This Is How We Procrastinate

I should be writing my term paper that's due on Monday. I should be researching the regional arms build up in the Middle East post-Gulf War and how the US has become a foreign balancer in the region to counteract Iran, a position that Iraq vacated after the war.

I should be.. but instead I'm writing this! It's because I love you guys so much.

I mentioned a while back that I had taken a weekend trip to the Dana Nature Reserve here in Jordan. Dana is down south of Amman, and the reserve is one of six in Jordan. I've been to a couple of the others- Azraq and Ajloun, but those paled in comparison to Dana. Dana is beautiful- arguably the prettiest (natural) place in Jordan. Wadi Rum is, of course, stunning, but I need a little more greenery in my life. What can I say?

I went down for a two day trip with three other people in the program who all shared the mutual interest of getting OUT OF AMMAN. Amman is great, and all, but after a while the city starts to get to you. And as carless students here, it's pretty much impossible to get out of it unless you're taking a weekend trip somewhere. Cue the organizing of this little excursion.

Posing with our naswangee driver, sorry T

We ended up taking a service taxi there in lieu of the buses, which was probably a smart idea looking back considering we would have had to make two transfers to get to the hotel in Dana. The 'village' we stayed in is actually completely comprised of hotels- I think there are four there in total? We stayed at Dana Hotel, which was pretty nice in comparison to other places I've stayed at around Jordan. Except for the cold shower. Holy shit, that shower was like jumping into a glacial lake.

We got there just before sunset the first night, so we just settled in to our room and talked with some locals before eating dinner. Afterwards we wandered the village a bit, met some donkeys, and found a wonderful perch on the side of the cliff overlooking the valley where we could stargaze and/or talk. I have to say, despite my parents both being astronomers, I've never quite appreciated the night sky as much as I have learned to here. Out in the remote wilderness the stars take on a much weightier presence.

 

The next day we started out around 9, planning on doing an out and back hike straight through the valley and returning before sundown at 5. Things don't always go as planned. We ended up deciding we were young and adventurous and instead took the, dare I say it, left branch in the fork which took us back up into the mountains and we instead crawled along the ridge line, which takes so much longer than just walking straight through the valley. And then there was the whole thing where our trail disappeared and we were trailblazing on a rather steep mountainside- that was fun and all, but after a while we decided it was probably best to abandon mountain and head back down into the valley.

 

Because of our detour, we didn't make it to the end of the valley (not even close- a man passing through on his donkey told us that we had another 5km to the end by the time we decided to turn around). I am glad we chose the ridge trail though, because it made the way back much less repetitive than it would have been otherwise. Highlight of walking back through the valley: we found a stray goat! It ran away from us.

See that mountain allllll the way in back? Yeah we had to climb back up that

I enjoy a good hike every now and then. I consider myself relatively fit. Sometimes I run for fun because I'm one of those people. But let me tell you.. the climb back up the mountain was pretty torturous. It just. kept. going. Switchback after switchback after switchback. I've never been so happy to be harassed by shabab as I was when we got to the top of that mountain.

But man, isn't this view worth it? We walked (crawled) back up the mountain just as the sunset was beginning, so at least we got a world class view.

Other highlights of the trip:
1) PUPPIES. SO MANY PUPPIES. There were stray puppies everywhere and they were adorable and it took all of my self control not to smuggle them back with us.
2) DONKEYS EVERYWHERE. It's not horses, but hey, I'll take it. I also managed to be a donkey whisperer and get one to stand still while I pulled off a metal can it had stuck its leg through
3) THERE WAS A LITTLE KITTEN. It literally jumped around like a bunny- no normal walking allowed, apparently! It was very elusive and would come up to you but run away before you could touch it, and on our last night there I managed (somehow) to pick it up and it let me carry it around for a bit.

Looking back these are all about animals. Hmm.