Lunch in Jordan

This is Mensaf. The traditional Jordanian meal.
Served for special guests, special occasions, or weddings.

Since this was our 4th meal in 5 hours, it was really hard to get even one bite down.

Luckily, it was good.

Jordanians don't take, "I'm full" for an answer.

Rice, Goat's Milk, Lamb.

Everyone had to eat with their right hand, even me, the lefty.

"Just follow these steps"
step 1- rip off some tortilla
step 2- dig into rice drowned in goat's milk
step 3- pull apart lamb
step 4- roll/toss into ball in right hand
(if you use your left hand AT ALL it's very offensive)

final step- cup hand and use thumb to push ball into your mouth.

I kept on thinking, I don't know if this bite will stay down.

At least I thought of a new eating disorder-
Involuntary Bulimia
or in this case
Culturally Imposed Bulimia

you have no choice but to binge, and it's not guaranteed to stay down.



*my video isn't loading very well. I'll try to post it later.

Watermelon-Goat-Cave Picnic

Ashraf took us to Moses' Spring.

Where Moses struck the rock and brought forth water.
The cave was green in the middle of the desert.

Local Bedouin kids looking for money. They were yelling at us,
"hey."
"money."
"big money."

A view from inside the green cave, everywhere else was desert.

As we were enjoying a picnic, a goat herder brought his goat's down for a drink.

I was a little uneasy about stinky goats rooting around by me and my lunch.

I swear to you the goats were eating garbage.
Sardine cans and all!

Blame it on the Robots

I'm sorry to report that I had to add word verification to my blog. You can still comment all you want, there is just 1 extra step now.

I just received over 20 spam comments on my blog. Then had to spend 20 minutes manually deleting all of them.

Sorry. Blame it on the robots.

Mt. Nebo and the Memorial of Moses

We were so close to the Palestine border that we got a message on our cell phone saying, Welcome to Palestine coverage. Scary!

The scenery was gorgeous!

Aaron, Ashraf and Max

Mosiac tiles from the excavation.

Photo op with the police

Overlooking the Dead sea

It was really neat to see Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Luckily, we'll get further than Moses. We're going to Jerusalem in 2 weeks!

Trip to Madaba

We rode out to Madaba (about an hour away from Amman) for a day trip on Saturday.

Check out our bus driver's hair! The comb-over didn't quite comb over.

Breakfast at Ashraf's house. Jordanians are SO hospitable and generous.

This is breakfast. At noon. We'd already had breakfast at home, Ashraf bought us falafel in the car, and we were expected to eat all of this on pitas.

A piece of Heaven in Cairo

After a week in crazy Cairo I was in desperate need for room to breath. Somewhere clean and where people weren't hitting me up for money. We found Al-Azhar Park.

There is a 360 view of the whole city.

Look how the sun sets behind the layer of smog. It's just... breathtaking!

We were able to hear just about every mosques call to prayer. It was really cool.

Coptic Cairo

Coptic Cairo is one of the oldest part of Cairo, settled as early as 6th century BC.
Only 5 of the 20 Christian churches have survived.

The Hanging Church- built 3rd or 4th century AD

Inside with our roomies, Brooke and Max.

We also visited where it was rumored that the Holy Family stayed during their Flight to Egypt.

Fond farewell to Luxor

This time the entire BYU group was able to go on a Faluka ride to say "Bon Voyage" to Luxor.

Karnak Temple

While in Luxor we went to Karnak Temple, it was the one I was waiting for.

Where do I begin?

This place is monstrous!

The hieroglyphics all over the temple portrayed the ceremonies that took place there.

This room is called the Holy of Holies. You can see through the door way almost down to the front gates. It was huge!

There were so many cool things here that had so much significance with the LDS church.
It was amazing!

Temple of Hatsheput

Queen Hatsheput was the most successful women pharaohs of Egypt.

She built herself this temple in Luxor.

I looked like an Asian tourist but it was SO HOT and I was trying to avoid heat stroke.
We had many a sufferer.

Trying to escape the heat in the shade with a cold drink.