Pura Vida: The a** heard round the world!

Separation wall - this big monstrosity is the most ridiculous thing ever (thats as political as i'm going to get). I really like the graffiti on it though. i've only seen pics of the other side... its graffiti is way better on the palestinian side. lots of interesting sayings - mostly anti-bush, anti-american, anti-israeli. Can't blame them.

All the single ladies... kind of. half have significant others. but thats besides the point. this is at the main mosque of ammon, jordan. all the girls had to put on these black gown hoodie things.

Me, Este, Dan, and Cyrus out on the town in Ammon. Cyrus and Este are on the arabic study abroad in jordan. such a fun night. however, i think that we JC students are the nerdy teachers pets while the arabic kids are the battle-tested bad boys. we keep curfew, we have a bajillion rules, and we sound like a bunch of wussys. the arabic students stay out all night, travel alone, and basically live however they want. cyrus has even been officially adopted into a legit jordanian tribe. there was a big US soccer game this night and we had to bail on it to be back at the hotel by curfew. basically they thought we were losers. however, you just have to find the right people out here. later on, a few of us headed out to catch the rest of the game at a little cafe - rebels without a cause, i know.

My little buddy and i out at Petra. Notice the Jazz shirt - what a stud. I'm pretty sure he has no idea who they are. This picture cost me the purchase of a little elephant stone thing. totally worth it.

Tower de Bakshish. This was our tower that we built at the "top of the world" look out in the petra mountains. it may not be the tallest or the most clean looking, but it definitely had the most character. Me, Steph, Eric, Chadwick.

The Monastery of Petra. I had to post this to let yall know that i really was there. Like most really amazing things like this, the pic doesn't do it justice. The colors and details are so much better in real life. I was standing over 50 meters away and i still couldn't get the whole thing in view. Huge.

Michael, Eric, Cary, Jordanian dude, Me, Alex, Russ. At the treasury of petra.

Lesson: when you give JC students a night out in a small town, things get wierd real fast.
Story: wadi mousa is the small town outside of petra. we got there late at night and had a few hours to kill before curfew. Scenario: either spend the time eating ice cream or try out the "turkish bathe experiment." Guess what we chose. All we knew going into this was that there was a communal steam room and a massage - only $12. How can you pass that up? What we didn't know was that the steam room quickly became a hazy, sweaty, steamy toga party (that sounds a little dirty), and that the massage was actually a very thorough bathing by another man. After spending a while soaking up the steam room, a huge jordanian bruise of a man leads you back to his massage lair. You can barely see through the fog as he leads you to this hidden room. Without notice he grabs off your toga and tells you to lay down on this marble table - at this point apprehension floods your mind. "what the heck is going to happen to me?" Then, all the sudden, the hands of zeus reach down from heaven to give you a thorough cleansing - yeah, kind of like a car wash - full body rinse, full body scrub, full body wash/massage, full body rinse and rerapping of the toga... all with emphasis of "full body." This beastly massuse isn't shy - very few inhibitions. There were numerous brushes, if you know what i mean. with that said, best 12 bucks i've spent all trip. fyi - i didn't know how to make this experience sound not gay. trust me, it wasn't... i think. go try it someday... AMAZING!

The coveted photo from the trip - probably one that should have been kept secret... unfortunately word leaked out just after the incident so anonymity is no longer necessary. Chadwick's Y-tatoo. Allow me to explain: what started out as an innocent contest between the matt and mark bus turned into a competition of shock value. Preceding this scene was blowfishes on the windows, short road shows, awkward poses, and eventually a hot make-out scene by the Allens - one of the senior couples. we on the mark bus had no other choice than to pull out our hidden weapon and well kept secret from the JC - Chadwick's A**. Needless to say, we won... but not without major consequences. Chadwick is now confined to the JC for the next 3 weeks until we go to the sea of galilee. Bro Brown - "please let Chadwick go!"

Mud bath at the dead sea. cary, esther, kat, becca, me, russ, brit. The dead sea is crazy. its like playing in oil - or atleast what i imagine playing in oil is like. the water is all swirly and rainbowish looking - and it hurts like haides when it enters an orfice of the body. if you've ever had a oil spill on your skin while filling up the jetskis... its kind of like that - but the pain goes to every crevice of your body. the mud bathe is the only relief. feels amazing, smells like shiz. and what it does to your skin is heavenly. we had our dead sea mud bathe the day before the greek god gave me a turkish bathe. my bed felt like a waterslide for the next few nights - thats a good thing.

The crew in a cave at En-gedi. russ, kat, erin, brittany, didi, becca. En-gedi waterfalls is sweet. basically its a series of pools and waterfalls leading from the judean wilderness down to the dead sea. it kind of reminds me of hiking the narrows in zions.

Trying to slide down a waterfall at En-gedi... got to protect the crown jewels

This old fellow is showing us the method for writing the Torah. Its an amazing process - everything has to be kosher (from a kosher animal) - the leather scroll itself, the ink formulation, and the tools used to inscribe the writings.

making some pita from scratch

On top of sinai. i have no idea who this is, but its a cool pic

Beccs inside a mosque. i don't know where this takes place either but i like the pic.

Pist off camel - judean wilderness. This is probably a good time to tell you how much i love camels. they are the best animal ever. they are basically a mangy looking horse. you can't appreciate the animal until you see it, and ride it, in real life.