Kingdom of Jordan!

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted.
We arrived back from Jordan several days ago. I was able to spend nearly an entire day exploring Petra, which was stunning. Petra is about 4-5 hours away from Jerusalem, not counting the hours spent going through the border. We stopped in Madaba on the way to Petra. This city has the oldest map of Jerusalem in the form of a mosaic on the floor in a church there. It was pretty cool.

The Petra Palace Hotel we stayed at...was not a palace. And if you ever plan or dream about going to Petra...I would say go with the Marriott or Crown Plaza. It was the craziest place ever. To get to my room I had to take the lobby elevator to the third floor. Then I would walk through the third floor out to the pool/outside area and on the opposite side I would walk into another building and take an elevator..4x4 dimensions with only three sides (if it was even working) up another three floors. Where the hall proceeded to smell like a barn and our bathroom even worse. Thankfully we stayed only one night.

We began early and arrived at the beginning of the walking path around 8:15am. You have to walk a little ways (maybe more than 1/4 mile) before actually seeing parts of Petra. They had a water system that ran from the entrance up to the Treasury. At one point our guide made us form five lines and look down at the ground and walk a little ways. When we looked up, the Treasury was infront of us. It was almost breathtaking, because I was not anticipating seeing it already. The ability of acient peoples to make such detailed and perfect monuments never ceases to amaze me. They made this tomb out of stone, with its perfect dimensions and smoothness. The Treasury, like many of the remains at Petra is first and foremost a tomb, but it was said that the King/Pharaoh kept his money in the urn on the second story. You can tell that it is the spot, from random holes in the rock resembling shots.

From the Treasury, we walked through more of the mountains until it opened up to hundreds of tombs. There was also a Roman/Nabateeaen Theater, which was not used for plays, but religious ceremonies.
Bedouins are the natives of the area and some even live in the old tombs at Petra. They reinacted a Nabateeaen market and sell many of the touristy souvineers as you walk through Petra. (The typical stuff = jewelry, books, pictures, sodas, chips, and little carvings or statues.) Some very little children were selling rocks on the sides of the monuments.

I hiked up the mountain to the Monastary, which was worth the wonderful view of the country. (It was around 800+ medieval-like steps to the top...and also dodging donkeys coming up and down so they dont run you off the path) It was hazy that day, but supposedly on a clear day you can see into Israel. Petra is in Southern Jordan and is near the border which we visited when we stayed at that Kibbutz Yatvata on the way to Egypt. Sometimes Israelis would sneak into Jordan in that area to get a quick peak at the ruins in Petra. After lunch at the "Basin" restaurant in Petra I wandered around with my friend Kellie, who also goes to Provo and is from Oregon. We bought some earrings and a nice cold drink while exploring more tombs on our own, mainly the Tomb of the Kings, Urn? (i cannot remember the name).
There was this book that I wanted so badly, but it was so pricey at Petra. It is called "Married to a Boudin" and was written by a woman who married a Bedouin man and they lived in a cave near Petra I believe. She was not Bedouin, T think she was from New Zealand. Anyways, she sells copies at Petra. But this book is famous in the area. Maybe I will purchase it later online.

After visiting Petra, we drove to Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Amman is a beautiful, relatively clean city compared to Egypt, or even Jerusalem. Jordan was overall cleaner, which was very nice.
Down the road from our hotel in Amman, The Ambassador Hotel, was a little mall with a actual grocery store. Many of the students and faculty visited a movie store that sold pirated movies for 1 Jordanian Dinar. ($1.50) I may have bought a couple.
We ate dinner there one night at "Texas Chicken" but really the logo and everything was the same as Church's Chicken. I couldnt bring myself to eat at McDonalds, even here. From Amman we drove to Jerash which has very well preserved Roman ruins, nearly an entire city, which was the ancient city of Jerash. At the South Auditorium there, we had some girls sing opera and hymns. It had wonderful acoustics. There as a reinactment which we had to pay $10 to see, but it was hilarious. There were "Roman" soliders dressed in supposedly authenic garb as well as gladiators and chariot races. Pretty cheesey, but hilarious and fun to see. I think Chad would have loved it. There were little French kids who were yelling at the gladiators the whole time and giggling like mad.

In Amman we also visited their second largest mosque, King Abdullah mosque. It was there that us women had to put on a black robe with a hood and wear a scarf around our face so we did not show any of our body while in the mosque. It was so strange to see, because the boys were in their blue jeans, t-shirts and ball caps.
After that we went to the ruins in downtown Amman, where the ancient Roman city of Philadelphia was.

We were also able to visit the Church's "Educational Center" aka the branch meeting house for members in Amman. It was so neat to actually see the church in the Middle East and its leaders. The Branch President in Amman was Pres. Hoffmire, from Norman, OK. He works for the government. I think there are service couples in every Middle Eastern country. One of the service couples that came to district conference in Jeruslame this weekend was serving in Afghanistan, but his wife was not allowed to go there.

This was pretty much our trip to Jordan. It was very short. We only stayed a total of three nights. On our way back to the Israel border, we stopped at Bethany and I stepped in the Jordan River in the area where Jesus and John the Baptist were baptized. The state of the river is so sad. I wish that we had more time to spend there but I do not think we were at the actual site for more than 30 or so minutes. I did happen to save some of the purified water from the Jordan River in an old water bottle.

As we arrived to the border crossing near Jericho, we were detained for two hours, because the officers...police...Israeli soldiers..whatever you want to call them didn't understand that we had tourist visas and not student visas. Anyways, they refused to let us through, and wouldn't call our main director in Israel. So our teachers called our director of the Jerusalem Center, Mr. Hiyat, who called Israel's Minster of Internal Affairs..or something like that...who then had to call the border to let us back in. It was crazy. They are so protective...and I personally think many of the soldiers/workers in the borders are just on power trips. Looking back, I realize I shouldn't have been as frustrated as I was, but whatever.

The center celebrated Halloween a day early, since Saturday is our Sabbath. We had the most awesome Hallowen party and dance. I've never seen people be so creative with their costumes. With such limited resources, I think it was pretty fantastic. The little kids of our professor went around trick-or-treating at our student apartments. They're 11, 9, and 4 years old. I dressed up with my friend Lauren as ninjas.

District conference this weekend was amazing. We had several area general authorities speak and the distict presidency, which happens to consist of some of our teachers and the "Dr" in the center. We had the most amazing impromptu fireside last night, that was spontaneously organized by some of the students. It was a random program of piano pieces and singing solos, along with testimonies in between. The spirit was so strong, I do not know if I have felt it stronger in my life. I hope I never forget that night.