stairs, stairs, and more stairs :D

[shadowsong26]

1/7/12

sorry for the lack of post yesterday, but i was really wiped out after petra yesterday. which was thoroughly awesome, but a half-kilometer (like a third of a mile, bit less) uphill via steep crumbly windy stairs was exhausting. but it was totally worth it. it was huge and gorgeous and amazing and yes. i also spent way too much money on shiny things, including presents for my dad and sister, and a couple other people.

the treasury also was freaking gorgeous. i'm not including pictures here, because i decided i didn't want to lock these posts, and i don't want pics in unlocked posts. but...i mean, pictures are one thing, and they do kind of convey the gorgeousness of these buildings, but not quite the scale and grandeur, even with people there to show it.

there were also a lot of still-half-buried buildings, which ustath ghassan said were mostly tombs. and a kind of weird(?) thing i noticed was a couple of rock formations that looked kind of like skulls. i successfully took a picture of one of them, but i think i lost the other.

yeah, for some reason, my memory card had popped out of its slot and the first thirty or so pics i took at petra were saved onto my camera, rather than the card. so i started freaking out when it was telling me i had no memory left, because "wtf, that makes no sense!" but then i figured it out. ...and then it took me another twenty minutes to figure out how to transfer them to the card, so i can get them onto my computer later (i lost the cord at some point) <.< >.> yeah, i'm a bit of a dork.

also, yesterday was the day i figured out that i wouldn't have to reset the date on my phone every day if i'd remember that it was in day/month/year format, rather than month/day/year. <.< >.> I'M NOT VERY BRIGHT, OKAY?

okay, backtracking--the day overall was loooooong. we were up at 730, then a four-hour bus ride to petra, then i think it was a little shady getting in as residents, even though we have university of jordan id cards, since we're only here for two and a half weeks. but since the entry fee is 1 JD for residents and like 50 for non-residents...yeah, i didn't feel like complaining :D

from there, it's about a fifteen-thirty minute walk down a narrow canyon, which opens out on the treasury building and oh my gosh that moment was so beautiful. so beautiful. then we all rode camels :D and i got pictures of everyone, including me. that was a fun experience, though the camel (whose name i forget D: ) standing up under me was kind of freaky--she stood on her back legs first, with her front ones still kneeling, and so you're tilted at this supersteep angle for about a minute, then everything evens out. it's also a bit higher up there than it looks from the ground, but that was kind of cool :D

then we walked about twenty minutes to the grand temple. i didn't climb all the way up to the top (so i didn't see the sacrifice stone), only about halfway. but it was still pretty impressive. we also passed by an ampitheatre, but i can't remember exactly where along the trek that was--i'll have to go through my millions of photos to timeline it properly.

then up to the monastery where we hung out for a bit (i was the last one up by like...fifteen minutes. i'm so out of shape :P ), then back down where classmate a and i spent waaaay too much on shiny things, then a couple of group pictures in front of the treasury, then walking out to the bus, which left around 445. we got back to the hotel at around 820, and i pretty much passed out.

today! today i slept very late, then had another review session with ustath ghassan, on past tense and imperative (which he only went over in singular, but that's probably enough for now). then me, a, b, s, ka, ke, je, ja, d, and h went downtown. we had lunch at this place--i don't remember the name--and we had this spread that was bread, delicious hummus with garlic and some kind of herby thing, bean dip, tomatoes, and onion.there was also mint, which me and s put into our tea for extra deliciousness.

then a few of us browsed some of the local shops, before meeting up with the others at the roman ampitheatre (more stairs) which was huge and gorgeous (kind of a theme of these ruins, huh?). we climbed up to the top and sat there, then ka said "we should play charades!" so she climbed back down and we started guessing, and this local family was down there, too, and they started guessing, so we played charades with a bunch of kids for about a half-hour. then we went to a store at the top of the arena and i bought a knife for my collection and a present for another of my friends. then we headed back here, and i started writing this up.