"you have the patience of Job"

Dude: "How do you handle her? She just sat next to you and shouted the whole time!"
Me: "I have the patience of a saint."
Dude: "no. no. more like, you have the patience of JOB."

that happened.
i've never been told i have the patience of anything. except maybe a puppy or squirrel.


So anyway.

Here's the truth.

I am incredibly homesick.
I have definitely NOT fallen in love with Jordan- I am trying. But....

I am really tired of tip-toeing between my culture and theirs. Going to Petra was extremely eye-opening, and really... sort of heartbreaking. I thought we'd hike and eat and drink water and maybe stop at some shops-- not be harassed by people selling donkey, camel and horse rides... not be followed by children wearing no shoes, with faces covered in dirt, asking us to buy postcards. I was heartbroken to know that I got completely ripped off buying lovely jewelry. I hated being raped buying water. Petra was beautiful- but exhausting in all ways.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted from the heat- I wanted to cry because my face was burning off, even after SPF70, and wearing a head scarf to keep the sun off me. I wanted to throw up because I was so hot.
It was incredible, but was the trouble worth the end result?

I think that's the biggest question with serious "tourism". Does the end justify the means.

Our weekend was also severely disorganized. As my friend Taylor would say "Charlie Foxtrot." It seemed that one group would get one set of orders, and the other group would get another- and then no one would actually know what was happening.
Being in a foreign country where people barely speak our language, and where I can only say "no, thank you" in Arabic.... it's overwhelming to hear "where do we meet? when do we meet? do you know when we're checking out? because i heard this time...."
I don't like to feel afraid I'm going to miss the bus and be left 4 hours away from our Home hotel...
Regardless of the fact that my fear is completely unfounded, and that the directors do not leave students behind... it's entirely plausible. Crap like that happens all the time.

My lovely friend Ellen says I'm experiencing culture shock... which is probably true. This first week has just been a lot to handle.

The culture here is very different. Some people are extremely welcoming. Some people are only welcoming because you're in their shop and they want you to buy things. Some people are genuinely amazing people though... we have workmen on our site who invite us to their homes to have tea and meet their families... they're really beautiful people.

I'm just learning about the culture and the people- and it's so different.
Even their personal space is different- in America, personal space is like, 3 feet. Here, there's like, no personal space. That's something I'll have to get used to.

I don't want my posts to deter anyone- Petra was seriously incredible. It was just very different from what I expected... or rather... Maybe I had delusions of grandeur, and therefore, expected something much different.
We didn't get much information on what to expect, I suppose.

Hmm... what else.
I got more texts from Nate.
I love getting texts.
They're free- so it's really nice to get surprise texts from people.

My face is pretty burny-- I think I'll wear my cafe tomorrow to the site.
And maybe a hard hat so I won't hit my head again. lol

Okay... people are in the lobby and I want to be social instead of homesick. I already got teary eyed with my buddy Scott. haha He told me to come sit next to him so he could hug me- but crying makes me feel silly so I said no. haha :)

Our team really is full of spectacular people. We're all so different but we're all so nerdy in the same history geek way.

Next weekend we go to Jerash and Bethany and the Dead Sea.
Hopefully it won't be quite the Charlie Foxtrot that this weekend was.

(Jerash is a roman town- said to be the best preserved roman town, even better than Rome itself. My buddy Dave and I are super stoked about seeing it- we're both super Roman history nerds.)

Hmmm... okay. Must go. <3