Musica Sacra International Festival

7 days in Germany, 3 days in Belgium. Our time was packed, with 9 concerts in 8 different towns.

Thursday/Friday

I arrived at the airport around midnight, after a delicious congrats dinner with friends. Everyone looked kind of tired, yet excited to start the trip. We were given goody bags made by other choir members that couldn't come, filled with sugary treats and sweet notes. We counted off, then went to check in. We had time before our plane would board, so while some went duty-free shopping or napped on benches, others played Apples to Apples, drawing strange looks from people around us as we laughed. We finally boarded the plane around 2:30. It was a 4 hour flight to Frankfurt, after which we would take a shorter flight to Munich. Most of us didn't get much sleep. We had time to kill at Frankfurt, and were in high spirits once we found a free coffee machine in our departure lounge. After our flight to Munich, we had a bus ride to Marktoberdorf, where we would be staying for the festival. When we arrived, we had a short rehearsal and sound check, met out host families, and were instructed to be back on time for the opening concert that evening. Rula and I were staying with Hermann and Helga, a retired couple who had been hosting participants of the festival for over 25 years. They were really nice, and so excited to have guests from Jordan. We were given a tour of the house, then settled into our room and got ready for the concert. Going on 36 hours without sleep, some of us were struggling to stay awake during the concert. All of the groups were performing that evening - we were each given 5-7 minutes. After the concert, we went back to our houses and passed out.

Saturday

After a good night's rest, we woke up to birds and lots of green and the Alps on the horizon. Hermann and Helga made quite the breakfast - eggs, fresh bread from the bakery, bacon, sausage, smoked ham, an assortment of cheeses and fruit... It was delicious! We went back to the music academy for rehearsal, lunch, then went on walks around the area, and had naps on the grass. We packed up the bus and headed off for Isny, where we would have a 25 minute concert in the St. Maria Catholic Church. This church was probably my favorite church of them all - it was simply decorated, beautiful, and I loved the way the music echoed. We had our sound check, then had dinner at a local restaurant. We had our concert, and it was so touching to see how moved people were by the music as we performed. After the concert we drove back to Marktoberdorf.

Sunday

One of the other alto's host mom was singing at Mass that morning, so a few of us decided to go. The church next to the music academy was big and the decoration ornate. The mass was all in German, so I had no clue what was going on. The choir was singing Laudate Dominum (I sang this with the YWCA choir last semester), and the Hallelujah Chorus and a few other pieces I didn't recognize. Trying to sing the hymns in German was pretty interesting... Afterwards, we had a short rehearsal, then piled on the bus to go to Lechbruck for a sponsor's concert. We would be singing in an empty swimming pool. We had our sound check, then went outside to play in the fields while we waited for dinner to arrive. We were right next to a lake, and close to the Alps. It was stunning. We went down to the lake and ran through the fields and basically enjoyed the sunshine and green. We were given sandwiches for dinner, then a bunch of us decided to walk into the nearby town. We stopped at a small cafe for dessert, then walked back to get ready for our concert. We had a 40' program that night. I was part of a quartet for one of the pieces, called Atini Nay, which is beautiful. Rula played the qanuun (it's like a really big auto-harp in a way) for a few of the pieces. Singing in the pool was really interesting - we were singing from the shallow end, and there were chairs set up for the sponsors in the deep end. We had a quiet drive back, there was a long day ahead of us.

Monday

We had an early rehearsal and sound check, and would be performing as part of the church service that morning. (This performance made the local paper!) It was a shorter concert, only 15 minutes, but the people really seemed to enjoy it. A bunch of us then went into town for a fantastic lunch of various white asparagus dishes, bratwurst, schnitzel, and pork shoulder. Afterwards we had another rehearsal, some free time to nap on the grass, and then we got on the bus for another concert that evening in Altenstadt. The church we sang in was hundreds of years old, and had a quiet beauty in its simplicity. We had dinner nearby, then had time to hang out a bit before we sang, a 25' concert that night. The music brought people to tears. We get so used to singing these pieces that we forget what an impact they can have on people who have never heard this kind of thing before. We went home exhausted, with just one more concert in that area.

Tuesday

We had a rehearsal that morning, followed by a sound check in the next town over for our closing concert. We came back for lunch, then split up to enjoy the couple hours we had before we had to leave for the concert. Some of us found quite shady bits of grass to sleep under, others went to find wireless internet, others went into town for snacks. We hung out chatted, enjoyed the sunshine, and finally got on the bus to go to the concert. We weren't going to be on until around 9/9:30ish, so we could watch a lot of the other performers. I had a really bad allergic reaction to something, unfortunately, and spent a large chunk of time trying to get antihistamines and keep the skin cool. It calmed down by the time we went on, thankfully. We did a 10 minute compilation of several pieces, thanked all the volunteers and organizers, then headed back to the music academy for a large dinner and after-party. We chatted with other performers, ate, and danced around as people played well-known tunes on the piano. I packed it in at 2:15, relatively early for my choir, and was looking forward to our day off.

Wednesday

Half the choir left early to spend the day in Munich, while the other half decided to enjoy our surroundings. We got together around 11, drove towards the Alps, rented bicycles for the day, packed a picnic lunch, and headed towards the lake near Hohenschwanstein. We settled down at a quiet spot on the edge of the lake, had sandwiches with delicious cheese and meats, croissants, sausage, wine, chocolate, and various other foods. Afterwards, we biked back to return the bikes in sudden downpour, some went to see the castle (Cinderella's castle in Disney is based off of it), while myself and another took a long walk around the lake. I loved being able to walk through the woods and enjoy the green and the mountains. I could live there! We met up with the rest of the group, went to see a large waterfall, then headed back to Marktoberdorf to enjoy a wonderful, homemade meal of soup and a traditional meatloaf kind of thing. Delicious.

Thursday

We bid farewell to our host families early in the morning, then piled on the bus for a 7 hour drive to Worms. We were staying in a youth hostel that night, so we got settled into our rooms, then got ready, went to the sound check, dinner, then prepared for the concert. The church name makes me laugh - it's called Dreifaltigkeitskirche. We would be performing two of our pieces with other performers, improvising. It ended up sounding really cool! One piece we did to accompany a Hindu raga, the other with a traditional Tibetan chant. It was a 25' concert, but because of the improvised pieces, we ended up performing for much longer. We packed it in early, we had another travel day ahead of us.

Friday

Myself and another were all packed and ready to go fairly early, so we took some time to walk around Worms a bit. We got to see little bits of history, from Roman walls to a synagogue and Jewish quarter, preserved from the war. We went to see the big cathedral there as well, and it had some gorgeous stained-glass windows. We got back on the bus, spending the next 6 hours driving through the countryside to Belgium, where we would spend the next few days. When we arrived in Macon, we were taken to a large B&B where we would be staying, surrounded by farms. Oh the smell of cows... We got ready, went to dinner, where we would be performing a piece or two. We were served grilled steaks and veg, probably the best meal we were provided by the festival. We were also served Chimay, which most of the choir considers to be the best beer around. We got to meet the head of the brewery as well! We performed, and after dinner, we danced with the Indonesian choir a bit, then started our own jam session, the Arabs singing traditional songs, some of the Indonesians on their drums, people learned some belly-dancing, and after a while, we packed it in. Or so it seemed. We went back to the B&B, where the majority of the choir continued the party until the morning.

Saturday

We had breakfast, an early rehearsal, followed by lunch. Afterwards, we went on a "nature walk" through a small nature preserve that was really quite bizarre. There was a large statue thing of a shopping cart, and another of a gerbil wheel... Strange. Afterwards, we went into the town of Chimay, did some shopping, had some coffee, then headed back to Macon for our sound check and concert. We did our full program that night. We then went back to the B&B, some stayed up, I turned in for an early night.

Sunday

Our last concert. We had the morning off. Another alto and I went to see if we could find a place to go horseback riding, but no luck. Instead, we walked 3km into Macon, enjoying the countryside and the light rain. One of the pastures had some crazy cows who thought we were going to feed them. They came galloping over, kicking each other as they went, then stopped short of the fence and stared at us. We shocked ourselves on the fence by accident, but being slightly crazy, we climbed over to hang out with the cows for a bit. After a while we continued our walk, laughing at the crazy cows, and made it into town in time to grab some breakfast. We hopped another fence to pet some horses and give them some apples, then had lunch, and went for our sound check. We had dinner, got ready for the concert, then drove back out to Chimay. We had our final concert, ending with a improvised piece with all of us singing. My head wasn't doing that well, so I skipped the after-party and went back to the B&B to pack and go to bed.

Monday

We got up early, brought our things down to the bus, and a few of us went on a walk near the lake while waiting for everyone else to be ready. We had breakfast, said our farewells to the other performers, then packed up the bus for the 7 hour drive to Frankfurt. We stocked up on pork and cheese products before checking in at the airport, then did a little shopping and walking around before we met up again to enjoy our last dinner together on the trip. There were a few people staying behind to travel around the area for longer, others were going back to the States for a bit. We ate and laughed, said goodbye and headed through security. We did some last minute gift shopping before getting on the plane, sad to leave the countryside, but happy to be headed back to the friends we missed. The flight was pretty empty, so several of us got rows to ourselves, making sleeping a bit easier. We went through customs, picked up our luggage, hugged each other goodbye, and went home, getting back at 3:30 in the morning.

I'm so glad that I got to go on this trip. It was packed, stressful at times, but definitely worth it. I loved being able to see how this music moved people, how much they enjoyed it and were fascinated by it. I got to know a lot of people better, spoke loads of Arabic, and was refreshed by the beauty of the countryside.

Hopefully there will soon be audio and video clips up from the performances. At the moment, there are only pictures up from a few concerts, which you can see here. The links at the top are the dates of performances, our group was called "Aswatuna".

Coming up: my vacation begins, my sister arrives from the States, a trip to Wadi Rum :]

Goodbye, Kelsey!

Today, a chapter of my life came to a close. Almost two years ago, I moved to Jordan to study Arabic at Kelsey, intending to complete the two year program. Things got a little rough, and there were times when I wasn't sure I would actually be able to finish what I started. But I made it to the end - this morning, I graduated from Kelsey, completing all four semesters.

It still hasn't quite hit me. I feel like I'll be back at school for another day of grammar, translation, and laughter about our difficulties with broken plurals and masdars. Though my time at Kelsey is over, I still have far to go with Arabic. It takes years and years of study and constant speaking for most people to get good at this language. But one thing is for sure - as much as Arabic drives me crazy, I absolutely love it. I love speaking it, I love hearing it, and I really love being able to read and write it.

So I bid a bittersweet, yet fond, farewell to Kelsey, along with 15 others that I've spent so much time with over these 2 years. I hugged my teachers, laughed with friends, ate delicious Arabic food, then walked out the door with a sense of accomplishment and a smile on my face.

Coming up: I leave tonight for a 10 day trip to Germany with the choir for the Musica Sacra International Festival!! We've spent almost every night of the last 2 weeks rehearsing and preparing, I can't wait :]

Beirut, Lebanon

Not long after my last post, I decided to spend 3 days in Beirut, Lebanon with a some good friends of mine - Becky and Ekkardt. They lived there five years, while Ekkardt was studying. So I bought my plane tickets on Wednesday, and got on a plane on Thursday morning.

Becky and I flew out together, but since she had to work, I had the afternoon to wander around on my own for a bit. I set off with a map in my bag, in case I got really turned around, and no plans for where I would go. After a while, I ended up at American University of Beirut (AUB). I had considered AUB in passing when I was looking at colleges, but never really thought about it much. I wandered around the campus for a couple hours, and it was beautiful. Hands down, it is one of my favorite campuses yet. On the Mediterranean coast, the campus is filled with trees and flowers and winding paths. It's quiet, even though it's in the city. I could've spent the rest of my weekend there. But instead, I walked down to the Corniche, kind of like a boardwalk, on the coast and enjoyed the smell of the sea. It began to look like it would rain, so I made my way back to where we were staying, sat on the balcony with a cup of tea and enjoyed the downpour while waiting for Becky to finish up with work. Afterwards, Becky and I went out for dinner (at a small Lebanese restaurant), walked by the sea, then turned in for an early night. Ekkardt's flight was delayed, so he didn't get in until after midnight.

On Friday morning, we slept in, talked to former teachers of Ekkardt's, then headed off for coffee and croissants. After breakfast, we walked downtown, passing shelled out buildings, beautiful schools with elaborate rose gardens, stopped to talk to some adorable kindergarten-aged girls in a mixture of French and Arabic, making our way towards St. George's Cathedral. We found out that it was actually St. George's day, celebrating St. George's defeat of the dragon. We stopped first at an orthodox church, where we got a tour through the church, learning about recent excavations and the different levels of previous churches underneath the current one. While most of the interior paintings had been restored, you could still see bullet holes in one of the panels, left over from the civil war. From there, we headed towards the Place des Martyrs, a former gathering place for large demonstrations. The most famous demonstration there was held on the 1 month anniversary of Hariri's murder (the former prime minister), when over a million people came out to protest the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon. There's a big statue in the middle which still stands, filled with bullet holes. We then went to look at some ruins next to a big parking lot, and afterwards saw Hariri's grave. Next to the memorial site is the Mohammed al-Amin mosque, where Hariri is buried. Becky and I were given garments to cover up, and we went in. The paintings on the ceiling were beautiful, and the chandeliers were massive, in true Arab style. This was the first time I had ever been inside a mosque. Afterwards, we stopped at St. George's Cathedral, passed by the Senate building, the Roman baths, and began to make our way back towards Hamra, where we were staying. At one point, I pulled out my camera to take a picture of what used to be the Four Seasons, now a shelled-out building. You can still see bullet holes and where grenades hit. All of a sudden, this guard crosses the street, yelling at me in Arabic about how I'm not allowed to take pictures. It turns out that we had just entered a really private residential neighborhood, home of a lot of very wealthy and influential people. There were guards posted every 100 yards. After some conversation and joking around in Arabic, we promised not to take any more pictures there, and were allowed to walk through the area. We stopped and chatted with all the guards, who would then smile and welcome us, promising to help us with anything we needed. We walked past the former Four Seasons, a stark contrast to the thriving Inter Continental right next to it, then past the memorial where Hariri had been killed. You could still see the impact of the bomb on the building next to it, which had been left as-is since Hariri's death. We passed the Yacht Club, the Hard Rock Cafe, and groups of old men huddled over games of backgammon before we stopped to enjoy the sunshine on the Corniche for a bit. After a late lunch, we walked back towards Hamra, stopping at the building that Becky and Ekkardt used to live in, now luxury apartments. We hung out for a while, then headed out for a really late dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

On Saturday, we got up a little earlier, stopped by a grocery store, then went out to the Pigeon Rocks for a picnic breakfast. We had donuts, croissants, and fresh strawberries. The view was beautiful! The rocks themselves are really cool - they're large arches that you can take a boat through, and apparently one of the only natural features of Beirut. After breakfast, we walked back to the Corniche for some Starbucks, then grabbed a serviis to Ashrafiyya, the Christian quarter. We walked through an open-air mall for some shoe shopping, played with the new iPad, then walked down to see a church we had passed. You walked in through a row a trees, surrounded by grave sites and monuments dating back hundreds of years. We then took a taxi back to Hamra, I packed my things, then got in a taxi back to the airport.

Though it was a packed weekend, I absolutely loved it. The city is so different than Amman - I could walk around and blend in. There are loads of foreigners there, so I didn't stick out like I do here. I could just walk around the city. I miss that. The Arabic was also a lot easier for me to understand, maybe because I took French for so long. I had several really good conversations with locals, completely in Arabic, and understood what was going on, which was really encouraging for me. I could definitely live there.

A lot also changed over these three days. First of all, I received a phone call right before I got on the plane Thursday morning from the choir, asking if I would go to Germany with them, and that I would have to decide by Saturday. I also found out that morning that Aisling, my older sister, was taking an internship here in Amman and would be moving out for the summer. With my original orientation dates being in the middle of June, I was upset, because I'd miss out on being here with her. So on Friday, I called up UNCG, got my orientation dates moved to August, and decided to go to Germany. This obviously changed all my summer plans. I was supposed to leave on my birthday, but am now staying here. I leave in 2 weeks for a 10 day trip to Germany for the Musica Sacra International Festival, and am now working really hard to memorize all this music in Arabic.

Coming up: another long, detailed post on the epic 3 day hiking trip through Wadi Hissa. You can also see my pictures from Beirut here

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...

A Whirlwind of Activity

The Valentine's Banquet (with Ruth)

only my new favorite dress ever. (with Janelle)

Alright. So I thought I'd start off with some fun pictures from the Valentine's banquet, which was a huge success. We served about 45 people, the kids were great, and we all enjoyed dressing up. It was 50's themed - most of the girls went more for the poodle skirt or Pink Ladies look, I simply looked like a housewife. Works for me! I found the dress last minute in a little shop near my apartment, and fell in love with it.

Earlier that week, we had our house-warming party. I invited about 25 people, expecting maybe 2/3 of them to actually come. I was wrong. All but 3 people showed up, so we had a very full house. I made lasagna (a Pioneer Woman recipe, slightly altered), which was a huge hit, and loved being able to host a party. It was great to have people over, and to show off my new apartment. The Superbowl was the next evening, and was also so much fun. A whole bunch of us were at a friend's house, with loads of junk food, watching the game projected on the wall. Janelle is a huge Colts fan, and sadly watched as the Colts lost. Now, I'm not an avid Saints fan or anything, but Reggie Bush plays for them, and I love USC players. Should one eventually end up with Dallas, however, I won't root for them. That's a little much. And while I'm on the subject of football, I got some devastating news this past week - the Eagles let Brian Westbrook go. Westbrook is one of my all-time favorite players. I absolutely love him. So when I saw this, I just about cried. All I can say is that as long as he stays away from Dallas, I will root for whatever team he plays for, should he decide to continue playing.

Ok. Outside of school, loads of homework, and a lot of choir rehearsals, I've slowed down my weeks considerably. I found that I was way too busy, and I wasn't handling it all that well. So I kept my schedule relatively free, and went on a day-by-day basis again. I spent time with some old friends, hanging out and cooking and talking, and had a lot more quiet time.

A little over a week ago, 5 of us rented a car (that was a debacle. seriously.) and skipped out of town on Saturday to go hiking. I did the wadi last November, but it was a chance to get out and spend some time with friends, as well as an opportunity to try out my vibrams. We left at 730 in the morning, drove down to the Dead Sea, and set off. It was a beautiful day. My shoes were awesome for rock climbing and bouldering. So much so that I went off climbing crazy rocks that my mother would not approve of, and it was so much fun! Last time I got wedged in this crack trying to get up this rock, this time, I did it with ease. I really love my vibrams. You should all try them out. We enjoyed lunch by the waterfall, I had some great one-on-one time with one of the other girls, and then we headed back around noonish. As we approached the end of the hike, we ran into a bunch of goats and some kids on donkeys leading them around. There were also some incredibly adorable baby goats that Janelle and I got to pet. Then the goats chased us. Or maybe the kids were telling them to, I don't know. But it was kind of funny. We drove back to the city, dropped everyone off, and I went off to meet with some other friends before church. It was a wonderful time away.

This week has been crazy in its own right, but in a good way. I got to spend a lot of time with Ruth on Tuesday, hanging out for a bit, staying for dinner and a movie. Another friend of mine celebrated her 25th birthday this week, and I loved being able to celebrate that with her and some other friends. I had 3 choir rehearsals this week - Monday, as usual, Wednesday, a sectional, and last night, in preparation for a concert next Wednesday. We had off of school on Thursday, which was really nice. I also left Thursday afternoon for the youth retreat, getting back last night. The retreat was awesome. The speaker connected really well with the kids, and was really funny, the worship team did an excellent job, and the kids really enjoyed all the activities we planned for them. There were about 80 kids there, and they loved the shirts. I was really nervous about that, but it went really well. It was so much fun seeing my pieces of art everywhere. It was raining the entire weekend, so we were constantly wet, but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. We had a castle activity - there's an ancient castle in Ajloun, where we had a challenge to find leaders, collect puzzle pieces, all while several team members were blind-folded. It was good fun. We also had a photo scavenger hunt and a talent show, in which the leaders all performed a number from the Sound of Music, to the kids' great amusement. We had a game of ultimate frisbee, lots of Dutch Blitz, and finally, packed the kids onto the buses and shipped them back to the city. I was in a van with a couple other leaders and some of the equipment, leaving right after the bus. Except we couldn't start the car. We ended up push-starting the car, which was a funny sight. I got back, unpacked, finally had dry feet for the first time in 3 days, then went off to choir rehearsal. I was exhausted, but managed to make it through. Luckily, I have today and tomorrow to recuperate before going back to school on Tuesday.

In other news, Horton, one of my favorite teachers from high school (she taught the Autistic kids and was the JV coach for lacrosse), had a baby boy this past week. Congrats!!!

Coming up: wadi pictures!!!, my first Dozan concert, and a trip to the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts for free pastries and conversations with the chefs.