Jul 2006

So the other day in the field we found a small round basin rock structure thinger and we called it the bathtub.... and then we created this story that a man with leprosy was cast out of the city and the area outside of the gate that we're excavating now is his house with his bathtub. Only one of several hundred ways you can keep entertained while moving ridiculous amounts of dirt! Hahaha... Archaeology is very cool though, I must admit.

Well, only 8 more days of digging and getting up at 4:30am! Yaaayy... although I will be a bit sad as Jordan has been awesome.. everything is too expensive here though... its all like the same prices as in Canada... blaaaahhh.. Egypt was dirt cheap.

Hah.... funny story...
So I have these bright red baggy flowy pants and I was wearing them the other day walking down the street. Weirdly I was getting about 10 x's more catcalls than is normal for 2pm and was frankly a bit creeped out when about 4 Jordanian teenage boys started following me and yelling out most likely creepy stuff in Arabic....... so I thought to myself, "this can't be just because of the red pants can it be?" and then I remembered that not once have I seen a red shirt or red pants in ANY of the stores here in Jordan! No red shirts at alllll..... The only thing I've seen that is red here in the store windows is not very respectable red lingerie....

.... so I think they thought I was, well...... a not very respectable lady in red....

The moral is: Just in case you ever doubted it, red pants are a bad idea. You might be mistaken as a lady of the..... ick.... night.

Hahaha

Love
Krysten

Oh wow. I can't even begin to explain the awesomeness of this weekend.

First of all, I got a beautiful hotel room for $20 CAD a night. I managed to grab one of the only single rooms with *gasps* a continuous hot shower! No more army showers (water on, water off, shampoo in, rinse, water off, conditioner in, rinse, water off .... all in 3 mins) for a whole weekend! And as if that wasn't enough to make my whole hotel stay worth every penny.....

We all got into Petra for free! Usually $40 CAD per day, but waived as we were registered with the Jordanian antiquities office and considered as "doing a service to the antiquity of Jordan." Ah yes, that's us... superstars in the Jordanian antiquity circle. I'll bet you're all jealous...

The photos from Petra are definately the best photos of my trip so far, I think.... We started in the Siq, then to the Treasury and the Monastary and the look outs. I dont want to say anything else because I just can not bring myself to ruin the photos before I actually post them or show people. The Monastary was a 45 minute climb up the side of a mountain on 2000 year old steps that were created by the Nabatean people...

You really must go see pictures at http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/
since I can't get my camera working on these darn computers in Jordan.....

Next was the High Place of Sacrifice which was a steep hour climb up 1256 steps on sketchy, demented stairs. The climb was so worth it despite a decent sun burn and nothing short of a heart attack affecting the three of us who climbed. The minute we reached the top, an ancient ceremonial altar was visible (which we laid in of course for oh so good photos... which was placed splat in the centre of the highest mountain in the area with a backdrop of rolling mountains and steep deadly valleys.

Of course the scenery was amazing and the incredible stonework, astounding.... but it was really the Jordanian people that made our day. We ended up (my friend Casey and I) having tea three times with different bedouin women throughout Petra who would simply not have no for an answer... and good thing, they were HILARIOUS. In broken English and Arabic, our conversations were enough to crack up even the tourists standing nearby who of course were pretending not to listen.

And when we finally climbed the 898 winding, ridiculous 2 foot high and 4 foot long steps to the Monastary we rested in a Bedouin tent and were surrounded by Bedouin music and a meal of "we still don't know what".... although it was the best food I've had in Jordan yet!

Oh, and of course with my broken Arabic I charmed some Bedouin men into giving me a free camel ride... and after joking around with them for far too long Casey, Cara and I were taken on a crazy, free camel and donkey ride with some hilarious Bedouin dudes.

Oh and then a camel bit me...... But it was more of a surprise then anything else to see a camel coming straight for my arm. Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all... It was merely like a clamp with no teeth... ewwww... and I don't even want to talk about the slimy white and nasty yellow gunk which was left behind on the entire sleeve of my shirt. Puke.

Of course, after arriving in Petra at 6:30am and ascending and descending over 4000 treacherous steps and walking over 8 kms over the course of 12 hours, we were ready to leave at 6:30 pm...

So I came back to the hotel with some others and went for a swim in the POOL and am now ready to CRASH

Mucho love,
Krysten