An adventure!

On Sunday some friends and I spontaneously decided to go to Petra on Tuesday, our day off. It was basically the best idea ever.

We took a bus down to Eilat, a city at the very tip of Israel (about a 5 hour drive). We spent the night in a really cheap hostel and woke up at 6:30 on Tuesday morning to meet our tour (it was completely safe and legit--desertecotours.com). We were a little unsure of what the day would be like, and I think we all felt a little nervous standing on the Israeli side of the Yitzhak Rabin Border Crossing, thinking, are we really doing this? But our tour guide helped us get through passport control and crossing the border was easy enough... and one of the most exciting things I've ever done! (When the Jordanian guard checked my friend Melissa's passport, he said, "You're American?" She said yes and his response was, "Obama?" with a smile.)

Our tour guide, Alli, picked us up as soon as we crossed the border. The group consisted of the six of us (known for the day as the American girls), two Australian college students who were finishing a two month trip backpacking through Europe and Israel, and two older couples. The drive from the border to Petra was about two hours, and even though a lot of people slept I really enjoyed it. First we drove through Aqaba, which is a city similar to Eilat. Both cities are tourist destinations on the beach. But while Eilat reminded us of Miami, Aqaba was still developing. Alli told us that they received a TON of money from Saudi Arabia to build in Aqaba, so almost everything was under construction.

Sometimes while I'm walking the streets of Tel Aviv I feel like I'm in Europe--Israel is an extremely Western country and it's easy to forget that you're in the Middle East. But I wasn't far from the border with Saudi Arabia! It was kind of mind blowing to realize where I was in the world. Driving through the desert to get to Petra looked like what you might imagine the Middle East to be. On the way to Eilat, even though the landscape was just desert, we drove through a university and past shopping malls. Even in the completely desolate areas there were bus stops and clear road signs. But in Jordan the road was mostly unmarked and without lanes. There was trash in the desert and in the nondeveloped areas we saw a lot of shacks made out of tin and completely dilapidated buildings. Some of the areas we drove through seemed industrial, but others were clearly residential, but I've never seen such obvious poverty. The houses, at best, were just square blocks of cement, sometimes without even a door or windows. It's hard to imagine how people can subsist in the rural desert--they were literally surrounded by nothing.

The atmosphere outside of Petra was completely different, but still very Middle Eastern and clearly a town that relied completely on tourism. I took a lot of pictures on the drive through:


We finally got to Petra itself and started walking down the path. It was cold!! We didn't expect that, because winter in the desert should still be about 65! But there was much needed rain in Jordan and Israel as yesterday, so I shouldn't complain about some chill and wind.

Anyway, Petra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and I can seriously see why. It's probably the most beautiful and incredible thing I've ever seen. We walked through this massive canyon that was caused by an earthquake, and way back in the day (OK, I'm not so strong on the history because Alli's accent was a little hard to understand) floods came through and eroded the sandstone, making it extremely beautiful and complex. There were also a lot of relics from ancient civilizations, including idols and carvings honoring the gods. Towards the end of the trail we got to the Treasury (where they filmed Indiana Jones!) and it was so amazing. I can't really express it in words, so I took about a thousand pictures, but it just felt so cool to look at something so ornate and ancient. But the trail continued after that and we got to the ampitheater at the end.



At one point, one of the vendors asked an adult in our group who "the American girls" belonged to. She didn't know how to respond, and he asked, "Are they yours?" She said no, we were just in the group with them. He joked that he wanted to trade one of us for a cat. At this point I walked away but he turned to Jen and said, "Maybe for you, you are so pretty. Who owns you?" Crazy stuff.

We had lunch at the "Petra Magic Restaurant," and it was one of the best thing I've eaten in the past three weeks. The hummus was probably the best of my entire life. We also had this really good lamb and vegetable dish with rice, and there were potatoes, chicken and a million kinds of dips. We all ate as much as we could fit in our stomachs, preparing for the long bus rides ahead.

On the way back we heard that there were reports of sandstorms in the north of Jordan that caused some roads to be closed. There was a moment where I think we all thought: what if we get stuck in Jordan for the night?? At one point the sand was so thick around the bus that we couldn't see ahead of us at all. That only lasted for about five minutes but for the rest of the drive there was sand swirling around us and you couldn't even see the sun.

Finally, dirty and tired, we arrived back on the border. It was weird, because even though we were 100% safe all day long and had a great time, we all felt a huge sense of relief the second we stepped over into the "no man's land" of the border, out of Jordan and headed towards Israel. The first thing Michelle said was, "This trip made me realize how much I love Israel." I have to say that I agree... maybe I'm staying within my comfort zone too much, but it felt so comfortable to be reentering Israel. I have to say that even more than that, the trip made me realize how convenient it is to be American. Everyone we encountered, from our bus driver, to the man leading my horse, to random children running around the site, could speak English. It actually made me feel really lucky because it would have been almost impossible to get through the day if my native language had been something else.

Anyway I think it's safe to say that I've had one of the most amazing and exciting weeks ever! I'm also feeling really good about ulpan--we counted to 100 today, and I'm becoming a lot better at reading and writing the characters. Also, the election isn't totally final yet, but I was pleased and surprised to see that Tzipi Livni got a majority of the popular vote! It seems unlikely that she'll be able to build a large enough coalition to become Prime Minister though... I don't really understand parliamentary politics.