Jordan's Favourite Boy

That is correct this week we travelled to the neighboring land of Jordan and looked at so many cool things! It was also very VERRRRYYYYY hot and I sweat so much and drank so much water and still think I spent most of my time dehydrated. In Petra I seriously drank at least 3 liters within about five hours, but let's do this thing sequentially.

Sunday Funday!

this was before we did the Jordan thing.
I went bright and early to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Greek Orthodox mass (orrrr whatever the orthodox equivalent is I don't know I'm sorry!!!) but I got got by the incense and had to leave so I explored the church instead. It's a very cool building, and there's a LOT going on in there all the time. It is a great place to people watch.

diagram of this buck wild place

Also during the Greek orthodox thing in another area very nearby there were Syriac Orthodox ppl doing their ceremony too!! Like I said, a lot going on. A little while after we were able to go on the roof of the church and I got some cool pics!

It was a very churchy day for whatever reason because after this we went to St. Stephen's Basillica (you know, the farmer? from last week?) for French Mass! As with the last time I went to French mass, I definitely did not understand anything. Also somehow I got a seat front and center so everyone in the congregation could see how much I didn't get anything. great great great. Afterward we got a tour of this awesome library in the church!! So rad.

We also later that night went BACK to the lights festival.
Let me paint you a picture: I listen as an Israeli Jew plays a honky tonk western version of the classic American Protestant hymn "Amazing Grace" on a baby grand piano, surrounded by candles,,,,,,,, in a cave under the Old City of Jerusalem. What a lovely and bizarre moment in my life.

Monday Moonday

we went to Jordan!! Because we are the self proclaimed #blessedsemester we got through the border in like an hour and our bus was the BEST BUS. We also got pranked so hard by our Jordanian tour guide it was my favourite ever. He gets on the bus and his accent was so thick and his english was very sad and not good and he was like "this is my first time doing a tour for english people" and he went on like this for about five minutes and then he stops, is like "you guys are looking so worried" and was laughing at us so hard. He spoke perfect English for the rest of the trip with, you'd never guess, a SCOTTISH ACCENT. It was amazing.

a statue on the top of the Original Mount Nebo

Our first day in Jordan was really hot. We went all over the place though, our first stop was Mt. Nebo. I did not expect to summit the Mount Nebo here before I would do the one in Payson.

We then went to a church in Madaba which has the oldest map of Jerusalem

that circle guy is Jeru (that is.. the worst description I have ever written)

looking at the icons, photo by Claire

Our final stop was Herod's Winter palace, the place where John the Baptist was beheaded.

It's sort of interesting going to sites where important biblical events happened, especially a site like this where a very bad thing happened. Because at one time this place was a magnificent castle and now... it's just a bunch of rocks.

Tuesday: Petra!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't know what Petra is, you are in a for a treat. It is a lot of like Zion's National Park in geography, lots of red rock and slot canyons, but you make your way through the Siq (which is more or less a slot canyon

and you see this

if I hear the Indiana Jones theme one more time I will literally die

We got to look at lots of fun things! I decided to hike With Dr. Huff who is the associate director (I think??) of the JC. He is a FAST HIKER. I have always considered myself good at hiking and a fast hiker but it was at Petra I learned that I am nothing, which thing I never had supposed. But there were some good views

pictured: identity crisis

it was a pretty good view

Petra is amazing. If you ever have the chance, seriously: GO!!

OK ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT WHAT WAS BASICALLY MY FAVOURITE PART: CAMELS!!!!!!!! I got to ride one it was so fun.

check this beautiful photobombing camels

Camels are now my second fave animal (sorry, can't defeat llamas, they are just too great).

Wednesday ..wonders?

We spent this day in and around Amman, the capital of Jordan, it's a pretty cool place!

LOOK AT THIS TINY BEAUTIFUL BABY

this sticker on the ceiling of our hotel room was pointing the direction to Mecca.

We went to the Citadel first, which is the ancient city and it's pretty old and cool!

After that we stopped at a nasty river where Jacob and Esau were reconciled and then we went to another ruins called Jerash! It has been 70% restored which is pretty cool (even though that disqualifies it from being a UNESCO world heritage site)

the temple of Artemis

I think this is the agora I can't remember

Hadrian's gate!

also another very cool place to check out if you get the chance.
We finished off our day at the Royal Car Museum!!!!!! Jordan is a monarchy where the monarchy actually... does... stuff.. in the government???? what a novel idea. Anyway it actually seems to work pretty well there which is nice and everyone in Jordan loves their King, Abdullah II. The entire family is all about that car life though and we looked a bunch of them

Thursday: homeworad bound I'm not fixing that typo

Our last day we went to the King Abdullah Mosque. It was my first chance to be in a mosque. It was such a lovely place with such a nice peaceful spirit. I wish I had more opportunities to go to mosques. Here are a couple pics, I wish we could have stayed longer

this clock is to show what times the calls to prayer need to be done

After the mosque we went to the Jordan Museum and I felt like I was back in Greece checking out some nice statues!!!! So much sculpting inspo.

Our last stop in Jordan was the Jordanian side of the River Jordan. It was cool to be there! Also the Jordan river is gross. sorry.

behind me is The West Bank

Back in Jeru

uh not much of note or excitement has happened since coming back. I did go to an Armenian service today which was cool and accidentally cut a piece of french toast that looks exactly like the state of Israel (Golan Heights and all!!!)