The Dead Sea and Wadi Mujib

Last weekend in Jordan? What better way to spend it than lounging at the Dead Sea! Rachel and I checked into the Kempinski Saturday afternoon. Thanks to a room key that never did figure out how to work, we got an upgrade to a poolside suite, late checkout and free dinner. Not bad for an afternoon's work.

We got up Sunday morning to hike Wadi Mujib. The guys at the front entrance admonished us that it was a Very Difficult hike and we would not be able to complete it without a guide. Being Independent Women, we scoffed at them and began our hike. The landscape was beautiful - crystal clear water, cliffs soaring above our heads, rocks streaked through with red, green, yellow, brown and grey, hawks lazily circling, fish biting our feet and ankles (okay - that was creepy not beautiful). Walking against the current was a bit challenging but, like I said, we are Independent Women.

We hit the first waterfall with no issues. At the second waterfall, we lost a water bottle (turns out snapping it into your life vest is not as secure a strategy as you would think). At the last, and most challenging waterfall, Rachel yelled for me to grab the second water bottle as it slipped out of her "secure" life vest. I lunged and almost ended up over the edge after the water bottle, ending up trapped momentarily in a very strong current. We got through, stood under the uncomfortably powerful stream of the last waterfall, and then turned back. 

Back at the most challenging waterfall, the predictions of the guys at the front entrance finally caught up to us. As Rachel was traversing the poorly placed ropes, she slipped and I was suddenly looking down at my sister, holding on for dear life with only her mouth and eyes peeking out of the water. She was clearly struggling to hold on, under the strength of the current. As I was trying to get down to her without slipping into the current myself, she yelled that she was letting go and, for a split second, I stopped breathing. Then she popped back up out of the water and I breathed.

After our hearts stopped racing, Rachel informed me that as she was hanging onto the rope, she made the decision to let go when she realized suddenly realized that not only had she lost her gym shorts but her swimsuit bottoms were down around her knees. Modesty, apparently, trumps possible death by drowning. We looked and looked but no sign of the shorts, so we moved on. 

We traversed the other two waterfalls easily and floated out of the wadi on the current, enjoying the breeze and the view. Just as we were coming around the last bend in the wadi, Rachel looked down and with a shout of triumph, raised up the gym shorts. Apparently they also floated out on the current and we rejoiced in our reunion (although were sad for no reunion with those water bottles).  

After the exertions of our morning, we were thrilled to go back to the Kempinski and float and relax and eat our free lunch, with no danger from currents or waterfalls. Goodbye Dead Sea. I will miss your mineral-eyness.

Cleaning? Who Needs It...

I'm in the process of organizing and cleaning and preparing to move halfway across the world.  It's a bit overwhelming - when I moved to Jordan, I packed everything up and promised myself I would throw away and de-clutter over the course of my two year tour.  

And then I hid stuff in closets and corners of my 1400 square foot apartment and told myself I would do it later.  Now that I'm two weeks out, I am kicking into high gear.  I took some pictures off the wall and discovered that I maybe should've dusted a time or two over the last two years:

Arab Costco

Katie told me "go to the bottom of the hill from the Jerusalem Center and where it starts to go back uphill, it'll be on your left".

Sure enough, in a small, poorly paved parking lot, I found Arab Costco.  Huge pallets of soda, chips, flour, cans of chickpeas, and all other kinds of delights.

A few hand gestures and a limited exchange of Arabish later, I found my way to the candy room with sugar coated licorice whips filled with gummy cream (don't judge, its disgustingly delicious).

Next Year in Jerusalem

I'm not saying my last trip to Israel was to eat french toast at Zuni's but...

In between and around french toast, I did some shopping and wandered through the Old Town.  It was Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, and there was a general aura of celebration floating through the city.  Restaurants and most houses had a sukkah, or booth, constructed to eat under and people were carrying palm fronds around the city.  

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A Visit to a Jordanian Doctor

My week spent in the pool was not kind to my ears.  I woke up in Aqaba Friday morning with a terrible earache.  Being a doctor's daughter, which practically gives me a license to practice medicine myself, I knew I probably had an outer ear infection.  But I really wanted to finish my certification, so I toughed out the ocean dives and went home, ear throbbing the whole time.

By the time I got to work on Sunday morning, the pain was such that I knew I was in trouble.  After seeing three nurses, and surviving a blackout and duck and cover alarm in which I was pulled forcibly from the exam room into a broom closet, the doctor informed me my ear canal was swollen shut and I would need to visit a local ENT to have my ear "toileted" aka cleaned out and examined, for confirmation that it was, indeed, an ear infection.  

Afraid that Sebastian and the rest of the "Under the Sea" crew was hiding out behind my swollen ear canal, I decided to follow through with the visit to the ENT instead of just calling my Dad from the pharmacy for the name of a medicine to take.  

After using a mini-vacuum cleaner to suction out my ear (which felt amazing, by the way), he sent me off with a prescription.  Sadly, two days later I was back with even worse ear pain.  He vacuumed out my ear again and then, using a series of popsicle sticks, cremes, powder and gauze, he made a dressing and stuffed it into my ears.  "Leave it in for two days" he said.  So I did and I don't know whether he whispered a secret spell over it, or the antibiotics finally kicked in, but when I finally pulled it out two days later, shriveled and disgusting, my ear was better.

I really thought I'd make it through my two years with no hospital visits but, as overseas medical experiences go, this was pretty painless so I'll take it!

GRIIIIIIMSBY!!!

We finally built a fire in Grimsby.  It only took me two years.  Suddenly realizing that it was Michael and Kiya's last night in Jordan, and that we'd talked about building a fire in Grimsby for 4 months, we knew it was time to do this thing.  Luckily for us, since we weren't sure where to get wood, we had a fallen palm tree in the front yard that was skinny enough in diameter that Michael was able to break it up into fireplace sized chunks.

We didn't exactly sing Kumbaya.  But we did make s'mores.  And we sat around the fire burning things from Jordan that we didn't want to bring home with us.  It was very therapeutic.  

The whole time I pretended Michael and Kiya were not really leaving and that I would not really have to say goodbye.

Aaaaand....certified!

After a long drive down to Aqaba, four increasingly painful but beautiful dives, and an even longer drive back to Amman, I am officially a certified diver.

Overall the experience was pretty amazing - I only almost drowned once.  I saw everything from tiny adorable clown fish in sea anemone homes to napoleon fish as long and tall as me.  I am pretty sure I saw a shark...at least I believed it was a shark and immediately descended into a blind panic.  Luckily, Kiya had sent me this picture before I left, so I just breathed in and out and pictured my shark with a big huge grin and was able to calm down. 

Now seeking dive partners for future adventures!

The Final Shopping Countdown

What happens when you're a month away from leaving a country, perhaps forever?  You find yourself suddenly NEEDING that rug, pottery, spices, wall hanging, etc.

And that's how we ended up going home with five rugs.

Schawerma and Swimming Pools

I'm in the process of getting certified as an open water diver aka scuba certified.  It has meant 4 hour sessions each night this week, a mixture of classroom and pool time:

my home this week  

By the time I finished tonight, I was starving and dead tired.  So we stopped into Chapati for some delicious schawerma with an Indian twist.  I will miss this food.  

(I won't miss the Coke Light though)

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A Quick Trip

I just got back from spending 36 hours in Prague.  Right after getting dropped off at the airport, I realized I had no wallet, no credit cards, no checkbook, no way to get money while there.

A frantic search through my bags revealed 47 shekels and 200 Czech Kroner (the equivalent of $22).  Not quiiiite enough to sustain life, especially if I did not want to end up sleeping in the airport.  After ruling out busking or begging as a money-making strategy, I went to work.  

Pre-paid hotel with free breakfast booked on Travelocity?  Good thing I have my credit card number memorized!  

Identification of an airport lounge where I can eat dinner for free?  Thank goodness for elite status!  

Super cheap method of transportation to and from the airport that doesn't involve hitchhiking?  Bless the Czech Republic for public buses that only cost $2.50.

And its a good thing I did all that research because my friends who were racing to the airport with money didn't make it.

you know this horse was mortified to be seen wearing these earmuffs

And so I enjoyed a mostly fund-free trip to Prague.  And, thanks to free lunch at work, had enough money to bring back raspberries, smoked sausage and one cold Diet Coke.

Desert Castles or the Attack of Scary Bugs

Kiya, Michael and I took advantage of our Labor Day holiday and decided to do the Desert Castles loop.  Five Castles, One Day.  Here we go.

Our first stop, Qasr Kharana, was pretty short and sweet.  Qasr Kharana was an 8th century convention center of sorts, a place where the Ummayid caliphs could get together and schmooze. We took some pictures and sneaked past a "do not enter" sign to get an amazing view from the roof.

We moved on to Qasr Amra, an Ummayid bathhouse that was once attached to a larger hunting lodge complex.  Sadly, the awesome murals were under restoration and largely blocked by a giant scaffolding system.  When we turned the corner, to see the "first zodiac painted on a domed ceiling", we discovered a dessicated creature who dominated our conversation for the rest of the day.  At first we were just horrified, as we thought it was curled up in death throes.  Then Kiya threw a rock and it convulsed, leading me to jump 10 feet in the air and scream like a diving hawk.  It had a beak, 10 furry legs, and a body that was separated into distinct sections - spider? or mutant ant?  (later google images taught us it was a camel spider....terrifying)

Next stop was Qasr Azraq and the Azraq Wildlife Preserve.  We actually saw water buffalo this time (maybe Willy scared them away last time?).  So many of them...including one that was swimming along, having the time of his life.  We also got introduced to an extremely aggressive wasp.  I took one for the team and let him sting me, to save Kiya and Crew from being attacked (I had visions of it stinging the baby as I heroically flung my hand up).  The sting felt like fire traveling up my arm and itched for a good month afterwards.

wrist sting

dastardly wasps

Last stop was Umm al-Jamal.  We hit it right at sunset and the setting sun on black basalt was golden, warm and made me wish I had a reason to do a photo shoot.  Umm al-Jamal is open access - we climbed all over the ruins and took lots of pictures of one adorably happy baby.  And then went home, tired, hot and happy.