Marhaba! Well Thursday evening I returned from a fascinating adventure and a new addition in the 'interesting things about me' portion of my profile. This past Monday morning the entirety of the BYU Jerusalem Center for the Near Eastern Studies Winter 2012 student boarded a bus and began our first out of country field trip to JORDAN! What an incredible experience that was. I went from only having been to 2 countries other than the US (those countries being Mexico and Canada which hardly even count) in my whole life, to adding two additional countries to my list and stamps in my Passport. I had the time of my life and lingered at every sight we went to, not wanting to leave due to the knowledge that there is a good chance I will never make it back to most of those places again. This trip was a gentile reminder to me of how incredibly lucky I am to have this opportunity I've been blessed with right now, and how great my life is. How often does a person get a chance to LIVE in the holy land, the city where Christ once was, and visit sights, again and again, of where some of the most climatic events in his existence happened that eventually led to his ultimate sacrifice of sacrificing his life for each and every one of us so that we can one day live in the heavens with our loving Father in Heaven again.
MONDAY, as I've stated, was the start of this incredibly epic journey. It started out with an early time on the alarm clock, 5:00 am to be exact, a speedy breakfast, and rushing to the bus. When I think of the words 'road trip' I think of a long ride in a vehicle with much time for contemplation, conversation, and slumber but alas, that was not the case. Throughout our drive we made multiple stops at places like Mount Nebo (where Moses was translated) and Machaerus which is where John the Baptist got beheaded for standing up for what's right and what he believed in. It was a pretty fun day! One of the best parts though was the arrival at as well as dinner at our hotel. We stayed at the La Maison Hotel Petra. As we got really close to the hotel I started to hear some middle eastern music playing, the type you might expect to hear in an Indian restaurant or something like that. We finally pulled up in front of the hotel its self and as I looked out the window to my left side I saw two musicians, what looked like the manager of the hotel, three attendants at tables filled with sun colored juice in classy glass cups and baskets of delicious pita bread accompanied by oil and spices to dip in, and a man with a horse, available to take pictures on. What a greeting! Probably one of the best I've gotten in my life so far. It was so much fun and much needed after a long drive. After all the pandemonium of the arrival calmed down a bit, we proceeded to take our luggage up to our new home for the next 15 hours or so. After our luggage was all safely stowed away, 83 hungry students plus our teachers trickled our way into the dining room to quench our rumbling bellies. After our stomachs were silenced, a few of the girls from our group went to go dance in front of the Musicians playing at dinner. It started with two, I turned away, and before you knew it there was a whole group of people up, dancing and grooving, and having the time of their lives. One by one the group got larger and larger until almost everyone in the room was twirling and jumping and shouting happy sounds, including some of the waiters, cooks, and even the Musicians showed off a move or two. The group expanded and expanded and the music kept going and going. As long as the music was playing, we were dancing. The musicians started moving about the room and the students followed like a mother duck and her ducklings. Not a soul in the room could keep the grins from their faces. This fiesta went on for over a half an hour and most likely would've gone longer had the musicians not stopped their playing. It was SO much fun! It was unreal, like a movie come to life. I could not keep the happiness from bursting out of me, I loved that night and had more fun then I've ever had, I think, at dinner at a restaurant.
TUESDAY held just as much fun and excitement as our party and excitement as the night before times ten or twenty. It was a day I will not soon let slip my memory. Tuesday was the day I saw the famous, magnificent, elegant, PETRA!!!!!! What a fantastic, impossible reality. There is a law in Jordan, to protect the tourist industry, that all tour groups must be accompanied by an official Jordanian tour guide, we could not bring our own. Our tour guide's name was the arabic equivalent to Joseph, pronounced You-seph. He was with us on our bus, and at all the sights we went to from the moment we rolled onto Jordanian soil, until the wheels of our bus rolled off again. He knew a lot and was very friendly, nice and also somewhat humorous. Our tour guide was with us throughout the duration of our time in the park and it was cool to have someone who actually knew what they were talking about to teach us more about the significance of things instead of just looking at 'cool stuff''. The best part of Petra was coming out of the Siq, and seeing before me the infamous treasury, which makes an appearance in the movie, Indiana Jones and the last crusade. A great movie but if you cease your watching of it for a few years, and then watch it again, you might realize how incredibly not up to par it is in comparison to movies made now days. I will try to post some pictures up later of this incredible adventure.
WEDNESDAY our first stop was at the King Abullah mosque. We women had to not only cover our heads in the mosque, but also wear big black robes that could hide any hint of shape in even the most curvy of women. It was fun to learn a little bit more about the Islamic religion and their beliefs, and religious practices. It was kind of funny to hear our tour guide talk because he mentioned how Muhammad had multiple wives and he said something like "You guys know all about that." or like "How you guys do." I watched my teachers how they exchanged knowing glances accompanied by humored smiles, not being able to correct his mistake. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but part of the condition in coming here was that we were required to sign a contract saying that we would not preach or proselytize anything about our gospel at all for the entire duration of our stay here. It was hard to not be able to correct our tour guide, but it is amazing to me to hear how much a lot of people here know, even without us being able to say anything and how much of an incredible difference simply setting a good example can make. After the Mosque we went to the Citadel which means 'city on a hill' and saw some old ruins, then stopped by Jabbok river on our way to Jerash. Jabbok river is near the place where Jacob wrestled with an Angel in the story told in Genesis 32. It was a really cool and spiritual experience. We read the story together then talked about how we all wrestle with different things in our lives but how we need to keep fighting until we conquer them and always look at what we are meant to learn or what we can gain from our trials. Jerash is just a very well preserved old city that was SO COOL and SOOOO Beautiful! I'm going to have to put some pictures up, even though they do not even begin to do the real thing justice. We ended our night, before returning to our hotel, with a visit to the royal automobile museum which holds a bunch or really beautiful cars that all belong to the king of Jordan. It was super cool and wished I could share it with some of my friends and loved ones that enjoy cars a whole heck of a lot more than I do.
THURSDAY was a sad day because I knew that our vacation within a vacation was about to come to an end, but even so, it proved to be a really excellent day. We started our day off with a visit to an old roman theater in which we listened to our teacher, brother Huntsman sing (he is actually in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), as well as two of the boy students here beat box. We also heard the tour guide from the other class perform a traditional Arab song, then all sang a few hymns together as a class. It was so much fun an actually just a really great experience. It is amazing how quickly music can change a persons mood from one polar opposite to the other. After the theater we drove a ways then stopped at a gas station to pick up our lunch which was good old Kentucky Fried Chicken. Although it was a little soggy and a lot greasy, it still tasted pretty great to be eating food that was more American. After lunch we headed to the Jordan/Israel border but before crossing it made a stop at the Jordan River which is the baptismal sight of Jesus Christ. What a magnificent experience! We sang the primary song about Jesus Christ's baptism as well as the Hymn 'Come Follow Me' together as a class. I even had the chance to go down to the water and dip my hand in the water. It was really cool to know that many years ago, Christ himself, waded into that same river, in a spot similar to where I was, and was baptized by immersion just like I once was. I couldn't help myself from picturing the photo you always see in primary of Christ in the water being baptized by John the baptist. Wow. We are so blessed to have such a loving brother and father in heaven.
I am loving life here in the holy land! Each and every day I am blown away more and more by how incredibly lucky I am to be here. This place has definitely become home for me. It was funny returning from Jordan and feeling like I was coming 'home' and honestly, when I leave here, I will probably feel a little bit like I am leaving home even though I will be returning to the place I've lived for most my life. I hope that I am expressing, through these posts, my excitement and gratitude for being here fairly well and clearly. This, so far, has been an incredibly life changing experience and I'm sure can only get better from here on out. I love my savior and I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to speak with him whenever we please. I testify that we are his children, he knows us by name and that he loves each and every one of us with all his heart.
ME ON A CAMEL! I actually rode that thing. I know that this is a terrible picture, but it is the only one I have. The girl I had take pictures of me didn't realize that the camera was on video, not just picture mode so instead of photo's I have a lot of short awkward videos of me on a camel.
