Salt, Mud, and Crusaders

My house has been quite chaotic for the last several days.  My host brother, Najib, who works as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, came home for the weekend.  In honor of his visit, we had the whole extended family over for brunch.  There was a plethora of food involved:  zaatar bread, hummus, falafel, something resembling an omelet, a cheese-walnut-olive oil mixture whose name I do not recall, all the Jordanian standard dishes.  I wish I had taken a photo of the spread before it was demolished, but suffice to say that is was absolutely delicious and I ate far too much.

It surprised me how the atmosphere of the big family gathering transcended cultural idiosyncrasies.  I felt like I could have been at any Morrison or Frey family event (with the small exception that I didn't actually know anyone or understand what they were talking about).  At one point, I could tell that there was a heated political discussion occurring about Mubarak and Qaddafi and I wish so much that I could have understood better what people's views were.  Short of my professors, I know so little about what ordinary Jordanians think about what is going on in the region.  The one thing everyone does seem to agree on is that Qaddafi is majnoon (crazy).  Additionally, I met an Arab with a Wisconsin accent!  One of the cousins that was there actually lives in the Chicago area and was just in Amman visiting family for a few days.  As it turns out, he got his masters from the University of Wisconsin, is a die-hard Packers fan, and I have probably driven by his house dozens of times. I'm learning quickly that it really truly is a small world.


On Saturday, I went on a CIEE-sponsored day trip to Karak and the Dead Sea.  Karak is a huge Crusader castle a couple hours south of Amman.  According to my trusty guidebook, it's one of the most well-preserved and easily explorable fortresses of its kind. The castle itself was enormous and it was tons of fun to wander around--I probably could have spent a whole extra hour poking about and trying to locate the "suitably dank" dungeons--but it was the view from the top that was truly spectacular.  As in Jerash, there was no one of authority around except for a couple police officers at the front gate. Consequently, we were able to clamber all over everything in what was most certainly an unsafe manner including climbing to the top of one of the walls.  Amazing.  Now I just need to find somewhere to buy an illegal copy of Kingdom of Heaven so I can see what happened there (or at least Hollywood's interpretation thereof).

Karak Castle

Lovely Lura at Karak

After exploring Karak in the morning, we drove through more of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery that I saw last weekend between Madaba and Ma'in to the Dead Sea.  I've seen a partially obstructed view of the sea from afar on several occasions since I arrived in Jordan, but this was the first time that I really got to see it, touch it, and (unfortunately) taste it.  I did all the typical touristy things--slathered mysef in mud, almost got cut up on the salt formations, floated around, tried not to get salt in my eyes--and had a marvelous time doing so. 

Dead Sea mud!  Erika, Jessica, me, and Gabby

Mike and I demonstrating our floating abilities.

I had really been expecting that the whole floating thing wouldn't really live up to the hype... but oh was I wrong.  It was amazing to feel completely weightless, to "stand" upright in the water without sinking, to be in kilometers-deep water without exerting any effort whatsoever.  I can't wait to go back!