Jordan Day 3 10-29-09

Hello there! I am going to do four days of Jordan in a row, and then move on with my blog.

Doesn't that sound amazing? I am thrilled for it. So here goes!

On the third day of Jordan we woke up and we boarded the bus and got ready to go to Jerash!

Jerash is an ancient Roman city that is remarkably intact. They had some really, really cool ruins. But first of all, let me tell you a little story of a bus that broke down 20 minutes outside of Jerash. Ours! So....we all loaded on a bus together, which was fun. I won't post any pictures...but yeah, if you want I can deliver them by special request. :)

So, we got to Jerash just fine, and we first walked up and went into the main plaza of the old city. It was really coo. All the stones were original, and the plaza reminded me of the one in Hercules where he knocks the whole thing down. It was cool! And it had Ionic columns, which I think may have been my first Ionic columns in person! But that could be wrong. I got all excited about it though, cause usually all the columns that are surviving are Corinthian, because they were "the latest fashion," I believe. Anyway, pictures!

This is the gate into Jerash. Of course they are always rennovating, but it's original! Awesome!

Some columns that they haven't refurbished yet that lead into the main plaza.

And the gate into the plaza.....wait for it....This is me and Amanda in the Arch. It's huge!

Me in the plaza! Columnade plaza. Sweeeet!

Ionic Columns! They're the ones with the swirlies. :)

There is the stone plaza floor. I walked where Romans walked!

Jerash has two amphitheaters. Remember how in Petra they were wealthy and so they had an amphitheater? Well Jerash had two! They're really cool, too. They were steep with perfect accoustics. There was a center spot that if the actor stood, it was just like having a microphone on. It was awesome! I went to center stage and sang a song...but only after everyone had left :) I was a little too shy to do it in front of everyone. But, here are some pictures:

The amphiteaer :)

There was a group of guys playing the bagpipes for us, it was cool :) And it reminded me on Navuoo!

Sumir standing in the sweet spot :)


Okay, so after the first amphiteater, which actually wasn't the one I sang in, we'll have to wait for that one, we walked down around to one of the churches that is still there, in Jerash. Apparently there are 15 surviving Byzantine era churches, I believe. They were all really cool. There was one really beautiful one with a gorgeous mosaic floor that was pretty much still intact. Nobody could go in it, we just looked at it from above.
This is the Mosaic. The lighter part is the mosaic, and it's still really there. It was really beautiful.

Okay, next we went up to the other theater. It took us a while to get through all these places, even though it may not seem like it.

On the way to the second theater we went to the largest church in Jerash. It had these huge columns that withstood the earthquake that brought the demise of the city. They were huge! They were still standing, too, and have been since they were placed there. Crazy! It was also cool because Jerash was under feet of dirt and had to be excavated, and there were columns with earth still around them around the courtyard of the church, so you could see how deep they were in the earth when Jerash was discovered.

These are the columns that have been standing since they were placed there. They have mused about how they withstood the earthquake when so many other columns fell down. Some think it's because they maybe didn't have a lintel, or a roof or anything on top of them. Interesting.

This is the whole church. You can see the big columns in the background.

Another view of the courtyard, and zoomed in you get...

These! These are the columns that are still covered. You can see how deep the earth was on them, if you compare them to the other courtyard columns. Also you can see how big the courtyard was!

So the other theater someone else sang for us. The first one Anna and Lizzie sang at the sweet spot, and the next theater Jon had gone down to check it out, and Sumir asked him to sing. Pretty funny. He did a good job though. And this was where I ran down after everyone left really quick and had a little bout of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". I didn't sing all of it, but a little bit. It was fun.
The second theater :)

After that we walked back down the main cardo of the city, or the mainstreet/marketplace. It was by far my favorite. The stones were all there from when it was built, but the earth had sunk in, in places, and it was all uneven. It was so wonderful! We had to watch our step though. I kept having nightmarish thoughts come to mind of twisting an ankle or breaking a leg. Ouch! And also, not very condusive to touring the Near East :)

The steps of a little...okay, well, not little, but an ancient building where they'd sell things, I believe... I could be wrong though.

But it's pretty cool, right? It's at the end of the Cardo :)

THIS is the cardo. It has columns all the way down. The plaza is at the end. And you can kind of tell the uneven surfaces with this, but not as well as in person. It was really cool.

Me and the Cardo! And I'm standing really awkwardly...oops. Oh and if you haven't noticed, I only brought white shirts to Jordan...so I'm always wearing a white shirt. I've learned that white is GREAT in the hot hot middle east.

Okay so after this we had a sweet opportunity to see a show at Jerash, where they display Roman techniques for warfare. There was a cool display on an infantry batallion. Very cool. They showed us sword fighting, and different formations for different situations. And how there were lines of 9 men, and each soldier was expected to fight for 8 minutes, and then he would fall back and eat and sleep and do whatever he needed, while the others took their turn. That way the civilizations that the Romans were fighting would experience fighting with a fresh army every 8 minutes. Pretty cool. Anyway, here are some pictures of the infantry!
Here are some pictures. I'm not going to explain them, cause they're pretty self-explanatory. Those that aren't I will add my thoughts to :).

Okay, so next there was some "Gladiator" presentations. It was pretty cool. These guys were all pretty much bafoon-ey. They demonstrated what it would've been like pretty well, except they were very choreographed and, of course, not very graceful or expert. It was cool to see, though. A very awesome demonstration.
This guy on the left was pretty funny. He was buff, and kept flexing his pecs. Silly. They did a good job fighting though. We got to vote on the life or death of the losers. We had thumbs up for live, and thumbs to the side for die. There was no thumbs down used back then.

Then came my favorite part! The Chariot rides! It was so fun! They had a race, and went around the stadium, and then everyone got to go down and take pictures with everyone. It was neat. And, I didn't think they'd give us rides, but they did! We got to go on a ride. It was so, so much fun!
Just some poser pictures with the warriors /charioteers :)

And then we were done at Jerash! We went to this beautiful restaurant for lunch, and had a great lunch...here, I even think I took a picture.
This is me and Anna at lunch.

And our restaurant...

Then after lunch we went and had a really nice meeting at the Amman Branch building. It was so wonderful. Just to be in a building that has been dedicated as a church building. And to see pictures of Christ on the walls and just be there. It had a good feeling. I liked it a lot. And the meeting was really good. It was the branch president telling us about his story and the road that brough him to Jordan, speaking Arabic. It was really, really inspiring. I have half a mind to take Arabic classes when I get home. We'll see though.

Good feelings, right ? :)

Anyway, after that we just went back to the hotel, had an early dinner, and went out in the city. Everyone went out to the mall again and bought some more movies, and then a bunch of us watched the Office. It was very relaxing!

So, that is my second to last day on the Jordan Trip! Hopefully I'll be able to get day 4 done before too many days stack up here that I need to blog about!

Love you all!