We had all been looking forward to visiting the Dead Sea from the very beginning of our trip, so spirits were high as we set out on the 45 min drive to the Dead Sea. Upon arrival, we all floated in the Sea, covered ourselves in the famous Dead Sea mud, which is supposed to be amazing for your skin, read on the beach, swam in the pool and in general, had a relaxation day.
It was pretty surreal floating in the Dead Sea, It was almost like being in a zero gravity chamber because you could be standing up without touching the ground. Also, since the Dead Sea is the lowest land point on the Earth, it was incredibly hot, so the water offered a nice refuge. In Jordan, where 93% of the population is Muslim, many aspects of Islam get mixed in with Jordanian culture and become more of a cultural act or phrase rather than religious. The main example of this would be phrases that include the word 'Allah', or the word for God in Islam. Common phrases include-
Alhamdolillah (Praise be to God/Thanks to God) Inshallah (If God wills it/Hopefully) Mashallah/Subhanallah (used to express amazement or happiness) Bismillah (In the name of God-used at the start of anything (eating, driving, studying etc)) These phrases are used by people of all religions and are commonplace in conversation. Eid Break! 7/5-7/6 After a 3.5 hour bus ride full of laughter, chatting, listening to Arabic music and looking out the window at the beautiful scenery and camels grazing on the side of the highway, we arrived at the city of Petra. We had time to explore the city of Petra (which directly neighbors the Nabatean stone city that we would be exploring tomorrow), watch the sunset from the roof of the hotel, eat a delicious dinner and after it was time to head to bed, I pulled a chair onto the balcony and stargazed and read until sleep finally overcame me. The next morning, we woke up bright and early, ate a delicious breakfast and excitedly walked over to the ancient city of Petra for a visit we had been eagerly awaiting for weeks. While most people just think of the iconic facade of the Treasury (which is not actually a treasury, but we will get to that later) when they think of Petra, there is actually so much more to the city. Petra, also dubbed The Rose City, was established around 312 BC by the Nabateans, who became incredibly wealthy by capitalizing on their strategic position on trade routes. They were known for their aqueducts and smart water managements systems and Petra was home to a thriving civilization until it was abandoned in 512 AD following an earthquake. During this time it was also ruled by the Roman and Byzantine Empires so it was interesting to see all of these influences come together. Petra was home to more than 20,000 people at its peak, however since most of the residences were made out of mud and other materials that were destroyed by rain and time, most of what we saw were actually tombs. Despite its name, The Treasury is not actually a treasury. In fact, historians are unsure of its actual use given its lack of rooms inside which means it couldn't have been a residence or treasury and the fact that there were tombs beneath it so the area behind the famous facade was not a tomb as well.
Overall, Petra went way above and beyond my expectations and was well worth trekking 10 miles in almost 100 degree weather! Wadi Rum truly holds a special place in my heart. Thinking of the Valley of the Moon brings up indescribable emotions that were felt while riding through the desert in the back of pickup trucks, lying in the sand and being able to see the Milky Way and more stars than I have ever seen in my life, scrambling up rock formations, watching the sun set from atop a mountain, eating bedouin barbecue, sitting around a campfire, sipping tea and chatting and doing cartwheels in the sand. The sheer beauty and enormity of this place are one-of-a-kind.
It is such a foreign landscape. So much so that it was actually the place that they filmed the movie, The Martian. The lack of civilization or light pollution gives it a unique serenity that is hard to find. My iPhone pictures truly can't do this place justice, but I hope you can get a glimpse of what Wadi Rum is like. Today we headed to school, had a quiz, did a role play on restaurant etiquette and watched a video on Eid, which is fast-approaching. We have the next 3 days off of school for Eid vacation however there is still not an official date because it is based on the moon and the date can only be estimated beforehand. After school, we headed to ACOR (American Center for Oriental Research) for a lecture on Petra and Wadi Rum by an archaeologist who was heading up a program on sustainable excavation and preservation. I was really looking forward to this talk because we had another incredible talk by the photographer Bashar Tabbah a couple of weeks ago in which he showed us some of his amazing pictures of Jordan and the accompanying histories. He took some truly stunning photos that furthered my understanding of how truly beautiful the entire country of Jordan is. I would suggest checking him out at his website. Here are some of my favorites of his photos- Through this lecture today, I learned a lot about the Nabateans, who built Petra, and developed a deeper understanding of Jordanian history which was great because I always like to have an understanding of the history when visiting a place. After the lecture, we headed home and prepared for the July 4th festivities tonight. I volunteered to cut the watermelon but did not realize what I was getting into until I was brought a 14kg (30lb) watermelon, serrated knife and tiny cutting board. It took me more than an hour but worked out well in the end and thanks to everybody pitching in, we ended up with a beautiful banquet full of everyones favorite American foods on the roof. It was beautifully set up with lights and everything and was truly an idyllic evening. We ended the night strong with an amazing chocolate cake and crazy sparkler candles. So, given my jam-packed schedule that I will talk about in more detail in this blog post, I haven't had as much time as I had hoped to update my blog on the various random activities we do. Here they are-
While I usually fast everyday at home during Ramadan, I decided to not fast while on this trip because it is hard to focus in school and you're not required to fast while traveling. However, today I decided that I wanted to give it a go and see how it felt fasting in a place where everyone around you was fasting as well and the culture was shifted to accommodate the majority who would not be eating or drinking anything from dawn to dusk.
Fortunately, we have an incredibly kind and funny driver, Saeed, who not only gets us everywhere we need to go, but has exposed us to lots of Jordanian pop music. We often have jam sessions on the way to school and I have heard so many different Arab singers so I thought that I would share some of the most popular- This next song is incredibly popular!!! The music starts 30 seconds into this next video. It is a weird music video (but nothing is inappropriate) but I couldn't find any other version. It turns out arabicization is an actual word according to dictionary.com and is basically the Arabic counterpart of anglicization. Arabicizing is the process of taking something, English company names in this case, and turning it into Arabic. Overall, everything has been super accurate, except for a couple of funny examples that I have included below- Bakery=Backry
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We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. !أهلا و ساهلاHi! I'm Sophia, a high schooler from the San Francisco Bay Area. I received a scholarship through the State Dept. to study Arabic in Jordan in the summer of 2016. Categories
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