Traditional Emirati Dancing

These two videos were taken during the Global Day on campus at the Emirati booth. These are bunch of students and boys dancing in the traditional Emirati dance and singing. The men stand in a line in the back and hold canes that they use to wave around as they sing. Then the men in the front dance with their canes to the music. Very cute! I like the part where they bob their heads. Was very cool to watch, so I wanted to share these videos with all of you!

I am very excited because I was invited to go to an Emirati wedding next weekend. Emirati weddings are HUGE and this one sounds like it will be no less than that. I am very excited and will post a blog about it afterwards. Should be a really amazing cultural experience!

Love you all! I have one other random post in the makings, so I will try to get that up tomorrow!

Jordan (part3)-Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea

So here we are, at the final installment of my Jordan adventure! Unfortunately I wasn't able to add the photos of me swimming in the dead sea because she still hasn't uploaded them or sent them to me, but I felt like I shouldn't put off posting this post any longer so here are the rest of the photos and hopefully I will be able to upload the swimming photos soon in a separate post!

On the public bus from Petra to Madaba

Our group waiting at a Jordanian bus stop, i.e. the side of the highway...

Two workers restoring a Mozaic at Mount Nebo. 

A quote about Mount Nebo

Mount Nebo is where it is believed that Moses spoke with God. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Moses was buried on the mountain by God Himself.  The view from the top provides a panoramic view of the Holy Land.
 It wasn't an ideal clear day when we were there, so we just barely saw Israel in the distance.

View from the summit of Nebo

View of Jordan from Nebo

Me in with the Memorial for Moses on Mount Nebo

And now, on to the Dead Sea!!!

A little family of camels on our way to the Dead Sea

Me at the Dead Sea. The water here is so salty that you float across the surface with ease. It feels almost impossible to try to dive under as well since the water is so thick! The salts are good for your skin, but it actually starts to hurt after awhile, especially if you have any cuts on your body. Tip: DO NOT OPEN YOUR EYES IN THE DEAD SEA. My friend made that mistake on accident. Apparently it feels like pouring pure salt into your eye. Hm. Not pleasant. On the other
side of the shore is Israel. The closest I can to get to it if I still want to be allowed back into the UAE ;). Because
of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, many Gulf countries do not allow you into the country if you have a
recent Israeli visa stamp on your passport. It goes both ways. Someone I know was held at the Israeli border for
5 hours because he had a visa stamp from Lebanon. 

Sheep herder driving his sheep down the highway

At a Church in Madaba. Madaba has a high Christian population.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, waving us farewell!

Overall Jordan was a beautiful country and I had a great time. I was glad we stayed out of the big city (Amman) except that we missed out on seeing the ancient Roman Ruins there. There was a night that Kayla and I were followed by to young guys yelling "hey habiitii! Habiibtii nice butt!" (habiibtii means "my sweetheart" in arabic). We were very glad to have Redwan and Gabe with us at that point... but other than that episode I found Jordanians to be very nice, friendly people. I was able to use Arabic more here, where there are less foreigners, or even if they are not Jordanian they are probably Palestinian therefore they speak Arabic!

I will hopefully be able to get those photos from the Dead Sea eventually, until then I have a few miscellaneous posts and such that will be up soon, sorry for the long hiatus but I have been busy with midterm papers and exams! I have just a little over one month left here! I can't believe how the time has flown by and I looking forward to coming back to the States! But I will miss the UAE! 

Jordan (part2)- Petra

On our third day in Jordan we left early from Wadi Rum and took a bus to the ancient city. This city was built by the Nabateans; ancient peoples of Jordan. After the Nabataean Kingdom was annexed into the Roman Empire, their culture melded with the Greco-Roman culture and was eventually lost. What has survived are the ruins of their cities of Petra in Jordan, Bosra in Syria, and Mada'in Saleh in Saudi Arabia.

To start with, this is our buffet in our hotel! Dozens of types of salads, soup, hommos, chicken
potatoes, all local dishes cooked by the inn keeper. On that note, if anyone is looking for a cheap
place to stay in Petra, I recommend the Valentine Inn. It's a backpackers hotel. Food is yummy
and cheap and the rooms are cheap and simple.

As you can see Petra has capitalized on the fact that part of Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade was filmed at the Treasury 

Beginning our trek into Petra. One of the first buildings not he road there. It's a long walk just to get there. You can
take a horse to the entrance, but walking is just as enjoyable!

The long narrow "Siq" gorge that you must walk though to get to Petra. There are many
carvings and statues carved straight into the rock along the passage.

Walking though the passage.

The winding, endless passage goes on forever until it finally opens up onto The Treasury...

Me in front of the Treasury! The buildings here are carved straight into the rock of the mountains. 

Some of the more weathered facades of tombs in Petra

Most of these smaller structures are tombs.

A whole hillside of tombs. But honestly, I would rather just tell myself they are all little houses ;)

Me in one of these tombs (*cough* houses).

The Amphitheater

The Bedouins who still live here give donkey rides up to the top of the mountain where the Monastery is. These two
shouted at me "hey! Want a ride on a Bedouin Ferrari?" i.e. donkeys.... Or you could just take one of their "Air
Conditioned Camels".

The Temple. The columns all toppled in an earthquake unfortunately

A gate with men dressed as Nabatean guards

The first steps of our long hike up to the Monastery

Here is the Monastery, the largest of the carved structures in Petra. The Monastery
probably served as a temple to one of the pre-islamic Arabian gods. Check out the
people in the doorway to get a good idea of its size.

Action Shot! Me inside the Monastery.

Overlooking the Monastery

Last photo! A detail shot of some of the decorations on the Treasury as we were leaving Petra

Next (and last) Installment in my Jordan Adventures will be Nount Nebo and the Dead Sea! Might take a few days as I am waiting for my friend to send me some pictures she took at the Dead Sea (because my camera had died).

Jordan (Part1)- Wadi Rum

Since I have quite a lot to share about my trip to Jordan I am going to log it in installments so it is easier for me to organize and so it will not take me a whole week to finish just one post!

This first installment will cover our first few days in Jordan and our overnight camel ride in Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a desert valley in Jordan, made famous for most westerners by T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence was in fact THE Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence was a British Army officer renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt against Ottomon Rule in 1916-18.

But first! On our way to Wadi Rum from the capital, Amman, we stopped in Karak to see Karak Castle and have a lunch of traditional Jordanian food.

Hummos and 3 types of Arabic Salads, and pita bread, of course

The Main Course! Chicken and rise, serving it up on a giant communal plate!

View of the Jordanian countryside from Karak

Karak Castle

And now! After a night in the city of Petra, we left the next morning for our camel trek into Wadi Rum. Get ready for a lot of photos, cause I had a hard time narrowing down which ones to use for this post.

Running my camel in the desert! 

Starting our all day camel trek. We started at around 9:30 and didn't arrive at our camp site until around 5:00pm. Other than a 1.5 hour lunch break, we rode the camels the whole time!

I love the lines in the sand that form from the wind.

I nice landscape shot with me and my camel in it too! The desert was so peaceful and so quiet and the views were
spectacular! "Wadi" means valley so the desert is punctuated by large mountains. We saw lots of lizards (no scorpions
though!) that the guides dog would chase after!

Our guide and my friend Kayla. I love this photo with the camel tracks in the sand!

Redwan and Gabe, lagging behind on their camels

We came across this Bedouin woman in the middle of nowhere in the desert. She was herding her herd of goats and sheep while riding her donkey!

Here is a view of our camp. The little huts are our cabins!

The mountains we climbed to watch the sunset!

Me, checking out our camp and the view of the Wadi!

Another view from the mountains!

This was our eating area including the "stove" for heating tea!

Riding through Wadi Rum is easily one of my favorite experiences thus far in the Middle East. I feel that there is not a lot to tell about it, the pictures speak for themselves. It was absolutely beautiful and I recommend anyone who is thinking about going to Jordan, that it is a MUST to do an overnight in Wadi Rum. Be sure to bring WARM clothes. It get SO COLD at night!

All for now, my next post will be on our time in Petra!