Time Decided to Move

I’m not sure exactly when I wrote last, but it feels like it’s been a while…so to inform readers (if there still are any present) I’ll give you the lay down of the past two weeks of March/February.

Firstly, I’ve been here for over a month already! I know they said time would go fast, but it has really done its job on me! In fact, I have plans for every weekend until April (AKA Spring Break for us Americans)—which is just nuts. After Spring break, its already beginning-mid April, and in one month after that we will have finals! So, time is doing real work here.

The last two weeks have been quite enlightening. After a bunch of ups and downs in the beginning of the program, I’ve finally unearthed bits about myself that I didn’t really know existed. Mostly they are simple things, those qualities that you thought you no longer cared about, or those facets of yourself you think left on hiatus and would never return. Well kids, I did some accidental soul seeking and turned out to find some real hard details about myself. But I won’t get into that now…

The last two weekends I spent a lot of time outside, which has been WONDERFUL beyond anything that could have ever picked up my mood.

The last weekend of February a couple friends from CIEE and I went to Ma’In Hot Springs and Madaba. Madaba (for those who don’t know), is an ancient Christian city where lots of Biblical history occurred, and Moabites reigned. Personally, I’m not one for history, but I have to say the Church of the Map (a greek orthodox church) and the archeological museum (with ancient Roman and other era mosaics) were among my favorites.

After our historical tour of Madaba and a meal where I finally did not feel stuffed to the rim, our group collided into another CIEE group, and all hung out, doing fun American things in the Hotel rooms, which one room (not ours, I’m proud to say!) got kicked out of the hotel. Well, actually they got “evicted” because of some angry German man who demanded the manager perform RA-knocks on all our doors. In any case, we slept 7 people to a 3-person hotel room, and in the morning got free breakfast before heading to Ma’In Hot Springs which were just astounding, relaxing and wonderful. When I was there I could not think of having any other motivations in life other than to gain enough money in order to leave peacefully on a tropical island in the hot sun.

So, lest I say, Madaba and Ma’In were beautiful. And I got a 

slight marriage proposal from a very persistent Lebanese woman in the hot spring. She wanted me to marry her son from Chicago. I  said, “La” (no).

Church of the Map

Ma'In Hot Springs--the Public Hamam

THIS past weekend (Mar 3-5) was also quite the event! I and nine other official team runners ran 242 Km from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. I don’t really want to talk about it, other than it was beautiful, difficult, and an experience I would advise any runner to partake in.  All I can say now is that I am sore (though not swaggering, like some of the guys). We finished in 19 hours and some amount of minutes.

The Beginning of the Race, After everyone did 10 min runs

Dawn, probably about 3/4 of the way through

Me! Running in the morning, about 30K left, Israeli border to the right.

FREE MUD! At the Dead Sea Spa Hotel, muddin' up.

The Dead Sea. Across the water (again) is Israel. The people in the distance are standing on salt.

Finally I went to the Dead Sea on Saturday, after coming back from the race on Thurs/Friday at 3am, which was very relaxing and very very salty. Though probably the best use of Mud I have ever seen. Here are some fellow students partakin’ in the fun!

I also have to say trying to touch the bottom of the sea is extraordinarily difficult! You bounce. Its just silly. And yes, you could totally read a book if you wanted to, although I would not advise trying to swim, as any water in your eyes will sting horribly. Apparently it is 33% salt. Yes. 33%.

This next weekend is Aqaba! (back to where I ran)…and its just for relaxing.

Things have been going smoothly, though I’m really needing to start stepping up my studying considering I really haven’t been doing any. And my writing is very poor. But this blog post I will use the excuse that I am exhausted from running 242 Km. Yalla Bye!