Bleaching Carrots

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Here we are on the camels again...

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

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

Shepherdless Goats

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'

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

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)

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

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

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

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.