Jordan

Today we are not allowed to go out of the walls of the center. Even though we're locked down we are still going on a field trip to the Kotel tunnels tonight. This is a tunnel built by the Israeli's that goes under/along the western wall. Apparently to get a tour you have to book like 6 months in advance. We're still going because if they were to cancel it, we wouldn't get to go. We're going into the city in 3 groups. Our tours are late at night 9:30 and 10:00 pm! Security is escorting between the tunnel and dung gate where we will ride vans to and from the center. Eran updated us this morning on the security situation. He said things are still tense. Each side is waiting for the other to retaliate. They're worried about riots and demostrations. They don't know yet if we'll be able to go out tomorrow or when, we'll just have to see. Our Palestinian teacher couldn't get here for class this morning because the border to Bethlehem was completely closed off.
Now I will tell you about our trip to Jordan. We left early March 3 (getting to the border first is the key to not waiting in line) and crossed the border at the King Hussein Bridge (near Jericho). After crossing the border we went to Bethany. Bethany is the site on the Jordan River where Jesus Christ was baptized. Brother Ostler and Brother Draper talked about the scriptural significance of the site. It really is a place of crossing for so many important events, the children of Israel, Elijah and Elisha, he also compared it to the Sesquahana river in America where John the Baptist again appear to Joseph and Oliver. The river Jordan is in the rain shadow so it's very desolate. I don't know if it's always like that or just in the winter. There were lots of hedges but none had leaves. The water is really green (muddy) and it's not very wide, they said not as wide as it used to be (Israel has been piping the water other places). We decided to go see Bethany right when we crossed the border instead of on our way back because it was open (you never know if it will be open). Its a touchy political area. When you look across the river, right there is the Israeli border. On the Jordan side there are guys with guns. I guess they are making sure no one swims across the river. Also near the river is a new Catholic Church that was dedicated in I think 2003.
Next we visited Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo is the place where Moses looked from when he first saw the promised land. Next we drove to Madaba where we had lunch. (One thing you notice when driving around Jordan is the picture of the king Abdullah II is everywhere! Basically after seeing him so much you begin to think he's the coolest guy ever, kind of like Princess Diana.) In Madaba we went to St. George cathedral where we saw the famous Madaba map. Its a map of the holy land done in Mosaic tiles on the floor of a church from the Byzantine era. It's really old! Parts of it have been destroyed from earthquakes (the earth's movement over time). But it's really detailed and looks cool. Next we drove to Wadi Musa the home town of Petra! Wadi Musa is a tourist town like Park City (it has lots of Turkish baths, restaurants, and souvenior shops). After dinner in the hotel we explored down the street a bit and went to bed. Early in the morning Day 2 March 4 we walked down to Petra (it wasn't far from our hotel). We were really smart to go early because it was cooler and not crowded. Petra was amazing I can't really even describe it. It reminded me a lot of southern Utah (lake powell maybe). Red rocks, sandstone, pretty place to hike. I wasn't expecting much at first. Our guide was showing us small Nabetian carvings at the beginning of our tour and we went through the sandstone 'siq' (arabic translated 'the shaft'). He showed us the red dirt and how the nabeteans actually used it for blush (We tried it it really works!). Our guide had us come stand at a certain spot and turn around toward the way we had come and look up. He said we would need a sharp eye to see what he wanted to show us. "Does anyone see the carvings"? We were all looking carefully for something small. Then he said, "oh its over here". We turned around. Up through the crack in the rocks was a magnificent glowing facade! Wow! It was the treasury! (so it is called because the legend was that a pharoah from Egypt came and hid a bunch of treasure there). It didn't even seem real but it was! We walked further down the siq and it opened up into a large space with the treasury temple opposite. Now I know why Petra is one of the 7 wonders of the world. (For your info the 7 wonders of the world according to the New Open World Corporation announced January 1, 2006 are: 1. The Great Wall of China 2. Petra (Jordan) 3. Christ the Redeemer Statue (Brazil) 4. Machu Pichu (Peru) 5. Chichen Itza (Mexico) 6. Colosseum (Italy) 7. Taj Mahal (India). Egypt was not very happy because the Great Pyramid was an honorary candidate #8.)
Anyway, there were lots of Beduion peoples around the ruins. They actually live there in the caves. It's crazy if you were to ask some of them where they were born they'd probably say, 'that cave over there'. When tourists come through they sell cheap necklaces. They say they're made from real camel bone. Furthur into the park is the monastary. It's quite a hike to get to it so there are Bedoin boys around offering to give rides on donkey's. It was a lot like our camel rides in Egypt. Mass chaos as all the donkey boys attacked us and yelled at each other in Arabic. My donkey was really slow. I ended up getting left behind the rest of the group (just my luck). I think my donkey was sick. I felt bad for the 15 year old kid who was so eager to give me a ride. About every 10 seconds he would yell in arabic at the donkey and hit it, then say in a soft freaky voice "Its okay, relax" and "the middle, the middle" (he wanted me to sit in the middle of the saddle which I thought I was doing) followed by another yell at the donkey. The donkey liked to walk right along the edge which was a bit scary (p.s. my donkey's name was Michael Jackson). When I finally got to the top I got off my donkey paid my 5 bucks and walked a few steps to find Emily S pouring water on Cami's foot which was bleeding. Apparently she had fallen off the back of her donkey and hit her heel on something. The other girls had pulled out some paper from their bags to try to bandage it up. About when I got there a bedoin lady came up and tore up some cloth and bandaged it. She did a really good job but Cami probably wished she had hand sanitizer. We walked the rest of the way to 'the Monestary'(cami is tough). When we got there students were singing hymns from inside 'the Monestary'. It was really cool to turn the corner to such a beautiful sight accompanied by glorious echoing sounds (I got it on film). We walked back down from the monestary and had lunch at a buffet restaurant place at the bottom of the hill (there were a lot of tourists eating there, from all over the world!) We then had free time to walk back the way we had come and be back on the bus by 2 pm sharp. A bunch of people wanted to go to "the high place" which was some ancient alter up top somewhere. They had to hike really fast and hard to make it up there and back on the bus (I heard). I didn't realize how far we had hiked back there and I didn't realize there would be so many tourists! We finally made it back to the bus and there were only a few people that were late (they got in trouble later). It was an eventful day. I would say my top two favorite things I have seen so far on my study abroad were the temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt and Petra. They both blew my socks off.
In Amman we arrived at our hotel, had dinner and then we had free time to explore the city. Our curfew was 11:30 and we had to sign out at the hotel desk. Bro Huntington had given us a paper with the options of what we could do. Downtown Amman was strictly off limits. There was Mecca Mall, or city mall, or a bunch of museums that were already closed, or (under the table) a really cool supermarket stripmall down the street from our hotel that had some stores, one of which was a really cool place to get pirated DVD's for about $2.50 American or $1.5 JD (Jordanian Dinars). Bro Huntington was reluctant to tell us where it was because he wanted to go get the good movies for himself before we all cleaned them out! Everytime I went to the store(I went three times in the two nights we were there) it was packed with BYU students. They bought complete seasons of TV shows and all the hottest new releases(that arn't released yet). I got two new National Geographic films. One called 'inside Mecca' and another about national geogaphic photographers. The first night in Amman (after stopping at the video store)I went with a group to Mecca Mall. The taxi ride there was the most exciting part. We had to have a guy in each car who would sit in the front, girls in the back. We got to practice our Arabic with the driver and try to communicate where we wanted to go and argue about the price. Mecca Mall was a HUGE mall. It was fun to explore. It was really American except for we were the only blonds around. Some people had no shame in staring. It was really fun to look through the book stores, they had a lot of interesting books. It was so funny, in one of the book stores we found Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" in Arabic, and "Saints and Soldiers"(can you believe it)!
The next morning Day 3 March 5, we went to Jerash. Jerash is in northern Jordan. Northern Jordan is really green, different than Petra and Wadi Musa. Jerash is a city of Roman ruins that are remarkably well preserved. I took pictures.
Oh wow...it is suddedly 8:57 pm. I need to go so I can study for my Old Testament quiz and get ready for our crazy cool field trip to the Kotel tunnels tonight!