Jordan

UGH. I'm disgusted with myself. It's be almost a year since I've been on this thing. A million apologies. I guess I'm mostly apologizing to myself. This blog was meant to hold lots of memories and stories from this year, for me to look back on and smile and reminisce. Shame. Okay, a promise to myself and those of you who care, I will be much, MUCH better about keeping up with this bad boy this year. Pinky promise.

Alright, now that the sob story is over, let's recap the year quickly. Mmmm... it may get a little lengthy. 

So, I officially finished my first year in Kuwait! I can’t tell you how amazing it was. Sure, Kuwait itself isn’t THAT remarkable, but I found several things that make it great. The weather was way better than I was expecting. Majority of the year was cool and comfortable. Only the last couple weeks of the school year (and the beginning of the year) were unbearable, it was 49 Celsius today (do the conversion my sweet Americans)! Dry heat at least?

I joined a gym. It’s stupid expensive, but worth it. It's basically like going to a resort everyday after school. It has private access to a private beach, pools, restaurant, coffee bar, spa, gym, and three studios where they provide a really great variety of workout classes. Thanks Koralie for the many rides lately! I like spending time with you ;) 

I also found a church. It’s run by foreigners. The pastor is a young guy from Canada. He is so smart and teaches straight from the bible. My biblical knowledge has really progressed because of him and other members (that's in bold because are so many awesome people that go there). I was voted the hospitality coordinator for this year (still not sure what I'm doing), but it was a surprise and honor. 

I really made a name for myself at my new school. The kids voted me the best 7^th grade teacher (I only think it was because I was the youngest and I taught science). They loved coming to my class, and it was a blast teaching it. I got promoted to science department head next year… My principal was amazing and would talk about me to my mentor teacher. He couldn’t believe it was my first year teaching science (not to toot my own horn or anything). 

I’ve made some amazing friends. Lots of people left because their contracts ended, but I look forward to getting to know the new people. I was trying to convince my sister to come here and teach music, but she just accepted a job in Shanghai (Go Katie!) There's this girl named Jill and we kind of do everything together. She is like a sister to me. We even bought a car together… that’ll be a new adventure in and of itself. These drivers are terrible! Majority of my other time was spent with my beloved giant, Brian and cat whisperer, Orion. You'll see them in the pictures below. Not to disclude anyone... there are just so many people to mention! I'm always scared to imagine a new place and think,"There's no way I could make as good of friends as when I lived in ___". I thought that about Korea, now Kuwait, and who knows where next?! 

I went traveling to a couple of places this year. I had to go to Dubai for a visa run back in October (a whole week on the school's tab!). Texas for Christmas. Went to Jordan for a holiday (see below), Thailand for Spring Break (coming soon!), and Lebanon for another holiday (coming soon, inshallah!). I went back to Texas for a month this summer and then spent two weeks in South Africa (will not be soon, but I promise it won't be a year later!) 

I have been back in Kuwait for a week now and eagerly await the newcomers and returning teachers. The superintendent of my school thought it would be a good job for me to welcome the newbies. That man is amazing, too bad he left. I dyed my hair a couple of colors this year (grey, purple, orange, etc.) and each time he said he loved it. My sister dyed her hair the last week of school and got sent home because it wasn’t “dress code”. Dumb... (sorry if I wasn't supposed to share that Katie!) 

I've also picked up SOME Arabic. While I was home, I had some Arabic and Korean slang coming out, along with a mild southern accent... Hopefully no one noticed that mess. 

And here we are now! With one of my favorite trips I've taken! It was only for a couple of days, but it was SUCH a good time. 

Welcome to Jordan! 

The posse: me, Brian, Orion, and Jill. We were pumped about renting a car for the weekend. Too bad the first one sucked, so we had to drive back to the airport and get another. We ended up with a better vehicle anyways. 

We stayed our first night at an Airbnb in Amman. It was a cute little place with great sunlight and really cold showers. 

Jill reading to us from her journal in the morning. Lesson 1: Make sure the handbrake is off!

Rajai, our host. He made us Jordanian coffee. He then decided to give us a mini tour of Amman. Sweet and funny guy!   

View from our Airbnb. Awesome.

Rajai took us to a bakery in Amman that employed Syrian refugees. We stuffed our faces with delicious, fresh baked breads! We were all miserable in the end with how much with ate. 

After breakfast, it was off to the citadel! 

The Temple of Hercules. 

Looking down towards the amphitheatre. 

City pano.

A tour of the top:

Giant flag!

Jill outside the tomb. 

Me inside the tomb. 

The hand of Hercules! 

Driving through markets. 

Brian did a spectacular job of driving through those crazy city streets. 

And Jill and Orion did a great job looking adorable. 

Amphitheatre! 

Travel buddies! 

These dudes fell in love with Brian and Orion. 

The young whippersnappers just wanted to talk and take pictures. Good for them. 

View from the top! It was a fun going up those steps... not scary at all... 

Sheep! Just chilling on a hill in the city. 

On our way to the Dead Sea. Very panoramic drive. 

Stellar country. 

Dead sea at night. We ventured up to a restaurant that was hiked way above the sea. Made for an awesome drive and an amazing venue to eat dinner. 

Pals.

Mojito! Of course, we each had to go for an alcoholic drink. We live in Kuwait for goodness sakes! 

We ordered the family set and it was an excellent idea. We got six appetizers and the next four dishes you see. I don't remember what they had in them or what they were called, but they were DELICIOUS. 

Happy tummies after dinner! Did I mention we also had live music? Yeah, it was a good night. 

Next morning: pool and Dead Sea. Bliss!

Yup, I definitely recommend the Marriott. It was pretty extravagant. 

What an incredible experience! Everyone needs to go float in the Dead Sea. It was nothing like I was expecting. 

Apparently, the mud has all these amazing benefits for your skin. Jill and I got on board real quick.

After washing up and checking out, we went to Jesus' Baptismal site. Here be the River Jordan. 

The river has been dammed. That's why it looks like muddy streams. 

Lots of different churches built around the area. Apparently, there's a Lutheran church being constructed?

Baptismal site. 

Info I was too rushed to read, so you can read it with me :) 

The baptismal site as a mosaic. 

An old church constructed by the site. 

Greek Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist at Bethany Beyond the Jordan. That's a mouthful.

Bones of a monk in the Church of John the Baptist. 

So much color!

And more mosaics. So cool. 

Watching baptisms from both Israel and Jordan.

After an afternoon at the Baptismal site, we went to Mt. Nebo. We were too late to make it inside :( but we did find a way to sneak around and get incredible views of the Promise Land!

Great teamwork being sneaky!

After Mt. Nebo, we scurried to Madaba to view the oldest extant map of the Holy Land. It is preserved in the floor of the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George. The church was closing seconds before we got there, but we worked our magic and pleaded with the man to let us in. Heh :) It was quite easy to win over the Jordanians. That's why I'd love to go back, such sweet people! 

They love their mosaics!

After the mosaic church, we drove all the way down to Wadi Musa, about a three hour drive. We played karaoke the whole time to keep us awake. We were looking forward to Petra in the morning! 

Good morning from Petra!

I won't bother trying to tell you a million times about how beautiful it was. I'll tell you this once: everything was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L.

I thought this rock formation looked like a scary face. Voldemort, perhaps? 

 

The Treasury and camel friends!

Hike up to the High Place of Sacrifice. 

Yummy tea with bedouin friends. Bedouin- a nomadic Arab of the desert. Thanks Google. 

High Place of Sacrifice.

At the very tippy top of that ridge is Lot's tomb. You can barely make out the white building. 

Looking back towards Wadi Musa. 

Brian on lookout. One of my favorite pics of the trip!

Jill taking a break in the sun. We did SOOOO much walking this day.

Hiking down, we saw several neat things along the way.

 

Lion fountain. 

The colors of the walls were so vibrant! 

Graves. 

Roman temple ruins. 

To the monastery! Second big hike of the day. I counted the steps up, but forgot the number... maybe around 800?

Monastery looking big. 

Monastery looking tiny. 

The Black Hills. 

Rest area set up by the bedouins we later befriended.

Shakespeare. Eagle's donkey. 

This is Lost. He fancied Jill. 

On the way down, my bedouin friend pointed out unique structures I had missed on the way up. Here is a face.

Do you see the alligator? 

How about the elephant?

My bedouin friend, Eagle. We locked arms the whole way down from the Monastery. I was thankful for this because by this time, my legs were about to give out. He then let me ride on his mule. It was awesome... He also talked about our wedding the whole time and held my hand. No biggie :P

Lion friend.

Lost and Eagle took Jill and I on our own private tour. We saw an old Byzantine church. 

Jill having fun on Lost's donkey. Not sure what Lost is doing here. 

I'm a super fan of this picture! Riding with Eagle. Look at those eyes & smile... any girl would be smitten. I was! :D

I wish I remembered what the significance of this place was!

On our way back, the amphitheatre. 

Bedouin lady. We said bye to our new friends and made our way back to our other fellas.
Thanks again for being great sports, Brian and Orion!

Our last hotel. Great deck with a STELLAR view of Wadi Musa and Petra in the distance. 

Great day, great vacation. Also digging the charcoal eye liner we had some guys in Petra put on us. 

Perfect night for this beer! It was delicious. 

The next morning, we packed up early and headed back to Amman to catch our flight. Remember how nice I said Jordanians were? Well on our way back, I got pulled over by the police (the 2nd time of the trip!)... they were just checking our cars for anything suspicious, but when I rolled down the window and they saw all of us in the car, they invited us to have coffee and tea with them! Too bad we couldn't accept because we wanted to be sure to catch our flight, but it was the thought that counted. Jill and I were so sad that we were going back to Kuwait that we splurged on Heinekens on the flight home. Cheers to a great time!