Jerash, District Conference and Wadi Mujib

*note* This is a super long post

So...for my birthday weekend I decided to do something fun. The ministry of tourism was having two free days at all national monuments for those who are staying here longer term (i.e. students like me!) and for Jordanians. They just so happened to occur on the day before my birthday and on my birthday. My birthday was on a friday this year so since that's the sabbath here, I knew that I couldn't really do anything other than district conference and then there was a BYU alumni thing as well. So after class on thursday, Drew, Sarah, Kyle, Bristyl and London all joined me to head to Jerash. 

I've been there once before (with the Jerusalem Center) but it was one of my favorite places and I really wanted Drew to see it and see it with him. Since we wanted to do it on the cheap we took a bus up there. 

I got a great shot of Drew and Sarah behind me on the bus (I was sitting next to the window in case I got a bit carsick...yay long rides!)

But finally we got to Jerash and it was just as awesome as I remember!

I love taking pictures of the Garvins. They're the best and London is super cute. 

So they have a big ampitheatre where a guy plays the bagpipes...so Roman I know. 

After that I got to explore a part that was closed off the last time I was at Jerash. It was neat to see the temple and get an awesome shot of the forum. 

So Drew was super sneaky with my birthday present. He knew that I had seen a necklace in the mall near our house and I had mentioned it like once or twice. When we were at Jerash, I put on sunscreen and I took off my necklace. When he gave it back to me he had switched out my pendant for the one that I had wanted. It was so sneaky! I was super surprised and happy. I also got a pretty silver key necklace as well. My hubby did a great job.

Oh man was it hot though. I was glad I had told Drew to bring so many water bottles with him when we were meeting up since we were the only ones who had more than a water bottle and it was HOT. But gorgeous and totally worth the trip. Especially since there and back only cost a total of 5 JD. Not bad for a half-day trip. 

We got home and decided to celebrate my birthday by going to Mecca mall and seeing what was there. We had heard that they had really good food options and so we went to check it out. It was funny because we ended up eating at pizza hut because it was the only sit down restaurant with room. It was actually super nice and definitely filled a craving. 

The next day was district conference. It was pretty neat because it was the first time that a conference has been entirely held in arabic. It was nice and afterwards we all ate. I got some pictures of the group and it was neat to be able to visit the Irbid branch. 

The Andersons and Sister Youngberg. The Andersons are hilarious and I've love working with them on various things. (Sister Anderson L, Sister Youngberg M, Brother Anderson)

That night was a BYU alumni dinner at a restaurant called The Vintage near the 2nd circle. It was AMAZING. And it was really neat to get to talk to the different alumni about their experiences at BYU. At my table I had the daughter of the guy in charge of elections here in Jordan and a couple who both went to school in the US and met in Jordan and got married. (She went to BYU he went to Arizona). 

The food was so good. I didn't even get pictures of half of the food. They brought out 3 different types of salad, a pasta course, a meat course, one with chicken, one with shrimp and one other one, and then a cheese course thing? And that was just the appetizer round. We were all relatively stuffed after this. Drew actually left at that point because we were babysitting for another couple so that they could go to dinner with Arab friends. Drew wanted me to stay and talk to them some more so I did. And then they brought out this for dinner:

Overall, a super fun experience and a much nicer birthday dinner than Drew and I had planned/or could have afforded!

The next day we went to Wadi Mujib. Oh man...it was amazing!!!!

Look!

Drew was super excited for this trip. :)

And for good reason. The hike is entirely in the river and you have to climb UP a series of waterfalls and rapids and it ends in a large waterfall. :)

It was funny to see Drew's reaction since he had never seen sandstone like this before and he was just awed by the rocks. 

The waterfall!!! It was so nice!

So overall, an awesome and so far the best birthday weekend. :) A definite plus and now Drew can't stop talking about Wadi Mujib. I think that if we ever return to Jordan (and it's warm) that we'll be returning. Super fun!