Journey of Elise Far Far Away in the Middle East: Southern Jordan and Pictures

I cannot believe it has already been three months since I arrived in the Middle East. It has been increasingly hard to keep up with written accounts of all of the experiences I have had throughout the past several months. Day after day I continue to live in a region so far from my own home, but I am finding that despite this great distance between myself and most of what I have found comfort in my whole life, it is still me that is living these experiences.

After a couple of months of spending most of my time in cities much larger than Eugene, or even Portland, the largest city in Oregon, I felt a strong pull to explore outside of the cities. In Amman, where my home stay family and school is, there is a unique blend of western restaurants, stores, and modern lifestyles that similarly reflect what is commonly seen across the U.S. and other "western" countries. While living in this city it is easy to get caught up in the same sort of routine that I would find myself in at home in Eugene, and rarely venture outside of that routine to remind myself that I am in fact in the Middle East, one of the most misunderstood but commonly discussed regions by international reporters and critics. But back to this strong pull towards the desire to explore outside of the cities... I spent a week with the rest of my program venturing around Southern Jordan at the beginning of November, and this was by far the most enjoyable excursion for me.

After leaving Amman we headed south stopping at Kerak Castle and then Dana Nature Reserve, where we spent the night at a remotely placed Youth Hostel. From there we headed to Petra where most of the day was spent wandering the enormous ancient Nabatean city. Before visiting Petra I expected to be in awe of the Treasury, but had no idea how huge the area actually is. You could spend several days exploring all of the hidden nooks and crannies. Even the mobs of tourists didn't take away from my amazement of this ancient city.

The next morning we continued to head south, briefly stopping at the campaign "office" (in reality it was a beit sha'ar, or tent made of goat hair, where a bunch of men hang out and drink tea) of my host-dad from my Badia home stay. He was running for Parliament, although sadly did not succeed in obtaining one of the 120 seats out of the 800 something candidates running for seats. After a short speech from Sheikh Hussein talking about his campaign, he invited our whole group over for a Mansaf lunch prepared by his wife (my Badia host mom). Needless to say, it was delicious, and really great for me to see their family again. I hope to visit a few more times before leaving Jordan in March. We left their small village of Qrain and headed to Wadi Rum.

After arriving in Wadi Rum we took a jeep ride around the desert, ran around some sand dunes, watched the sunset, and then returned to camp for a dinner cooked in an iron stove buried a meter under the sand. After dinner people wandered in different directions and all I wanted to do was lay down in the desert and star gaze. That night in Wadi Rum the sky was one of the most star filled night skies I have ever seen... AND I saw the brightest and longest shooting star that I could ever imagine. It was so huge that it looked almost like a flare shot up into the sky, but no, it was definitely a shooting star. The next morning we woke up with the sun and hung out for a few more hours wandering around the picturesque desert before the sun heat really started to beat down on our backs. Next stop, Aqaba.

In Aqaba we had an evening boat ride on the Red Sea. As you can imagine, this was beautiful. After heading off the shore a ways we jumped off the boat and swam around in the sparkly turquoise water until a barbecue dinner was ready. Mmmm, lovely evening.

Although that was a very rushed preview of my favorite excursion I thought it was necessary to at least explain briefly all that we did during the week in the South.

Since then classes have finished and now we are in the Independent Study Project (ISP) period of the program which ends December 12th. Following less of a strict routine has been really nice as I can spend my time outside of the classroom wherever I would like to research, read, or just enjoy the weather that is only now beginning to cool down to an even mildly Fall like temperature (comparative to Eugene). On Sunday I am heading up to the Northern Badia to do some field work at a cooperative project site called Anaqeed Al-Khair that I am doing a case study on for my ISP. More time out of the city to be enjoyed!