One Fish, Two Fish...

The colors were unreal. Reds, blues, greens, pinks, oranges. And I'm not just talking about my last Acid trip (just kidding mom!). Nope, that was just my last trip down to Aqaba scuba diving in the Coral Reefs of the Red Sea. Yep, that was my weekend. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about it. But it was definitely worth it.

Well, our weekend that was supposed to start at 6 o'clock am on Friday morning didn't really get rolling until Noon, at which time we began our way down to Petra. Me, two friends of mine, and a friend's brother that was visiting Jordan for a few days. We finally make it down to Petra around 4:00pm and..at last...begin what we came for.

It was great. This time we were the only four people on the trail. Well, not the only four. There was a Bedouin guy that was walking about 40 feet ahead of us. Good thing to, because the trail we were walking barely existed and had he not been there we would have for sure gotten lost. We went through Petra, saw the sites. We finally got to the Treasury just as it was getting dark, and made the final trek to the entrance in pitch black.

We then made our way down to Aqaba, where we grabbed some grub and slept on a hotel’s roof. Yep, slept on a roof. It was pretty awesome, the view of the city, the Red Sea, and Eilat, Israel on the other side. That was until 6 o’clock in the morning when a bird made it his duty to croak like he was dying until we were all awake. But overall, a great (cheap) night’s sleep.

Then, we went to the dive shop. Not that I was scared, because that definitely wasn’t the case. I was just nervous. Who knew what could happen. I finally decided to do it. To go ahead, risk my life against the raging forces of nature. We got on the boat and went out to the water. From there, people started to go under. I thought we were going to get some kind of orientation, maybe a lesson or two. Not so much.

It was finally my turn. I put on my wetsuit, got on my flippers, and strapped on my tank. Taking that first step off the boat and into the ocean is like walking the plank (with 20 pounds of oxygen strapped to your back). The dive instructor swam up to me and we both began to swim away from the boat. About 30 feet away, we stopped. He told me to prepare myself. We went through some quick breathing exercises and he told me the signals: an OK sign for…OK, and a shaking of your hand for…Get me out of here. He slowly let the air out of my vest (which was keeping me buoyant) and we began to descend. I struggled at first. You have to breathe in and out through your mouth and equalize the pressure from your ears by holding your nose and breathing (like on a plane). But once I got over this struggle, it was gorgeous. The fish and coral and ocean life was out of this world (actually, it is in this world…just a world we never see). However, the reef we went to, King Abdullah Reef, was located right off a public beach, which meant that I also saw Amstel Draft cans and plastic bags.

Well, 20 minutes later, I was out of the water, alive in one piece. I am so glad that I did it. Although, I didn’t really get the equalizing pressure thing right because I didn’t hold my nose all the way. So my ears were killing from the pressure and when I took off my face mask back on the boat, my face was covered in snot. A little disgusting, but I think well worth the price. We spent the rest of the day on the boat, and headed back home that night.

A great weekend was capped off by the host-family dinner that was held this past Monday evening. All the families that have host students were invited to a dinner at a top-end restaurant in the city. Turns out, my entire extended host family is in on this whole hosting students thing. And the invitation only inviting 2 members of each family translated into Jordanian terms means bring as many people as possible. They were all there, taking up about 4 tables of around 15 people each. We had the cousins, and the second cousins, and the aunts and uncles. Everyone. Our family hosts about 8 students in our program. Who woulda thought.

But the best part of the dinner was the entertainment. A group of us had been practicing the Dubkah, a traditional Arabic dance, for this ceremony we hold for our program next week. Well, we did it at the dinner, only our second time running through the whole thing. And it was a hit. Everyone loved it. And my host mom was so proud of my host brother and I being in the dance. It was really great! (there might be some video footage, but I don’t have my hands on it yet). Lots of fun!

Well, I might as well get started on my ten page paper due next week. But, when you have the options of scuba diving and dancing, the decision is so hard!

Our Bedouin "guide" looking of into the distance at Petra.

Sunset at Petra.

One of the guys in our gruop getting ready to dive (on the right).

Doin the Dabkah. We're wearing dishdashis, traditional Arabic robes.

Just part of the family. We had a few more tables like this.