Field Trip!

Last Saturday (Sept 1st) we had our first planned field trip. (Our next one is going to be at the end of October) We went to Madaba, Mt. Nebo, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea. It was so much fun, I wish I could talk about everything we did, but I can't, so I'll just give some highlights:

Madaba: Madaba is known for its ancient mosaics. I'll be honest, they were pretty cool, but after about 15 minutes you're ready to go on.

The main mosaic is a map of the area and is on the floor of a church.

Mt. Nebo: It's a short, maybe 5 minute, walk to get to the top. This is where Moses looked at the promised land before he died. At the top there is a replica of Moses' staff with the brazen serpent on it. The view from the top is pretty amazing. You can see the Dead Sea and Israel on the other side.

My friend, Paul, looking out over the land

I thought this sign was awesome, and you wouldn't see it anywhere but the Middle East.

Jordan River: The Jordan River is shared between Israel and Jordan, and the part we went to is designated as the baptismal site. Both sides have a visitors center kind of thing and while we were there, there was a group of poeple across the river who were all dressed in white and pretty much "baptizing" themselves. They were singing while they did this, so our group sang a song too, then they sang another one (it was almost like we were in a sing-off). There are stairs that lead down into the river, if you wanted to go in it, but most of us took off our shoes, pulled up our pants and stood on the bottom stair (which was underwater) instead of going all the way in.

This is the Jordan River.....it really doesn't look that great, especially when compared with the Columbia back home,

This is one of the many churches by the Jordan River, most Christian denominations have a church in the area.

By far the highlight of the day was the Dead Sea. It was so much fun. We all went out and swam...er more like floated, in it. The Dead Sea has a density of 1.240 kg/L, and while I don't completely know what that means, the gist of it is that our bodies are less dense the the seawater, so we float, as opposed to sinking. It's a very weird sensation and freaks most people out so they begin flailing and getting the water in their eyes and mouth (which, because the water is so high in salt, hurts like none other). Thankfully, Dil and LB (his wife), to spare us this pain, told us to go out in the shallow water and then act like we were sitting down.  

When in the water, you're supposed to splash as little as possible, again because of the saltiness of the water.

I promise I'm somewhere in the picture

The Dead Sea mud is supposed to be really good for you skin. Because of this, most of the mud from the shallows/shore is gone. To find the mud, you have to dig beneath the sand/silt to get it. There is a guy there who sells mud to tourists for 5 JD (or about $7), which we didn't want to spend. Dana, one of the other girls, decided we should look for mud instead........and we found it :)

The "Mud People"

I'm 4th from the right

After cleaning off the mud, we went up to the pool, that had normal water. When we first got in, we felt so heavy and weighted down, because we were so used to floating. By the time we were done and on the bus going home, we were all exhausted.

Because of all the walking and swimming we did, my roommates, another apartment of girls, and I stopped by Frisco, a cake/dessert shop by our apartments, and got ourselves a treat for dinner.

It was a great day, and was the prequel to a pretty good week.....which I will post about soon.