The Tour Begins

Early next morning we woke up and I did a short 15 minute yoga practice (5 As, 5 Bs, and 3 closing postures) and ate a hearty Israeli breakfast at the hotel. Some random Israelis had showed up in my yoga class the week before and were raving about the vegetables in Israel. They were not kidding. The salad bar was the most incredible one I’ve seen, and that was at breakfast! There were a few hoards of Jewish kids also staying at the hotel who were traveling to Israel for their birthright trip. The Birthright Trip is a trip sponsored by an Israeli organization that pays for a 10 day trip to Israel for a young adult aged 18-26 to learn about their heritage. One boy started talking to me in the lobby and commented on how I had packed almost nothing for my trip. I told him I actually packed quite a bit, but the airline had lost my luggage. “You need to call them and tell them to find it or else because you are Jewish!” he exclaimed.  I quickly checked my face in the mirror and as far as I know, I still look Asian. So I reply to him “um, I’m not Jewish.” He looks very confused, “so why are you here???”

I also randomly met another guy also on his birthright trip who surprisingly was from Austin, TX! He grew up in Chicago, moved to Austin, and never looked back. It’s a small world.

Our tour company sent us a taxi that drove us from Israel to Jordan where we would be touring for the next 3 days. Unfortunately, in my hurry to leave the hotel, I left my journal there. Perhaps I’m supposed to lose it, as I’m praying this trip would mark a new beginning for me in finding myself. Still, with so many things missing, it’s frustrating to lose yet another item.

In Jordan, we met up with the fourth person attending the tour with us, Luana. I absolutely adore her. I was grateful to be traveling with E and A as they were married. That gave me friends on the trip, but I also felt that since they were married, I had the freedom to branch off and make new friends. Luana is a 29 year old teacher from Brasil who was also getting her doctorate’s in education. She speaks 4 languages, and is on the last 3 days of our 12 day vacation in Israel. She is a Christian, and is extremely outgoing and talkative. We also met our tour guide, Rami. Rami is, in my opinion, a very very handsome man. He was born in Madaba, a city next to Amman, and studied English and French at a university in Saudi Arabia, and of course he grew up speaking Arabic. He lives with his parents still, as that is the custom for single adults in Jordan, along with his twin brother and two sisters. The day after our tour ends, however, Rami will be taking a few weeks off to celebrate the wedding of one of his sisters. Rami is extremely knowledgable about the history of Jordan, and quickly brought us up to speed on the history of the Jordan royal family.

The first day, we went to Jerash, which is part of the Decapolis. Jesus did a lot of his ministry in Jordan (he was baptized in the Jordan river) and the Decapolis consists of 10 Greek – then Roman – city-states. In Jerash we saw a reenactment of the gladiators and chariot races in the Hippodrom. We also visited the Temple of Zeus and the Temple of Artemis. All the buildings in Israel and Jordan are built from limestones since they have plenty of that material. There were many columns in Jerash – apparently, it is the site of the last Corinthian columns. The columns were connected with steel bars that allowed them to be flexible (thus resilient) in earthquakes. The weather was comparable to Austin – about 95-105 degrees, but it was very dry. In fact, Rami informed us, Jordan only gets about 2 inches of rain each year!

We ate lunch in Jordan (E and I decided to be cheap and eat our leftover Hummus and Tahina) then visited more of the ruins. It was absolutely amazing!

We then drove to Amman where I am now writing from at the hotel. After I finish blogging, I plan on walking around the city to look for a spare battery for my camera, a new journal, and eat some authentic Jordanian dinner.

[update]

We are staying right in the heart of downtown Amman and surprisingly, there isn’t much in terms of street vendors. I ended up going to the mall and buying a Shawerma combo meal (with fries and a drink) from a Lebanese food stand. I wanted to try a Kebbeh there, but unfortunately they were out and the food stand was closing down soon. The two guys working at the counter were named Oday and Laith got me a cheaper meal off the menu, and Oday was kind enough to promise me a free Kebbeh if I returned the next day. For only 2.6 Dinars (about $3.60) for an entire meal, I probably will be back tomorrow for more.

I stopped by a camera store to look for a battery charger for my Nikon D50. Since we are going to Petra tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that my camera battery can last through all the picture taking. Since the charger cost almost as much as a new point-and-shoot digital camera (and if my luggage is found by the time we get to Israel, I really won’t have need for an extra charger), I ended up buying a cheaper point-and-shoot. I needed a new one anyway, and although this is a lower quality one than my old one that got run over by a car, it’ll do.