Jordan: Day 4.

Last day in Jordan! We started off the day by going to the Roman Theater which is in the Old City part of town... apparently. It all looks old to me. We took some super fun pictures there and just played around. Obviously. It was a great way to spend a little time and just have fun. There was a little museum that we were guided through but we all just wanted to climb all around and play.

With Robin. :)

Oh hey giant theater below us.

Supes cute.

Me and Lottie. :)

Love this picture of Elyse.

Group picture! :) Try and find me!

And since I know you're all curious, we did indeed get some really good stalker pics:

Pictures, Pictures.

Oh look, even B.Low takes stalker pics... although he's probably taking pictures for someone but we don't have evidence of that. Apparently my paparazzi tendencies are rubbing off.

After our fun adventure at the theater, we went on a walk through the downtown area just to see the sights of the city. It was pretty fun but our group really struggled in the whole staying- together-while-walking department. We saw some cool things... and some not so cool things. :/

Baby eggplant. Yes please.

Stalker pic of Natalie and Brielle and lots of bananas in the market.

Following the walk, we loaded up the busses and we drove and drove. We stopped at this HUGE store that had every type of souvineer imaginable and I got some lovely earrings which I LOVE. They are globes. And they also had our lunch dropped off there... KFC. Although they told us that in the States it's called "Kentucky Fried Chicken" but in Jordan, it stands for "Kentucky Fried Camel". So funny.... That kind of made everyone super sick because they made us eat it super fast. But after our little drive, we headed to the Jordan River!

It's crazy because the Jordan River is the border between Israel and Jordan so while we were on the Jordan side, we saw tons of people a mere 15 feet away but they were in a different country! Brother Ludlow told me to swim across and that they would come by and pick me up on the bus... I told this to Brother Harper and he didn't really like that idea... maybe next time?

Seeeesters!

This is how much we didn't like the heat and the flies that they told us we couldn't complain about. So instead of complaining, we took upset pictures. And complained. There were so many flies it was ridiculous. I looked down at my foot once and I had at least 10 flies on my feet. Plus, I was wearing Chacos so I could feel them walking all over my feet. Super delicious.

Once we got back to the bus, we decided to document how dirty out poor little feet were... There was a white color that made my feet look ghostly. Thanks Jordanian dirt! And thanks Jordan, for being a fun 4 day adventure!

Jordan: Day 3.

The second day in Jordan, we started early and headed to the King Abdullah Mosque which is the biggest in the city (or Jordan or both. who knows haha). They are super strick about what women wear so we all got to wear our death eater costumes. And it was fun because I was already wearing all black before I put on the hooded robe. We learned a lot about Islam from our guides inside the mosque and we obviously took lots of super great pictures.

Me, Charlotte, Suzy, Amy, Katie, Jessica.

Me, Eliza, Charlotte.

Following the mosque, we headed to the citadel. It is basically just a bunch of ruins and rocks. And there is a museum there that used to have the Copper Scrolls of the Dead Sea Scrolls but they just took them out and put them in a bigger museum in Amman. Boo. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of exciting things to take pictures of...

Me, Charlotte, AnnaLeah, Suzy, Desiree in front of ruins.

Self Explanatory?

Me and Lottie. Inside some building/church that I'm sure has some historical significance... :/

Brother Ludlow was very persistent on taking this picture... He first tried to tell me how to take one and then he just took the camera and told me what to do. What a gem.

After we finished at the Citadel, we headed up to Jerash but we first stopped at the Jabbok river which is where Jacob "wrestled with a man". Check out Genesis 32 for that story.

Me, Maddie, Charlotte.

That was a pretty quick stop. After that, we continued on our way to Jerash. Super cool. It is an ancient Roman city and it was "just as good as Ephesus, minus the crowds". And when there are ancient pillars and rocks, it's bound to be a good picture day:

Ancient pillars. Yep. You know how those Romans do it.

Race! We went to this sweet Gladiator/Chariot show. It was super intense. And I'm still trying to pretend that it was worth the $10...

Riding a chariot! Obvi.

With my Jordan roommate, Lindsay Hall. :)

Jumping picture. Definitely necessary. Lacey, Shannon, Lindsay, Katie, Cortney, Aubrey, Me!

Just listening to our headsets that we love so much. No biggie.

After all our escapades, we headed back to Amman where we had a crazy night out on the town. It was actually one of the most fun nights there because a group of us invited Brother Ludlow to come hang out with us. And since he's super cool, he came along and it was a blast. We went to the delicious bakery again to try and get the reciepe but instead we had a little bit of a language barrier with the guy working there. And he was a little too flirtatous. And then we stayed out and talked for quite a while. Just about everything. And it was funny because it was him plus 7 or 8 girls. haha Once we got back to the hotel, we just stood in the lobby and talked about creepy students that his dad (or grandpa?) had. And we also seal the arranged marriage deal (hopefully Josh and Joe were okay with that...). It was super fun.

We also went to this delicious fruit salad/ice cream place that was next door/below our hotel. Brother Ludlow even let us break the rules so that we could get there. Super yummy and super fun. I know there are pictures of that somewhere but I don't have them, sorry team.

Jordan: Day 2.

Tuesday in Jordan was an exciting day. I would say it was the most exciting day and probably the highlight of the trip for everyone. We went to (dun dun dun) .... Petra. (think Indiana Jones)

We woke up pretty early which was a struggle and then after breakfast and packing up and such, we loaded up the buses. Unfortuntely, we had to leave a little late because some boys in our group didn't wake up on time... so that slowed us down a little bit but it didn't put us behind schedule at all... at least I don't think it did. We then drove on over to Petra.

First Mohammed gave us a tour and walked us through it which was cool. It was seriously so impressive.

The Nabataeans lived here and carved these super impressive tombs out of these ROCKS. Insane. Not much is known about them as a people so it's cool to see their work.

Their most well known "building" is called the Treasury... maybe you've seen if from Indiana Jones?

After walking through the Siq, which is a huge slot canyon (and makes you feel like you're in Southern Utah, you reach the Treasury.

With Lottie in Al-Siq.

It was super impressive. It might be a little overrated but it was really cool. We took lots of pictures nonetheless.

With Suzy and Charlotte in front of the Treasury.

Love this picture of Jeff and Adam.

then we meandered through the rest of the park (which by the way is HUGE, I never knew...) and we saw lots of other cool things.

We match the rock formation... get it?

Cool things behind me in the hills. Obvi.

One of my favorite rock formations, a camel (the middle of the picture...)

After lunch, we hiked up to the Monastery which is 800+ steps. And when they say steps, they mean stairs. haha it was exhausting especially since Charlotte and I were following Caleb who was practically running up there. We got to the top and took some pictures and then we hiked to the "View of the End of the World." That was impressive.

With Brielle in front of the Monastery.

Look at that view!

After that, we had to go back to the bus. Which was quite the ordeal. We didn't realize as we were walking in how far we walked... so it took us quite a while to get back to the buses. Oops! Luckily, we weren't the last ones back. But we also stopped to get some much needed ice cream at a little gift shop on the way back. So delicious. And then after that, we drove to Amman. After such a busy and physically exhausting day, a nice loooooong drive was much needed. :)

There was a point on the bus though when I REALLY needed to use the bathroom. And I didn't think that we were going to be stopping. Luckily, right at when we were thinking of stopping (so I hear) Carter feels really car sick and he then passes out in the aisle of the bus. So we stopped! haha he was fine in just a couple minutes though, no worries! :) It was cute though because Caleb, his brother caught him. Sounds familiar...

After the rest of the drive, we got to Amman and after dinner, we got to walk around the city. We headed to Rainbow street and just explore. We found this delicious bakery where they gave us a box of these delicious peanut butter cookies. Amazing. It was definitely a crazy busy but good day. :) Even if our hotel was a little sketchy.

Jordan: Day 1.

Monday morning, we left the Jerusalem Center very early so that we could go to Jordan. The border doesn't open until 8 but it is important to be the first ones across because there is also an hour time difference so once we cross at 8, we are already starting our day in Jordan at 9. We got to the border and it was all very exciting. Going through lots of passport checks and such. The only bummer was that we didn't get a Jordan stamp in our passport... only an exiting Israel stamp.

After we crossed the border, we picked up our Jordanian guides: Mohammad and Yousef. Huntsman's class got Yousef and we got Mohammad which was good because he started immediately calling us "tigers" which always happens to our group. He was... funny but not as funny as Fatih. He was much more informative though!

Once we got our guide, we headed to our first stop: Mt. Nebo! (Fun fact: while in Jordan I wrote brief lists of our outings while there so that when I got home to actually blog about them, I would remember what we did. I wrote that we went to Mt. Nebo but my phone autocorrected it to Mt. Menopause. hahaha)

View from the top of Mt. Nebo looking towards Jerusalem.

Mt. Nebo sign with Katie and Charlotte.

After Nebo, we then went to a mosaic place. They make tons and tons of mosaic pieces and we got to see how they did it. It was really neat. We also got to browse through their store but everything was a little out of price range so we just looked. haha

Hard at work making the beautiful mosaic.

Following that, we went to the Church of the Map where they have a huge mosaic map of the Holy Land on the ground. That was pretty cool to see because you got to see the places of importance based on their perspective.

Outside the Church with Whitney, Sarah, Desiree, Suzy, (Me), Kaylie, Mary and Charlotte.

Jerusalem! On the map! :)

Mohammed, our super classy guide, working the 17 pockets look. That's right friends, 17 pockets in olive green.

We then drove to Machaerus which is the possible site of where John the Baptist was beheaded. We got to go on quite the hike to get to the top but the view was so worth it.

If you notice behind my shoulder, that pathway, that's where we hiked. All the way up to the top of the hill behind us. And all the way down the hill that we were standing on. (With Charlotte, Alyse and Lauren.)

At the top, overlooking the Dead Sea at sunset with Charlotte, Andi and Lindsay!

Following that excusrsion, we had a loooong drive (4 hours to be exact) to Petra. Well, I guess not to Petra but to the town right outside Petra. We got to our hotel super late (where we then at dinner) and then had a little bit of a rough time getting in our hotel rooms. It was impossibly hard to unlock them and I'm pretty sure one of the hotel workers though we had serious problems. Once we finally did get in our room, we went back down the huge hill to go to the lobby to use the internet! Our hotel was cool because it's a old village that they have renovated into hotel rooms so it is all spread out through out with lots of stairs. And of course ours was the farthest away from anything and we had to hike up about 5 flights of stairs. It was nice going on facebook/email though and watching some youtube videos and just having a nice relaxing evening. Lindsay Hall and I were roommates and it was joyous. Except we didn't really pillow talk because we were both so tired. haha

Predicament.

Well, as most of you know... I have a normal blog too.

And for a while, it was nice and easy to decide which blog would get which posts. And it was good because when I went blog crazy, I wasn't overloading one blog. But as you might've guessed, I've gotten just a smidge behind on my posts and my life and my travels are kind of one right now.

So I don't know whether to merge my two blogs together or to keep them segregated. It's such a difficult situation.

BUT for now, I will continue to keep them as two. And I will update more often, promise.

Plus, this way my other blog can still be full of my witty comments, which I know everyone loves. :)

Alright. I suppose that this was a silly post but hey, I'm trying.

Eilat.

Sunday, (as in yesterday) we had our student organized activity. And we went to Eilat to go snorkeling!

As many of you might not know, Eilat is at the very southern tip of Israel on the Red Sea. And apparently the snorkeling there is second best in the world.

It is a 4 hour drive to get there from Jerusalem. Usually just most of the students go because it is optional and we had to pay 140 shekels to go. But this time, every student went except one who was sick. And two of the three faculty families joined us too. :) It was super fun.

The drive down wasn't too bad. Except for the fact that we had to leave at 6:15 in the morning.

Being there was the bomb. Nice weather, nice ocean (ish), fairly good snorkeling, fun people.

I talked with Jeff for quite a while about SeaWorld and dolphins. haha good times. It was nice to just hang out at the beach and chill. Plus, it's also always fun to go snorkeling. I love me some underwater.

We also got to meander around the city for a little bit, which is always a good time. Took some quality pictures. Too bad I can't upload that many onto this nifty little blog. :/

Let's seeeeee, it was fun. And then we got to ride alll the way home. Luckily, they had nice showers and such at the beach so we got to be all clean and not salty on the way home. yay!

Swam in the Pacific Ocean- Check.

Swam in the Atlantic- Ish (by way of the Gulf of Mexico).

Swam in the Mediterranean Sea- Check (thank you Tel Aviv).

Swam in the Red Sea- Check!

Swam in the Dead Sea- give me a couple of weeks my friends. :)

Conquering the world, one body of water at a time. :)

(Also, remember that time how I haven't written about our past three or so field trips? Happening now.)

My Bad.

Am I (now) three field trips behind on blogging? And still have two days to post of Turkey?

You better believe it.

Are midterms over?

Just about.

And then starts the game of blogging catch-up!

I haven't died friends, I've just been rather busy!

Midterms are this week.

I am apologizing now for not being a good blogger while I get slaughtered by my tests.

Happy October!

Ahh!

I acccidently deleted my first three turkey posts when I was using my phone. I really hope I can get them back! :(

Update: Thanks to.... my internet history, I have gotten them allll back! :)

Oh happy day! :)