And I thought I was in the Middle East...

So this weekend was my long awaited excursion to Jordan. I got there and it was cold. So cold, in fact, that there was snow on the ground in Amman. LOL. Oi. I did not see that one coming. I actually thought I had overdressed. Nope. So, yea, this is apparently the time of year when people aren't visiting Jordan, I believe. So the hotels we were in were not all that busy. They weren't all that warm either, actually. I don't think they can afford to heat them all day so they just turn on the heat at night. Oh, and the hot water is linked to that, too. So that made things interesting. I just avoided showering the first day altogether. I wasn't about to freeze in the shower especially if I was just going to come back out to an equally cold room. The good thing was that the beds were really warm though.

During the time we were there the weather was pretty cloudy. Which was unfortunate. Though, Petra and the Dead Sea were beautiful, they would have been more so if it was sunny (plus it would have been warmer, too). Yea, so, Petra. Crazy. It was beautiful; there were great colors and it was just insane that people were carving these things into the side of mountains. And like the Treasury, a lot of them were very intricate. With the Treasury, it just comes out of nowhere. You are walking through like this gorge thing and then there it is. Crazy. This day was capped off with more craziness. I may have told some of you about the Cave Bar. The name isn't quite right, it should be more like "Tomb Bar." As it is in a bar that dates back to the first century BC. It was great. I had three drinks, the first one had licorice alcohol in it, so not so good. But the second and third (third cause I had them show me how they made it) was amazing. I shall have to try to replicate it in the States. And I also can't wait till I'm 21 to hit the bars again. Oh, wait! The drinking age in South Africa is 18 so I will be doing it again soon! (more about that later)

The next day we made our way to the airport by way of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. The temperature here was a bit more pleasant, unfortunately not pleasant enough to go for a dip and attempt floating in the very salty waters of the Dead Sea. I'll just have to come back and try that another time. Above the Dead Sea is a place called Bethany-Beyond-The-Jordan (as opposed to Bethany, the one not beyond the Jordan). This is the site where, according to some, that Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan. So, we saw the site where he was said to be baptized, but that is along the ancient river bed. The tour continued on, however, to the modern Jordan. For those of you who don't know, the Jordan (with the Dead Sea) creates the border between Jordan and Israel. The river itself is quite dirty and ucky (look at my pictures) so the craziest part of going there was being right on this border that is so influential in the world these days. There were a pair of Israeli soldiers just chilling across the way and there was a Jordanian soldier on our side. Jordan and Israel have a peace treaty, but apparently this is the only place were civilians can be at the Jordan on this otherwise militarized and secure border.

After this, it was back up to the mountains and more Biblical history. Mt. Nebo is the mountain Moses looked down into the Promised Land before dying. On days with good weather you are able to see the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The day we were up there, of course, was not a good weather day, so we were unable to see anything hardly. Afterwards, it was back to the airport and after an hour and ten minutes we were back in Cairo, where, unlike the thick and healthy air of the Dead Sea, I could once again taste what I was breathing into my lungs.

So, I guess I should explain the ticker at the top of my page finally. Though many of you have figured it out. It's official now, though. I'm going to Cape Town, South Africa for spring break. Pretty good, eh? How about tacking on the fact that I will be down there with my totally hot 5'10" nothing but legs girl friend? And as I mentioned before the drinking age there is 18 (so maybe I will have to make up for the past two years that I could have been drinking there :-p) plus, while it is the winter in the northern hemisphere it's summer in the southern hemisphere. So yea, I'll be spending a bit over a week with Steff in South Africa and I pretty much can't wait. Except I have a bit of work to get done before I can go. :-( But it'll all be good soon! :-D

And for those of you who missed it last time my pictures are now HERE

Btw, who is still reading this thing these days?? real fast, all i ask is just leave a comment with your name in it, i'm just curious... please?

:-* see ya soon, dearest

At least the burning bush would have kept us warm

So this weekend the destination was Sinai and, more specifically, Mt. Sinai. This involved getting up early for a bus that ended up leaving at 1130. Pretty much 7 hours and what seemed like a million passport checks later we were in the town of St. Katherine's. It was already dark out, but we started realizing that something was in our favor. There was a gorgeous full moon lighting up the night sky. We ate a bit of a dinner then played cards for a bit before going to this campsite to hang out in a tent with a fire. It was warmer than being outside and some people got some sleep. Others like myself, stayed up all night and played cards. Of course, when I say all night, I really mean until 130ish when we decided it was a good time to start climbing the mountain. Probably the most insane part about starting the climb was the number of people. It is the middle of the night and there are soooo many people climbing this mountain. It was insane, basically. But, I was one of them so I can't really talk. Now, you have to understand, climbing this mountain was a total sensory overload. It was cold outside, but I was hot from climbing, there was the smell of camels all about, with people flashing flashlights in my eyes. It really kinda sucked a whole lot. I totally didn't have enough energy in my system to do it. Towards the top I was drunkenly walking up the path cursing Moses for picking such a high mountain to climb up. So basically that was a good time. The thing about this mountain though, was that it was so deceptive. You could see the top of the section you were climbing and once you got to the top of it, it looked like it did when you were at the bottom. Not cool. Plus the original plan was to sleep on the mountain so I was carrying a sleeping bag as well. It wasn't really heavy just awkward to carry. Once you reach the top of the camel trail, you meet up with the Steps of Redemption to go the rest of the way up. The Steps were made by a monk, there are 3750 of them. When you climb up the camel trail you only have to climb up the last 750 of them. Haha. I just said 'only'. After the camel trail these last steps are killer. I had to stop like 3 or 4 times to catch my breath (Sinai is 2285m and so I'm sure there is definitely less oxygen at the top than there is at the bottom). It was really torture since the first few steps after a break were easy then your legs just lock up again. So finally we get to the top and I search for a place to sit down and I put my head in my hands and shut my eyes pretty much passing out right there. The girl I was with, Allison, however, managed to find others of our group and so we moved to join them. They were on this big ol' rock that was open to the wind, so it got really cold now that we weren't moving. So I sat there shivering until the sun came up and you can see the gorgeous pictures that resulted. We hung around for a bit to let the rest of the crowd go back down. I still wasn't convinced this had been worth the climb. Then we went down the Steps of Redemption, all 3750 of them. It was amazing. The views, the colors, the random arches, the stacks of rocks, the surrounding mountains.... I wish there was a way you could climb down the Steps without having to climb up the mountain first. lol. Then we went into St. Katherine's Monastery. It is the world's oldest monastery and is home to the descendant of the Burning Bush which God used to speak to Moses. It was a tiny little place packed with pilgrims. We were all pretty tired so we just poked around for a bit. I wrote a prayer to leave at the Bush. We went and got some lunch then took a bus back to Cairo. It ended up being an enjoyable weekend. When it was all over I passed out and probably had one of the deepest sleeps of my life. It was good though.

This weekend I'm once again pushing off Jordan. We're going to catch some more stuff in Cairo and I can use this weekend to get some work done in advance so I can get to travel to some other places. I'm starting to think that Capetown is where I'm heading to for spring break. I read an article about the city and I can't wait. Apparently the penguins chill on the beaches there and sunbathe next to beach goers, and you can hang glide down off of Table Mountain as clouds roll off the top of it. All sorts of crazy shit like that. *Is pumped*

**Public service announcement** Picasa filled up and now my pictures are here

As always, much love from me to you guys! I love you, dearest, you are always there to make me smile. :-)

St. Michael, Mary, Jesus,
How great you have been in my life. I owe all achievement and joy to your love and watching over me. I pray for your continued intercession and that you will continue to watch over me, my family, my loved ones, and all those in my prayers. May their lives be full of happiness, health, joy and love.
Amen.

An Egyptian Sweeney Todd?

So this post is going to be all about one event, because it was just that insane. I needed a haircut; like bad. My hair is really thick so it gets poofy and all. Like a 'fro but not at all. So, I was supposed to go to this nice place my roommate went to, but my roommate gives poor directions and I couldn't find the place. So I found this other place that looked fairly decent. So, I start out saying I want it shorter. He gets the clippers out, and he's like, "two (the little teeth have numbers for different sizes, the lower the number the closer the cut and thus the shorter the cut)?" "Yep." Exactly what I get at home. I get him to do the whole thing at that level. He goes for my beard and I'm like, enh... why not? it's looking pretty enh anyways. So he takes the clippers to it and all. Looking pretty good. He gets the comb and scissors out to trim somethings up. No prob. Then he runs the comb through my eyebrows and starts cutting them too!! OK.... so this is getting a bit weird. Then he gets out a spool of thread. And I'm like, there is no way he's going to floss my teeth. Nah, this is not gonna happen. I now wish that's what did happen. He somehow twisted it in his fingers and mouth and would twist it over my skin as to pluck all the hairs from my face. Holy hell it hurt. I was about to like give him anything he wanted from me. Afterwards, out came the straight razor. Which was pretty creepy. I'm really not racist. But when this guy had the razor at my throat I was a bit creeped out, cause he could kill my infidel ass no problem. And at the end of this whole ordeal? A massage, a backslapping and a back cracking. It felt pretty good actually. So what did this adventure cost me? LE40 (about $7). That's like what I pay at home but I get none of this extra attention and excitement that I did here. I shall likely not forget this (especially since I'll probably have to go back soon).

Tomorrow I get up early to sit my infidel ass down on a bus for a long time, to climb my infidel ass up Mt. Sinai, to sleep my infidel ass on the top of it, to see the amazing sunrise on the summit. I will miss you so much then. :-*