Al-Bahr Al-Mayyit
On Thursday, we had midterms, which were pretty easy. Our class watched Arabic music videos afterwards, such as this Evolution of Arab music which I thought was really cool! I'm trying to keep a list of Arabic songs I hear here, because music is a great way to learn a language.
On Friday, we went to the Dead Sea. We were supposed to go to Petra and Wadi Rum this weekend, but protestors were burning vehicles on the Desert Highway, so in sha-allah we will go another time.
The Dead Sea was amazing! If I lived in Jordan I'd try to go every weekend. I'd seen Dead Sea skincare products and I thought it was just a marketing scam, but after spending the day in mud and salt, my skin feels so good! We could've spent 70 or more JD on a special Dead Sea massage, and I seriously considered it but ultimately didn't go for it. Playing in the sea was much more fun anyways. This mud wasn't gross like the mud you find in a rain puddle; it was thick, like clay, and didn't smell. We smeared this mud all over our bodies and on our face and after letting it sit, we ran to the sea to scrub it off. Each of us got salt in our eyes at some point, and that was miserable. There were staff members sitting under a tent with bottles of fresh water, ready to pour it over any afflicted eyes.
I loved the Dead Sea because it was impossible not to stay afloat. I was out where I couldn't touch the bottom but it didn't matter-we could stand upright and float that way, bobbing up and down with the waves. I want to go back!
From the sea I could see the shores of Palestine, and when I looked out the window on our way to and from the resort, I saw lots of camels, sheep, and donkeys, as well as signs for tourist things I want to see, not if but when I come back to Jordan. In that area, there's one of two supposed sights of Jesus's baptism and also Mount Nebo, where Moses was shown the Promised Land and where the ruins of a Byzantine church have been restored.
When we got back from the sea, my host brother called my sunburnt roommate "bandura" (tomato) and he called me "shamam" (melon) because I'm still white.
Midterms are over, which means this program is half over. I'm hoping that within these next few weeks I can learn how to communicate better in Arabic. I know six weeks isn't enough time to learn a language, but it's frustrating feeling trapped behind the language barrier where I sound like a two year old in the host language and where I might as well talk in English because that would be easier understood. Still, I know more Arabic than I did three weeks ago, and I'll be able to test out of at least one semester of Arabic when I go to college.