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.