We made what could be called a pit stop in Umm Ar-Rasas, a partially excavated site containing ruins from several different ancient civilizations. It also just so happens to contain the largest preserved mosaic in Jordan, which itself just so happens to be ridiculously cool. One of the panels (because it's so large it contains multiple different panels and scenes) portrays all of the important cities of the region. There was another separate floor mosaic in the ruins of another church; to preserve it from the weather they had covered the entirety of the mosaic with sand and only had a small portion of it that could be uncovered for visitors.
In my opinion, Umm Ar-Rasas was worth stopping at only for the mosaics. It had tons of ruins as well, but my lack of imagination and creativity makes it hard for me to appreciate ruins as much as they should be appreciated. Unless they are truly magnificent (umm, the Great Temple in Petra) they hold little fascination for me, and the ruins at Umm Ar-Rasas did not quite pass my bar. That being said, I did have a great time clambering through them (to quote the guide: "Climbing through the ruins is dangerous... but you guys are young") and peeking into structures that long ago were fully erect, inhabited buildings.
The real magic of the day began when we arrived at Wadi Rum after what seemed like hours of driving in a bus that was determined to bob up and down like a small fishing boat on a rough sea. We were staying at a bedouin camp- although camp isn't really the right word for the establishment, it was more of a tent palace. Katie, Thea and I were the first people to claim a tent- only to realize that in our eagerness to settle in we had been given the tent right next to the bathrooms. It ended up not being an issue, as we slept outside under the stars instead (!!!).
The activity of the day involved riding camels out through the desert, then switching modes of transportation with the other group of CIEE students and sitting in the back of a pickup on the return trip. The camels... were pretty cool. I do wish we had had more autonomy whilst riding- the camels were all tied together in "families" so we were pretty much just extra weight for them to pack around. My camel, who mysteriously did not have a name (I tried asking one of the bedouins, but he told us very proudly that his camels responded to names but the string of camels I was in didn't), was rather mean and tried to bite the smaller camel next to us frequently throughout the ride; I was helpless to try and stop it as I had no way of controlling my camel. That also became problematic further into the ride, when my camel became hungry and started attempting to walk through bushes in order to snatch a snack on the go. Some chaotic moments ensued, because walking through bushes is actually not that easy. Who knew?
After our trek through the desert was complete, we were deposited at a rocky crag at which we climbed to watch the sunset- which was pretty spectacular, if a bit noisy given that there were dozens of us there. We walked a short ways back to the camp through the desert, and upon arrival someone informed me that dinner was still an hour and a half away. I was pretty devastated, given that this pushed dinner back to 8:30, putting a solid 8 hours between food times. We made due with sitting in the amazing cushioned 'room' that dinner would be served in and drinking the most amazing tea I have had in my life. Seriously, I don't think I will ever find a tea that compares to this stuff. It was that good.
To distract us from our miserable empty stomachs there was live music and dancing, which I did not partake in seeing as my hunger was currently eating itself and I needed to continue downing tea in order to refrain from eating an innocent passer-by. And then finally, alhamdulillah, food was served and I got to stuff my face with wonderful food and this amazing bread that they made right in front of us. Seriously, I ate so much of that bread that they probably thought I had some weird bread obsession. After dinner was, of course, more dancing and music, but my friends had some other plans for the night.
We had until 11 to wander outside the camp, so a group of us set off into the darkness for some stargazing. We ended up climbing another rocky crag adjacent to the one we had watched the sunset on and sat at the top looking at the stars. I've seen a lot of starry night skies in my life- it comes with the territory, having astronomers as parents- but I think this one might just have been the most breathtaking. It was a bit of a bittersweet stargazing for me- something about being a speck sitting in an expansive desert looking up at an infinite universe brought out a lot of sad memories of Rush and Willie, and I felt their absence very profoundly in that moment.
Settling in for the night back at the camp included more tea (of course) and dragging our mattresses out into the open to sleep out under the stars. About half of the other students had the same idea, and we all slept out in the night chill together, neatly tucked in by blankets to keep the mosquitoes away. I didn't sleep soundly- I never do, when camping, although this wasn't really camping, but something about being so close to nature and having a starry night over me while I sleep makes me wake up throughout the night in order to appreciate it all the much more. Regardless, I was well rested in the morning- very necessary, seeing as we were going to explore Petra.
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