Spring Break!

Another year, another break. With just 5 weeks left of Kelsey before I graduate (!), I'm trying to make the most of every moment. My break this year was quite different than last year - no near-death experiences, no painful 5 hour treks through the desert on camels, no laying out by the Dead Sea, watching the sun set. Probably the biggest difference was that my mother wasn't here, but I was determined to have a wonderful break nonetheless.

We had our big Easter service on Saturday night (the usual church service), after which I went home with my second family, the Schupp's, for dinner and to stay over. We would be getting up at 5:30 am to go to the semi-sunrise service, held at the Baptism site at the Jordan River. The service itself was really good. It was quieter, and the weather was beautiful, and we got to hear testimonies and see 9 people get baptized. Afterwards, we sat down as a group for a big brunch - enjoyed hanging out, good food, and some fun music. I went back to the Schupp's to watch Duke's final four game. We ate even more food, played some intense Dutch Blitz, and I learned how to play backgammon. More friends came over later in the evening, we watched the Princess Bride, then went home.

On Monday night, I went back to the Schupp's - I decided that it was totally worth getting up at 4 am to watch Duke play for the NCAA Championship. It was such a good game! We had Swedish pancakes afterwards. I had a dress rehearsal that night for the concerts, which ended up lasting a good 4 hours. We were really excited about the space - it was in a museum that had just finished being built, and the way the sound bounced around was really cool.

On Wednesday, we started our concert series. We had successfully sold out both Wednesday and Thursday, so the place was packed. Both nights went really well, and it was awesome to see how much everyone loved the music. Our hard work paid off!

After the concert on Thursday, I went to Ruth's for the night - we would be leaving at 5 to get on a bus to the Dead Sea. There, we would be running the 10k. Friends of ours would be joining us for the 10k, as well as some doing the half marathon, and some of the youth doing their first marathons. I was really excited for it. So we got up at 4:45, started hydrating, got picked up at 5, and went to wait to get on the buses. It was ridiculous - no organization at all. There were thousands of people crammed in this small area, and no one really knew what was going on. And it was cold. We had left all our stuff in the car because we didn't want to run with stuff, which meant we had no jackets. We huddled together for warmth until close to 7:30, when we finally got on a bus. There were loads of people though who didn't make it down until after the races had started. Our bus got lost, drove the wrong way up off-ramps, passed our friends running the marathon, but finally got us to the starting line about 10 minutes before it started. The porta-potties were really far away, so we had to find bushes, then barely had any time to stretch before pushing our way to the front so we wouldn't get caught behind thousands of walkers. At this point, I was pretty nervous. I've never done 6 miles before, and I wasn't so sure I'd make it in one piece. But the gun went off, and off we went. I went as far as I could before switching to 3 minutes running, 1 minute walking, then stuck with that until the 6k marker, when my legs started cramping up. I had to take a couple extra minutes of walk time, then got back into my swing, running the last 1/2k to the finish line with a friend. I beat my goal of 1:30, finishing in 1:12. In my Vibrams. Awesome! We stayed for a while, watching friends cross the finish line, celebrating with them when the youth finished the marathon. We drove back, stopping at McDonald's for burgers and fries (we needed salt...), then I rushed home, having only 45 minutes until I had to be at the museum for the kids' concert. I was tired, sore, and a bit sun-burnt, but I got there in one piece. The concert went really well, the kids all seemed to love it.

Classes started up again that Saturday. It was a little rough. My legs were really sore. On Sunday night, we chaperoned a swing dance party for the youth. We got to wear fun dresses (I wore my yellow one from the Valentine's banquet!) and really enjoyed seeing all these kids dancing. We got to dance some as well, I got thrown and flipped, and it was awesome. I love swing dancing.

This week was interesting. I got to spend time with friends, and school seemed much easier. I got to teach our teacher how to make apple pie from scratch, went to a rehearsal for a wedding that some of the choir is singing in, and had a wonderful, home-cooked meal with some other people from Kelsey. My first roommate, Christina, moved back to the States this week. We had a dinner for her, and I got to spend some time with her on Thursday. She's excited about it though. It reminded me that my time here is running out.

I was originally going to be in Lebanon this weekend, but things got moved around, so I'm not sure when I'll actually be going. Hopefully soon. In other news, my cousin Liv and her husband Rich had their baby girl, Summer, this past week - congrats!!!

Coming up: hopefully, a quiet week. Choir starts back up, we'll be preparing for our next concert at the end of May. My younger sister turns 18 in a week. BIG wadi trip in 2 weeks, it's a 3 day hike. I'm excited!

Crossing the finish line for the 10K

At the kids' concert

with Maya, another alto

Pictures from the Wadis

Under one of the waterfalls in Wadi Manshala (Jeff, me, Julia, Ruth, and Janelle)

The view out to the Dead Sea

The oleanders smelled beautiful!

Hiking straight up a pretty steep mountain side

Playing around on rock faces

Ruth and I, before the rain set in

A brief moment of clear at the campsite

The clouds roll in

Wadi Dana, pre-storm

Janelle, Ruth, and I at Dana

*Please note: most of these pictures and a whole lot more are on my facebook, because there are sooo many, it's too difficult to post all the good ones here. If you're not on facebook and still want to see them, let me know, and I'll email you a link.

Cloud 9

What a crazy month! March has flown by, filled with school, choir, visiting friends... First of all, my Dozan concert was more like a guest performance. We sang traditional Arab pieces for about 5/6 minutes, then sat and enjoyed listening to an hour's worth more of traditional music. It was really cool.

We started having sight reading classes on Fridays, thanks to the generosity of one of the guys from Dozan. We've been learning about the circle of 5ths, how to figure out what the key signature means, all sorts of cool stuff! We also had auditions for places on the Germany trip in May, but unfortunately, I didn't make it. So no Germany for me. However, it does mean that I get an extra 10 days in Jordan. Our Easter concerts are next week, so the past couple weeks have been packed with rehearsals. We got to rehearse with the orchestra last week - they sounded awesome! I love singing with an orchestra.

Now for the news you've been waiting for - I have made my final college decision. It was a tough one. I will be attending University of North Carolina in Greensboro (UNCG) next fall. It's about an hour's drive from my parents (this made my mother very happy). As of now, I'm undeclared, but I intend to study International Relations, Middle Eastern Studies, and Arabic. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I get to work on housing options and meal plans, which is fairly interesting. While I'm sad to be leaving Jordan, getting all of this college stuff ready is making me pretty excited for the next chapter in my life.

Last weekend, a whole bunch of us from church went to Wadi Dana for the weekend. I was looking forward to this trip for weeks - after a stressful month of school and choir and college stuff, I really needed to get out of the city. If you remember, Julia, Bethany, and I went to Wadi Dana at the end of Ramadan. It's also where the really cool photo at the top of my blog is from. We would be staying 3 days, 2 nights, and were planning on doing some really cool day hikes while we were down there. Janelle and I rented a car for 4 days, stuffed it full of food and stuff, and drove down with a few other people early Friday morning. It was a little cooler down there, but when we arrived, it was beautiful and green. We took our stuff down to the tents and got ready for a short afternoon hike near the camp. We got a little over half way to the top of the mountain when we turned around to see huge storm clouds rolling in over the top of the mountain, moving swiftly towards the camp site. We were protected by the side of the mountain at that point, and it wasn't raining yet, so we decided to keep going. After maybe 10 minutes, it started raining. We sat under a overhanging rock for a while to wait it out, and after another 10 minutes or so, it stopped raining. In true Patterson style, we kept going. Well, we got to the top of the mountain, and lo and behold, it started raining again. We were inside the cloud at this point, could barely see 10 feet in front of us. And it wasn't like little drops of rain or anything, it started pouring. We scrambled to find shelter under bushes and rocks, which were few at the top. We finally found some drier places, and waited out the rain. It stopped less than an hour later, and we set off to finish our hike, soaked. We came across a bunch of youth towards the end playing around on some slick rock faces and decided that it looked like too much fun. We joined them, testing out our cool shoes. (I was wearing my Vibrams the whole time...) It started raining again, so we ran back to camp, put on dry shoes and socks, and huddled around the campfire to warm up. There we roasted marshmallows, and later grilled vegetables and rosemary thyme chicken for dinner. Janelle prepared the chicken - it was delicious! There were brief periods of time without rain, but even then, there was still incredibly thick fog. We were dry for the most part overnight, but when we got up the next morning, it was raining. It continued to rain for the rest of the morning. Ruth, Janelle, and I went on another short walk near the campsite after breakfast, started out dryish, but then it began to pour again, so we were soaked by the time we got back. We decided that it was not worth the money we'd have to pay to stay another night in the cold and rain, so after lunch, we packed up and headed back to the city. There was crazy fog on the drive back - I was driving, and I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. Of course, being Jordan, the roads aren't well painted, so I couldn't really tell where my lane ended. There were a few incidents with trucks driving in my lane, but they moved in time, and we got through it safely. I have never seen fog like that in this country. It was ridiculous. When we got back, we locked ourselves in the house, made Thai food for dinner, curled up and watched the 6 hour Pride and Prejudice (thank you, BBC) with cups of tea and chocolate chip cookies. The perfect way to end the evening.

Since we didn't get to do any of our fun day hikes at Dana, we decided to do a big day hike on Sunday. Janelle is the super-duper wadi person. She has done this wadi (Wadi Manshala, near the Dead Sea) like 8 times by now, and it's usually a two day hike, but we decided just to do 7/8 hours of it. So Ruth, Janelle, Julia, Jeff, and myself piled in the car early Sunday morning, drove down, and hiked out. This was supposed to be a moderate/difficult hike, so I was a little apprehensive about it, but I decided to wear my Vibrams anyways to see how they'd do. And yes, I will shamelessly plug Vibram FiveFingers for pretty much the rest of my life. I absolutely love them. Anyways, we hiked past waterfalls, climbed over crazy rocks, scrambled up steep sides of the mountain. We had lunch on the edge of cliff, looking over the Dead Sea, seeing clear across to the other side. We got to this clear pool of water, which I bouldered around, hiked further up and further in to see palm ravines, beautiful oleander bushes, and more green than I thought possible in this country. It was absolutely beautiful. The hike itself was challenging, but so rewarding. I had too much fun with my Vibrams, climbing all over things that I probably should not have tried, but hey, it was an adventure. We got back to the car around 6, after watching the sun set over the Dead Sea (beautiful!) and drove back to the city, tired but rewarded.

I sadly returned the rental car on Monday. I love driving. It can be pretty scary in this country, but I love it nonetheless. That weekend was just what I needed - it was a chance to recharge, to take a step back and remember why I'm here. This week itself was much less stressful. I actually understood what was going on in all of my classes. I have this crazy grammar class that exists solely to frustrate me, but I got the better of it this week, which was so encouraging. I had also pretty much decided about colleges, but was waiting to hear back from USC until I confirmed anything. I got that out of the way on Wednesday, enjoyed some great times with friends on Thursday, which was also the beginning of my Spring break. I am so excited to have this next week off. I was originally planning on traveling, but my concerts take up almost the entire break. So I will be staying in the city for the most part.

Coming up: Sunrise Easter service tomorrow at the Jordan River, Duke's Final Four game, Easter concerts, and the week after, I'm planning on going to Lebanon for a long weekend. Oh, and I'll be running a 10k at the Dead Sea (in my Vibrams, of course!) this Friday. That'll be interesting...