Mummies or Bust (Sorry about the title...it was either that or walk like an Egyptian...)

Hello there from Cairo! When my mom asked about where the other students were going for the break, I told her it was either Egypt or Baghdad so, here I am! We arrived into the Cairo Airport around 8pm Thursday afternoon. Bought our extremely jenky Egyptian visas (seriously-- The guy handed us a sticker and we had to stick it on to our passports ourselves!), and stepped out of the airport into the dense and smoggy, hot Cairo air. I am not a particularly huge fan of haggling, but luckily the boy who is with us, Ian, seems to enjoy it.  After settling on a price of 60 Egyptian pounds (that is 10 dollarsish) we were on our wait to 'Wake Up! Cairo' hostel which we had found on the hostelworld website for about $7.00 a night.  Traffic was an absolute mess and between no one knowing where our hostel was (which we soon found out why) and our spotty Arabic, after 2 hours of searching, I was about ready to call it quits and check into the Hyatt. Eventually, we decided to get out of the cab and sluff it on our own. We met two nice men who looked at our map and walked with us until we found it.  Unlike anyone else in the country, they did not want money for helping us.  We found the sign for the hostel and walked into the building. Actually- 'building' is being very generous. Yes, it was a structure with a few windows and walls- but that is about it. We walked in and were greeted by particularly cute but surely rabies carrying cat. We took one glance at the elevator and its lack of well, buttons, and headed up the stairs. "to the 7th floor!" Evelyn said, and we started up the stairs. about 5 floors later Rachel pointed out that there hadn't actually been any floors yet. We had, however, found feces on the floor, and new living or once-had-been living surprise around every corner. I more than half expected to run into dead body next. Eventually, after realizing floor 7 meant 17, we arrived at the hostel.  Contrary to the scenery of the rest of the building, the hostel was (is, I am still here) quite nice.  They give us complementary breakfast in the am and are generally very helpful. Plus our room is home to the best air conditioner I have ever experienced. After a mildly rough day of traveling, we hit to sack and slept well.
Early the next morning we were up and ready to start our day at the Egyptian Museum.  We took about 4 hours to get through the whole thing.  Between sauntering pace (IIIII'm not positive that word works in this context but I am going to go with it) and the outrageous heat/humidity, we were all pretty groggy the whole day.  That being said the museum is amazing. Seeing all the artifacts, and thinking about how many different museums in the world are home to other Egyptian artifacts, I couldn't help but ponder on the outrageously immense amount of STUFF the Egyptians produced. Seriously--the museum is more like a warehouse! My favorite part, was definitely the mummy section of the museum. It was unreal to see bodies that were 6000 years old still with hair and fingernails. When I was in 4th grade, I did a project on Hatshepsut, arguably the most successful female pharaohs (see! The strong, beautiful, Barnard woman was brewing in me since childhood!).  What is now believed as her mummy is at the museum. The card on the glass says something along the lines of "This overweight, diabetic woman is now believed to be the mummy of the Great Hatshepsut. She also had bad teeth." Although I suppose I could have chosen a more glamorous woman to do that project, something about that description seems fitting for me.  After the museum we went back to awesomely freezing cold room of our hostel and took a nap. Around 7, we headed out to some neat restaurant Evelyn read about in her guidebook, joined by our roommate, Stephanie, an ex-woman-in-finance who had earned enough American Airlines miles to quit her job and travel around the world.   Must be nice.
Today, it is Saturday, and the hostel people told us we would be better off going to the Pyramids etc. today rather than Sunday as there would be less traffic.  The hostel arranged for their driver to pick us up and drive us around for the day.  We started at the Red Pyramids (that used to be covered in red granite that has since fallen off).  We arrived around 10am as literally the only tourists on the entire grounds. We bought our tickets (everything is half price with our student IDs!) and pulled up to the base. Unlike Giza, going inside this pyramid does not cost extra extra money so we decided to go inside. IT. WAS. AWESOME.  It was such a weird experience climbing down the ramp/stairs. It was a mine-like tunnel that would have caused serious problems for someone with any sort of claustrophobia. Once inside, we exchanged "THIS IS SO SO COOL, WOAH, and OH MY GOD"for a few minutes and then stood there staring at the ceiling for a while reflecting on the fact that we were all alone in an ancient Egyptian pyramid. Woah.  We followed along through the empty rooms until with came to a dark staircase that lead to the tomb room.  I ran ahead to check it out, and sprinted back to catch my breathe. "Has anyone ever gotten their hair permed?" I asked. The room smelled VIOLENTLY of ammonia, a chemical used in the mummification process. Although the smell was definitely overwhelming the fact that it was so old made it so cool.  After that, we climbed back into the car and took off for the Pyramids at Saqqara.  Here we saw the oldest of the Pyramids and were also seriously bothered by the huge group of locals trying to trick you into tours, extra fees.  Although that did put a bit of a damper on the beauty of the scenery, we got over that pretty quickly.
Between Saqqara and our next sight, the Pyramids of Giza, we made a stop at a Papyrus print shop and an incense store where I purchased a few gifts, including a lovely painting of the Egyptian symbol for family, with the name 'Tully' spelled out in hieroglyphic. It better make it to some wall in the AZ house.
Around 1pm we arrived to the Pyramids of Giza and after a bit of debating, decided to take a Camel/horse ride around the Pyramids.  This was also, very, very cool. In my opinion, camels are super weird and are definitely underratedly gigantic. We basked in the sun (with sunscreen of course, Mom and Dad) and took in the awe-inspiring, breathe-taking (there I go with the cliches again!) spectacle of the pyramids and the sphinx.  Around 5pm this afternoon we arrived back to the hostel, a bit toasty with a lot of great memories.  Tonight, we plan on getting a felucca boat and cruising around the Nile for a few hours.


We have two more days in Cairo. Monday night will take an overnight train to Aswan, spend a night there, drive out (at 4am, yuck) to Abu Simbel Temples (yay!)  then get on a boat that we will stay on for three nights with stops on the way until we reach Luxor. Friday, we will take another overnight train back to Cairo, come back to the hostel to shower/regroup, then fly back to Amman Saturday night, in time to get a good nights rest in before classes resume Sunday. 


I'm sure I'll tell you all about the rest of my week in Egypt, but thought I would get a head start with the posts while I could.  I am currently on the hostel computer and only paid for an hour and I have been on here for two...oops.  Insha allah that won't be a problem. I'll upload pictures when I'm back in Amman.

Maa Salama, wa Ehubkum!

A Beirutiful Weekend.

As I'm sure I have mentioned, our school schedule is such that we have a semester's worth of coursework in the first four weeks, a week off, and then the second semester in the next four weeks.  This week, is somehow already my fourth week here! Just as we would at the end of a Columbia semester we have a cumulative exam at the end of the week--as in tomorrow. So, here I am 'productively procrastinating' by writing here. 

  Last Thursday, after a BBQ at the center, Evelyn, and I departed Amman to meet up with Emily Y. and Rachel (they were already there) for a quick weekend in Beirut.  I swear we had to go through security at least three times before ever seeing any planes but all and all, we had a very uneventfully pleasant hour long flight. Upon arriving, we jumped in line at the money exchange as Evelyn only had travelers check (note to parents- regardless of how you dealt with money in the 80s no one, anywhere, ever uses travelers checks anymore. Don't force your children to carry them). While in line I noticed that the large group of men thoughtlessly cutting us were (irrelevantly) all Iraqi business men carrying wads of $100 american bills. Apparently, in Beirut, it is totally chill and common to pay for things with American money, and be given change back in Lebanese Lira. Weird.  After the customs officer thoroughly scoured my passport to make sure that I had definitely never been to Israel, we headed out for the taxi line. A man scurried over to us and sort of against our will herded us into a cab. He asked my name, said a lot of things in very fast arabic and something that sounded like "ash hash ysa gast...45 dollrs" then slammed the door and we drove off. Evelyn and I spend a good 10 minutes trying to decide what that meant (we didn't know American money was so prevalent yet) and asked him how many lira it would be.  He said 70,000.  Once we arrived, we skeptically paid our 70,000,  he guilt tripped us into another 6000 worth of tip, and we headed up to the room where we were greeted by Emily and Rachel who informed us that they had paid 20 bucks (likeeee one third of what we paid) to get from the airport to the hotel. Damn.  We had obviously been financially violated but what could we do? After sulking for about 20 minutes, and showering, we headed off to explore the city. 

Mohammad al-Amin Mosque

We stayed in the neighborhood of Hamra, a bustling part of town with lots of hip shops, cafes, bars, and restaurants however that night, we ventured over to what I understand to be the Art district, Jamaizy (I am sure I am totally butchering that spelling but, what else is new?) We got some food, had some good conversation, and headed back on the early side to make sure we were well rested enough for a full Friday of touring the city.

View from the restaurant on Pigeons' Rock

Friday morning we woke up early and walked back towards the sea.  We had heard that "the sook (markets) in Beirut are great!" so we decided to check them out. We of course thought that meant old ladies trying to force their jewelry down our throats or old men telling us "special price on this hat, just for you." Wrong. The alleged 'sook' turned out to be an absolutely beautiful outdoor mall, home of almost every fancy designer brand I have never heard of.  We spent an hour or two browsing until we came upon my favorite part of the sook, the super fancy swanky grocery store. I bought a diet crush (yeah! like orange crush but diet!) and a Time Out, Beirut, and we were on our way. The rest of the day, we walked, and walked stopping in at touristy sights such as the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque (modeled after the other huge blue mosque in Istanbul), and a lovely jewelry museum.  We ended up back in the area of our hotel for dinner at a new, cool, very Westernly named restaurant, Main Street. After dinner, we headed out to Jamaizy to one of Time Out, Beirut's 'Best Rooftops in Beirut" where we spent the rest of the night chatting and enjoying the beirutiful city. :)

Saturday, we got lunch at Pigeons' Rock (which, despite the name, it is the absolute most beautiful place ever.) then walked along the sea eating ice cream and  trying to cherish every last minute in "the Paris of the middle east" before heading back to the grammar/vocab test that was waiting for us back in Amman. After a fabulous weekend relaxing and exploring, we arrived back in Amman safe and sound with just enough time to review for our test.

In front of Pigeons' Rock

In other news, I have gone back to hash run every week since i first posted about it! The running part is getting much, much easier. I am stopping to chat rather than making other people slow down to talk with me. The crowd seems to be basically the same every week and I am starting to get to know the regulars. Who knew I would have so much fun hanging out with a group of almost strictly middle aged men! They are a bit weird but seriously hilarious and all have such interesting stories. The hash is my favorite part of my week and a great way to get away from the semi-monotonous routine of the school week.  Last week two Columbia students who are also studying in Amman for the summer, Alexander and John, came with us. It was nice to have some familiar faces around.  I am a bit sad I won't be able to go to the run this week, but I'll have to get over it quickly because I'M GOING TO EGYPT, in like, 20 minutes!! I suppose the timeline of this post is a bit off as I have taken a few days to write it but today, Thursday, i am off to Cairo! Then off to Luxor (the one sans casino), Aswan, the Pyramids of Giza, the whole shabang! We will be traveling by steamboat and train. Can't wait to tell you all about it.  

Although we are staying near Tahrir Square, I suppose I'll restrain myself from joining any revolutions (vocab word again (ثورة)!). Pinky swear. 

The Petra 10k race and Why Everyone Should Own a Donkey.

Rather than having our weekly cultural activity after class on Thurdsday, we went to Petra and Wadi Rum for the weekend.  Friday morning, 5:45am the gang and I trudged out of the hotel and into a slightly oversized minivan that had exactly as many seats as people. We were greeted by a smiling Yousef, Wijdane (our professors) and met our guide for the week. Over the drone of the guide talking at us in Arabic about the history of Petra, we eventually all fell back to sleep. We stopped at a rest stop outside of Petra (Petra itself is quite expensive) to buy the makings for lunch that afternoon and around four hours later we arrived in the parking lot of Petra, swarming with tourists. We were each given our ticket that costs 50 jd (That is more than 50 bucks! The Jordanian fare is ONE dinar), headed to the bathroom, avoided offers to buy T-shirts and hats, and eventually make our way towards the entrance. Upon entering, we are immediately flooded with offers to ride donkeys and camels.  I have to say, if there is anything I gained from my trip to Petra (besides a mild sunburn, of course) it is an extreme new found appreciation for donkeys.  Petra has something like 1200 stairs in total (I would know, I climbed all of them but we'll get to that later). I watched famished looking donkey after donkey gracefully trot up and down these uneven, steep, jagged steps sluffing overweight tourists on their backs.  While taking a particularly leisurely stroll down through the rose colored canyons of the siq, we arrived stopped at what looked like two urinals carved into the canyon.

The guide quickly corrected us by making Jordi and I each stand in one of the alcoves, and hold hands.  He explained that this was, in fact, a marriage alter and pronounced us husband and wife.  Here is us at our wedding. Mom, I'm following in your footsteps- he's Spanish.

Me, Dave, and Ben at the end of the Siq

The Wedding

After the ceremony and coming to a solid understanding that this joke will inevitably continue for the rest of the trip, we arrived at the awe inspiring (ok I know that cliches like this are bad in writing but it really is that beautiful!) Treasury.  Before I could offer any attention to the magnificent structure in front of me I became engrossed with the camel(s) laying in front of it. They are truly the weirdest animal I have ever seen. I tentatively approached one for a picture, but quickly retreated upon remembering their little spitting habit.  After soaking in all the magnificence of the Treasury we continued on our journey another few kilometers to a cafe like area where we broke out our lunch.  By the time we were finished it was roughly 2:30.  Later that day we were heading off to Wadi Rum and had to be there by sunset to meet our hosts, thus we were on (or so I thought) a very strict time table.  Our guide insisted that we be back to the bus by 4:30pm. Unfortunately, we had moseyed so slowly through the siq and past the treasury that we had only about two hours to see two more of the landmarks, the Monastery and the High Place of Sacrifice, a journey (hey that was one of our vocab words last week! رحلة) that could easily take a good six hours to accomplish.  Determined to defy the odds (again with the cliches, sorry) the 10 of us or so that decided to move on significantly picked up the pace headed towards the Monastery.  We didn't miss a beat starting up the stairs, skipping every few, bouncing up the steps. About three minutes into our uphill journey it became clear that we would not be able to keep up this pace the entire time. A few in the group even decided to bow out and go back to the shady area with the others.  ten minutes and probably 300 some stairs later we are still not there. I start asking the women selling jewelry along the sides of the path how much further and I swear for the next twenty minutes every singly person said "you're almost there, 2 min max) Something like half and hour and 800 stairs later (no seriously, I saw a sign) we arrived at the Monastery. 

The Treasury

 Before I caught a glimpse of the huge structure  a cafe caught my eye that was selling 3 jd (that is like five or so dollars) mint lemonade that was undoubtedly priced as such simply because by the time people are at the top, they would probably draw blood to quench their thirst.  Although most of the group had initially shown interest in seeing both sites, Ben, Evelyn and I were the only ones that still felt that way by the time we had reached the top of the monastery. I took a decent amount of pictures, decided I could steal the rest from other peoples' facebooks, and with an hour left on the clock, we ran (actually ran) back down the steps towards the  High Place of Sacrifice. We had to pass the shady area to get to the entryway of the sacrificial alter and by the time we reached the alter, Evelyn had decided to call it quits.  I was about on her level in terms of exhaustion/feet hurting but I was determined to see the view (another vocab word! منظر) and to prove to myself that I could continue.  Having already gone through four liters, I was out of water and outrageously out of breath before we even started up the next set of stairs up to the alter.  Ben, still somehow full of energy, stayed a good 20 feet in front of me the whole way up. I thought about how much I wished I was on a donkey the entire climb up, but knew I would only feel like I was going to have a heart attack for a few more minutes, and continued my way up. Another 300, much steeper and weirder stairs later, we arrived on to the top.  Ben jumped from rock to rock until he found the best view and took as many pictures as he could in roughly thirty seconds. (I actually would have fainted if I had gone another step). By now it was 4:15 and we were a good two miles and 300 stairs down away from the bus.  We ran, again, (I don't know how I was literally running the entire time yet still 50 feet behind Ben...) fully intending to have a cart (pulled by donkeys) take us the next two or three miles back to the van.  We brisk walked/jogged back up the siq waiting for someone to offer us a ride and were SERIOUSLY disappointed to be told that even the "special for you" price was 25 jd.  I didn't have a cent on me and Ben had 10.  My dreams of not ever running ever again were crushed as we were forced to pick up the pace.  Ben ran ahead to buy a gift and make sure the bus didn't leave.  On my solo hike for the last 10 or so minutes back to the entrance, I garnered a lot of attention from the men loitering. Not for particularly favorable reasons, but rather for comments like "Are you OK?" "Here, come here, I will give you water" "TAKE A SHOWER LADY" etc.  Once I caught up with Ben, we realized the bus wasn't there. We contemplated the idea that they left without us but it was 4:34pm.  I have done my fair share of being late to call times but from experience, the entire group will generally not leave two people behind after being 4 minutes late.  We put our search efforts on a hiatus and got some desperately needed water.  I took four of Ben's JD and asked the shop keeper to give me as much water as this would buy.  About 35 minutes of mild panic later, we see some American looking stragglers sauntering in through the entrance. After telling them they struggle of our journey ( as if they couldn't tell by the state I was in) two of the girls admitted that they had seen us jogging away and "just figured we were running for the exercise or something."  I was too tired, blistery, and for some reason cold (that was when I thought something was seriously wrong) to make too many snide comments about their failure to inform us that 4:30 was more of a loose time table, and went to sit down on the bus.  I laid on the floor of the bus pondering the feeling of exhausting pulsing through my body, enjoying every minute of it. Call me masochistic, but the sensation of utter fatigue brought me right back to dance.  For just a moment that void in my life was filled.

Ian, David N, and Ben Waiting for the sun to set over Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum was of course gorgeous as well. We camped in Bedouin tents and had a meal that was prepared under the sand.  Around 10pm, after an extremely long day, we pulled out mats outside of the grounds and fell asleep under the stars.  We woke up the next morning to a day of alternating between sand walking, hiking, climbing on rocks, and cruising through the desert in the back of jeeps.  After an amazing weekend exploring two of the "new wonders of the world" we arrived back at Ziyara inn. Thankfully, our professors were just as tired as we were and decided to postpone the following day's class time by an hour, and call off the homework. :)

This weekend I am off the Beirut, Lebanon with a few of the girls in the program. I'm sure I will come home with lots to share. 

If you're reading this, I probably miss you.

Hash House Harriers (and why I may never walk normally again)

Me, Dave, and Ben after the run

I slept like a rock Friday night after such an exciting day in Madaba/the Dead Sea. Around 12:30pm Saturday I found the will power to get out of bed and start my day.  Every week we have a quiz and every quiz covers an entire chapter of material so we have a lot to study in a short amount of time. I prepared as best I could for the new grammar, learned the 60 some new vocab words and went off to school.  As a second year Arabic student we are required to type up of our 300 word ish writing assignments (we have like 3 a week). Since the arabic keyboard is (obviously) different I type almost as slow as Dad.  The theme of this weeks chapter is celebration/parties so I spent a lot of time this week writing about/making up goofy Tully traditions.

Monday night Ben, Dave and I participated in something called a hash run (not to be confused with a trip to go buy hash)…. Here is a link to the wiki article about the group: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers) but to give you an intro, their slogan is “A drinking club with a running problem.”  Ben had done a Hash run while in Syria last summer and said it was great so we gave it a try.  We met at a mall on the other side of town.  Eventually, around 30 ex-pats and locals were congregated and we were ready to ship off to our running location.  I drove with Michelle and Ethan, (two Americans visiting a relative who works in Amman for foreign service.) and a local man (my lack of memory for names getting ridiculous) who was some sort of contractor, in his shiny, leather interiored black BMW.  Once at the starting location, a farm house on the outskirts of town, we were split up into runners and walkers.  I decided to be ambitious and try the run.  In theory, the run was awesome with animals freely roaming and goats on the side of the road and children waving and laughing however by mile 4 I was not quiteee able to appreciate the scenery fully as I literally thought my legs would crumble right under me if I had to run up another hill.  Luckily, the crowd was mostly older men with worse knee problems than my own. At least I wasn’t last.  Besides, walking gave me the opportunity to chat and get to know other hashers. One man who I talked to quite a bit invited me and my friends over to the Bedouin tent he has on his roof. His name was Khalil, and I finally I got a name right (ok, ok fine he gave me his card).  Perhaps next week we’ll take him up on that offer.  6 miles up and down hill later, we arrived back at the house.  There was cold beverage, cake, and a bbq waiting for us. We chatted with the runners/walkers and got to hear everyone’s stories. Our socializing was quickly interrupted by lots of screaming from one man as we got into what is called the “virgin circle.” As tradition goes, anyone on their first hash run (making them a hash virgin) must stand in the circle and be ridiculed by the ‘master’ or whatever his title his.  Luckily, there were 6 newbies last Monday (I guess that’s a lot) and we were sort of off the hook. We had to answer a few not so terribly embarrassing questions, and that was that.  We put the burgers we had brought on the grill (we lost our buns) and got to know our fellow hashers.  Around 10pm a man named... Samir, yeah, that’ll due, drove us all the way back to our hotel.  After an awesome night of seeing Jordan from a new perspective, socializing, running, I passed right out as soon as we got home.

         Although the experience was amazing and I cannot wait to go back again (they meet every Monday!) I am still OUTRAGEOUSLY, terribly, I would probably cry if it was socially acceptable, sore in my quads. 
     It's Thursday now and we are off to Petra and Wadi Rum to ride horses and sleep with Bedouins. 


As a parting gift, I'll teach you a new word: "mishmish" مشمش.  Even the word itself looks cute in Arabic. It means (apparently we were wrong, Eve) Apricot.  However I see it more suitable as a word of endearment as in, "What a cute puppy (more like wild goat, camel, wolf around here), you little مشمش!!"

A Day of D-I-F-T-S (do it for the story(ies).

See-I wasn't not kidding about the baptism

Thursday after class a calligraphy artist came in and gave us a lesson/lecture in calligraphy (in Arabic, of course). He talked to us about the history/art behind calligraphy and then let us give it a try. We were supposed to write the example word الله which means Allah which mean God over and over again.  Needless to say I was not particularly great at it and very quickly starting doodling. Although I was pretty terribly it was still fun. And after, he wrote each of our names in arabic on a piece of paper we got to keep.

I think I'm past the point of calling my peers "my peers" and trying to follow a story with "me and this one friend" will probably be annoying to read so I am going to start using real names. Thursday was my roommate Emily's birthday. After class/the presentation all 16 of us went out to a nice Lebanese restaurant in the 4th circle (Where all the nightlife is) We had delicious food/drink and wound up in a club of sorts very near by.  It was great to be able to blow off steam after learning four weeks of Arabic material in one week.  The next morning, Evelyn, Mia, Emily, Ian and I set off for Madaba, a city about an hour east of Amman known for its Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics.  Busses to Madaba left every hour on the hour and cost 75 cents per person.  After a very, very, close call of the bus almost leaving without Mia while at a rest stop, we arrived in Madaba.  Completely disoriented we walked around the basically dead city (it was Friday) looking for a restaurant that wasn't too expensive. We settled upon a place for roasted Chicken and Shawarma and figured out our day.  After lunch we headed over to the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George, home of the oldest map of the 'known world' (Jerusalem) from the 6th century.  We were not the only visitors of the Basilica that day as there was literally a full on, family filled, baby's head under water, the whole shabang, Greek Orthodox Baptism going on.  The priest boomed prayers in Arabic walking in circles around the family, hold incense and occasionally kissing either the baby or making the baby kiss the bible.  After the ceremony the family rejoiced by exchanging hugs and handing out chocolate.  After the ceremony, we wandered back outside to look at the giant poster that explained the mosaic map.  While I struggled to get my bearings on the map, Emily struck up conversation with a priest who then asked us in for tea.  We agreed (why not?) and walked with him into the kitchen of what must have been the rectory (look at me and all my church language here! I didn't go to CCD for nothin!)  Over tea, Father Innocent (who said the only thing innocent about him was is name... I guess he forgot he was a priest) told us about the Greek Orthodox school system of Madaba and tried to recruit us for the program he runs for teens and retired couples (that's you mom and dad!) who want to learn Arabic in exchange for teaching English.  After a lecture on how we would have to come live in Jordan for at least two years if we ever wanted to speak Arabic well, and how much the Gulf/current wars caused displacement of Christians in the region, we exchanged gratitudes and were on our way.
Our next stop was the Madaba Archeological park. Here is a link if you want to check it out.
http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/fai/FAIpark.html

The gang (minus Ian) at the Dead Sea

At the park, we met the man who ran the park. He spoke great English but was kind enough to let us butcher his language and practice our Arabic.  After finding out we were studying in Jordan, he said we could have the Jordanian rate and gave us our two dinar back.  At the end of his tour we mentioned we were going to the Dead Sea.  He offered to give us a ride because (obviously) he was also a taxi driver. The five of us squeezed in the back of his taxi and drove about an hour west to the Dead Sea.  Our new friend stayed with us as we swam, bobbed, and tried not to cut our feet in the oddly buoyant water. After getting a bit of it in my eye (that's all ya need for excruciating pain) I hobbled with one hand over my eye to up the hill to the fresh water and rinsed my face. After that I figured it was about time for a less dangerous change of scenery. I went back up to the pool and basked in the sun drying off and taking in the beauty of the landscape at sunset.

Around 7 we squished back into the car and headed back to Madaba. We said goodbye to our new friend (again, really need to be better with names) just in time for the last bus back to Amman.  Once back in Amman, we struggled to find a taxi that would let all 5 of us smush in at a time.  A particularly sketchy van pulled up and offered to take us at which point I scoffed and turned to look for another taxi. Next thing I know they are calling me to get into the sketch mobile. Although I knew there was a slight chance we could end up in this guy's basement fingerless, I followed my friends. Since I'm still here to write this, you can rest assured that the ride back to our hotel was completely fine. :)

The sketch mobile. Note the steering wheel-you had to take one of those metal cords and hold it up to another metal cord to make the horn honk. (Emily took this pic when the driver suddenly stopped to refuel. I am absolutely shocked the car even made it home without collapsing.