Habbibi! It means I love you in Arabic

Habbibi my friends! Habbibi means I love you in Arabic and this week I heard that word pretty much every five minutes because I went to the country of Jordan for four days on a field trip and my tour guide said Habbibi every five minutes to get us to follow him! It was seriously his favorite word and I heard it 24/7, so I decided that would be the title of my blog post! It was pretty much the neatest experience ever! So, I last updated with Yad Vashem which was about three weeks ago, so the week before I left for Jordan I had a helluva of a week because I had FINALS :/ Let's just say that finals in Jerusalem totally suck. I didn't go out into the city at all and I pretty much locked myself in the library for five days straight, so that I could study my butt off. Luckily, I made it through with a lot of caffeine and candy bars and now I only have two classes for the rest of the semester which is going to be super nice compared to the heavy load that I had before. I am only taking New Testament and Near Eastern Studies which is a study of the cultures and history of the Holy Land. After a brutal week of finals I got ready to go to Jordan and it was so nice to have a break from homework and tests!

Day 1: We went to Mt. Nebo which is the place Moses and Elijah, prophets of the Old Testament, both went towards the end of their lives. I was able to look out over the Jordan River Valley and I could see the Jordan river and all the way into far away Israel. We sang a hymn and actually we met a random tour group from Utah, so it was neat to run into some more Mormons all the way in the middle of nowhere! After Mt. Nebo, I went to Macherus which is an ancient hill with a temple and palace on top. King Herod of the time of Jesus Christ actually resided here and it is where John the Baptist was most likely beheaded. We took a long, rocky road up to the top of the hill and there were only some columns left over, but the view was spectacular. It overlooked the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea just stretched on for miles. I took a lot of neat pictures there and it was just reaffirmed to me how neat it is to go to places that correlate so well with the Old Testament and the New Testament. I have read so much about these people and these situations in the last two months, but to actually be there in person makes it come alive so much more for me.

The large rock saying we were on Mt. Nebo!

Overlooking the land of Israel and the Jordan river valley from Mt. Nebo 

The large hill with the palace/fortress of Herod called Macherus 

Me and the view from Macherus--that is the Dead Sea in the distance! 

The ancient columns of Macherus 

Jordo, meself, Jacobian, and Em-dawgy dawg posing for a pic! 

Day 2: PETRA! PETRA! PETRA! I RODE A CAMEL IN PETRA!!! Petra is pretty much the neatest place in the whole world! It is anybody's dream and I just had the mots amazing time there. I don't know if any of you even know what Petra is, but you it should definitely be on your bucket list to go there. It is an ancient city in the rocky mountains of Jordan where an an ancient group of people, the Nabbateans, built right into the rock a whole city! They built an altar on top of a huge hill, they built a monastery at the top of another mountain with 800 steps leading up to it, they built ancient tombs on the side of the mountain, and churches, a grand theater, houses, a palace, and so much more. we were all let loose as a group for about six hours and we just got to explore everything! There is a Bedouin village there, so a lot of Bedouin women and men sell things in the ancient city and they sell horse and camel rides to all of the tourists going through. Also, I got to RIDE A CAMEL IN PETRA! It has seriously been one of my dreams to ride a camel and then to do it in Jordan in PETRA was pretty much a dream come true. I am pretty much in love with camels now. I think they are one of the coolest animals ever! They are super tall, so pretty, and their back legs bend backwards! I was just so impressed by them--I'll show you pictures in just a moment of me riding the camel. Anyways, I spent the day riding a camel, hiking up to the monastery which was a huge temple built into the rock wall, hiking up to the high altar place, and then exploring the tombs in the side of the mountain! I was so tired and sandy at the end of the day, but it was so worth it!

 The view of the Treasury from the Siq! 

The treasury was so magnificent, it's where Indiana Jones 2 was filmed! 

Guys, look it's the camels ahhhh!!! 

Okay, you are lucky I only put up two pictures because I took about twenty...this camel's name is ZooZoo :) 

Me on a CAMEL, A REAL LIVE CAMEL! 

The view of some of Petra! 

Me! Hiking to the top of the Monastery 

hehe friends! 

Me and the Monastery! 

Michael and I with an awesome view! 

Em dawg with the theater and lots of Petra behind her! 

William jumping off a rock like a crazy person! 

Day 3: JERASH! Jerash is an ancient Roman city that is still standing! It was also a super neat place to go and see! If you haven't noticed I pretty much think everything is neat now haha, it's my new word for pretty much everything. In Jerash I got to seriously experience what a roman city would have looked like 2000 years ago. I walked through a hippodrome which is a racetrack where horses would race and at the race track we had a race with about five or six girls. I was one of the girls racing and I kind of thought that I didn't have a chance, but guess what?! I ended up winning the whole race by a good twenty feet, let me just say it felt good to sprint and race again because it has been so long since track in high school. After the hippodrome, we walked down the cardo which is the ancient center street of the roman city. After the cardo we were allowed to be let free! I went with some friends and walked to the two huge theaters there, the temple of Zeus, and the temple of Artemis. At the temple of Artemis I found a set of secret stairs up to the top of the temple, so I climbed up them and was able to see the whole city forever! I also walked through the colonaded square which is a giant circle surrounded by columns on the outside--this is typically where the market place was. On this day we drove back to Amman, the capitol of Jordan where we stayed most of the week. In Amman we had free time that night and we all went to Rainbow Street and guess what I found!? I found a crepe store--pretty much the best crepes that I have ever had! They were super delicious and ah they just melted my heart so much and made me so happy :)

Hehe there was a small museum and Will and I decided to pose like the strange statue

This is me winning the race hehe :) I am slightly smug about it! 

Me and the columns-- SO BIG! 

These three men played songs for us in the theater 

Will and I at the Temple of Artemis 

The massive THEATER! 

Hehe oh Michael, you are so funny :) 

Hot stuff! 

Day 4: I went to an ancient theater and we sang songs! It was fabulous :) The theater was super NEAT! I got to take lots of pictures and wander all over it! Also, on day four I went to the River Jordan and I that's the very place where Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. It was really neat to reread the New Testament account of what actually happened and to have our new teacher, Brother Shade talk about the significance of baptism. I was able to sing a hymn and truly feel that this was where Jesus Christ was baptized.

View of the River Jordan

Me standing in the River Jordan 

TRIPLE WHAMMY! Me taking a picture with Jordan by the river Jordan in the country of Jordan!