So we're coming dangerously close to the end of this semester in Jordan... I have about 15 days left until everything is over and done with. Arabic finals are this upcoming week and after that the area studies finals... I'm a little bit freaking out.
Everyone is starting to get excited about going back home, which is hard for me in a couple different ways. First of all, I'm going to miss the living crap out of everyone here... I've made some incredible friends while I've been here. But other than that, it'll just be weird not seeing the people I've seen every single day for the past 3 months anymore... some of them never again. It's just a really strange feeling. Second of all, while I'm very much excited for my next adventure (going to Lebanon for the summer), I am very much homesick. I don't really know if I'm more homesick for Turkey or America, but one thing is for sure. I miss my family and I miss my friends. It's a little difficult to hear everyone talking about all the things they want to do with their families/friends this summer, knowing that I'm going on a whole new adventure on my own, where I'll have to make new friends all over again.
Therefore, I'm trying to take advantage of everyday I have left here. I sort of realized that I didn't travel nearly as much as I would've liked to when I got here. So for the remainder of the weekends I had left after spring break, I decided to plan to go somewhere for each. Last weekend, me and some friends went to Madaba, which was very cool! It is a majority Christian population and we saw some really amazing old churches that held mosaics from 2000 years ago. It was definitely an awesome experience.
This weekend, I went to Aqaba with two of my friends. Aqaba is the one city in Jordan that actually is "touristic" as it is right by the dead sea. It was super nice! We stayed in a little tiny hotel with a small pool that was right by the beach. We got to relax and sunbathe for a little bit. Also, we went scuba diving which was incredibly amazing! I had done it once before, but it was definitely just as cool the second time around! The coral down at the bottom was truly some of the most beautiful I had ever seen! It was gorgeous and so much fun.
It was also very nice to get away from the city for a while. Even though it was humid and the city was filled with people (and lots of men who were incredibly creepy), it was just nice to breathe in and smell the salty water, something I love from being in Turkey all the time.
Another AMAZING thing was simply the location of where we were. The Red Sea at the very top is pretty much just a bay, around which 4 countries are located. Standing at the beach, right across you could see the mountains rising up from the Sinai Peninsula; in between us and those mountains, to the right, was a little strip that was all lit up at night, Eilot, Israel; and if you looked to your left, about 16 km down the shore was Saudi Arabia. I don't think it gets cooler than that for a student who studies Middle Eastern politics.
Going to Aqaba was definitely cool... but I have to say I can NOT wait for next weekend! We have planned this little trip into Palestine (The West Bank) and I can't wait to go. We are visiting four cities, Jericho, Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus. It's going to be amazing. I know Clark doesn't endorse trips into the West Bank because it is on the US State Department Travel Warning list, but I absolutely have no problem signing the waiver of liability. I doubt I will ever get another chance like this, so I'm going to enjoy it as best as I can.
I will update you guys about how that trip went next week!
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