It's been about two weeks since we last chatted, I'm sorry about that but I've been busy. We left off with the trip to Ajloun, which was a blast. That being said, this past weekend's trip to the Dana nature reserve blows it out of the water.
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| View at the beginning of Dana Valley |
We'll start with last weekend, I guess (nothing much happens during the week, other than school). We've had a crazy run of birthdays in our group, with four different birthdays during the space of about 10 days or so. So, to start, Wednesday night a group of us planned to go to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that we sort of knew the location of, called Yoshi. By sort of, I mean none of us knew exactly where it was. So, after getting out of the taxi at the nearest circle (Jordan doesn't have many stoplights, they use big rotaries instead) I wandered around a bit. Luckily, I ran into my friend Liz, who was also confused about the directions. I'd say we walked for about 25 minutes, before we ran into a security guard in front of an embassy who knew where it was. Oh, it's just your next left, he said, then go straight. We saw an opening to the left, but it was not well lit and had a low fence protecting about 90% of it. Luckily, there was another guard about 100 yards in front of us, who directed us back to said sketchy alleyway/street. Turned out it was the right place, but it was definitely an adventure.
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| Dana Village |
Thursday day we cooked with Kirsten's (program director) husband, who has formerly run restaurants. Needless to say, the food was incredible, and I even learned to cook a bit.
Then on Friday night (our Saturday night, we have school on Sunday), we had a surprise birthday party for our friend Elizabeth at her apartment. "Mufaja'aa!" is a little more startling than "Surprise!" but everyone had a good time. We did go to a bar (there are several in Amman) and I may or may not have sung karaoke to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl.
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| On the hike |
Again, not much happened during the week, so we'll skip ahead to this weekend. Thursday morning, most of the group hopped on a bus and headed south to Dana Nature Reserve. Around 2:00, we found our way down a winding trail (walking, we had to leave the bus at the top of the valley) to a collection of tents and a picturesque desert view. We wandered around, finding caves and different rock formations and such, and the food was really good. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how cold it would be, and most of the group got pretty cold. I, however, had brought an extra jacket (something my mother might do?) and was just chilly, but they had blankets and it was warm inside the tents. This was also my birthday. Now that I'm 21, I feel like a real man. The change is significant - I'm pretty sure I could now grow a moustache if I wanted to. I've matured so much in just one day.
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The soccer field from afar.
Note, no green there. |
Friday was pretty solid, all around. Breakfast was good, and then we ventured out to the Dana village to start our hike. The village is (if I understood correctly) about 1500 years old and was pretty darn cool. The hike was about 4-5 hours, mostly downhill. The path was winding and sloping and rocky, but we saw our fair share of goats, flute-playing bedouin, and young bedouin girls chanting at said goats. Pretty cool stuff. At the end of our hike, we reached the Feynan EcoLodge, which was a sight for sore eyes. Sweaty, dusty, dirty, and tired, we stumbled in to find hot water showers and a nice cool hotel for the night. There was no artificial light, only candles and the occasional flashlight. The stars were bright and beautiful, it was really quite a romantic place. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
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| Soccer on Saturday at the school |
After showering at the lodge, I was about to settle into a hammock for a nice little nap, when someone said something about a sunset hike. I had literally closed my eyes, but then my father popped into my head with his favorite vacation saying - "We didn't come here to sleep." So, I went on the hike and I'm glad that I did. It was only about a 20-30 minute hike to the ridge, where there was tea and a magnificent view. I didn't see much from there, though. Along the path, there was a small school, and across from it, a large group of Bedouins playing soccer. Initially I didn't think I was going to play, but then a friend of mine really wanted to so I went with. The field was all dirt and rocks, no nets, and many of the Bedouins were playing without shoes or with one shoe. It was crazy. They immediately put me and Zoe on opposite teams, and we started playing. I actually scored two goals - unbelievable right? Ah it was so much fun. Then we went back to the hotel, ate, saw Mars, Jupiter, and Venus (among all the other constellations) through a pretty great telescope.
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| First-class Jordanian transportation |
Saturday, we drank tea at our Bedouin friends from the soccer game's tent, which was a cool experience. Afterwards, we played for a little while again, and then jumped into the back of a bunch of pickup trucks who were to take us back to the main road, and our bus. It was pretty remote (only dirt "roads" and I use the world road loosely), and one of the trucks in front of us stalled out a few times trying to climb a hill.
That brings us back to today, with class and all that jazz. Not the most exciting, but my Iraqi friend Ali (general friend of the group) from the gym said that he's making Iraqi food for us this weekend... can't wait for that!
Also, I was twice confused for a Jordanian today. Don't know if that means I'm fitting in better, or that I'm tanner, but it was cool. First, someone thought I was an employee at the Adidas store. Then, coming out of the gym, someone asked me for directions. Sort of cool, but I had no clue where he wanted to go.
Until next time, Inshallah.
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