Day 3 Petra

Finishing up our Petra weekend, I finally got the dirt out of my ears and my hair back to life..wish this feeling could last longer.
Today we went off the beaten path of tourists on a mission to find some Roman temple. The trail involved climbing and weaving through the sandstone maize, which looked like a Gaudi dream. After our wandering adventure me and ash stopped for one last meal at the Movenpick, pina colada and a burger..it feels weird to live in Jordan deprived of all American culture, cuisine and lifestyle. Being at the Movenpick makes me enjoy a little civilization with a capital C.
I am not looking forward to being back at camp and the routine. We have like 3 weeks left and people are getting a little crazy, it's hard not to when we are around the same people, the sandstorms and the routine makes everyone cranky. But there are times where we snap out of this mode, such as watching the sunrise at site or watching the sunset on the rooftop of the lab or seeing 47 camels herded through the wadi and now I can add the Petra sights. Everything is so different here, I am starting to babel Arabic in my sleep. Next week is Amman, I can't wait for shopping and more real food.

Past week, aka Halloween

Hope everyone's last week was Awesome! Halloween actually was entertaining, it was our 2nd day into the work week and my crazy tent mate Ash, made decorations to our tent very Halloweenie. One of the guys from camp saved a watermelon from the day off and carved an Indiana Jones silhouette as a pumpkin design. I'm upset I didn't take a picture, but nothing too exciting happened. The weather at camp is changing we are now wearing beanies to site and we found a small woman figurine that is still being dated. Moving on to the 2nd month here in Jordan, days are blurring together.

Okay so I'll leave you with this hillarious story..My guy friends from the adjacent site Area R learn Arabic daily from the
bedouin, they are in my mind fluent in Arabic, because of their extensive vocabulary and vulgar slang. I never bother asking what they are talking about unless another kid throws a rock at me and a cuss word might come in handy. So that's the backstory...the other day we had a huge sandstorm during our siesta time at camp and a baby kitten snuck in to their tent (the boys). I hate cats and often make jokes with the other hungry campers of cooking them if I found one. But this kitten was adorable, white blue eyes and so helpless. We argued with each other about keeping it or letting it go. Then Johnny the sentimental one gave it a name, the first sign of ownership..Zebe...Kam fed it and called it Optimus Prime..Zebe sounded cuter to me. So I silently agreed. They only kept the kitten for a day and was forced to let it go. The next day at site my supervisor who loves to gossip was telling the story of the boys and the kitten on our site. I chimed in and commented "oh my pet kitten Zebe", everyone bursts out into laughter. Zebe means my penis in arabic. FML. Thank god the bedouin weren't around or I'd get some serious strange looks. This story has now circled the camp and a good story among the staff. Moral of the story don't trust the boys and their arabic. Have a good week.

Quais Katir-very good

Greetings from Petra, I am so exhausted, had a blast last night met the clan at the bar and today we hiked through Petra - seeing most of the monuments. Petra is a city carved out of the surrounding sandstone mountainous rock. Their is detailed architecture high and low..hidden tombs and caves. I rode a horse and a camel throughout the day...I decided to splurge. Our big hike was to the Monastery, a rough hour hike dodging the donkeys and bedouin salesman. It was worth it to see the flawless Monastery that was seen in Transformers 2. We had snacks for lunch, so now I am looking forward to a big buffet at the Movenpick. We have one more day here, I plan to see more hikes tomorrow and take more pictures. I miss everyone, Have a great day. Ma' salam

salamalacum

So catching up on last weekends trip to Mt. Nebo and the Dead Sea.. It was amazing. After Mt. Nebo, headed down the hill we paid to enter the Dead Sea beach through an awesome hotel. Everyone was smiling once they entered what was like an oasis in the desert. We played for hours in the Dead Sea floating on the water, then almost drowning in the pools. We ate ice cream and smoked hookah, until it was time to leave. The next day at camp. Tom(director) had some exciting news about our scarab. It dates to the Late Bronze age and says" The one who tramples foreign land". It sounded like something straight from Indiana Jones. The camp plague has been going around I caught it a couple days ago- sucks to have a fever in the desert. I am currently missing Mexican food, condiments, sushi, ice, and any normal food I have eaten in the last 21 years. The foods been rough, meat(chicken) is a once a week luxury. In Aqaba again resting, eating and prepping for Petra next weekend. Oh and I miss you Daniel!

WE FOUND A SCARAB!!!!!!

So finally the weekend, We are currently in Madaba, known for their Byzantine Mosaics. We will make our way to Mt. Nebo, Biblical site, and then head to the Dead Sea to uh, float. Yesterday in the first hour of our digging we found a Scarab!! It's no bigger than a dime, perfect hieroglyphs and the best part about it, it was headed for the trash pile of dirt. We caught it at the screening section and just like that we have text to support our tenth century fortress. During our off time at the camp we have a nightly ritual swapping travel stories with music and hookah. It's a really chill group and I enjoy them. Our hotel this weekend is Awesome it has a pool which I drunkenly decided to go swimming in last night along with some others I recruited during our hotel party. It felt like swimming in snow, but can't take advantage of any amenity when you live in the desert. Oh yeah and I'm getting better with my arabic by the day, thanks to my bedouin friends. Oh yeah and I almost forgot My pictures were published in my good friend Ashley Richter's article, check out the link...http://archive.cyark.org/ruins-of-jerash-field-report-conservation-and-tourism-blog
And we are doing a weird duo of vlog-ing for her company Cyark, this should be interesting. Miss you all, masalama.

Kwais-good

This week has been pretty routine-excavate, lab work, food and reading..Our site is AWESOME! I'm in a corridor of the building and so far have found pottery, shells, bones, and today a human tooth! This past week we have encountered our first snake at site and a scorpion in someone's tent . This is a tough job, rewarding, but tough. Don't think I could do this with my life, but on the upside my tent roomie works for a historical archaeology firm dealing with photo imagery of famous archaeological sites and she wants some of my photos to publish with her research project for Jordan...meaning my photo will be in an archaeology journal with credit to meee! I'm stoked, leaning towards a jornalism/photography side of anthropology possibly, in my process of narrowing down for a master's. The food here is getting OLD and the constant heat from wearing modest clothing is hard to adjust to. I like Jordan, the bedouin, the roaming camels in the Wadi, just could never live here. Next week we are going to Madaba, Mt. Nebo, and the Dead Sea. I don't plan on updating until the week after next, since I will be so busy. But after that is Petra for 3 days! Currently I am in Aquaba again, enjoying my day off. Until next time, Shokran.

First Weekend off

Currently in Aquaba, a city near the Red Sea, it's like a beach town, but everyone is still modest in their dress. Lesson number one never take beach, food, and civilization for granted. I miss San Diego.