Jordan here I come!!

Monday the 28^th was….JORDAN!!! I was sooo excited! We got to go to another country! So it was a bright an early morning so that we could be one of the first buses to cross the border. It cracks me up because the security and stuff that we had to go through was to leave Israel not even to enter Jordan. But we crossed the border from Israel to Jordan on foot! Haha I thought that was kinda cool! And my favorite part…I finally got a stamp in my passport!!! :D when we got here we didn't get one and it kinda made me sad but I finally got one in there and that proves I have been somewhere else besides the US and Canada! After that border we had to go to the Jordanian border which took quite a while too but we just had to sit on the bus while our teacher worked the stuff out. After waiting for what seemed like ever we finally made it into Jordan! When we went across the border we got a new bus and a tour guide! Our tour guides name was Youseph! He was cool! When we are in Israel, our teachers have permission to be the tour guides but when we are out of the country we have to have a tour guide with us. It was kinda neat though to have a Jordanian teaching us at all the sites.

The first place we went after the border was Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo is the place where Moses stood to look over the Promised Land (Num. 27 and Deut 34:1). There wasn't anything super big up there it was mostly just a mountain but it was amazing to be where Moses stood! If it had been a clearer day then I probably would have been able to see a lot more but even with the haze you could see a lot! You really could see a lot of the land! It was super cool to think that Moses stood there and looked at the same places that I was looking at! That is where the children of Israel got to go! It was a really neat experience!

The clouds looked super cool!

I am pretty sure this is supposed to be Moses' staff with the snake!

The view! like is said not super clear but really cool!

After Mt. Nebo we went to a city called Madaba. While here we went to St. George Church at Madaba to see to mosaic floor that was beautiful! It was a cool map of the country of Israel and Jordan! It is amazing to think that someone took the time to create such a good map out of a whole bunch of little tiles. I feel like it would have been prettier when it was first made but it was still really neat! Along with the floor there were a lot of mosaics hanging on the walls depicting the life of Christ. There was one that I was particularly interested in. It was a little odd but it is rather intriguing. I believe that it is supposed to be depicting the baptism but I am not entirely sure! Either way I think it is cool!

 I would love to hear thoughts on what the boards and/or snakes underneath his feet are supposed to represent if anyone has any thoughts!

After this it was finally time for lunch!! I was starving by this point! It was a nicer place and the food was good! It was my first experience with Jordanian food but it was pretty good! One thing that I had a tough time remembering is only to eat food that has been cooked. The water has stuff in it that our bodies are not used to so it would have most likely made us sick. In order to take precaution we made sure to think about if what we were eating was washing in the water or not to brush our teeth with the water. It was an adventure that is for sure!

After lunch we were supposed to go to Machaerus which is where john the Baptist was beheaded but sadly, because of the inordinate amount of time it took at the border, we weren't able to go. It would have been one of the cooler places on our trip I think but it is ok that we didn't get to go! So instead, we got to go on a 4 hour drive to the Hotel in Petra! It was nice to get a 20 minute nap and to watch out the window! (I really wish that I could sleep in cars but instead I get to be a window watcher which sometimes is totally worth it!) Since we were driving into southern Jordan, (To what is called Moab) it was basically just desert! It was really neat though!

Once we got to Petra it was pouring rain which isn't really what I was expecting but it was a nice change I guess! Haha J The hotel had complementary drinks waiting for us and we went straight down to dinner! It was a nice dinner and there was a sitar player down there playing live music! That was kinda cool! There was a back pack mix up when I went to take my stuff to my room! I grabbed the backpack that was marked with my white bandanna but when I went to take my computer out…it wasn't there! I started freaking out and opened the big pocket. When I opened it up, my stuff wasn't in there! It was someone else’s backpack. Well come to find out, someone thought it would be funny to switch two of the bandanna’s and so my backpack had someone else’s bandanna on it. At the time I was a little freaked out but it was kinda funny! (Thankfully sawyer hadn't taken my backpack yet so I was able to just switch our bandannas!)

Since we were only going to be spending one night in Petra we decided to go out and explore the tiny little town (more like a grocery store and like 5 souvenir shops haha) It was fun! A bunch of people bought some Indiana Jones type hats and we got to watch this guy made a camel out of sand! It was amazing how he just made this camel like it was no big deal at all! It only took him like 2 minutes! After going out I decided it was time to shower and go to bed. When I went to get into the shower it was like a dribble! There was like no water pressure at all and I wasn't completely sure if my hair was rinsed out completely or not! Haha then when I went to sit on my bed it sunk! So my head and right side on my body basically was tilted down! It was definitely an adventure in that hotel!!