Trip 2: Petra-fy me!

Petra was pretty cool! I especially liked it because it is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It's basically this huge ancient city carved into rocks with a few free-standing rock buildings. You hike around to whatever you want to see. We did one long hike up to the monastery of Petra. It was pretty cool, but even more than the monastery itself I liked the view from various rock hills surrounding it. The picture above used to be some royal tombs, and the one below is us in front of the monastery.

More tombs...the one on the top is the first cool formation that you can see on your walk in to Petra.

    

People were selling things EVERYWHERE! I can't count how many stands like the one below we passed. Some of it was expensive (made more so by the fact that we were obviously tourists of course) but some of it wasn't too unreasonable. It was barter central for sure...and I am proud to say that we didn't buy anything for what they told us it cost initially! There were also a lot of people trying to offer donkey rides along the different hikes...donkeys were everywhere! Some of the people that were in charge of them were just kids, as were some of the people taking care of the makeshift shops.

A LOT of donkey ride salesmen approached us, and Josh finally found a way to make them be quiet! One young man came up and asked us "Biduk jahash?" (Do you want a donkey?). Josh responded "Ismii Josh." (I am Josh), but he said it in such a way that he made it sound like "Ismii jahash." - I am a donkey! The guy had the most fantastically befuddled look on his face...he just stared at us as we walked away, and then we heard him telling his friend. BAHAHAHA! It was priceless!!

The top two pictures above were taken in a church in Petra that BYU is excavating. It had some awesome mosaics running the length of the "chapel" area on both sides. It was cool to see some work of fellow BYU-ians. The third picture is of a temple that is being excavated by another university (Brown University, I believe). It was pretty cool too, not to mention HUGE!

We had a friend take this picture but I was getting tired of the same old, so I suggested that we jump up and Josh say "Pe" and I say "tra" in this photo. So we went over there, got the go-ahead from our photographer, and when we jumped I mouthed my "tra" at the same time that I heard Josh voice his "Pe". I BUSTED UP LAUGHING SO HARD!! In my mind's eye we were just going to mouth the words but I had failed to specify that to Josh, who wasn't too crazy about shouting out "Pe" but decided he would do it with me anyway. It actually gave me a cool insight on communication...it's very helpful to mentally take the other person's perspective on a regular basis to see how you can improve you communication not only in specific situations but also in your overall communication relationship with that person.

I wish we had gotten a better angle on this picture, but THIS MAN IS LAYING IN AN INDENTATION IN A CLIFF WITH NOTHING TO STOP HIM IF HE FELL!!! This is one of those things that is completely baffling and awe-inspiring to see someone else do but that you would never want to do yourself! Most of the people who work in Petra are Bedouins...they live a more rural lifestyle and mostly keep to themselves. Some things about that lifestyle appeal to me - mostly its simplicity. I feel that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to life a simple life nowadays.

So although we passed on the donkeys, we did end up riding camels for a bit! Josh talked the guy down to a pretty good price, and he talked to him and got to know him during our ride and the guy gave it to us cheaper than he had said. That's one thing that I love about the people here: many people seem to value interaction with an individual more than they value money. It's amazing to me and I am 100% a fan! It's not even uncommon for people to give you things for free if you are friends with them (Josh has had that happen several times, where he made friends with a shopkeeper and then tried to buy something from them and they always want to give it to him for free).

So that's Petra in a nutshell...I'm really glad we went! Afterwards we splurged and got some yummy Swiss ice cream at a nearby hotel. While eating there we met this really cool lady named Denise and exchanged email addresses. God definitely puts us in the right places at the right times :)

Trip 1: Kerak-anack!

We have taken a few trips lately and they have been somewhat tiring but really fun! This past weekend marked the beginning of a holiday here in Jordan (the Eid), and Josh has only one daily class this whole week instead of the usual four per day plus individual speaking and writing appointments with the teachers. For the holiday, people are supposed to (if you have enough money) sacrifice an animal. You divide the meat of the animal into three categories: worst meat, good meat and best meat. The worst meat you keep for yourself and your family and you eat it that day. The good meat you give to your relatives and friends. And the best meat you give to the poor. I like the idea of sacrificing from our abundance to help those in need. However, I am also glad that there are other ways to do it besides slaughtering an animal for those who are less inclined to do so. The male half of our apartmentmates benefited from the tradition though - he got invited to go eat camel with a friend!


Anyway, about our trips! Our first visit was Kerak, a Crusader castle from the Middle Ages that has been taken over by different people from time to time since it was built. It's pretty cool...there are a lot of spots that have just breathtaking views of the surrounding city. Part of it kind of just melds into the modern city: check it out!