What a past couple of weeks! My Mom and Sister came in town for two weeks to visit family. And a bit more than a week ago my good friend from Seattle, Neil Baunsgard, sent me a Facebook message saying that he found a round trip ticket from Seattle to Amman for 700 bucks! what a deal. I told him I'd never seen a deal that good so come on over if he can! He booked the ticket, took his last finals, and hopped on a plane to Amman all within a matter of two or three days. He was here for his spring break and just left yesterday! He squeezed quite the trip into just over a week in the middle east. In about 10 days, he went to the dead sea, spent time getting to know Amman, went to Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv for 3 days while I took some mid-terms, we went to Jerash and spent an afternoon climbing at a sport crag nearby the roman ruins, and we spent last weekend in Petra and Wadi Rum. Right before he left we visited the al-abdullah mosque walked through the downtown fruit market at night and took some awesome pictures.
Mother day in Jordan is March 21st, the first day of spring, and it's a big deal here. Maybe because there's no father's day so twice the festivities are squeezed into one day haha. I was lucky enough to be here with my Mom and both my grandma's for mothers day this year...so we all ate a lot of food =)
Here are some of Neil's pictures from the past week's adventures:
On the way down to the dead sea:
Roman theatre in Jerash:
Main Road of the ancient city. It's so easy to imagine a bunch of traders shops lining the street! I can just hear the bargaining =)
Climbing near Jerash:
The shepherd who told us he was going to call the cops on us for climbing haha:
The spectacular wall inside a carved out room in the ancient city of Petra:
The Monastery in Petra:
The cutest little rock salesman...note his mom in the background. She knows his smile could sell more rocks than she ever could haha. Also, what a genius little entrepreneur! "you should buy these rocks"
Our camp in Wadi Rum that night:
Khazali canyon:
"I'm not very good at sideways sports"--Neil Baunsgard
Hutta Salesman in Downtown Amman:
The coolest part of downtown Amman--the fruit market:
"Hey! that girl has red hair! let's go take a picture with her."
The only food I ever need: Falafel:
As most of you know I am studying abroad this semester...and (un)fortunately CIEE takes the studying part fairly seriously. I have had midterms for the past two weeks, and it's been quite a learning experience since I'm taking poli sci and language classes, instead of my typical Economics and science-y classes. Both my poli sci midterms are in-class essays! what are those again? well they sure make my fingers hurt after an hour of writing straight under pressure. I think the last time I took an in class essay exam was on my AP exams in high school! It's taken me a bit of time to re-figure out how to study for exams where there's not one correct answer next to a bubble that you just fill in. It's also been cool for me to take classes in a subject that I've had no formal educational experience in yet. It's shown me that there's always so much more to everything than meets the eye. No wonder politicians have tons of aids who specialize in one thing. So many interests in everything, so little time. Economic, Diplomatic, Corporate, Environmental, Humanitarian, Military, just about enough to make your head spin.
Next week is spring break and friends and I are traveling to Beirut, Cairo, and finishing off by some beach time/scuba diving in Dahab! can't wait =)
Mother day in Jordan is March 21st, the first day of spring, and it's a big deal here. Maybe because there's no father's day so twice the festivities are squeezed into one day haha. I was lucky enough to be here with my Mom and both my grandma's for mothers day this year...so we all ate a lot of food =)
Here are some of Neil's pictures from the past week's adventures:
On the way down to the dead sea:
Roman theatre in Jerash:
Main Road of the ancient city. It's so easy to imagine a bunch of traders shops lining the street! I can just hear the bargaining =)
Climbing near Jerash:
The shepherd who told us he was going to call the cops on us for climbing haha:
The spectacular wall inside a carved out room in the ancient city of Petra:
The Monastery in Petra:
The cutest little rock salesman...note his mom in the background. She knows his smile could sell more rocks than she ever could haha. Also, what a genius little entrepreneur! "you should buy these rocks"
Our camp in Wadi Rum that night:
Khazali canyon:
"I'm not very good at sideways sports"--Neil Baunsgard
Hutta Salesman in Downtown Amman:
The coolest part of downtown Amman--the fruit market:
"Hey! that girl has red hair! let's go take a picture with her."
The only food I ever need: Falafel:
As most of you know I am studying abroad this semester...and (un)fortunately CIEE takes the studying part fairly seriously. I have had midterms for the past two weeks, and it's been quite a learning experience since I'm taking poli sci and language classes, instead of my typical Economics and science-y classes. Both my poli sci midterms are in-class essays! what are those again? well they sure make my fingers hurt after an hour of writing straight under pressure. I think the last time I took an in class essay exam was on my AP exams in high school! It's taken me a bit of time to re-figure out how to study for exams where there's not one correct answer next to a bubble that you just fill in. It's also been cool for me to take classes in a subject that I've had no formal educational experience in yet. It's shown me that there's always so much more to everything than meets the eye. No wonder politicians have tons of aids who specialize in one thing. So many interests in everything, so little time. Economic, Diplomatic, Corporate, Environmental, Humanitarian, Military, just about enough to make your head spin.
Next week is spring break and friends and I are traveling to Beirut, Cairo, and finishing off by some beach time/scuba diving in Dahab! can't wait =)
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