July 9th, 2012

I'm really struggling to have enough motivation to write this post, but I'll do my best.

Last weekend I visited a few different locales, including Karak Castle, Dana Reserve, and Wadi Mujib. We did probably the most driving in a day since I've been here so that was very draining, but overall the trip was a very worthwhile experience.

Karak Castle from Inside

Karak Castle, a Crusader castle from the 12th century-ish, played a very important role in the Crusades and was featured in Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" as the castle besieged by Saladin. If you noticed in my earlier blog posts you'll see that I make note of Saladin as one of the more admirable historical figures in my eyes, so it was very cool being able to see an integral part of his history within the Arab world. One of the more interesting facets of Karak is the view from atop the battlements, where you can see in each direction for quite some distance. Overall, pretty awesome.

Dana Reserve

After Karak, we sat on the cramped bus for a few hours until arriving at the Dana Reserve further south. Dana is the largest reserve in Jordan, and is honestly looks a lot like the Southwest states back in America in the sense that there are plenty of very large rocks, extensive forests, and very vertically variable geography. There's also a decent number of ibex in the reserve, which are sort of like a mix between mountain goats and gazelles. The staff made some interesting rules for us including keeping sound down to a minimum and not to take any rocks, plants, etc., back with us. The group of students I was with plus our favorite Qasid staff member Abu Theib went on a hike for an hour or so around the vicinity of our campsite, watching the sunset on top of one of the taller hills. Following that, we grilled up some kebabs, ate, hung out for a bit, then passed out in tents.

Wadi Mujib -- Note, not my own photo

The next morning we woke up, gathered our things, and proceeded to continue the bus riding to Wadi Mujib. Now, I didn't really have any idea what to expect for Wadi Mujib because I didn't read the email our Student Services coordinator sent us very thoroughly, but essentially what we ended up doing was hiking through a canyon... with a river at the bottom. Now know this ahead of time, I neglected to bring an extra pair of shoes or a towel so suffice it to say, I got wet and stayed that way for quite some time. There was a series of about four waterfalls that you have to climb up in order to get to the end, with the waterfall at the right being the final one at the end. I enjoyed being in the water for such a long time, it's definitely very dry in Jordan and we have to keep our showers very short in order to save water. My shoes are still drying out, though, so that sucks. I had a lot of fun with Wadi Mujib and would love to come back at some point.

After that, we returned to Amman and I attempted to get some homework done before giving up after an hour since I was so exhausted. Class has been pretty okay this week so far, I'm really starting to get the hang of it (I think) and now we're covering material that's actually interesting in Al-Kitaab. We're about halfway through the summer semester here, but time has been flying by lately and I'm sure it'll be over before I know it. Masallama, ya America