what causes the bottle caps to become embedded in the pavement, but they get there. We're just glad that they aren't quarters glued to the road or we'd be really sad at all the wasted money. We think it has to do with a combination of heat, people littering, and then cars driving over them repetitively. First, it has to be hot so that the pavement gets a little mushy (it wouldn't really melt or we'd all die since asphalt tends to melt at around 300 degrees Fahrenheit), the heat will also cause more people to buy soft drinks, and because soft drinks sold in bottles are cheaper because they refill the bottles, more people buy those, and because "garbage can" means very little in this place, the bottle caps will just end up on the ground somewhere. Should that unlucky bottle cap end up on the street, it will be mutilated by an onslaught of cars driving well over the speed limit which will in turn slowly push the bottle cap into the asphalt.

Anyway, the bottle caps are impossible to clean up now -- they've fused with the pavement.

Bottle Caps embedded in a street near our hotel in Cairo

This is a more popular phenomenon in front of stores (because they sell things such as bottles of pop). The main road in front of the University of Jordan also sports these beautiful bottle cap accessories.

Breakfast isn't breakfast...

2006-07-17T03:32:00.000-06:00

In the States, we buy cheap cereals, it's true, but we buy a nice variety of cheap cereals. Honey-nut Toasty O's would be a welcome change from Poppin's Corn Flakes. As would anything else on sale at Macey's! It seems like the only brand of cereal produced in the Middle East is "Poppins," a brand produced in Lebanon. They have other cereals, it is true, but they cost upwards of 5 JD a box for a 16 oz. box, which I think is pretty crazy. Poppins Cereal is relatively cheap; at least, the Corn Flakes are relatively cheap. Anything else is over a JD more and we haven't yet branched out that far. I'm holding my breath that this war between Lebanon and Israel doesn't cut our cereal shipments or we will have nothing to eat for breakfast. To be perfectly honest, I haven't eaten Poppin's Corn Flakes in a l-o-n-g time. I've been eating oriental noodles, fruit, leftovers, and anything else I can possibly think of besides Corn Flakes. I'm sick of them. Andrew, on the other hand, will dress up his cereal with "poo-cookies," honey, sugar, syrup, or whatever else he can find around the house.

I suppose the cereal isn't too bad though. It can actually be rather humorous. It provides us hours of entertainment as we speculate about the "Family Album" on the back of the box; I also get in a lot of Arabic reading from that cereal box. It is fun to learn about cultural differences, too. For example, many people call cereal "cold cereal." Why? Because you eat it with cold milk...Obviously.

However, not everyone in the world likes their milk cold. The first time I had cereal at my homestay family's house in Russia, they boiled the milk and then put it on my cereal. I promptly told them that I liked oatmeal (if I have to have my milk hot, I want it on hot, pre-soggy cereal) a lot better than cold cereal.

Also in Russia, they think that if you drink a cold drink, you will get sick and die, or so I was told--so they always serve lukewarm or hot beverages.

And when Andrew and I had dinner with his Grandparents (who served a mission in Lebanon) and some of their Lebanese friends, I noticed that the Lebanese couple refused ice in their drinks because they preferred them to be warm.

To combat this warm-milk tradition, Poppin's advises that you eat your cereal with cold milk. I think that cereal tastes better with cold milk, so they aren't twisting my arm...but some people may take a little longer to jump on the band wagon.

I suppose that brings me to the topic of milk. Here in Jordan, the cheapest brand of milk is the no-name brand pictured below. As you may note, it really has no name. They call it MILK. It has no brand...they just let you know that it was made at the Jordan Dairy Co. and that it comes from cows. Even though the milk is pasteurized you have to watch for signs of expiration, not only the expiration date.

A few days before it really goes bad, it will start to smell like eggs. Then it will taste a little off. Then...well, we don't know the next stage because we usually end up tossing the last little bit in the carton.

Night time security...

2006-07-16T05:19:00.000-06:00

Recently, because of all the riots and stuff going on here, security has been increased like crazy here in Amman as a result of the Israel-Lebanon war. Getting into the University of Jordan is trickier - they ID everyone now. There are more jets and helicopters flying around every day, patrolling and guarding everything.

Even cargo trucks get extra security. We live behind the Dustour newspaper printing press, so there is a warehouse that is constantly used for newsprint and ink and distributing printed newspapers. Usually we have 1-3 semi-trucks in front of our house waiting to be loaded. Yesterday, we saw a few of them drive away with a full police escort. Kind of weird...

So, last night, as we were laying in bed, we heard Arabic voices on walky talkies - right under our open 2nd floor window. We had police cars directly under our apartment. Thinking rationally late at night is pretty much impossible. We had no idea why they were there. Were they tipped off that there would be some sniper attacking us during the night? Were they called in to protect our house from a potential terrorist raid? Or worse, were they really terrorists, ready to kidnap us while dressed as police, alla Iraq, where this happens every day? Were we about to die?

The voices went on for hours - until at least 1 AM. All I could pick up was that they were patrolling the area around the Dustour, that all was clear, and that patrols would continue. Were those all code words for the imminent attack/strike/kidnapping? Was zero-hour about to come?

At around 1:30, I hear two large engines turn on, startling me even more. A rocket was just fired! Two of them! We were going to die!

The engines were put in gear and drove away. The police radio stopped. Did the rockets get the police instead of us? Were we just saved by the actual police, who stopped our would-be kidnappers and torturers?

Nope. It turns out that it was just another police escort for two semitrucks. Their loading was delayed, as was their departure, so the police escort just had to wait - right under our window.

So, all is well in Amman, including my mind!

Running low on water?

2006-07-16T03:03:00.000-06:00

As you may be aware we have been having water issues. We have run out of water every week since the Slade's have arrived. Generally the water needs to be pumped on Fridays when our porter is out at the mosque, so we have no water on Fridays. Then we'll have it for part of the day on Saturday...and then it will be gone. Not a drop on Sunday. Usually the water fills up on Monday. This usually happens in the morning but sometimes doesn't happen until late afternoon, so we typically go a day to two without water. It's inconvenient, especially when we get sick with Pharaoh's revenge...but, it's doable. Amazingly enough, we haven't run out of water at all this week (yet). One of our neighbours was not so lucky.

Yesterday afternoon, the watertruck pulled up. They lowered a rope from the roof and attached it to the hose; they then hefted the hose up to the top of the roof and connected it to someone's water tank and started pumping the water. The hose was kind of a make-shift hose and was spraying water all over the place. Water was running down the street and spraying our window.

We had always wondered what had happened if you really ran out of water (which we have). Our porter would always just tell us to wait because we'd get water in a few days. I guess if you pressure him enough you get a truck of water. 20 minutes and 20 JD later, our neighbours have a full tank of water. Ours, I am sure is getting rather empty...

Where does that hose go?

We are not the only ones who've had water problems. Bridget, Brian and the Slades have all have similar complaints. We're just glad that this week it's not us out of water!

Joining the Anti-Drug Campaign

2006-07-16T02:24:00.000-06:00

A sign in downtown Amman

While in some places in Amman they encourage you not to experiment with drugs, in other places they are a bit more forceful with their wording:

In Saudi Arabia, they will help you get there. I found this border control card in my in flight magazine on the way back from Egypt to Amman. It reads, "Death for Drug Trafficker." I'm not sure the message could be any more clear.

It's funny though...as much as Arabs dislike drugs, they don't consider cigarettes to fall in the drug category. Almost everyone here smokes -- way more than in America. I wonder what they'll do here when they find out that nicotine is also an addictive drug?

Riots in Amman

2006-07-15T00:52:00.000-06:00

Yesterday at church we were given a security briefing. We were told that this weekend is a very pivotal weekend and that:

· Protests can erupt sporadically, especially around the University of Jordan depending on current state of political affairs. If caught in a disturbance, BYU personnel should seek safe haven inside buildings such as shops, restaurants, etc., until the incident has passed.

· Because spontaneously violent and planned protests are possible following Friday prayers, BYU faculty and students should stay clear of mosques and other areas where protest activities may occur on Fridays.

That pretty much takes away everything that we can do in the city. We aren't supposed to go to downtown, near mosques, the university, any place American...

It's all with good reason. Here's what happened downtown yesterday:

Riots in downtown Amman

Newspapers here are full of pictures of the riots. You can look at al-Dustour and al-Ra'i (more al-Ra'i pictures)

We were also told to:
· Avoid all Palestinian camps and areas close to Palestinian refugee camps. Limit or cancel travel if necessary.

That means that we can't go explore outside of the city...which means that we are pretty much on lockdown. That's probably okay because Andrew has some homework that he needs to catch up on and I need to do some things, too. So...we'll be here all day.

Considering that Hezbollah has basically declared open war on Israel (not that I can blame them for that declaration), things have escalated quite a bit this weekend!

I'll have to wait for Andrew to get up so that he can translate the paper for me. Even though I now have a pretty good grasp on the alphabet and can follow along in Arabic when someone is reading, I have no clue what anything means. My vocabulary is very limited!

Andrew is up now...

The newspapers all pretty much say the same stuff - Yesterday, outside of the King Hussein mosque in downtown Amman, thousands of protesters gathered after Friday prayers and filled the streets and chanted against Israel's agression against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. They also called on King Abdullah II to officially condemn Israel's actions and call upon the world community to do so as well.

The university riots last week were probably more violent, with the flag burning and all. Riots will probably continue this week as Israel continues to attack Gaza and Lebanon.

Fun stuff!

Drinking from the Nile...

2006-07-14T06:38:00.000-06:00

When I told President Doug and Sister Christa Bradford that I loved Egypt, perhaps even more than Jordan, they all but fell flat on their faces. "You did? Why!?!" Sister Bradford asked when she recovered from her shock and regained the ability to speak. "Because," I stammered, "It's green...and pretty...and I really liked the ward..." I was just as shocked at them for being shocked at me as they were shocked that I liked Egypt.

How could I go away not liking it? There is an old saying in Egypt that once you've drunk from the Nile, you will return. And I drank from the Nile, so I have to go back. (No, I did not pick up any icky parasite...let me explain).

Kirk told us a funny story about when he was young and in Egypt, oh so long ago. A native friend of his asked if he had drunk from the Nile. Kirk, outwardly disgusted, goes, "No! Who would drink from the Nile?" His friend then explained that it is a figure of speech that means that once you've had a taste of Egypt you will want to go back.

So, I want to go back. I realize that not everything in Egypt is green...once you stray too far away from the Nile it gets really dry, really fast. But I really do like all the trees that they have there. They even have lawns at some places. Can you believe it? A lawn. They water it...

I liked how open the people were. Granted, a lot of them tried to baksheesh us, but a lot of them really were just interested in us and wanted to talk with us. They were really patient with me while I tried to speak Arabic to them. They wanted to talk with me. In Jordan that rarely happens. People either want to ignore you or speak English to you.

Egyptian Farmland

I really liked the ward there. There were a ton of young families and it was really welcoming. They even arranged a special sacrament meeting for the BYU group because we were so late! They involved us right away, having us help out with music and so forth. It seemed like a lot of fun. Our branch here in Jordan is really good, too, but I just felt at home in the Egypt branch our first week there and that hasn't happened in a long time (I've felt at home in most of my wards, just not the first week).

There is so much to see in Cairo. We didn't see half the stuff we could have. There is so much history right around Cairo. I just felt that if I lived there I would never be bored. Here in Amman we've pretty much done everything to do within the city that is mentioned in the travel book. There is still more for us to do outside the city...but Cairo is just so huge that it would take many weekends of day trips before we'd run out of things to do.

Things are a lot cheaper in Egypt. That's just the way it is. We probably could have lived the whole summer in Cairo for what we spent in one month in Amman. Egypt was simply a lot kinder to our bank account than Jordan has been.

I've decided that if Andrew gets a job in the Middle East I'll be crossing my fingers for a Cairo assignment. (Well, for now...I haven't yet been to Dubai or Turkey, so we'll see how I like those...)

Us in Luxor

Welcome to the Land of Confusion!

2006-07-14T06:25:00.000-06:00

When Andrew and I arrived in Khan al-Khalili, we were greeted with, "Welcome to the Land of Confusion!" I thus came to the conclusion that people must teach these poor street vendors random bits of English and that they are innocently going around repeating them. We heard things such as:

"How can I help you spend your money quickly?"

"How can I take your money?"

"I don't know what you are looking for, but I have it."

"Everything free today..."

"99% off today."

And so forth. I really hope that they don't honestly know what they are saying because when a merchant comes up to me and asks, "How can I take your money?" I really don't want to buy anything from his store and tend to keep a closer eye on my purse.

Everyone in Egypt is out to get an extra dollar. Taxi cab drivers will say that your ride costs 20 EGP when giving them 5 is too generous. If you run into a street sweeper, school child, or nearly anyone else...they will always end the conversation with, "Baksheesh?" Like they actually deserve something from you for giving you the time of day. It is quite amazing how many times we got baksheeshed for absolutely nothing. Often we refused to give the little "tip" they were asking for because it was absolutely ridiculous.

Egyptian economy, according to a local Luxor resident, revolves around agriculture, government work (such as policemen), and tourism. I would say that tourism probably gives them the most income since they rip off so many people. For example, an Egyptian buying a bottle of water gets charged 2 EGP (or less) but a foreigner would get charged 8 EGP. It really isn't that big of a difference, but you can tell that they earn a lot of money from tourisits.

Cops like these baksheeshed us... in Luxor

Shopping at Khan al-Khalili

2006-07-14T05:01:00.000-06:00

Khan al-Khalili Suq

On our last full day in Cairo we went shopping for souvenirs at the Khan al-Khalili Suq. Apparently this is one of the hardest places to barter at: a fact that we found to be true. The shopkeepers would give us a price and we would give them ours and they would laugh at us, tsk at us, or just repeat their price to us. It was very frustrating. We did end up getting some good deals but it took a long time. For example, to get Andrew's gallabiya -a common dress for men- at a good price, we had to barter with the guy for about 20 minutes and then leave for about an hour and wander by again. He called us back over. We went and bartered some more, told him he was cheating us, and then left. We wandered by again and he almost gave us the price we were willing to pay (5 EGP more, but that's like a dollar so wasn't really a big deal).

Andrew in his Gallabiya and Agal

We also got some shirts for a good deal. The starting price was 75 - 95 EGP. We got them down to 15 each after quite some time. The shirts (and scarves as well as a bunch of other things) are quite easy to barter down since almost everyone in the street sells them. So, while Andrew was talking to the salesman, I would say that the price was too expensive and then walk down to the next vendor. Because I was moving on, the vendor that Andrew was working with would be more willing to give him a lower price. It was really hard and Andrew got in a lot of Arabic practice. Not as many Egyptians seem as eager to speak English as Jordanians are.

For lunch we went to the nicest-looking restaurant we could find to get Kosheri. It was delicious and looked pretty easy to make. We'll have to try making it when we get home.

Yummm...Kosheri!

After lunch we went exploring in some smaller streets. We didn't find too many interesting things...but did run across an old Pasha leader's house who was Jewish. Apparently Egypt used to have quite the community of Jews--the house was fairly run-down so I'm assuming that was quite a while ago!

Old Jewish Place

Narrow street

After getting bored with this street we headed back to the main Khan al-Khalili street. The police were making an announcement and people were scurrying to close their shops and head into the alleys. We are assuming that the same thing was happening there that often happens in Italy, as well as other places with high rates of illegal immigrants: The shopkeepers don't actually have permits so the police are coming to clean-house. They announce it first so that it gives people time to scatter (no one really wants to arrest all those people...) and then they do inspections. Interesting.

It was either that or it was siesta time. We doubt the latter considering the rate at which people were closing shop, but a lot more children were tending shops when we walked down Khan al-Khalili. They would call out, "This scarf...one guinea!" So we'd stop to look and an adult would call from the back of the shop, "It's not one, it's twenty!" I started "Ya-haram!"-ing children left and right and telling them they shouldn't lie. A lot of children looked rather apologetic, but only after my telling them that they were liars. I suppose if someone told me, "Oh, shame on you. You liar!" I would be a little upset...but that's really what they were doing and I really didn't appreciate it. Plus, it's one of the only things I know how to say.

Once when I said it to a child who pulled that same trick on us, his brother came out and said, "He's not lying. It's joke...funny." And I said, "It's not funny. It's lying." Andrew translated that to Arabic as, "It's not funny. He's a liar!" To which the Egyptian teen got really concerned and said, "Are you a Muslim? You can't say that...can you say that if you're not a Muslim?" Apparently it's a pretty harsh insult to call someone a liar because the Qu'ran speaks out against it. But since they were in fact lying, I don't see what they were so upset about. I suppose it didn't really offend anyone--it just shocked them and made them feel bad. In fact, I even made a few friends out of some of the little kids I reprimanded. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

At long last, we headed back to our hotel, went swimming, and then headed to Pizza hut to spend the rest of our money. We came back to our hotel room and watched the World Cup final game. It was pretty exciting...even with all the excitement, I fell asleep before the game was over.

We woke up the next morning and headed off to the airport where, once again, we got random names on our tickets and no one cared. Security definitely won't be that lax when we go back to the states!

Extra, Extra, read all about it: Acts of WAR

2006-07-13T12:36:00.000-06:00

...or acts of Whiney Arab-Resenters! Crazy Israelis! Just grow up! So, 3 soldiers get kidnapped... I think that was in the fine print of their soldier contracts - you put yourself at risk, you risk getting hurt. So, they got hurt. Oops... Americans get hurt every day in Iraq. We're not blowing up Iraqis in retaliation...wait...yes we are! Even so, dozens of Lebanese casualties aren't a fair trade for 2 kidnapped soldiers, and killing the entire infrastructure of Gaza isn't a fair trade for one soldier.

So, life out here is getting pretty intense. We're still safe though. Don't worry. Jordan won't be implicated in this war thing if it escalates even more (which it probably will...). Jordan has a long standing peace treaty with Israel, plus Jordan doesn't have any paramilitary groups like Hamas, al-Aqsa, or Hizbollah that are shooting old Russian missiles into Israel.

The only threat we have here is riots. There was one yesterday on campus. Our afternoon classes were cancelled so that we wouldn't have to be on campus during the violent riot, which was probably a good idea, since the mob burned American and Israeli flags while chanting the ubiquitous "Death to [insert name here - America, Bush, Israel, Olmert, etc.]." There have been more helicopter and fighter jet patrols over Amman recently too. Other than that, we're safe.

So, don't worry. We're nowhere close to Gaza, Beirut, or Haifa. Amman is a nice, calm place. Whew!

Islamic Cairo - A Three Hour Tour!

2006-07-13T07:57:00.000-06:00

We signed up to go on the Intensive Islamic Cairo Tour. We thought that it would be a half-day tour...boy, were we ever wrong! Our tour ended up lasting 7 hours and 40 minutes! We were exhausted by the end of it. We learned a lot of interesting new things though!

Before you can go into a mosque you need to take off your shoes. The next thing is to make sure that the girls are modest. At some places we had to wear full robes. At other places we just had to cover our heads with a scarf. And I even had to tie a scarf around my stomach because my midriff was "immodest" (I had a layered shirt on...so since my undershirt was showing we had to cover it...). Sometimes instead of taking off our shoes we put on shoe coverings, but this was only at mosques that are no longer used for worship.

Nancy in her robe

We learned the origin of the word "chair" as used in "department chair." I'm not sure that it necessarily evolved from Arabic, but when mosques were used for places of instruction the teacher would sit on a chair and all the students would sit on the floor around them. We learned this while sitting on the floor around Mohammed Eissa, the professor who gave our tour.

A Chair

Andrew was excited that he could recognize different types of architecture. Most of the minarats that we've seen in both Egypt and Jordan have been a solid tower. However, we saw one mosque, Ibn Touloun's, which was done Iraqi style, with the staircase on the outside.

Ibn Touloun's Mosque

We were taken to a lot of mosques!

The cherry on our Islamic Tour cake was the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha. It was based on the Blue Mosque in Turkey and had a lot more decoration than the other mosques that we had seen. The acoustics in this mosque were amazing! Inside there are 365 lamps to represent the days of the year.

Us in front of the Muhammed-ali Mosque

The Lamps of the Mohammed-ali Mosque

A Lookout Over Cairo by the Mohammed-ali Mosque

We also went to some rather fancy houses. One was the house of Gayer Anderson: a very wealthy British man who left his house to the Egyptian government. His whole house was amazing. There was a huge collection of Islamic art, and the house was huge! It just kept going and going. If I had to make a "list of things to do in Cairo" this would definitely be on there. It was really cool.

Nancy on the balcony

Some Islamic Art in G. Anderson's house
(is that a Star of David in there?)

We also went into some of "Old Cairo" which is still surrounded by the city wall. It really isn't too bad, but there is a lot of garbage on the streets and they were replacing the water lines so the road was a little torn up. We had to walk through an old gateway and through all that garbage to get to the torn up road. After we passed the construction the roads were fine...the construction went almost all the way through the center of Old Cairo so I'm not sure that we ever officially "passed" it unless we were on one of the side streets.

Garbage on the streets

Construction

That's better!

Another fancy house that we went to was an old schoolmaster's house. It had a series of wings that were used to house students, teachers, the headmaster's family and so forth. We had a tour guide that was taking us through the rooms one by one and explaining things to everyone in Arabic. At this point we were all so fatigued that no one was really paying attention. Gayer Anderson's house was cooler, but I think that was just because we got to explore it on our own.

This is the ticket to get into the above explained house (al Darb el Asfar). These tickets are pretty much uniform throughout Egypt.

When we got out of Old Cairo, we really were tired. It was past 2 in the afternoon and we had not eaten since breakfast. Many people were out of water. We were not a happy group. We wanted food. We wandered out onto the street and all these restaurant workers started trying to get us to eat at their place. They were moving tables out in front of us while we were walking, pushing us into their restaurants and continuously telling us to eat at their store. One guy even arm wrestled Wade, promising us all free beverages if Wade won. Wade lost. We didn't eat lunch (there was no time! we had to keep going!) because we were on a slave-drive tour again, so we all filed onto the bus after getting our water.

Wade arm wrestling

Kirk did end up buying us all pita bread while we were on our way to the last mosque we visited (the Muhammed-ali Mosque) from a pita seller. It was probably the best-tasting pita bread I've ever had in my life. That, or I was absolutely famished. There are bread-sellers everywhere. They carry their bread with them. We caught a guy on a bicycle...impressive, no?

This is talent!

Also around this area of the neighbourhood is the City of the Dead. It is actually a graveyard but people have begun to live there. So many, in fact, that the city government has gone in to put in water pipes. It is pretty crazy how desperate people are for housing and really sad that they are too poor to live elsewhere. You can't see it too well in this shot, but behind that wall is a nice mix of tombs and make-shift houses.

City of the Dead

After finally heading home, Andrew and I went swimming to relax and then went to dinner and straight to bed. We were exhausted and rather glad that our 3 hour tour (aka 7 hour and 40 minute tour) was over!

Cairo Metro

2006-07-13T06:57:00.000-06:00

The Cairo Metro is nice but it definitely doesn't hold a candle to the Moscow Metro. The stations are all pretty boring, unlike Moscow's stations, many of which are built like castles!

Cairo Stationvs.

Moscow Station

The metro, like in any city with enough populace to require a metro, was crowded. Even on a Friday morning it was pretty busy and just got busier as the day went on. What is interesting about the metro station is that the first two cars are reserved for women only, which comes in handy if the trains are too crazily filled with men. There is also a family car. Anyone is allowed on the other cars, but it is nice to have some "less dangerous" places for a woman to be.

In keeping tradition with all the metros I have been in, I took a nice tumble just as we were heading home. A group of us were walking down the stairs at the Mar Girgis station. The marble stairs used to have weather strips on them but those had long since finished serving their purpose. Just as Alison was about to tell me, "These stairs are kind of slippery..." I biffed it. I fell down really hard and then slid down a few more stairs. Don't worry...I had a few bruises and could hardly move an arm for a day but am all better now. Perhaps the stairs weren't as much to blame as my shoes...

They have been replaced...by some $3 shoes we found at the Suq.

Church and Coptic Cairo - July 7

2006-07-13T05:59:00.000-06:00

Another early morning... It actually wasn't too early and really should have been earlier. As it is we completely missed sacrament and were only there for about half of testimony meeting. We had to walk from the hotel to the Dokki metro station (it reminds me of Andrew's cat...) and take it to the Sakanat al-Maadi station. Since we were already almost late for church, Kirk wanted some of us to take taxis to the church and some of us to walk so that we wouldn't all walk in late at the same time. He had told us the address of the church and then gave directions to the taxi driver. The roads in this area of Cairo were set up rather easily. In theory the streets were numbered consecutively (though not all streets were marked...) and the villas were also numbered in an orderly fashion. But our taxi driver could not find the street we were looking for so just dropped us off and tried to get us to pay him 5 EGP for our pre-bargained 3 EGP ride. We gave him 3 and then left. We didn't really know where we were so we walked up and down the streets looking for the right one. It didn't exist. We did see a man wearing a white shirt and tie carrying what looked suspiciously like a scripture case. We started going that direction but then noticed this huge group of Americans all dressed up marching around...we joined them (apparently we stick out!) and marched around with Kirk trying to find this unknown street.

Arabs are so willing to give directions, even if they are faulty ones, so we ended up getting a lot of dead-end leads...finally Kirk realized that he had switched the villa number with the street number so we were looking for a non-existent street. Oops! We did eventually make it to church and the it was wonderful. There were so many families there...and they even did a special sacrament service for us.

After church we headed into Coptic Cairo. We took the Metro from Maadi to the Mar Girgis stop. Here a huge wall is built around a highly concentrated Coptic population.

Nancy in a Narrow Street

An Old Roman Fortress

Shortly after getting to Coptic Cairo, you will notice signs all over the place stating:

More Signs

If is traditionally believed that this is where Mary and Joseph fled to hide the baby Jesus from King Herod. They had to have hid somewhere, and apparently it is down that staircase.

Coptic Cairo is certainly has an interesting mix of worship places. We went into the oldest known synagogue in Cairo. We visited a Greek Orthodox Cathedral. There were many other represented religions as well. It was very interesting to see how the art was all the same. The Star of David was used in Islamic art as well as Jewish art, and believe it or not, the Arabs and Jews used to get along! The art was all very Islamic in all the different churches we visited.

The Synagogue (no longer in use)

After exploring the churches for a while we went to look at some gardens. As we were just entering the garden, we were stopped by a Coptic Egyptian family. I was immediately swarmed by women and children while Andrew was taken off, once more, to have serious conversations with them menfolk. I had a good time introducing myself a million times over. It was great! The kids knew how to say a few key phrases: "What's your name?" (which is pretty much all I can say in Arabic, so no one felt dumb), "How old are you?" and "Do you love Jesus.". I did hair and played catch and reassured the children many times that I love Jesus...

Garden in Coptic Cairo

Andrew talked about religion. These were some really devoted Coptics. They had crosses tattooed on the underside of their wrists. They were also determined to have religious conversation and the conversation that took place may have strayed into being moderately illegal. There are no missionaries in Egypt and it is illegal to preach so, although Andrew wasn't preaching, per se...it could have been bearing testimony, which is also pretty much illegal. But they had heard that we had a prophet and wanted to know if we actually believe in him, which we do. Their conversation got pretty heated, but it ended on good terms.

Oh, we also got some "presents" from an Egyptian Jew who thought that we were cool because Andrew said he was of Jewish descent.

The Great Pyramids -- Giza

2006-07-12T06:54:00.000-06:00

Well, we did it. We saw the only remaining wonder of the Seven Wonders of the World. Now we can quit traveling (just kidding!).

2,400,000 stones were used to make this pyramid, and not just any stones but huge blocks. They are pretty tall -- they reach just below my shoulders!

The Great Pyramid of Giza

Nancy Standing by a block of the Great Pyramid

We had only about 45 minutes to spend at this wonder, which is okay because they only sell 150 tickets to get inside each day, and they pyramid is really rather big so it would take a long time to walk around it. After climbing around the area you're allowed to climb on we were all sent back to the bus.

Us on the Great Pyramid

We went to the "panoramic outlook point" so that we could actually fit the pyramid into our camera lens. The Great Pyramid (on the far right) is so huge that you can't fit it into your frame at the base of the camera. The pyramid that looks the biggest in our panoramic shot is actually smaller than The Great Pyramid. It is shorter and uses fewer blocks but it was built on a higher piece of ground in order to make it appear taller.

Us and the Pyramids

And The Sphynx. Rather a sphynx that happens to be very famous, and like most famous things it was a mistake. When the second pyramid was being built (not the Great Pyramid but the one built to look bigger than it), they were carving an alley and ran into a big rock. Instead of removing the rock they decided to make a statue. Probably a good idea considering how big it is!

Us and the Sphynx

The Sphynx

We went to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities after the Sphynx (we were allowed only 20 minutes at the Sphynx, 2 1/2 minutes at the panoramic view, and 45 minutes at the Great Pyramid). We were there for 3 hours or so. It was a pretty good museum but not very well organized or documented. We did, however visit both King Tut's treasury room and the mummy room. It was really pretty cool. I wish that we had been allowed cameras...but then again, I did have nightmares that involved those very mummies just a few days ago, so maybe I'm glad we didn't have a camera so that I don't have to sort those pictures later!

Egyptian Museum

Saqqara

2006-07-12T04:14:00.000-06:00

Because we got into Cairo so early in the morning we couldn't check into our hotel; thus, we had a whole day of activities laid out for us. We first headed to Saqqara. Saqqara is the oldest-known step pyramid in Egypt. It was kind of an experiment in pyramid building. Rulers would build their tomb and then build a roof over it (the first step). This particular ruler (Djoser) decided that he would just continue putting roofs on his tomb, and thus, the first pyramid was born. It is solid rock, unlike the Great Pyramids, which are hollow and have rooms inside.

Saqqara

Us and Saqqara

Shortly after entering the park, we were surrounded by people trying to sell us things. "POSTCARDS!" "CAMEL!" "DONKEY!" "NECKLACE!" "HATS!" Andrew calls it "running the gauntlet" because you just have to plow your way through them. In the midst of our plowing through I was snatched up by an Egyptian man and plopped on a donkey. I was mad. I didn't want to be on the donkey. I didn't want to pay to be on the donkey. And I certainly didn't want some random man tossing me up on a donkey. (Ezra was tossed onto a donkey as well, but he's 2. I'm 21. People don't pick me up and toss me in the air anymore. At least, they shouldn't). The whole time I'm saying, "No! No! Laa! Laa!..." and trying to get off the donkey (except here where Andrew is like, "Smile." I think he thought it was funny). Well, I finally did get off that donkey and when I did, the guy baksheeshed me! I told him that I didn't have any money for him and that he should have asked before he put me on the donkey. Perhaps I should have given him a tip...but I didn't really enjoy myself (especially when he put his sweaty headdress on my head!) and I didn't have any money. Andrew had it.

Me trying to get OFF the donkey

While I was busy making Egyptian donkey-ride sellers mad, Andrew was off making new friends.

Do you see him yet?

Oh, there he is!

I think the fly was trying to either eat something off his shirt, or eat the shirt itself. Either way, we couldn't get him to leave. He just walked all around Andrew's shoulder and every time we'd try to wave him off, he'd just relocate. The fly was on Andrew for about 10 minutes or so. Andrew was flapping his arms and blowing on him to see if he would leave, but he stuck it out. Eventually I gave him a good hard flick (taking all my anger at the donkey man out on the fly).

Besides being harassed by donkey-ride sellers, Ezra and I had a good time chasing each other between all the columns.

Nancy and Ezra in a "false door"

After Saqqara we went to a nearby carpet weaving school (so that Fauzi could try to get us to buy stuff again). Their presentation was not quite as comedic as the alabaster factory we visited, but we did learn that we didn't want to buy anything there. A little carpet the size of a standard textbook costs around 300 USD. Instead of going up to the store at the end of their presentation, Andrew and I stayed down in the workshop and watched them weave. Some of the girls invited me to weave and so I sat down and weaved with them for a while. Remember that...the next time you go to Egypt to purchase a rug, I might have worked on it. Andrew was pretty popular as well. He had about 10 young ladies around him who were very upset when they found out he was married. They gave him some strands of silk as a memoir.

Carpet Weavers

Me weaving

We ate lunch at a really fancy restaurant. It cost 30 EGP per person (that's a pretty outrageous price considering Andrew and I ate for 10 EGP for both of us at other places). The food was good, but I'm not sure it was completely worth it...we think that Fauzi got another cut here because no one would tell us what the actual prices were. Hmmmmm...

After lunch we were herded back on the bus again to head to the Great Pyramids. The trip so far has seemed more like a slave-driving experience than a fun-filled journey...but it does slow down soon...Ezra had had enough of getting on and off the bus so we were playing games on the bus. One of his favorites is getting stuck. I don't know why that is one of his favorites, but who can fully understand the mind of a 2-year-old? Besides, it kept us both entertained.

Ezra's Stuck

Train Ride to Cairo

2006-07-12T03:37:00.000-06:00

Although the train wasn't really much to look at (it was dirty and had quite a few broken windows), the inside was amazing! We had 2 private cars and our own room with a door that locks, a sink, a closet, a luggage rack, and 2 pre-made beds. It was amazing. And since this was my first night of real sleep, I feel asleep right after dinner. Andrew claimed to not be tired so he was going to stay up and do homework--15 minutes later he also fell asleep.

Our train pulls into the station

Wow, we really are spoiled!

The beds were comfortable and I slept from 10:50 pm until 6:00 am. I've never been so grateful for a bed! That's about all I remember from the train ride. When we woke up we were still pretty groggy because we hadn't really slept since leaving Jordan...but since they gave us both breakfast and dinner and I got a full night's sleep without worrying that any Russian man was staring at me all night, I would say that this was a leap and a bound better than riding Russian 3rd class.

Nancy loves her bed

Andrew up and ready for Cairo

Here is a video of the Egyptian country-side. It really is quite different from Jordan (probably because things actually grow here) and is a lot less developed. A lot of people are still using animals as their main mode of transportation...in fact, there are 2 roads: 1 for vehicles and 1 for animals. There is also a greater variety of animals farmed. For example, water buffalos. In this video you will see a truckload of water buffalos right after the big purple bus. We thought it was cool and saw a gas truck right after (which you'll hear us talking about) that we thought had water buffalos in it as well...it didn't...but it got us excited.

Felucca Ride on the Nile - July 4th

2006-07-12T02:37:00.000-06:00

Our felucca ride was really neat. We went for the sunset ride and it was amazing (even though at this point we had seen every single sunrise and sunset in Egypt...we weren't really looking forward to another one, but it really was worth it). The bank of the Nile that we were staying on (the East Bank) is the central part of Luxor and it was really quite busy, for being such a small place. The bank of the Nile is lined with buildings and ferries.

East Bank of Nile

The west bank of the Nile (where the Valley of Kings and Queens is) is rather quiet and a lot less populated so most of the sunset pictures are of the west bank. It was a lot more picturesque.

West Bank of Nile

I was pretty amazed at how fast the feluccas can go, both upstream and down, considering they run soley on wind power. Their sails are huge and swing around to catch the wind. It takes 3 men to steer one (although you probably could do it with fewer considering they sat around and did nothing most of the time.

Felucca in the Nile

We saw quite a few birds and were constantly on the lookout for crocodiles and hippopotami, but we didn't see any. Rather unfortunate. We did, however, see a bird that can walk on water. It was quite amazing. We would get really close to it and instead of swimming away which an ordinary duck, like a mallard, would do, this duck stood up and ran a few feet away and then resumed floating in the water. It was really cool.

Here we are before the sunset

And, like everyone else on the felucca, we kind of had a photo shoot on the Nile. Here are some cool sunset pictures:

And in case you didn't experience enough jealousy, here are some videos of us heading back to dock at our hotel, which was one of those buildings right on the Nile.

The Alabaster Circus

2006-07-11T13:23:00.000-06:00

After visiting the Valley of Kings and Queens we headed to the Morssey Family Alabaster place. Of course, we would head to another store; Fauzi, our tour guide, took advantage of us at every twist and turn. We believe he gets a commission at every place he brings tourists to, so we visited a lot of shops...which was cool, but kind of annoying because Fauzi would insist that we buy stuff...grrrrrrr...

Anyway, this place was too funny. We get here (note the Morsay for Alabaster! slogan) and they had this storefront all set up with people working in it. Andrew, as you can tell from the video, was pretty sure that they had no idea what they were doing (I'm quite positive they don't either).

So while Andrew is slandering these hard-working individuals, their ringmaster/boss comes out and starts the show. We were so startled at first so it took a while to get the camera up and running. They began with:

Good Morning! Good Morning! How are you? Fine thank you!

And then the ringmaster gave a little speech about his shop and continued the show:

Luxor

2006-07-11T13:16:00.000-06:00

I would first like to put an end to some misinterpretations of Luxor (and Egypt in general) that are constantly perpetuated by Las Vegas and Walt Disney. First of all, there are no pyramids in Luxor. Shocking, I know. Second, the sphynx and the pyramid are not connected; in fact, they are quite separate. And third, a "sphynx" is just a human/animal cross...so you see them everywhere.

Now that you know what not to expect (no pyramids...and the actual "Sphynx" is in Cairo!) I can continue.

July 4th:

Considering that just the day before we had climbed Mt. Sinai, I think it was rather harsh to give us a wake up call at 2 am. That's right. We got on the bus...and fell asleep. We woke up at the airport, sat down, and wrote a blog post. The airport was another amazing experience. When we finally got to check in they took all of our baggage without really looking at it at all, and it was all put under Bonnie's name (she had 40 some-odd bags!). Then when we got our tickets, they just randomly passed them out to people. So, Andrew and I were the Rachels...we eventually did get all of the tickets sorted out, but it didn't even matter because when they checked our passports they didn't look to see who we were, just that we had visas. It was strange.

When we arrived in Luxor we headed straight for Karnak temple. This was an amazingly huge temple with a lot of detail on the walls (which we won't bore you with until we get home unless otherwise pressured).

What amazed me the most was that there was detail on everything! The paint job was amazing because the ceilings were still very colorful (although it wore off toward the bottoms of the walls) and everything was intricately carved. It was very impressive.

Karnak Temple: Me in the Avenue of Sphynxes

Andrew and a statue in Karnak

Us in Karnak

What would you like for Christmas, little girl?

Look at all those colors!

After we explored the Karnak temple, Andrew and I took a horse carriage for 5 Egyptian pounds (about 85 cents) to eat lunch at McDonald's, which was fantastic and then we headed off to find our carriage guy because he wouldn't let us pay him before. Taxis in Luxor are outrageous (at least for tourists--about 30 EGP) so we stuck to carriages, but they have this neat little trick: 5 EGP for each leg of the journey. He wouldn't let us pay him at McDonald's because he wanted to take us to the museum, to Karnak (even though we told him we'd already been there), to the Luxor temple, which is right across the street from McDonald's (in fact, it has a wonderful view from the upstairs window), and pretty much everywhere else. We let him take us to the museum (which was closed) so he took us to the Suq (market). We got out and tried to give him a 10 pound note but he refused it saying that he'd wait for us again and take us wherever we wanted to go. We argued with him for like 15 minutes before I finally said, "Look. 10 pounds now or nothing!" and then started walking away. He took the 10 pounds (smart kid).

We walked from the Suq to the Luxor. All along the way cab drivers and carriage drivers would pull over and try to get us in their taxi. We were walking right behind some hijabed ladies when one cab driver told us to get in his taxi--because the sun was hot. Andrew thanked him but said no. The ladies were like, "Come on, just take the taxi..." (everyone in Egypt is against you...it's one big scam!) so Andrew said, "Oh, no! We like the sun! We're from America. We don't have the sun there." That shut them up...then after thinking about it for a while they laughed and left us alone. Andrew started telling that to everyone. It got us in trouble only once when we were walking in the shade and a cab pulled over and told us, "Get in, the sun is hot!" After saying that we like the sun everyone was like, "Then walk in the sun!" One shop keeper even pushed us off the sidewalk and onto the sunny road. So, we walked there a few paces until everyone was ignoring us again and got back up on the shady sidewalk.

The Luxor temple is also cool but we didn't stay very long because it was right in the heat of the day and we were dying! (Perhaps we should have taken that cab). It's a lot smaller than the Karnak temple so I would suggest going to the Luxor temple first so that you are still impressed with Karnak...which you would be anyway. When we got to the Luxor temple we were like, "Oh, neat...let's go home." because the Karnak temple was much more grandiose.

Luxor dudes and my dude

The Luxor temple was fairly empty. Inside were a group of Arab men, some police officers, 2 other American tourists, and us. After singing a "Nancy" song to the guards so that they would stop teasing us and let us through the gates, we were pretty much alone for most of our time in the temple until we ran into the Arab men. Egyptian men, as well as Arab men in general, have no problem hitting on young single girls. Because I am so young, they assume that I am still single. I suppose I am lucky because as soon as they find out I am married they will, for the most part, leave me alone. The first question these guys asked us was: "Is this your friend?" That means that because I was with a guy in the first place they didn't want to hit on me too soon. When Andrew said I was his wife, their demeanor changed completely and they started asking us how long we'd been married, etc. After getting through them, we ran into a police officer who wanted to show us something. He walked us up to a wall and showed us a hieroglyph of a person. He had us tough it for good luck...and then he asked us for "Baksheesh" (a tip). Everyone in Egypt wants a tip for everything. Breathing, going to school, having children, driving a taxi, shaking your hand..."baksheesh" "baksheesh" "baksheesh" -- that's probably the most common word in Egypt! Sheesh!

Andrew and Nancy in Luxor Temple (where we were "baksheeshed")

We again refused taxis on our way back to the hotel because we wanted to walk by the Nile. (Plus, we like the sun...) I was absolutely amazed by the Nile. It is simply beautiful and green. The water is kind of scary but it looks a lot better than other rivers that I have seen. Apparently there is a dangerous parasite that lives in the Nile but I touched the Nile anyway--I've been in a lot of dirty bodies of water, and I think that since I didn't bathe in it or drink it I should be okay. I'm not sick, so I think that I am okay.

The Nile

Nancy on the Nile

July 5th:

We got up at a semi-decent hour this morning (5 am!) and headed to breakfast. We were hitting the Valley of Kings and Queens early (also no pyramids there, sorry to disappoint anyone). We left our room quickly in order to get the most out of breakfast. We didn't want another boxed breakfast. Before we left our room though, I noticed this arrow on our wall. I knew it didn't say "exit" so I asked Andrew. It's the qibla, or the direction of Mecca, so if you were to say your daily prayers you should pray that way.

The Valley of Kings was cool. There are no pyramids because the Pharohs started noticing that pyramids were getting robbed because they were so obvious to robbers. Instead of building their tombs in pyramids they started carving them out in valleys so that they would be difficult to find. Considering they just found one this year, they did a good job hiding them! We looked at the excavation site but we couldn't go in yet.

To be, as dear old Fauzi would say, perfectly frank, the Valley of Kings and Queens are not very pretty--they are just desert-y valleys with nothing growing in them. But then, you see an entrance to a tomb and go inside...it's pretty amazing. All the walls are painted and elaborately carved. Some of the heiroglyphs were so uniform that Andrew and I hypothesized that they were stamped on the wall. There was plaster covering the rock wall, so after seeing the ancient stamps in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo we decided that we were right. They put the king's name in the tomb so many times I wouldn't blame them for creating a way to make it easier on them.

We didn't go into King Tut's tomb because it was pretty expensive to get into, and the tombs were all pretty much the same...long passageway with a sarcophagus at the end and a few side rooms. We weren't allowed to take pictures but we did buy some postcards.

After visiting the Valley of Kings (and before the Valley of Queens), we went to visit the Deir al-Bahri (the Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut). Queen Hatshepsut was, as Fauzi says...to be perfectly frank, one of the greatest Pharaohs in Egyptian History. Her 20 year reign was, to be perfectly frank, some of the best years Egypt has had. (I am making fun of Fauzi here. He gave us the same speech about her twice. Word for word. Pause for pause, including the "perfectly frank" part).

Her temple is remarkably well preserved. They carved the mountainside in order to nestle the temple in it. It has been well-protected from the elements.

Look at all those colors!

Falcon on the staircase

Us at Hatshepsut's temple

When we finally returned to the hotel after our long day, we were given free time. Andrew and I did the Luxor temple the day before and because it is so hot in Egypt, a lot of places close down for a few hours in the afternoon. Such was the case of the museum...so we couldn't go there. Instead we played cards. A lot of people opted to do the same thing. Luxor is a pretty small place and there isn't too much to do. We played Egyptian Ratscrew first with a bunch of people. Andrew won hands down. We thought that game was fairly appropriate. Then we played Janitor. And then Pyramid, which we also thought was appropriate.

Andrew, Nancy and Rachel in the lobby playing Pyramid

After wasting enough time playing cards, it was time to head to a small Egyptian village outside of Luxor. Here we had 3 hours to mingle with the locals. We went to a house and divided between men (ground floor) and women (upstairs) to have our conversation. I was amazed at how many people from the village were all dressed up and ready to greet us. They didn't even care that I really couldn't speak much Arabic at all. They wanted to talk to me. Their English was even more limited than my Arabic (if that is at all possible) so we spoke in Arabic, but I needed a lot of help once I got past basic introductions. I even got to hold a new little baby...whose mother hadn't heard of diapers (he was a barebottom baby...you just kind of hold a cloth under him and hope he doesn't go!) I also had some mint tea with the ladies. It was piping hot but actually rather good. I didn't think that I would ever want to drink anything other than ice here, but the temperature actually felt really good!

We talked a lot of marriage because one of the Egyptian girls had just gotten engaged. She is 19 and will be marrying a 38 year old. It was an arranged marriage, but she said there is always love in marriage and that they couple gets to know each other during the engagement period. We also got into the topic of female circumcision because of that little baby. Lindsay translated this conversation for me. She asked the mom about circumcision and the mom said that she takes all her baby boys and girls to get circumsized a few days after they are born. Wow...I thought that was a dying practice! Another topic that we covered was divorce. It was interesting to get some first hand perspectives on these topics since people don't generally talk about them in mixed company.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Andrew is getting drilled about why he wants to study Arabic. Here's his story:

So, while the girls were all upstairs talking about babies and marriage and having kids run all over the place (well, they also talked about more serious things like divorce and female circumcision), I was downstairs, having much more serious conversation for the 3 hours. I talked with the minister of English teaching for the province of Luxor, whose family is the main family of the village. His dad was the imam (equivalent of priest) for the village and he has 8 other brothers and tons of sisters. We met in his house.

The English teacher guy spoke in Arabic the whole time, but it took a while for him to ascertain my level of proficiency. He started out teaching me the differences in saying "a blue book" and "the blue book" but after a few minutes of that, he realized I could actually speak pretty well. We began speaking about politics and economic problems in the Middle East and Egypt specifically. It was a cool conversation. We also talked about his family. They've lived in the same village - same streets and houses - for 300 years. Before that, they lived a few miles south of Luxor, where they had been living since the 900s, when Islam came to Egypt. They don't get around much...

While we were talking, the oldest brother, and current imam (he inherited the position from his dad) came and butted in, kind of angrily. He told his brother (in Arabic that he assumed I didn't understand - little did he know, I understood all of it) that he had just talked to a student about their motives for learning Arabic and was angry that the student wanted to sit in an office and translate news. That, he said, means that he'd be supporting Bush's policies and killing innocent Arabs by spying on them. He then asked his younger brother to ask me why I'm studying Arabic (I don't know why he didn't ask me directly - maybe he thought I was having an English conversation or something...who knows...)

So, even though I do want to sit in an office in DC or in the Middle East and translate and analyze news, and even though I hate Bush's policy in the Middle East, and his policy in general, I didn't tell him that, since he was pretty mad. I told him that I wanted to help build a bridge between the West and the Arab world, since neither really understand each other (this is another one of my motives - I didn't just make it up on the spot...). He seemed content, but then stood up and said "Hmph - that will never happen" and walked away. Oh well...

So, after the long and enjoyable time in this tiny village, we had to head out. When I went out the bus, I found every child (and grown up) from the village, and even a few cows, surrounding it, waving at all the students on it. It took a while for me to get through the crowd, shaking hands and giving high 5's to every kid and grown up I got close to. When I got to the bus, Nancy wasn't there, so I contemplated getting off the bus and going back to get her, but it would have taken too long to get through the crowd again. She made it ten minutes later (also being delayed by the huge crowd) and we headed out. The crowd chased us as far as they could, but we finally parted. It was an amazing experience, seeing actual, normal Egyptians that weren't out to rip us off or baksheesh us or anything!

Girl with henna-hands waving goodbye

St. Katharine's & Sinai: City of Nothingness

2006-07-11T11:36:00.000-06:00

(Well, Andrew thinks that my last Sinai post was pretty pathetic due to waking up at 2 am the day I wrote it as well as being rather sick the day before; he thinks I should write a better one. I'll write another one but I don't know if it will be much better.)

At 1:20 the alarm clock on our phone goes off. We quickly hit the snooze button and lie in bed for another 5 minutes. The alarm goes off once more...we drag ourselves out of bed bemoaning our late bed time of 11:00. We had been up the whole day before and were looking forward to a few more hours of sleep we were rewarded. We get dressed and groggily walk out of our hotel room and stagger to the lobby to pick up our boxed breakfasts. The breakfasts look great: they are in a big yellow and red striped box encased in plastic wrap. They are warm and we can smell fresh-baked bread. Yum...today is going to be a good day!

*** Hold it! ***

The breakfasts were hot but they definitely did not smell very good at all. We grabbed them and filed onto the bus. Even though we had just eaten dinner a few hours before (I mean just a few hours! We showered before going to bed and my hair was still wet when we woke up) we were starving. Inside the huge box was a measly breakfast: 3 buns (which were warm), a juice box (also warm), some cheese, meat and jam (you guessed it--warm). Andrew gave me his meat...and for some reason I ate it, and mine. I must have been really hungry.

We drove for a few minutes past the gate of St. Katharine's. St. Katharine's is a great city. There are a few stores, a few hotels, and a bank (without an ATM). You have to pay a fee to get into the city and then hold onto your ticket stub the whole time you're out of your hotel room because you'll get fined if you don't have it. They've turned the whole "city" into a national park. That's probably okay because the city really isn't anything to talk of. I'm surprised I've used this much space already.

Anyway, we got dropped off at the foot of Mt. Sinai, which looks small (only 2285 m high) is quite a killer to hike. I was thinking of the mountains back in Utah, like Timpanogos (3582 m)...or Mt. Everest (8848 m). Really, it should have been pretty easy to hike, right? Wrong. I think that a number of factors went in to play here:
a) the early hour (1:30 am? Come on!)
b) breakfast (should not have eaten that meat!)
c) sickness (see b)
d) wind (cold and blowing)

The first part of the hike was pretty easy. We were really grateful for our flashlights because there was no way we would have made it up the mountain without them (at least without any broken ankles). We got some wind-up flashlights and even though the package said that they would last for 45 minutes for 1 minute of winding we had to wind them every 10 minutes. We scared a lot of camel guides that way, as well as some innocent hikers...no one knew what the sound was...For us, everything was fine and dandy.

Then, just when you think you are almost there, the hard part starts.

At this point even the camels refuse to go up. There are uneven stairs that twist and curve every which way and they are rather steep. It smells absolutely putrid for the next few yards because all the camels that people have ridden up are hanging out, doing their own little thing...which smells...bad. We were literally picking our way through a forest of camels. I've never seen so many camels together. I was so afraid I was going to be stepped on, or spat on, or used as a camel bathroom. But I survived without anything horrible happening...and then we found the stairs...

Stairs near the summit

When we reached the top of the stairs we were so excited--we just wanted to sit down and have the sun come up right away. We were bombarded with people wanting to rent us blankets and mattresses. We refused and found a comfortable spot on the summit where we waited for the sunrise. I wish that it was more pleasant, but...I don't really remember it being that way. I was cold (Andrew eventually gave me his jacket even though he was cold as well. I was shivering uncontrollably) and was doing all that I could to not throw up. I was so glad when the first rays of sunshine finally peaked out of the horizon!

Sunrise, at last

Us on Mt. Sinai

After the sunrise we began our descent...but, alas, we were not headed to our hotel (and nice, warm, comfy beds). We were headed to have a testimony meeting. This was a good idea...but I fell asleep and missed a lot of it. This was probably a very good thing because I don't think I would have made it down the mountain had I not had that nap. I was wasted. What I heard was nice though...I just wish I had been awake for more of it.

Our Natural Amphitheater

Now we get to the fun part: absolute muscle fatigue. That, on top of illness and extreme sleepiness... (I told you that nap was a good thing!) Let's do a visual:

The Steps of Repentance

Try walking down those stairs on no sleep...whoa! I suppose it wasn't really that bad. It was pretty fun actually--we had good company, for the whole 3750 steps. Everyone's legs were shaking so I didn't feel too out of shape.

More Steps

Nancy in an archway

Andrew with the Sinai wilderness behind him

Just when we thought that we would never finish the repentance process, we received forgiveness: we turned a corner and saw a monastery! That means civilization...and busses shortly thereafter. (I don't know of many monasteries with parking lots, shops, and hotels within the gates...but this is St. Katherine's...anything could happen!)

Greek Orthodox Monastery

We rested on the monastery wall for a while and then decided to go in...some people were rather slow coming down the mountain and so we had to wait for them. It was pretty cool but we couldn't go into a lot of it without paying and since St. Katharine's doesn't have an ATM we didn't have any Egyptian money. So we just looked at the free stuff and left.

Nancy and the "burning" bush

Some cool Greek Orthodox art

Camels saying goodbye

These camels were a lot cleaner and free of flies than the Petra camels that we rode on! They have white camels in Egypt which is pretty cool (they might have them here in Jordan, too...but I don't know for sure).

Ferry to Egypt

2006-07-11T07:18:00.000-06:00

While trying to enjoy our stay at Aqaba, I was constantly stressing about what time we were supposed to be at the ferry station. Kirk was supposed to SMS us the time, which he eventually did do...but I kept stressing out that we were going to be late and miss the group and then we'd have to try to find our own way to get to Egypt from Aqaba, which...after being at the ferry station...I know would have been crazy. As it was, we were supposed to meet at the ferry station at 10:00 am. We got there in record time: 9:45! And then, after gawking about how much stuff everyone had, we waited. I really shouldn't have stressed out at all since we waited for...like, 5 hours.

Our first sight of the ferry station

Our Second Glance

Nancy, Crystal and Ezra...waiting...

And you thought we overpacked!

While waiting outside, Andrew met a very nice man who talked to him for about half an hour. He told him his whole life story and then turned around on the bench and ignored us for the next hour or so. Interesting. After waiting for an eternity, we went inside the ferry terminal, which was just as chaotic.

The ferry from the night before had been cancelled and so many families of Saudi (and other gulf states) teachers had to spend the whole night waiting for another ferry. They packed up for the whole summer, thus all the stuff. And they took our places on the ferry, thus the reason for our long wait.

Arab family sleeping in the terminal

Finally, at around 3:00 pm they allowed us to board the ferry. We were really excited because you can only play soduko and do Arabic crossword puzzles for so long. Plus, Andrew was getting really bored. He started pulling faces at Ezra...

Finally we got our tickets and passports stamped and ready to go. This takes a long time when you are traveling in a group of approximately 50 people. They put us on a bus which took us to the ferry. We then loaded our own luggage in the hull of the ferry, for which we were very grateful. It was huge and we wanted to know right where our luggage was when we got off.

The chaos continues inside the ferry

Unlike other ferries that I have been on, this ferry had plane seats. The ferries that I took when I did my Baltic Tour really didn't have much seating at all. I thought that having seats would help simmer down the chaos, but no. The seats are first come, first serve, so it took a while to find two seats together. Andrew and I were glad that the trip was only 1 1/2 hours long because Arab families have different disciplinary techniques than American families do. The kids were everywhere. Climbing all over the seats...running between the aisles, playing in the bathrooms, throwing food, punching each other, stealing food from other families...pure chaos. What do their parents do? Well, the dads go up top to smoke and the moms...chill. It was insanity. I tried just to sleep the whole time, and I'm pretty sure Andrew was still working on one of the left-over sudoku puzzles from our wait in the ferry terminal.

This really is the ferry

Our Lovely Seafaring Lady

The Egyptian side was even more chaotic, if that is at all possible. Not to pass along gossip, but Ashley said that Bridget told her that in Egypt it was as if they had never had a ferry come by there before. And that is actually how it was.

Someone had taken all of our passports to go get them stamped and told us to retrieve them after we docked. When we docked, we tried to find the guy who had taken our passports but he was no longer on the ship. So, we sat around waiting for him. But then some other workers started telling us that we had to get off the boat so we headed to the stairs. When we were almost off the ship, a man asked us for our passports. We said we didn't have them. He said he couldn't let us off the boat. So we start going back upstairs and the men up there started yelling at us to get off the ship. The man downstairs is yelling at us to stay on the ship. So everyone is yelling at us and we're stuck in a staircase. Finally someone in charge (we think) told the guy telling us to stay on the ship to let us off.

When we finally all got off the ship, a bus picked us up...but then we had to drive around to all these random places...to get money, to get visas, to get the visas authorized, to go through security, etc. etc. etc. And no one could really tell us what was where. It was pretty crazy. Once we were on the bus with all of our luggage and passports in hand we were very grateful. At least our ferry didn't sink, but I can understand how one might...

Chaos on the Egyptian side

Aqaba's amazing beaches

2006-07-11T06:20:00.000-06:00

Unlike California, whose beaches are free and clean, as well as almost any other place I've tried using the beaches, the beaches in Aqaba are mostly private. The ones that aren't are filthy...and since these are pictures of the 5-star hotel "The Radisson" beach, I don't think that I would want to explore a public beach. There were garbage bags and other garbage-like things floating in the water but we went in anyway. The water was pretty warm, but fairly disgusting.

Ladies in hijabs swimming at the Radisson Beach

Ah, the clean, fresh sea!

The Radisson was under construction so we kept sneaking on to their beach, only to be kicked off over and over. It was quite unfair that all these Arabs would go over and be permitted to stay on the beach but they wanted to charge us 5 JD a piece to swim there. I guess that's what we get for being so blatantly white.

Here we are though, in the Red Sea.

The Beautiful Radisson Resort Hotel

You may be wondering why we didn't want to swim at our own beach. Well, that's because it was virtually impossible to swim at our beach. Although our hotel, The Aquamarina I, advertised as beachfront property with seaside rooms (we opted for regular rooms to cut expenses), the beachfront was a little...non-existant. What you see in the picture is the beach. There is nothing more.

Andrew and I on the Aquamarina "beach"

We did, however, have a nice (and slimey) salt-water pool that we could swim in. Our stay was nice...but...not quite what we were expecting.

Our poor little hotel is smashed inbetween two monsterous hotels: The Intercontinental and The Radission. These beigger hotels bought up our beaches and thus, we were stuck in our little pool. It was nice to be able to swim though. And we did have some amazing views from the dock!

Me with Israel in the background

We also saw this flag from the dock. It looks amazing like the Jordanian flag but is missing the white star that goes in the middle of the red triangle; further more, the stripe order is messed up. When the flag looks like this it means one of two things. The first thing we thought of was the Palestinian flag. That didn't make too much sense because Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel and since you can see Israel from here, why would they fly a Palestinian flag? The second reason, which we learned from our taxi driver on the way to the ferry station, was that it is not the Palestinian flag but the flag from the Great Arab Revolt, which virtually all the other flags in the Arab world have been based on. Our mistake was an easy one to make.

Our Wild Ride to Aqaba - July 1

2006-07-11T04:59:00.000-06:00

Our trip to Aqaba was not very well planned. We decided to go on Friday after church and left early Saturday morning. Our goal was to get to the bus station at 7:00 am but we didn't get there until 9:00 am so the bus was full. Andrew and Jason bought tickets for the 12 noon bus but Crystal and I didn't think it was really worth it to drive all that way and then only have a few hours at the beach--we wanted the full day.

Andrew and I went and sold our tickets back and we all piled into another taxi to go to the Wahadat bus station. When we got there, we once more were inundated by taxi drivers and agreed on 30 JD for our 4-5 hour ride to Aqaba.

We switched our luggage over to the other taxi and started on our way. Our taxi driver was insane! He was going at outrageous speeds--sometimes up to 160 km/hr! It was pretty crazy...but we were making good time, so we couldn't really complain. Besides, had we objected I don't think that the driver would have listened.

All of a sudden this truck in front of us pulls 1/2 of an illegal U-turn! (Only one half because he stopped with his trailer covering our entire lane, and part of the next!). So, here we are flying down the road at 160 km/hr and there is a truck at a dead stop in front of us! Yikes! We all do a quick surveillance of our surroundings: there is a bus beside us, with a truck in front of it...there is a semi-truck behind us, and another car beside it. We all thought we were dead! Andrew, Jason, and I kept our eyes open...for most of it. Crystal had her eyes shut tight. Ezra, well, he was probably dancing around completely oblivious to our eminent death. Even our driver closed his eyes and covered his head with his arms.

Andrew is pretty sure that part of our car went underneath the truck because the opening between the bus and truck that we had to squeeze through was certainly not big enough for us to fit through. However it happened, it was definitely a miracle that we survived. We are very glad that we remembered to pray for safety before we left and that Heavenly Father listened to and answered our prayer! We will be forever grateful that we survived that incident.

After stopping the taxi, our driver got out to go beat up the driver of the truck. As is the tradition in Jordan, other cars stopped to mediate the fight. It ended without any fists flying, but our driver was so shaken up. He came back to the car shaking and lit up a cigarette immediately. He smoked 2 packs on the way down. I suppose he was nervous--but he didn't ever slow down the car. We got to Aqaba exactly 3 hours after we left. We had to pinch each other to be sure that we were still alive, and I'm sure we all prayed that night thanking Heavenly Father for his protection (I know Andrew and I did!).

I didn't have time to whip out the camera and make a video of our flirting with death, so I drew you a picture!

Mt. Sinai

2006-07-03T22:03:00.000-06:00

Right now we are sitting in the Sharm al-Sheikh airport where they have free wireless internet (which happens to be extremely slow). Yesterday we hiked Mt. Sinai--we left our hotel at 1:30 a.m. and started hiking up the mountain. It was a pretty strenuous hike. We were sweating so much even though it was fairly cool outside. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to the top where we sat and waited for the sunrise. It was really quite cool. Because of the desert horizon it looked like the sun came up in the middle of nowhere. The sky blends into the sand and you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

It was amazingly empty around Mt. Sinai, which makes sense because all it is is rock and sand. In fact, when we were walking down the "steps of repentance" (3000 some-odd steps coming 3/4 of the way down the mountain), we came across some plants and I was like, "What is that smell?" Andrew replied, "Plants." They were the first plants that we had seen the whole time here (besides a few random trees on the side of the road).

Also on the "steps of repentance" trail were a bunch of stacked rocks. It was remarkable--there were so many! We turned a corner and BAM, a ton of stacked rocks!

The Steps of Repentance, I'm assuming, are so named because they are absolutely treacherous! We were so tired on the way down that our legs were shaking with every step we took...and when we were standing still...it was rather painful. We were quite glad that we hiked up the camel trail (so named, I'm assuming, because of all the camels) in the dark because we never would have made it up all the uneven stairs alive!

After we were down Mt. Sinai, we went in to the Monastery and looked at the "burning bush." We were not really that impressed simply because it was just a bush (that was not burning) and because we were exhausted physically and also very sleepy. We finally got back to our hotel around noon where we promptly went to bed and slept until 6:30 pm.

We're about to take off for Luxor, so I suppose we should be off! We will try to post again sometime

The Sinai desert

Sunrise from Mount Sinai

The summit of Mt. Sinai full of people

Me adding to the thousands of stacked rocks

Egypt

2006-06-30T12:40:00.000-06:00

Our dear, faithful blog readers (if any at all do, in fact, exist):

We will be leaving on a great adventure tomorrow morning...early...we are leaving Amman. We are even stretching our wings and leaving Jordan. We are going to Egypt.

We are leaving tomorrow to go to Aqaba, actually. Aqaba is a resort in southern Jordan and it looks absolutely gorgeous! We're taking the Jett Bus down (4.30 JD), which is a 4-5 hour bus ride from Amman. We will be staying at The Aquamarina Beach Hotel (30 JD/night which includes breakfast and beach fees. Ph. number: 03-201-6250).

Sneak Preview of Aqaba

Apparently the beach fees can be pretty high, especially during the summer, unless you want to try the public beaches...which I hear are pretty sketchy. Our friend Rachel read in her guidebook that beach fees for a private beach were 5 JD--when she tried to get on the beach they said "20 JD...summer prices." So apparently the guidebooks aren't always correct.

All I know is that I am looking forward to swimming and laying on the beach! I haven't been to the beach for so long! It should be really fun.

We are meeting the group at the Ferry Station at...sometime. We don't know exactly when yet since the airline cancelled our flight (so the whole ferry thing is a little spur of the moment, as is our Aqaba trip). We will be ferrying from Aqaba to Nuweiba and will then get straight on a bus to Saint Katherine's, at the base of Mt. Sinai. On July 3rd, we will be doing a sunrise hike to visit the monastery on Mt. Sinai.

For those of you worried about of ferry ride, you shouldn't be too worried. The Hajj doesn't happen until December--so the ferries shouldn't be overcrowded and thus won't sink.

On the 4th we'll be busing to Sharm Al-Sheikh for 8:15 am flight to Luxor where we will then tour the Karnak Temple (and the Luxor), and then take a faluka ride on the Nile! That should be fun, and we will be sure to tell you if we see any crocodiles!

On the 5th, we'll go tour the Valley of Kings and Queens then depart Cairo by train. Although I have ridden in trains before, and have done overnight sleepers, I must say that I am rather excited for this trip. We will be taking a 1st class sleeper. In Russia, I always rode 3rd class...so this should be a lot better! We'll have to show you photos of our 1st class train!

Russian Third Class Sleeper

On the morning of the 6th, we'll visit Saqqara and the Giza Pyramids. We'll head to the Egyptian Museum for the afternoon (they have a King Tut exhibit, but we don't think we'll be going since it is about 20 JD per person to get in).

The 7th is a Friday so we will go to church. We're not sure where the meetinghouse is yet since the church is pretty low-key in Egypt. It is illegal for Egyptians to convert to Christianity, or even go to church if they were converted elsewhere. Andrew met a Catholic priest in Rome who was from Egypt. He later joined the church but his life was really difficult. He is back in Egypt now but he can't attend church.

We'll spend the afternoon in Coptic Cairo, the Christian area of Cairo. Egypt used to be a Christian province of the Roman-Byzantine empire before 640 AD, when the Muslims took over. Because the Coptic Egyptians have been around so long and are so numerous, they can go to church but are prosecuted for being Christian.

On the 8th and 9th, we'll be doing an Islamic Cairo tour and hanging out in Cairo. This will be our first day unleashed in the city, free to explore! It should be fun. Then on the 10th we'll fly back into Amman from Cairo. That all sounds fairly exhausting. I'm glad that on the 11th I can recuperate while Andrew, on the other hand, has to go back to school.

I suppose that's all for now. We'll try to post in Egypt if we can (to fill your blog cravings...we all know you have them. At least, we hope you do) and if not we'll do some massive posting when we get home (like Petra, only...more).

Yours sincerely,

Nancy (Andrew helped, too...a little)

We're close to crazy stuff out here!

2006-06-28T12:57:00.000-06:00

So, after a crazy day of kidnapping a soldier through tunnels, an Israeli invasion of Southern Gaza, two civilian kidnappings by Al-Aqsa and Hamas, an Israeli military flyover above the Syrian president's house, and Syrian air defense shooting at the planes, we're still safe out here.

Jordanian Air Force fighter planes flew over Amman at least 3 different times today. I couldn't figure out why until a few minutes ago when Syria announced their self-defence. So, I guess Jordan was aware of a possible flyover or something like that.

It's pretty cool to be out here during all this!

I love it out here!

Madaba for Mosaics (June 24)

2006-06-26T10:52:00.000-06:00

This Saturday we decided to go to Madaba, the biblical capital of Moab. Madaba is a rather small town but is very famous for its mosaics. In fact, throughout the city you can see signs that say, "Nazarenes for rugs." "Palestinians for Mosaics." and so forth. They sound kind of like political slogans but I think it is really just poor English.

Our Lonely Planet guidebook said that, unlike other mosaics, such as the ones you find in Italy, the mosaics in Madaba were built as floor coverings and could withstand anything, etc., etc., etc. (We just won't tell them about Ostia Antica, a lovely had-been port of Rome where there are many floors that are mosaics). However, I won't argue that the mosaics in Madaba are very extravagant. I can't imagine how long it would take to tile my kitchen floor let alone to tile a chapel floor like this one found in the Virgin Mary Chapel (25 piasters with a student card for the whole archeological park).

Floor of the Virgin Mary Chapel

Nancy in the Virgin Mary Chapel

After visiting the Virgin Mary Chapel, we headed out to Elias' tomb--not that they are very far apart. They are in the same archeological park...

Andrew in Elias' Crypt

Detail of the floor of Elias' Chapel

Perhaps the most famous Mosaic in Madaba is the Map of the Holy Land found in St. George's church (1 JD per person). The original map was built Byzantines but later a Greek Orthodox church was built on top of it (after it was unearthed). The detail is amazing, and sometimes quite amusing. Note the fish swimming away from the dead sea or the lion, which has been defaced. There are palm trees surrounding Jericho and a wall around Jerusalem. It was definitely the coolest map I've ever seen!

The Jordan River

Jerusalem

We tried to find the museum after visiting all these chapels, however the locals were not too helpful in our pursuit and we kept ending up at the visitor's center. After wandering around the city for a few hours we decided to just stop and have lunch. We looked around for a place with seats and finally found one. It looked decent when we first looked at it, but then we sat down.

The fridge was one of those Coke fridges used to store...pop. This fridge had everything in it! It had beans and salads and meat and some stuff that was spilled all over the bottom shelf. We ordered some pop and they poked around in the fridge for a while before we told them we didn't really want any pop. We didn't really want anything from the fridge.

Our food took a while to come, even though we just ordered falafel sandwiches. So, we're all eating our sandwiches (we: Me, Andrew and Rachel--a girl who is staying with us for a while) and I start to notice these little bugs on the table. After examining the bugs for a while I came to the conclusion that they were in fact cockroaches. Since I have never seen an actual cockroach, I asked Andrew what he thought. He agreed with me--and he actually knew since he has had experience with cockroaches in Italy... There were also cockroaches on the wall over by where they were making the food, but big ones! Gross! We didn't get sick though, so I suppose it was sanitary enough...

We decided to just go home after that. We didn't want to go around looking for the museum only to end up at the visitor's center again. It was getting embarrassing since the same people were working there the whole day (those tourists are here again?!?). We were really lucky to catch the bus since apparently they don't run between Madaba and the Abdali station that often (at least, that's what we were told). They run between Madaba and the Wahadat or Righadan stations more often.

You can catch a bus from the Abdali station that goes straight into the heart of Madaba for 40 piasters. Once you get into Madaba you're on your own. But don't worry...if you get lost, just ask people for the museum and you'll end up at the visitor's center where you can get a map (your choice of Italian, German, or Arabic) and faulty directions. But there are a lot of cool things to see there so I definitely suggest going.

This is a picture of the Bedouin tents that Andrew took as we were zooming by them in the bus. You may have to zoom in to get a good look at them.

Bedouin tents

Happy Birthday to Me!

2006-06-22T13:41:00.000-06:00

Andrew was very nice to me today, albeit rather sneaky. He got up early and made pancakes before I woke up and then wrapped them up and put them in the freezer. To cover up from his cooking mess he made French toast for breakfast.

He then went to school and I worked and then came home. I was reading on the bed so Andrew thought that I was sleeping so he "snuck" into the house. This is rather difficult to do since the door sticks so it's kind of hard to sneak anywhere. So I was wondering why he didn't come in to say hello to me after coming in. Instead he sneaks off to the kitchen and starts fiddling around. I was kind of sad that he didn't come in to say hi to me so I went into the kitchen and said hi to him. He jumped and kind of screamed, "I thought you were napping! Get out of here!" So I was like, "Fine..." So I went back and read for a bit.

When Andrew finally came in to say hi to me I remembered that I saw ice cream in the kitchen. "What were you doing in there?" I asked. "Nothing," he said. "Well, what did you do with the ice cream?" "I ate it," he said, "I didn't have lunch today." I was like, "You ate ice cream without me?"

Well, then he made up for that by taking me out to dinner. We went to Mecca Mall to eat because there is a food court with a ton of restaurants. Andrew wanted me to choose where to eat because he likes me to freak out when I can't decide. So we walked around the foodcourt like 3 or 4 times before I finally decided on Italian food. We had lasagne and garlic bread. It was very good. Then we went to Cinnabon (apparently it's the second best Cinnabon place in the world) and got a cinnamon bun to share. It was actually rather good. There was so much cinnamon on it that Andrew thought it was chocolate. He asked the cashier if we could get a bun without chocolate and the cashier said in a thick English Accent, "Sir, that's not chocolate. It's cinnamon." And it was. It was really good.

After that we went grocery shopping because we hadn't done that in a while so had pretty much no food in our house. We went to Cozmo, a big leap from Safeway. It's a pretty good store but a little more ghetto than Safeway.

After getting home Andrew gave me a Nancy Ajram CD (1 JD!). I was really excited for that because Nancy is my claim to fame. There are only 2 songs on the CD that we know but the other songs are good, too.

After that we all went into the kitchen for my ice cream cake. The candles were really skinny so they were melting faster than I could blow them out. The cake was actually really good...this is surprising if you read about Andrew's scrambled pancakes experience (or if you know Andrew in the kitchen at all...). It was a pineapple cakemix pancacke with vanilla ice cream between all the layers and icing on the top. I shared my cake with Ezra because it was his birthday not too long ago (while we were in Petra).

All in all it was a really fun day. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and wishes!

Hmmm....

2006-06-22T13:35:00.000-06:00

So, are they hungry...or thirsty?

Birthday cake without an oven

2006-06-22T13:24:00.000-06:00

So, today was Nancy's birthday - she's 21 now. So, to celebrate, I made her a cake.

The only problem with making a cake in our apartment our lack of oven. We have an oven/stove (see background in picture below), but we have absolutely no idea how to turn it on. It's not really gas, or electric - we've tried lighting it and plugging it in, but nothing works.

So, how to you make a cake without an oven? Pancakes!

We bought some cake mix from Safeway a few weeks ago (.99 JD - on sale!), so I made it normally, and cooked it like pancakes, which actually worked! I made a stack of cake-pancakes and put them in the freezer. After school, I stacked them all and put ice cream in between the layers - a homemade ice cream cake. Cool stuff!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

Bleaching Carrots

2006-06-21T01:59:00.000-06:00

Directions for bleaching fruits and vegetables:
1. Fill up a pot of water
2. Add about a capfull of bleach (a little less)
3. Put in your fruits and vegetables
4. Allow to sit for 10-20 minutes
5. Remove and air dry

Here are the carrots that Andrew bleached...where did he go wrong?

Well, he filled up a pot of water (with 2 inches of water)...added a capful of bleach (and spilled some on himself and in the water, etc.)...put in some vegetables...allowed to sit for 2 days and finally asked me to get some carrots. I thought that we had used them all because they weren't with the other vegetables. I asked Andrew where they were. He told me they were in the pot. I took them out and we decided not to eat them. I think you all know why.

Call to Prayer

2006-06-20T08:27:00.000-06:00

Five times a day we hear the call to prayer echoing around the city. The best one is at around 3:00 AM (which I happen to wake up to often. Andrew can sleep through it but what can't he sleep through?) the next is around 9:00 AM, then around noon, then at 4:00 PM, and finally at 9:00 PM. The 9:00 PM one is Andrew's favorite because the city tends to be a little quieter then. I personally enjoy the 4:00 PM one because the mosque near our house says prayers everyday after this call. The 3:00 AM one is really neat as well because the city is really quiet (except for the crickets). I don't really enjoy waking up for it though.

This recording is one that I made at 3:00 AM last night when I couldn't sleep: Call to prayer

King Hussein Mosque

Iraq al-Amir

2006-06-17T12:34:00.000-06:00

So, today, for our relaxing Saturday, we decided to go on an adventure - a daring adventure. We went to Iraq.

Iraq al-Amir, that is... Same spelling, different meaning (Iraq country = عراق - Iraq al-Amir = عراق). Just outside of Amman there are a whole line of ancient caves, named Iraq al-Amir. They were anciently used as calvary stables and are currenly just cool huge caves.

They are on the edge of a huge, fertile, green valley full of fig and olive orchards - stark contrast from dry Amman and the surrounding deserts.

Nancy in front of the Iraq al-Amir valley

We took a taxi from Amman, since it is so close, and had the taxi drive wait for us while we explored the caves. These caves were completely different from the ones at Petra that we spent 2 days exploring. These caves were deep and short and...moist! Moss was growing all over the place and made the caves look and smell really cool.

Moss growing on the rocks in a cave

Nancy in the front of the deep cave

In one of the caves (see above), we found 2 bats flying around, and towards us. I tried getting a picture of them, but the camera kept turing off (the batteries didn't want to cooperate anymore).

We went up to another cave and as we started going in, we heard tons of screaching. There was a whole flock of bats - we just woke them up. We quickly left the cave before we were taken away by angry rabid bats, or turned into vampires or something.

After a while at the caves, we went down to an ancient fortress down in the valley. This was actually pretty cool. In all my travels in Europe and the Middle East, the only ancient buildings I've seen have been churches and castles - never a small outpost fortress. Those usually get demolished or become castles or churches. This little fortress was only about 50 feet by 25 feet. The neat thing is that it is a really good example of pre-Roman architecture in the Middle East. It's made with giant slabs of solid rock - none of them cut uniformly - all laid and stacked on top of each other. It was surprisingly well preserved, just like most things here in Jordan. I guess the desert preserves things pretty well out here.

On the outside of the fortress we found this old marble lion fountain built into the way, amazingly well preserved as well.

Nancy in the fortress

Lion fountain on the outside of the fortress

After all that, we took our taxi back to Amman - a 15 minute drive. It's amazing that an area so sparse and green is that close to the main city. Cool stuff!

Jordanian cucumbers

2006-06-17T12:04:00.000-06:00

The difficult thing about living in a world of transliterated signs is the confusion that sometimes arises from variant spellings. Signs for the University vary (Gamia al-Urdunia, Jaami'a al-'urduniyya, Ja'amiya al-urdoniyya), but that's understandable. Even western stores like Safeway mess up too - we bought "yallow bananas" a few days ago.

Sometimes, however, they mess up completely - understandable for a different language.

Today in Safeway, we found some intersting cucumbers...maybe a new Jordanian kind?

Ezra dancing

2006-06-17T11:24:00.000-06:00

Here is Ezra wearing Andrew's flip-flops and no pants doing some sort of crazy dance. He's hilarious!

News in the Middle East

2006-06-15T05:31:00.000-06:00

One of one of my favorite aspects of living here in Jordan is how close I am to the news and politics here. Back in America, I thrived off of Middle Eastern news. There was always a delay in the news though, since the Middle East is on the other side of the world.

Since being here, though, I've been able to watch al-Jazeera as new Osama Bin Laden tapes were played for the first time, as Bush landed in Iraq during his secret trip, and as Nuri al-Maliki and General Casey announced the death of al-Zarqawi.

Even if I may be classified as a nerd for thinking all this is cool, it's still cool.

It's fun to talk to people about it all too. It's kind of fun to talk with Palestinian taxi drivers, even when they start yelling at me about America's support for Israel, which leads to American occupation in Iraq, which leads to the future war with Iran. It's cool!

The only time I've acutally been afraid to talk about the news was right after al-Zarqawi was killed. After I watched the news conference, I got on a minibus to go to school - a minibus heading up to al-Zarqa (hometown of al-Zarqawi). Instead of blaring Arabic music from the radio, an Islamic cleric was on, screaming his head off about "Death to America! Death to the infidels! End the American Occupation of Iraq! Death to America!." Every person stared angrily at me the whole bus ride, so, I decided to shut my mouth. Good idea.

Most people here are happy with al-Zarqawi's death and everything, though. They're actually pretty good at separating American politics from the American people, so I'm still safe here. It's still fun every time I bring up the hot issues with people, especially the Palestinians.

Life's great here!

Fashion Foopah

2006-06-14T08:19:00.000-06:00

Here are Andrew and Jason:

They do look quite a lot alike, but sometimes the similarity can be absolutely shocking. Like their coordinated orange and yellow outfits. Nice! (Ezra got sick yesterday and threw up all over Jason...so Jason went to change but couldn't find his shorts so he put on his swim trunks. Andrew thought that he would join him in his lounging.)

Everyone seems to think that Andrew and Jason are brothers. People here have difficulty distinguishing between blondes anyway and Andrew and Jason are both about the same height, etc. etc. etc. It's not just the locals that are confused though. It's the BYU class, too. On the first day the Slades were here, Andrew took Jason to class with him and everyone thought that Andrew's brother was visiting. It took them a while to realize that Jason is a student too. They still think that they are brothers though. Ezra is so comfortable with Andrew and I that people assume that Andrew is his uncle. Crystal and I obviously aren't sisters...so Andrew and Jason must be brothers.

Just the other day one of the BYU students explained to a group of Arab students that Andrew was not Ezra's dad, but his uncle. The locals here seem to always be confused why Crystal is so dark and Ezra is so light so they always ask for an explanation. For them, it is easier to assume that Andrew and I are the parents because we are both light, but it's not true.

I guess if they want to think we're all related, that's okay. Crystal and I are just hoping to perhaps teach some fashion sense somewhere in the family tree.

Camels in Petra

2006-06-14T02:50:00.000-06:00

Here we are on our very first camel ride. It was fun. Camels are so huge! And my camel kept swatting flies on its back with its head and that was making me nervous. I was afraid the camel would bite me or drool on me or something, but I survived so all is well!

2006-06-14T02:47:00.000-06:00

Here we are on the camels again...

2006-06-14T02:44:00.000-06:00

Here are Nate and Eric getting up on camels. We wanted to film it because it feels like you go completely horizontal when they sit down...since this was the camels standing up they didn't do it. We'll have to try to find a camel sitting down sometime. The camels really don't like going from sitting to standing and vise versa, at least we think they don't, because they alway groan about it. It's pretty funny

2006-06-14T02:43:00.000-06:00

Here is a Bedouin boy playing a flute on a camel.

Shepherdless Goats

2006-06-14T01:57:00.000-06:00

Here are some goats that we saw wandering around the cliffs absolutely unherded. They were annoying other Bedouins by eating hay meant for other animals, etc. We finally did see their herder later that day in the late afternoon. He was about 7 years old.

Donkey brayin', Donkey brayin'

2006-06-14T01:45:00.000-06:00

As I said, we didn't ride on donkeys in Petra (I had already done that in Al-Husn and decided that donkeys are really gross!) But here is the pleasant sound that they make...or is it a squeaky door? It's a little quieter in the movie than in real life...they sound like monsters!

Concert in the Amphitheatre

2006-06-14T00:31:00.000-06:00

There was a Bedouin guy sitting on a horse down on the stage. He wanted to give us a ride...so after yelling at us, trying to help us find our way down from the amphitheatre (as if it isn't obvious...just walk down) he played on his flute. It sounds pretty cool. Deeper in the canyon it sounds even cooler because it echos all around.

More videos shortly!

Petra - Day 2 (June 11, 2006)

2006-06-13T06:58:00.000-06:00

We were both a little more energetic on our second day in Petra. We did a lot more exploring although we technically didn't go very far. We pretty much just did the tombs...every single tomb. It was really cool. A lot of the tombs are now used by the Bedouins as stables, evidinced by the goat droppings, hair left over from shearing the goats, and the extra straw...it gives you that stable smell. They were still fun to explore in although you had to be careful of where you walked.

It made us think of the birth of the Savior...I really couldn't imagine being very happy about birthing a child in a hole in the wall that smells like the ones in Petra. It was neat to be in, as Andrew kept saying, The Cradle of Civilization. "The Cradle" is technically in Iraq, but we are really pretty close to Iraq. Andrew kept being really excited and telling me about cavemen and everything. Maybe he had a little too much fun.

Andrew being normal

Not-so-Normal Andrew

The first thing we did was hike up to the High Place of Sacrifice. We figured if we were going to do a long hike uphill then we had better do it first thing in the morning. It was a pretty easy hike-there were stairs most of the way, although it was still rather steep so we definately were slightly out of breath at the top. It was a rather pagan place...they had two big obelisks and a platform for sacrificial rites. We aren't sure what they sacrificed, but it was a pretty big table!

Nancy by an Obelisk

Nancy on the Sacrifice Table

Nancy and Ezra on the Sacrifice Table

After hiking around the top of the High Place of Sacrifice we decided to do the tombs. There are so many tombs in Petra! We were going from tomb to tomb looking around and finally decided to eat lunch at this tomb.

Andrew looked at his watch while we were eating lunch and was like, "Wow, it's only 9:45 and we're starving!" We figured that couldn't be right since we were at the High Place of Sacrifice at 9:00...so either we were really fast hikers or Andrew's watch stopped. After looking at Andrew's watch for a few seconds we realized it was the later. Since we had to be back at the hotel at 4:00 to catch our ride home, we found some people and asked them the time. It was...1:05 PM. Woops! Time really flew! There were so many interesting things to look at!

Nancy by a tomb entrance

The Royal Tomb

Nancy walking on a rickety bridge

We took a lot of pictures!

After walking around the tombs for hours we went over to the Amphitheatre. It was built by the Nabateans and expanded by the Romans around 100 AD. Those Romans can't live without theatres! It's a pretty cool theatre though. They didn't use any bricks in the steps, they just carved it out of the rock.

Amphitheatre

We climbed up to the top of the amphitheatre and went exploring in the caves at the top. The cave on the otherside of the theatre had a big dog in it, so we explored the side closest to the Siq. We found some really big houses with multiple rooms that were really cool. We also found some places that were still full of sand...completely unexcavated. The following two pictures are of the same house.

We were hiking down a canyon after exploring the less visited areas of Petra and there was this guy on a horse waiting for us at the bottom. He tried another Bedouin trick on us. After another man asked us to buy a lamp, they guy on the horse said, "You must be careful! I saw 2 fox from the top of the hill. You need my horse to take you to safety!" Andrew was like, "It's a 10 minute walk to the Treasury." The guy was like, "But the fox will get you." No offense, but foxes are like...really small...if he said wolf I might have been nervous. So, we ignored him and walked to the Treasury again.

We walked back out through the Siq and when we got to the otherside, there was another Bedouin horseride seller waiting for us. "Hello Lawrence of Arabia. You need a horse!" Andrew was like, "Uh...no, I don't." So the Bedouin said, "For your wife...she will love you more!" Andrew said (in Arabic), "She wants to walk." The Bedouin said, "Yeah...good for her. She needs it!" It was pretty funny.

We got to the hotel about 3:45 so we had to wait for a few minutes for the taxi, and the Slades to come. The ride to & from Petra takes about 3 hours (with a pit stop included). It cost us 20 JD each way, but we split it with the Slades so it was only 10 JD each way. However, our taxi driver was a Bedouin, so do you think he would go down without a scam? No way. In English, Bedouin often carries the connotation of "phoney" or "foolish." Here they also rip you off.

So, after he dropped us off at the hotel on Friday, he hung around in the lobby until he had negotiated a return fare with us. He didn't want to take us home in the evening (bad business for him or something) - just in the morning. He told us that we could leave at 6 for 35 JD or at 4 for 20 JD. So, when he came at 4 on Sunday, we got in the car and drove up to Amman. Andrew didn't mention the price, since it was preneogiated.

On the way down he was happy and jovial and talkative. Going back to Amman was different though. Andrew tried talking with him and he brushed him off the whole time - something like "Wow! Petra was beautiful!" was responded with "Yeah, whatever...." It was a silent ride for Andrew.

When we got to Amman and got our stuff out of the taxi, Andrew whipped out a 20 and gave it to him. He yelled at Andrew, very offended, saying "I said 35 JD! You can't pay me that!" We argued with him for 5 minutes about the price. He got flustered and said "Fine! Don't pay me anything! Stupid Americans!" Andrew started walking away, content with the free ride, when a large group of Bedouin taxi and bus drivers surrounded us, trying to "rescue" their friend in "need." They told us sob stories about how the taxi driver takes care of a large family and that he would have never said 20 JD for such a ride. One guy offered to pay 5 out of the extra 15 JD. Our taxi driver was out of the group, trying to fake tears. We got tired of arguing, so Andrew stuffed the 20 in the "friend"'s hands and we broke from the group, got a taxi and drove home. As we walked away, they all started laughing, including our taxi driver. It was all a scam. They tried to rip us off, but failed.

So, that was our amazing Petra experience! We'll definitely try to get back there again while we're here, only next time, we won't get so ripped off. We know the tricks!

We'll be posting movies ASAP - Google Video has changed their policies on uploading videos recently. All videos have to be verified or something, which may take up to a few days, so, we're waiting on that.

If you want another point of view of our trip, visit the Slade's blog.

That's all for now from us!

Petra Day 1

2006-06-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

Our walk to the Monastery took a long time...we took quite a few detours, explored a lot of caves and rooms, but in the end, we did make it to the Monastery. Andrew's favorite thing about the Monastery was that there were some lookout points. It took a while to hike up to the look out points but the view was worth it. We looked out over the desert and watched until the desert blurred into the horizon. It was kind of strange because there wasn't really a defined horizion, just a blur. It was beautiful and very peaceful. We tried to stay away from other tourists the whole time and did a pretty good job of it, too!

On the way to the Monastery, we saw...

The Lion Triclimium was in a little canyon off the path on the way to the Monastery. It was really cool. There are two statues of lions on either side of the doorway. It was worth the extra little hike to get there.

The Lion Triclinium

Shortly after the Lion Triclinium, you come to the Monastery. It is quite majestic but definately not as ornate as the Treasury. We climbed inside the Monastery and also hiked up some hills to get some better pictures.

After hiking down from the Monastery, Andrew and I were pretty tired, so we hiked over to the Byzantine Chapel and took a nap. We didn't even see the mosaics in the chapel...we just ate lunch and then napped. We both got quite burned because the shade, that we had been sleeping in, moved while we were sleeping.

The Byzantine Chapel

After we woke from our nap, we walked over to the Great Temple to look at it. We were both so tired still that we didn't really feel like walking up all those stairs...When we took this picture we had already walked up a set of stairs...we never did make it to the top level. There were a whole bunch of toppled columns up there but you can see those anywhere around here so we just snapped a picture and left.

We had to explore the Qasr al-Bint (the Temple of the Girl) though. It has been relatively untouched and still has full archways in tact. Andrew climbed up a long staircase that led to the third floor of the Qasr al-Bint. Nancy stayed on the ground floor because the stairwell was dark and Andrew said that there were a lot of spiderwebs up there...as well as some big spiders. Nancy didn't feel up to walking up 3 flights of stairs just to get covered in spider webs.

Arch of the Qasr al-Bint

Nancy in rubble of Qasr al-Bint

All in all, they had a wonderful day and returned to their hotel and tried to find pizza to eat because they were really bummed out that the hotel restaurant was only serving fish. They took a taxi and asked to go to Pizza Hut because supposedly there was one in Wadi-Musa. Au Contraire. The taxi driver took them to the nearest pizza place, "Pizza Prima," and told them to get out. Andrew said that Pizza Prima is not Pizza Hut...drive on. So, the taxi driver took them to a pizza place farther down the road and said, "Here...Pizza Hut." Andrew again insisted that this other place was not Pizza Hut so the driver drove around the block back to Pizza Prima and said, "This is Pizza Hut. Get out! 2 JD!" Andrew gave him 1.5 JD and they left the cab. Andrew and Nancy were upset with the taxi driver because they had been ripped off...again...but the pizza they had was good...even though it had Vienna sausage on it.

Al-Anbat 1

2006-06-13T05:00:00.000-06:00

We stayed at Hotel Al-Anbat 1. It was a very nice hotel but a little far removed from Petra for our liking. The hotel has a pool, a terrace, and a restaurant. Our hotel room was beautiful! We had a balcony that had a wonderful view. It had a little fridge and a full bathroom...with hot water. We were really excited about that! We didn't have to play with a water heater or anything...just turn on the tap and presto!

Everything in Wadi-Musa was way expensive. For example, a Shweirma plate in Amman costs around 1.20 JD while a sandwich is .30 JD. In Wadi-Musa a Shweirma plate is 4.00 JD and a sandwich is 1 JD! The taxis were all really expensive as well. The drivers didn't use their meters and tried to rip us off constantly.

The first day I forgot my student ID card so we taxied up to the hotel and back down (about 10 minutes) when we got back down to the main gate, the driver said, "10 JD." Andrew said, "You're kidding!" the driver said, "No, I'm not." Andrew said, "Yes, you must be. We live in Amman...and taxis are not that expensive." The driver retorted, "This isn't Amman." Andrew said, "I'm not paying 10 JD." The driver said, "Fine...just 4." That was still a rip off, but there wasn't any way he was going any lower than that. Everything was pretty expensive, but it wasn't too bad for being a tourist trap. Our hotel cost 44 JD for both nights. The pool was worth it!

Sunset from our Balcony

The Treasury

2006-06-13T04:35:00.000-06:00

After walking through the Siq, we came to the Treasury. The view was amazing. You turn the corner and see through a little crack...The Treasury!

We got there so early in the morning and the sun was glinting off the Treasury. It is absolutely amazing! I cannot imagine how anyone could carve something like this out of a cliff. We had it all to ourselves (for about 2 minutes until we were bombarded by Bedouins!)

They had the inside of the Treasury blocked off, but it was okay because we could still look inside of it. Like most buildings in Petra, the inside has been robbed and/or excavated so it is just an empty square room. Not too exciting, but still amazing that someone carved it thousands of years ago!

We were a little upset that it wasn't as exciting as Indiana Jones...no booby-traps!?!? But it was still really cool. The detail on this building is amazing!

Bedouins stand around and try to sell you camel rides. There are a ton of camels in Petra! Riding a camel is not like riding a horse, however. You have to swing your leg in front of the saddle where the hump is the smallest otherwise you end up doing the splits on the camels back. I speak from experience. Camels are huge! They groan and moan all the time. They are definitely very interesting animals. (Actually they are all over the place. We see them as road kill...running around the desert wild...all over. It's pretty neat!)

Us in the Siq with the Treasury in the Background

Our Treasury Collage

We couldn't really decide which pictures to put on so we made a collage. The treasury is really neat! I could stand and look at it all day! It is defiantly the most intricate building in Petra.

The Siq

2006-06-13T03:42:00.000-06:00

We read in our Lonely Planet guidebook that we should get to Petra as early as possible. Our hotel was in Wadi Musa and we had a free shuttle bus to the park. The park opens at 6 am, but the shuttle doesn't start running until 7 am, so Andrew and I got up at 6:30, went and ate our breakfast, and left on the first shuttle. It was a good thing that we did because, as you can see, we had the Siq all to ourselves.

(We were also really excited to find out that with our student ID cards you get into the park for just 1 JD per day. That is much better than the 21 JD per day (11 with student ID card), 26 for 2 days (13.50 with student ID card), or 31 for 3 days (16 with student ID card). Because our student ID cards were from the University of Jordan we were considered residents. (I actually forgot my student ID card at the hotel so we went back to get it--a four JD taxi ride (we got ripped off) but well worth it in the end!) So our entrance fee to the park for 2 days was 4 JD instead of the 27 JD we would have spent with just ISIC cards.)

It was a relatively cool morning and we could just meander through the Siq (I think we took 40 pictures just in the Siq--it's only about a 30 minute walk). The Siq is cool because it isn't a canyon...it's one rock that was broken apart by an earthquake...that was one big earthquake. The Nabateans who built Petra sure were smart though. Not only did they build a dam at the Bab as-Siq to evade flash floods, something the Wild West never did think of, they build aquaducts to collect this water, bring it into the city, and store it. Smart! The pictures below are of the aquaducts. (Behind Nancy and the Statues is the aquaduct)

Statues...or Nancy?

An Aquaduct

A Dam in the Siq with Aquaducts

Nancy on a big rock above the Aquaduct

Andrew in a tunnel by the Aquaduct

Near the Bab as-Siq there is an Obelisk Tomb. It is really pretty cool. At the beginning of your walk down a trail toward the Siq there are a bunch of little houses carved into the rock. Andrew and I explored those and thought they were pretty cool. Then we saw this...and thought it was amazing! (Until we got to the Treasury).

Al Bab as-Siq (The Door to the Siq)

Andrew in a small tunnel

There are these carvings in the Siq pointing the way to Petra. The Siq was a major highway/trade route for the Nabateans they paved the road (which the Romans later re-paved with big cobblestones) and placed these signs so that people could find their way to Petra. The sign below happens to have a fig tree growing by it (fig trees grow all over Petra as well). When I was walking underneath it a fig fell and hit me on the head!

The Evil Fig Tree

The sky in the Siq was such a nice contrast against the rocks! It was a stunning blue. Very similar to southern Utah. (Yeah...Kirk told us a day or a day and a half would be enough for Petra...what he didn't know is that Andrew goes to the same place in southern Utah every year for a week and loves it! Petra absolutely dwarfs Mesa Verde and Little Wild Horse Canyon and even, dare I say, Goblin Valley, as well as Writing on Stone...that should give everyone a little perspective. Andrew and I could definately have spent a week in Petra exploring every little thing! We still want to go to Aaron's tomb, hike down the backside of the High Place of Sacrifice, etc., etc., etc. We might just be going back...)

Blue Skies, Red Rocks