The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

After a very, very stressful week of finals, everyone was more than ready to get away for another out of the center trip, this time to Jordan. I never realized how close it really is, until we drove about half and hour and were at the border. Border crossings are so stressful. I'm always afraid something is going to go wrong, or I'm going to answer a question wrong, and they're going to detain and deport me, or I'll end up in Israeli prison. Luckily though, we all got through safely. There are two guys in our group, one is from El Salvador and the other is from Mexico, they had to drive up to Galilee to go through a different checkpoint. Apparently, El Salvador doesn't really have any relations with Jordan, and they might not have accepted his passport as a result, so the JC administration sent him and the guy from Mexico up to the less strict checkpoint just to be safe. Luckily, they got through without any problems.

Our first day we went to Mount Nebo, Madaba, and Machaerus. Mt. Nebo is where Moses died. Madaba is famous for having a church there with a mosaic map that contained detailed pictures of quite a few cities, and was actually able to lead to several really cool archaeological ruins, such as the Cardo in Jerusalem. The map shows a cardo running from Damascus to Zion's gate in Jerusalem, so some archaeologists just started digging in the area where it would have been and they found it. Pretty cool, right? Machaerus was the site where John the Baptist was executed. During the first Jewish Revolt, it was one of three fortresses that held out after the destruction of Jerusalem. You can still see the partially built Roman siege ramp, and the remains of Roman camps and a siege wall.

All those things were really epic, but the most exciting part of the day was what happened next. After leaving Machaerus, we started on the long drive to Petra. We were only about half an hour or so into our three and a half hour journey when the bus started having trouble making it up the hill. We finally got to the point where the bus started rolling backwards, and so we pulled over to the side of the road. The other bus continued on to Petra while we stayed behind and entertained ourselves while waiting for a new bus to come. We had a grand time, walking along the King's Highway, reenacting the Lion King, and playing after the manner of the adverb. After an hour and a half or so, the new bus came and we were on our way.

As we continued on our journey, our New Testament professor, Brother Judd, said a prayer that we would all be safe (not that the new bus would be ok). He then proceeded to play us the song Horse With No Name, being stuck in the desert in Jordan. A few minutes after the song finished, no more than twenty minutes on the road, the unthinkable happened. Bus number two broke down.

This time, we were stranded in a Beduin community, still in the desert of Jordan. We got off the bus, walked around some, and made our way over to a fence around the archaeological remains of an old caravansarai. We hung out, talking, taking funny pictures, and our tourguide made a fire for us, as it was getting dark and it's cold at night in the desert. As we were sitting around the fire, a couple of guys came up to our tourguide and started talking to him. After a few minutes, we were told the good news. The guys were from the archaeological park with the caravansarai ruins, and they were going to let up walk around the ruins and use their bathrooms while we waited for the bus!

These ruins were one of my favorite things that we got to see. Remember the map I mentioned earlier? The remains of the map aren't very big, and huge chunks are missing. However, at the ruins we visited there were the remains of two rooms in the same church that had the entire mosaic floor intact. After seeing so many mosaic floors in pieces, it was so cool to see one perfectly intact!

About an hour of exploring the ruins, and using the bathroom, our next bus came. We were promised that this bus was the best and newest bus in their fleet. And it was nice. The best part though, was that we were finally on our way!

We got into our hotel in Petra a little after 11 pm. Our tour guide had worked things out so we had dinner when we got there, so no one went to bed hungry, though we all went to bed pretty quickly.

The next morning we walked from our hotel to Petra, which took about ten minutes. Petra was amazing. I would highly reccomend it to anyone interested in travel to the Middle East. The caves are just so cool! I was able to take a quick camel ride for a photo op outside the treasury, which was the tomb featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. By far my favorite part, however, was hiking up the mountain to see the monastary. If you think the treasury was big and ornate, it is nothing compared to the monastary. It is at least twice as huge, and located at the top of the mountain.

A funny thing about Petra, if you take out the ancient tombs carved into the rock, it looks like southern Utah. Just like southern Utah. It's kinda funny, I travelled halfway around the world, and I end up in a place that looks like it could be a few hours south of where I go to school. 

Another funny thing about Petra...I got heat exhaustion. Not too bad, but as we were walking back to the buses I was having a really hard time, and Brother Judd went over the symptoms, and I realized that I was in trouble. Luckily, I wasn't too bad, and after an hour I was fine again.

Which is where the unthinkable happens. Yes, you guessed it. The bus broke down again. We were about an hour out from Petra, and were able to make it to a tour bus stop. There, the tour company paid for everyone to get snacks and ice cream. It was pretty great.

That night, I was still not feeling 100%, so I went to bed early. That next morning, we woke up to bus #5. Thankfully, this was our last new bus of the trip.

Our first stop was the Amman citadel, location of the place where Uriah the Hittite lost his life in battle. It was cool, being there. There was also a Muslim palace complex, and an earlier temple to Hercules. Our next stop was the Jabbock River, where Jacob fought with an angel for a blessing.

And then we went to Jerash, which was the coolest place ever. It's the most well preserved Roman city outside of Italy. And it's amazing. A nympaeum, two theaters, a temple to Artemis, a beautiful cardo, a hippodrome, and a gate built by Hadrian, it was amazing! It really felt like I was walking through a legit Roman city, there was so much there preserved. One of my favorite things about Jordan is that they still use the theaters. As in, they've outfitted them with lights, and use them for shows and concerts. You could go watch a concert in a legit Roman theater.

Our last stop of the day was at the Royal Automobile Museum. For me, it was just a bunch of old cars. For the guys though, it was heaven, filled with limited editions and old classics. One car that I thought was pretty cool was one that was built to be both a car and a boat. I was also a fan of the Tron motorcycle.

That evening after dinner, I went out and took a stroll in search of ice cream down Rainbow Street. Yes, that really is it's name, and I have no idea why it was named that. However, they had a lot of ice cream places, so that's the place that we all went. I got Kinder ice cream, and it is the best ice cream that I have ever had. It was amazing.

Along Rainbow street is Iraqi embassy, which is cool because the front of it is painted to look like the Gates of Babylon (as a side note, I saw part of the pictures depicted on the Gates of Babylon in the Istanbol Archaeological Museum). They were quite impressive. I guess that it's not a good idea to take pictures of embassy's, so we would try to take pictures on the sly of the gates.

The next morning we went on a quick jaunt through the archaeological remains of downtown Amman, then drove near the border, where we had a lunch of KFC. It wasn't the best fried chicken in the world, but it was amazing to up poor depraved Americans.

Our last stop before heading back to Israel was Bethany Beyond Jordan, one of the supposed baptismal site of Jesus. It was quite a lovely place, but it was crazy hot and humid. I have never been somewhere as hot and muggy as that was. It was nice to take off our shoes and put our feet in the water. Both the Israeli's and the Jordanians are extremely careful as to who goes to the river crossing there, as it is an international border, so there were people keeping an eye on the tourists from both sides of the river.

From there, it was back to the Jerusalem Center! Because it was the 4th of July, we planned somewhat of a party. Lot's of people dressed up as famous Americans, and we sang some songs and played some tunes. The kitchen staff got in on the fun, and made us hamburgers and hot dogs, fried chicken, corn on the cob, and french fries, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. It was magnificent.

And that, my friends, is a much delayed post on my adventures in Jordan. Stay tuned next time for Galille awesomeness!

Hezekiah's Tunnel, Neot Kedumim, and Seder

Yes, I'm really far behind. What with finals, and then Jordan...sorry all. This post is going to catch up on all the big stuff that happened before Jordan, and then I'll do another on Jordan, and then some things that have happened since coming back from Jordan.

Hezekiah's tunnel is one of the coolest things ever. So, the story is that back in the 7th century or so B.C. the Assyrians were coming. Remember Lachish? Well, every other fortress in the kingdom of Judah was destroyed, except for Jerusalem, and Hezekiah knew that he was next on the list. The spring at that time was outside the city walls, and to protect the water supply they cut a tunnel out under the city to a spot that was inside the city walls. That doesn't sound like too big of a deal, until you factor in that they started from both ends, then met in the middle. They were more or less digging blindly, and happened to meet in the middle. There is an inscription in the tunnel from the diggers, telling how as they got close to meeting they could hear the other team of diggers on the other side of the rock.

So, anchient tunnel under the city...and we got to walk through it. At the highest the water came up to mid thigh on me, but generally is wasn't much above my ankles. It was pitch black, but most people brought flashlights or headlamps, so there was more than enough light to see. A group of people went back the next week to do it again in the dark...I'm not sure quite how they did it. I was generally fine, but some of the taller guys had to stoop the entire time because of the low ceiling. It was a ton of fun.

Neot Kedumim is a biblical preserve located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It's sole purpose is to preserve the land and to keep things the way they would have been in the bible. Basically, it's the coolest place ever.

We had a tour guide, who was more or less a park ranger, who told us a lot of really cool things about the plants and animals that were around. They had a well on site, and the ranger, who's name was Patrick, had two of the JC students reenact the scene where Abraham's servant meets Rebekah at the well.

The coolest part though was herding the sheep. Yes, I helped to herd sheep. We made them go in a group from one end of the yard to the other, then separated them into the goats and the sheep and then attempted to make them do a figure 8. There was a baby lamb there, and a few people had the chance to pick him up and hold him, until he decided that he had enough.

That afternoon, we made fires and learned how to cook pita and lentil soup over a fire. It was super legit. If we never learn how to make any other type of food here, at least we know how to make lentil soup and pitas over a fire.

After lunch, we had the opportunity to meet with a Torah scribe. Many Torah scribes go to school to learn how to write, but the man that we talked to told us that writing the Torah has been a family occupation that has been handed down through the family for over 10 generations. He showed us a Torah from Tunisia that was over 250 years old, and a page from a Torah that is over 300 years old. Torah writing is a serious business. If you mess up writing God's name on a page, you can't just throw it away or burn it because it's the name of God. The only acceptable way of getting rid of it is to bury it, so in the corner in every Jewish cemetery is a plot reserved specifically for burying pages with the name of God on it.

The last really big thing that happened before Jordan, besides finals (which were not fun at all, and therefore will not be discussed here) was our Seder! It isn't Passover, but our Israel teacher came and had a Seder dinner with us anyway. It was really quite fun. I think that we did a slightly sped up version of it, but we still did all the major things. It's interesting to me how easy it is to trace Jewish traditions back to their source. Like the Seder was started as a result of not being able to do sacrifices in the temple after it had been destroyed, but still wanting to celebrate the holiday.

Our Israel teacher likes to say that every Jewish holiday has the same theme. "They tried to kill us, they didn't, so let's eat!"