the end of it all

Well, faithful readers, I must admit that I have not been much of a faithful poster, though I feel secure that my reasons are good enough to excuse this slip-up. The end of the season is always a bit of madness, finishing excavations, working with students on their notebooks, shutting down the houses, etc.

I just came back from a much-needed mini-vacation in Aqaba, on the Red Sea, where Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt all meet. It was absolutely fantastic.

I head home in three days and, once I am home and over feeling both elated to be home with family and friends, yet very sad to have left Jordan, I will post pictures and tales.

keeping up with the fshekats...er, joneses

Another ten days, another ten crazy tales...well, I'm not exactly sure how many crazy tales there are, but there certainly are a few.

The craziest part is certainly how quickly time is flying by. Our mid-season break came and went over a week ago, I am closing up the two squares that I worked in both this season and last, and am getting ready for final top plans and balk drawings (already almost finished), and taking final photos. Whew! Where has the time gone?

The mid-season break was a tremendous success...even more fun than last year, and those of you who were here last year know that is a real feat.

On Friday, June 29, we left for Petra (now on the list of "Seven Wonders of the Modern World", most deservedly), via detours to Karak (a wonderful Crusader castle with the most impressive example of a glacis I have ever seen - break out Wikipedia for that one, it's well worth it), and Shobak castle, which is probably my favourite castle that I have ever been to, mainly because of it's "uninstitutionalized" preservation. Let's put it this way: you would never visit a Heritage site in Canada where it was still accessible to crawl down poorly preserved steps inside the castle, in the pitch black, without safety rails, to pop out down the mountain, about 400 steps down. Needless to say, I packed a lamp in my bag and we played an MP3 version of the "Indiana Jones" score as we descended...super tacky or super cool...? Definitely the latter.

We stayed that night in a hotel in Wadi Musa, a town just five minutes from the gates of Petra. That night, we prepared for our day in the former Nabatean capital by going to "The Cave Bar", a converted 2,000 year-old Nabatean tomb, for some drinks, argileh, and dancing with the locals. Back to the hotel, a swim, a great shower, and early to bed in preparation for...

...Petra! This was my second time there and, truly, I think I could visit one hundred times more and still be impressed and find new things to discover. A little background: Petra, the "Rose Red City" is the Nabatean capital of a people who ruled over the Trans-Jordan region over 2,000 years ago, controlling trade in the region and developing engineering feats such as dams, extensive drainage and supply, and wonderful architecture built directly into the sandstone cliffs surrounding their capital. By 106AD, they had become annexed by the Romans. All the writings we have about the Nabateans, to date, is from the Roman period and is written by the Romans.

We ran in as early as possible, quickly passing the 1km to the beginning of the Siq ("sook"), and then another 900m to the Treasury, of Indiana Jones III fame. After sitting there and resting for a while, listening to the ornery camels, and watching the other early-bird tourists come trickling out of the narrow mouth of the Siq, we headed up to the Monastery, pausing to grab some donkeys to take us the 900+ stairs to the top (cheeky, I know, but I climbed it myself last year and, to be honest, I preferred walking, both because of the guilt, and the extreme terror as the donkeys all seem to prefer clinging to the shoddy stairs with their miniature hooves than walking in the centre of the path).

After lunch, we climbed high above and behind the Royal Tombs, along sandstone stairs worn to veritable chutes, and eventually following cairns to the edge of a cliff high above the Treasury. This place is definitely one of my happy places. No one else around, the tourists far below and forgotten, and a real sense of the enormity of the city and the topography. The sand was blazing hot, and we carefully made out way back down and out of the city, after some more pictures at the Treasury. The night was spent at the Movenpick hotel, listening to live music, smoking argileh, and watching fireworks from the roof.

The next day, we headed to Wadi Rum, where we picked up some Jeeps and a Bedouin guide and headed out into the desert for a rough and tumble tour of the region and the dunes. The highlight? Our guide let me drive! Pretty fantastic. I think he could see me sitting antsily in the front seat. Obviously, I jumped at the opportunity to shoot along small dunes and soft sand tracks with the others in the back. Too much fun.

After Wadi Rum, we headed to Aqaba for a few hours of shopping (my bartering skills are getting really good, I have to admit) before heading back to the bus and the long ride home.

Speaking of long ride home, it became us being lost in the desert near the Wadi Arbah - read: in the middle of nowhere. As it was Canada Day, we spend the next 3 hours roaming around the desert by the highway, looking at dead goats, rolling around in abandoned tyres, and singing songs (including 'Oh Canada' of course) as the sun went down in a beautiful sunset. When dark came, the military showed up in a pick-up truck with a huge automatic gun of some type mounted on the back with sandbags. Evidently, they had heard a bunch of giant white people were by the edge of the highway in the middle of nowhere, obviously dehydrated and delirious as they were dancing and singing all over the place and not looking the least bit put out, and so they showed up to protect us, though from what we don't know.

Unbeknownst to everyone by myself and one other person, our workmen were back in Madaba, suits on and food and tea at the ready, to surprise us with a Canada Day party. We had to call and disappoint them, but they understood. We arrived home eventually, very weary and ready for bed, but glad of the adventures.

The next day we even managed to have the surprise Canada Day party. We all had a great time, eating and dancing. Definitely one of the best Canada Day's ever.

And now, work continues. I have started teaching the students object drawing, which is a lot of fun, though I am a bit rusty. I am honestly never so busy as I am when in the field, whether it is working, catching up on paper work, meeting with students, hand washing laundry, running to the Internet, finding postcards, going to great mensef meals. Don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not complaining. Simply put, I love it.