Oh Hey Holy Land

So last weekend I went on a grand tour of tourist attractions God created to make sure that, Jews, Muslims, and Christians would always have enough places to pray, make money, and argue about. God did a really nice job so he has been resting for awhile, and as a result most of the holy stuff around here is really old.

But anyway, irreverence aside, sites in Jordan appear in the Torah, Bible, and Qur'an a whole heck of a lot. Madaba a city I plan to visit again tomorrow (this time to find a hot spring) is mentioned more times in the Bible than Jerusalem (Moses sp

ent a fair bit of time hanging out there). Plus, Jesus is believed to have been baptized on the east side of the river Jordan at a place called Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, thereby helping invent a sacrament that I like to refer to as Hanley family job security.

So anyway, last Saturday I did the tourist thing at:

Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan - see above

Mt. Nebo - For those of you who haven't studied your Old Testament lately, Mt. Nebo is where Moses looked across the Jordan valley into the Promised Land known variously as Israel, Palestine, The Land of Canaan, or Disneyland depending on who you ask. The last one is used by overly sensitive American college students afraid of offen

ding Palestinians who might be eavesdropping on said Americans discussing travel plans.

Madaba - City of churches best known for it famous 5th century mosaic map.

& Herod's Castle ruins - John the Baptist is believed to have lost his head here. I stayed cool and thought it was just a really cool mountain top fortress.

So yeah, Jordan is neat... And religious too!

This is the site that major Christian churches have agreed is the site of Jesus' baptism. The ruins around it are part of the 5th century churches that were built around the area. The river has changed course dramatically in the last 2,000 years and it now runs about a thousand meters west of this picture.

Interestingly, this particle site wasn't found until 1998. Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 and the whole area had to be de-mined before archeologist could look for this long hidden site. I am pretty convinced that this is where early Christians thought Jesus was baptized. Whether this is really the spot or not, who knows? But lots of people, including everyone's favorite Communist fighter (who isn't David Hasselhoff) Karol Wojtyla, think this is the place. So anyway it was neat... and I ate a really good lunch afterwards in Madaba.

Escape to Jerash

Once upon a time (approximately last Friday),

I took off on an adventure (technically I drove... and technically I didn't personally drive as that is a big no-no with the Council for International Educational Exchange).

But anyway aft

er meeting my friend Kathleen at the North Bus Station (and drinking a delicious nescafe (a favorite Jordanian sugary instant coffee drink))

We negotiated with a cab driver to take us to

the village/ancient city of Jerash (By negotiated I mean we stood around while Arab men yelled different prices at us and at each other).

After a 45 minute drive (Jordan is a small country) through the beautiful (jamera) countryside we arrived in Jerash.

It was pretty FREAKING SWEET.

I LIKED IT A WHOLE LOT.

Later in the day we met up with some more of are friends who had opted to sleep in (namely Tommy, Lizzie, Charlotte, and Sam (see picture))

We ate Lebanese food at a highly regarded restaurant (Late King Hussein, King Abdullah II, and Nelson Mendela have all eaten there)

It was really good! Unfortunately a big bus load of German tourists showed up while we ate.

(I also caused a minor scene by photographing my food

. A Jordanian man thought that I had photographed his wife who was veiled from head to toe (which I had not (though it would have made a curious

orientalist picture as it looked difficult to eat kebab with one's whole face covered)).

Thankful, the asshole Germans's arrival seemed to make my photo of lettuce a minor issue in comparison to the raucous and he accepted that I might not be quite as big an ass as he believed me to be.

(I tell this story because a) I was embarrassed by the whol

e affair and b) I think the man's assumption that a flash in his peripheral vision was that of an exploitive tourist... when in reality it was an attempt to document a hilariously large salad (complete with whole uncut green pepper) tells us something interesting about the socio-political assumptions that are attached to

me as a camera carrying Western tourist)

But anyway, after our late, long, and immensely satisfying lunch we headed back into town and rode back to Amman. We were all quite satisfied with the day's

adventures. (Did I mentioned how cool Jerash is?)

PS (in case you are wondering, why I have opted to use so many parentheses it is because I find it difficult to put a wonderful day away from the busy city and general hubbub into a linear narrative (I also feel that if William Faulkner can write a six page sentence in Go Down, Moses, I can do whatever the heck I want (it is my blog)))

Love you all, Michael

Regional Security

Hey friends, I just wanted to quickly update you on the happenings in the Eastern Mediterranean. It has been a busy time to be in the Middle East. Long time President (some might say dictator) of Egypt Hosni Mubarak has declared that he will not seek reelection following the massive street protests around the country over the last 8 days. The events in Egypt are being closely watched across the region. Today, Yemen’s long time president vowed not to seek reelection and yesterday King Abdullah dismissed Jordan’s unpopular Prime Minister. Both moves are seen as steps to prevent unrest. Jordanians had long expected the King to remove Samir Rafai, as he was charged with implementing immensely unpopular austerity measures. Contrary to what one might assume, the removal of Prime Minister Rafai is not a deviation from the norm in Jordan. King Abdullah has dismissed the cabinet 9 times in the last 11 years.

The images coming out of Egypt are scary because of the tremendous uncertainty and rise in violence, but nothing similar has occurred or is expected to occur in Jordan. I was on the University of Jordan campus today, and despite it 30,000 students I did not encounter a single sign or protester of any kind.

The internet is really poor here so I find myself unable to easily put up pictures. So instead I have added a single photo of my peers on the University of Jordan campus. For more pictures just imagine me hanging out in front of a limestone clock tower with a dozen Americans who painfully stick out among several thousand Jordanian students. It is almost as good, right?

Love you guys lots, Michael