A long week of class last week was made brighter by booking rooms at the Holiday Inn Dead Sea Resort and Spa for the weekend, and 15 minutes after class on Thursday Brianna, Cassidy, Mike, Claire, Akrum and I were on our way! Nothing ever goes perfectly in Jordan though, and after our bus ride from Irbid to Amman, getting a taxi to the Dead Sea proved more difficult than expected. Cab drivers swarmed us at the bus stop, which is completely normal. They push each other out of the way, shout prices, pull you towards their car, but this time was the worst we’ve seen yet. Because Akrum speaks fluent Arabic, and is Jordanian, they pounced on him and bargained more than usual. This is good for us, because we don’t get ripped off as much, but the number of people and chaos surrounding him was hysterical. All other customers were ignored, prices dropped from 30 to 8 and back to 20. They were killing each other’s business. Meanwhile Akrum is standing there weighted down with a backpack and giant pink plastic bag, wearily yelling back as they close in on him. I wish I could explain the noise and the way they fought each other to get to him. What should have taken two minutes was taking over 10, then the shouting got so loud the police walked over and joined in. Finally, we were in two cabs for JD15 each. At least until they pulled over the second we were away from the station and demanded 17. That’s how it works here. It’s extremely annoying, but when you’re in the middle of the road there’s nothing you can do, (actually, they demanded 25, but Akrum got it back down to 17).
The hassle was worth it when we saw our resort. Giant! Pools and beaches and swim up bars and buffets! (Unfortunately, the drivers saw the hotel too and decided we were rich, and forced 2 more JD out of us). Anyway, we jumped in the pool and spent the rest of the night enjoying happy hour, a feast, watching the World Cup outside and a beautiful summer night.
Friday was spent the same way, mostly at the pool. We ventured through the sand, (which felt like fire on our feet), to coat ourselves in mud and float in the Dead Sea. It was such a weird sensation! Being in a giant body of water and not doing any work at all, not to mention not worrying about sharks or any other sea life, doesn't quite feel right. But it was a lot of fun, and our skin felt extremely smooth after rinsing off the mud. The salt starting stinging our skin after awhile though, so it was a short swim.
We met a man from South Africa who is working in Jordan as a consultant, (the sea is dropping 10 cm each year, and they're trying to stop it...I think..), and he took us to lunch at a restaurant much cheaper than the hotel. He told us about South Africa, his experiences traveling in other parts of the world, preparation for the World Cup, etc. It's nice to meet other foreigners, even if they're not from the US. Usually they love and hate the same things about Jordan. We decided to go to the dinner and music show later that night, which was hilarious. They had a traditional band, which was especially exciting when they broke out in, "Wayn al Ramala," (Where is Ramal), a song we learned at our culture club. We actually knew an Arabic song!! It was embarrassing though, when the leader of the program jokingly yelled into the microphone, "Will someone come up here and teach the Americans how to dance?" He said it in Arabic obviously, so we didn't realize until a woman came up and showed us some traditional moves. Definitely different than our dancing :) They had contests too, and Mike, Akrum, Claire and I got pulled out of the audience for one. It was basically musical chairs but with a newspaper. Each pair dances around their newspaper until the music stops, then they both have to jump on, and each round it gets folded in half. Out of all the people that were called up, it came down to the four of us. Claire and I had to jump on Mike and Akrum's backs, which Cassidy and Brianna found highly entertaining, and in the end Claire and Akrum won...because Mike apparently has no balance. The main event of the evening was the belly dancer and the couple that danced. The belly dancer was good, but the couple was doing ballet, and they were not very graceful. More awkward.
We were sad to leave on Saturday, and spent as many last minutes as we could at the pool. We did manage to get the breakfast buffet for free after bugs invaded our room. Yes, it is a desert, but it is not ok to wake up with ants on your pillow and a lizard in your shower. The trip wouldn't have been complete without another, almost worse, taxi fiasco on the ride home. This one included the car breaking down in between Amman and Irbid.
Overall, an amazing weekend. One of the best yet! Which only made it harder to go back to classes, (they're getting much more difficult), and Irbid, (it's getting much more boring).
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