Wrapping Things Up

The semester has come to a close.  There comes a time in a man's life when he has to take his scarf and just come back to America.  These last few weeks have been unforgettable and I'd have a hard time beginning to relate a portion of everything that happened but I want to close things out with a last few Middle East moments for this man and his scarf.  

The end of November was a busy couple of weeks preparing for and taking final exams.  I don't think there's a lot I have to say about that.  With finals done we were ready to cross the border over into Israel.  

One of the first places we went to was the Mount of Beatitudes near the Sea of Galilee.  We enjoyed some beautiful weather those first few days up in northern Israel.  

It started getting colder as the week wore on.  Thank goodness this man had a scarf handy to keep his neck warm.  This picture is up in Tel Dan near the headwaters of the Jordan River.  See that behind me?  We were right at the northern border so that's Lebanon and Syria off to the right.  

As you can tell from this superbly flattering picture on the Mediterranean shoreline, the weather continued to deteriorate.  As we finished up our first week in Israel and headed down for a week in Jerusalem we arrived at the same time as a crazy snow blizzard.  You might be thinking, "I didn't realize they get snow in Jerusalem."  That's cuz they don't.  But we did.  Boatloads of it.  Crazy times, huh?  

I really can't do justice to everything we saw that week in Jerusalem.  I'll just leave it at saying that it was amazing.  

In the spirit of the season this man and his scarf will finish up by wishing you all a Merry Christmas from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  

Gotta love those old Orthodox churches.  So much incense.  

Five - Zero

For anyone tuning in after having spent the last forever living under a rock (in which case, why is this one of the first things you're reading?  I'm oddly pleased at your choice of reading material) next year the FIFA World Cup will be held in Brazil.  Which means the games for qualifying to go are happening right now.  The Jordanian national team has NEVER qualified to go.  In fact, they've never even come close.  Until this year that is.  A couple months ago Jordan beat Uzbekistan (or something) to put them one step away from qualifying for the World Cup.  All they had to do to make it in was beat one more team.  Unfortunately for Jordan that one team ended up being Uruguay.  Who is really good.  Still, this game was a pretty big deal.
And this man and his scarf were there.

While it's true that Jordan lost 5-0, a good time was had by all.  

Running Short on Adventures Lately

If you've been faithfully following this blog you may have noticed that this man and his scarf have been running a bit short on new adventures to share lately.  That's because we've hit That Point in the Semester.  You all know what That Point in the Semester is.  That Point in the Semester is when all your excitement about the classes you're taking has worn off but you're not yet close enough to the end of the semester to have Almost Done! Adrenaline (AD!A is what gets you through those last few weeks of a semester).  So you start feeling sluggish and lacking in motivation.  Unfortunately, on this study abroad That Point in the Semester happens to coincide with a period where we don't have any fun scheduled trips like we had basically every week of the semester up til now.  So to all of you rabid fans who have been jonesing for your Man and His Scarf fix, I apologize (I gotta be honest, I can't even write that without telling you how absolutely ludicrous I find it that any such people actually exist on the face of this planet.  If you do exist, rabid fans, please take some heartfelt advice from one who cares: get a life).

With that said, this man and his scarf do have some mini adventures to share.  A couple weeks ago we went up to a place in Jordan called Ajloun.  There are some pretty cool places in Ajloun.  Including this super rad castle:

 You may be noticing the weird expression on my face in this picture.  That is because in addition to standing in front of a castle and wearing a scarf I'm eating a chocolate covered digestive biscuit.  Which, I recognize, sounds pretty weird, but take my word for it, chocolate covered digestive biscuits just might be among the five most addictive substances found on the planet.  You may also notice me getting photo-bombed here.  It's ok though, turns out that guy has the exact same first and middle name as me.  It's just a Daniel James thing.
So, just in case you were wondering, this castle was originally built by the nephew of Salah Al-Din (or Saladin as Westerners tend to call him).  It was destroyed by the Huns and then rebuilt by the Turkish Mamlouks.  It was in a lot better condition than some of the other castles we've visited and it was really cool exploring all the various nooks and crannies of an ancient castle.

Later in the day we had a picnic lunch at the Ajloun Reserve.  Turns out there's actually a sizable forest up there in northern Jordan.  Who woulda thought?  Turns out, I kinda miss trees in large numbers.  Trees are really nice.  Shade and all that.  Also, a man and his scarf are always down for a picnic.

See that in my hand?  A digestive biscuit.  Though this one is not of the chocolate covered variety.  Unfortunately.

That's all for now!  Stay tuned though, more adventures are on the horizon!

Photo cred and many thanks to Jordan!  Barak Allah fiki ya friend!

Adventures

So it's been over three weeks since I posted.  Kinda hard to believe.  I guess time flies when you're having fun.  Or studying Arabic.  Same thing, right?  So the couple weeks after my last post were busy but nothing exceptional occurred.  Or at least not anything where I remembered to bring along my scarf.  But this past week.  Ho ho lemme tell ya, this last week was crazy awesome.
Because this last week was Eid al-Adha (basically one of the biggest holidays in the Muslim calendar) we left Amman for a few days and did some sight-seeing.  Have you ever explored a castle built by the Crusaders?  This man and his scarf now have, first at Karak:

And then later that same day at Shoubak.  Sometimes there are cool tunnels underneath Crusader castles you can walk through and take epic pictures.

The following day we went to Petra.  If you ever get the chance to go to Petra, take it.  Seriously, it was so stinkin' cool.  We spent the whole day hiking around and checking out the ruins of the Nabataean civilization carved into the sides of the mountains.  Of course, an obligatory picture in front of the Treasury (you know, the one that's in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) was needed.  However, not all shots of the Treasury are equal.  A man and his scarf always seek out the most epic of photo ops.  You have no idea what we went through to get to this overlook (but it was totally worth it):

My mouth is open because I'm saying, "I don't know what to do with my hands."

The day after Petra we went to Wadi Rum.  Wadi Rum is basically this really awesome desert valley out in the middle of nowhere.  Seriously, so beautiful.  We spent the first part of the morning driving through the desert in the back of pickup trucks.  Driving through the desert in the back of a pickup truck gives a man and his scarf some wicked cool windswept hair.

Photobombed.  I appreciate a good photobomb though.

After the pickup trucks we went the rest of the way across the valley on camelback.  Yes, you heard that right.  This man and his scarf traversed the desert on a camel.  I know you're tempted to be overwhelmingly impressed by this.  Remain calm, citizens.  It's just how I and my scarf do.  Also, it's possible that they gave me the smallest camel there so I may have looked a little silly.  It was still awesome though.

The day after Wadi Rum we went snorkeling in the Gulf of Aqaba.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of that.  It was su-weet though.  A great week of adventures!

Jordan River and Dead Sea

The adventures never end for a man and his scarf.  This week was quite eventful.  Yesterday found us traveling west towards the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.  Did I have this song stuck in my head all day? You better believe I did.
As we descended from Amman we stopped at a nifty little marker showing the place where we were right at sea level.

It's all downhill from here.

Not to be delayed for too long, we continued down to the Jordan River.  As we approached, Dil (our program director) started singing a bunch of Jordan River-inspired songs (Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Down to the River to Pray, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, etc.) into the bus microphone.  It was prettttty awesome.  Eventually, we got off the bus and walked out to the river.  This man, faithful scarf by his side, laid his eyes on the river which he has read, heard and sung about all his life; the river of legend and myth and mystery; the fabled locale of such historic moments as the crossing of the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, Elijah's ascent to heaven in a chariot of fire and the baptism of Jesus.  Behold the sight which met his eyes:

As Dil put it, "In Utah parlance, the Jordan River is a crik."

To compensate for the underwhelming sight I was gonna get a picture and/or video of Jordan rolling on the ground so that I'd have evidence of the Mighty Rolling Jordan, but I think she didn't really want to get her dress covered in dirt there and another opportunity never really presented itself.  I'm pretty sad about this. 

We hiked a short ways off to the spot that many people believe to be the exact place where Jesus was baptized.  The river isn't there anymore (rivers can be so fickle you know) but archaeologists have excavated the remains of a church that was once built there.  You can see steps leading down from the church into where the water used to be, and there are four pillars left of what used to be a pavilion erected over the exact spot Jesus was supposed to have been baptized and where Byzantine (I think) pilgrims often went and baptized themselves three times.

Check out the 'stache on this guy.  What a baller.  He should do a blog titled "A Man and His Stache"

We continued on, through a Greek Orthodox Church and down to the river to soak our feet for a little bit.  Mmmmmm-hmmmmm.

When I was on my mission my companion and I once had a lengthy conversation with this one guy in downtown Oakland who had some....interesting ideas about religion.  I think his name was Joseph but when it was just us we referred to him as "Broseph" and it was fitting.  It was obvious it wasn't worth our time to regularly teach him but that one conversation was rather enjoyable and we left on amicable terms.  Near the end of the conversation though, he said, "I've always wanted to get baptized in the actual Jordan River.  I'll join your church if you baptize me in the Jordan River.  If you ever head over that way give me a call, I'll meet you over there and you can baptize me."  We all laughed, cuz what were the chances either of us would ever actually be at the Jordan River?  My companion went to the BYU Jerusalem Center a few years ago and visited the Jordan River and now here I am too.  We should have held on to Broseph's number.

 After hiking back to the bus it was off to the Dead Sea!  This man and his scarf couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

The Dead Sea.  It was a great time.  Except for the part where some of the water splashed up into my eyes.  That water is so stinkin' salty.  It burned. So. Bad.  I somehow managed to stumble my way out over the rocks and up the stairs to a shower where I was able to wash out my eyes, but for a while there I was having flashbacks to the gas chamber at Basic.  That sounds like an exaggeration, but it's really not.  After that though, it was nothing but fun, floating and Dead Sea mud.  Scarves and water don't really mix so I left the scarf up with my bag.  After rinsing off and while heading to the pool, Dil asked me if I'd gotten a scarf picture while covered with Dead Sea mud.  Aw shoot.  I did not.  He shook his head and said, "That is a terrible shame."  And no joke, I felt so ashamed of myself.  Man, that guy is good at his job.  

After swimming for a while, showering and eating a ginormously delicious buffet lunch it was time to head back to Amman.  Great day, everyone.  Great day.

This man is feeling fat and happy

P.S.  I would be remiss if I did not give proper credit where it is due.  I was planning to just use the camera on my iPhone this whole trip, cuz hey, I'm no professional and the iPhone camera quality is generally good enough for my purposes.  Unfortunately something happened and now there's a little doo-hickey blocking part of the lens inside my phone and I can't fix it.  So mega thanks to Chris and Jordan on the photo credits.  Y'all are..ep...ju...s....ha.........good.

Wadi Seer (or also, The Day the Scarf Became a Star)

(I was gonna post this two days ago, but then our power mysteriously went out for a couple hours Saturday night.  No electricity = no wifi. And I was busy with stuff yesterday.)

This week, this man and his scarf visited a little village just outside Amman in a small valley called Wadi Seer.  It was pretty cool.  See that castle behind me there?  Yeah, it was built in the second century B.C.  By Hyrcanus of the Jewish Tobiad family (most likely).  Pretty rad, huh?

Also, there were these caves in the hills above the village where rich Jewish families probably used to live.  We sang How Firm a Foundation in this one.  Pretty good acoustics.  Also, as we explored the caves we saw a bat and a couple of chameleons (and lots of bat guano).  

On the bus ride back into Amman someone suggested playing the Hellen Keller game (I find the name somewhat inappropriate, but it's a fun game soooo...what can ya do?).  I had never played it before, but the way it works is someone puts in headphones and another person chooses a song.  The person with the headphones in then has to sing while everyone else tries to guess what the song is.  So apparently when everyone is watching you and you're singing by yourself you maybe get a little self-conscious so it's nice to have a blind-fold so you can just throw your inhibitions out the window.  But what could possibly serve as a blind-fold?  

Shazaam!  Turns out this man is prepared with a scarf that is just about the perfect size for a blind-fold.  The scarf was a big hit and brought loads of joy and laughter to a bus full of people.  Enjoy.

And my personal favorite:

  

Wadi Mujib

Today, we went to Wadi Mujib.  Unfortunately I have no scarf pictures, as Wadi Mujib, while certainly being a place for a man, is no place for a scarf.  It was one of the most fun times I've had in recent memory.  It combined several of my favorite things: the Middle East, amazing rock formations, hiking and water slides.  Some Canadian dude took a video of his experience of Wadi Mujib with a GoPro camera, so if you wanna get a small taste of what Wadi Mujib was like, check out the video below: