My First Visit to Petra

Posing with some rocks, Petra, Fall 1999.

I cannot resist one last post about Petra before I return to the Geology Word of the Week tomorrow. I first visited Petra in the Fall of 1999 when I was fifteen. At the time, I was an exchange student living in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. I visited Petra as part of a class field trip. If it is possible to fall in love with a place, that is what happened on my first visit to Petra. My visit to Petra was one of many factors that influenced my decision to study geology in college.
 
Below is an email--pretty much verbatim, though I corrected the worst horrors of grammar-- that I sent to my family and a few friends shortly after I first visited Petra. The writing is dramatic and lacks polish, but remember that I was a young teenager at the time.

I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to live in Jordan when I was fifteen.Thank you to everyone who made this possible: my American and Jordanian high schools, my host family, my parents, and the Jordanian Royal Family, especially Princess Zein and the late King Hussein.

Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 12:43:11 -088 (PST)

From: Evelyn

To: Friends & Family

Marhaba [hello in Arabic] to all,

I write with new eyes. I feel as if my entire perspective on life has changed...  as if I have visited another solar system and returned all within one day! Indeed, Petra, the remarkable Nabatean city hidden within a strange and beautiful formation of rocks (rather like the Grand Canyon, for those who have been there*), is just like another universe. The instant you leave the tourist shops and main gate behind and begin walking down the magical, mysterious Siq-- the crevace-like entrance to Petra-- you leave everything you ever thought you knew behind.

Petra in Pictures

Petra is my favorite place in the whole world. When I was fifteen, I lived in Amman, Jordan for five months as part of a high school exchange program. I lived with a Palestinian refugee family and attended a school where I was the only foreigner. My five months in Jordan were eye-opening and full of wonder, but one experience stood high above all others: my first visit to Petra, the red-rose sandstone city.

Petra is an amazingly beautiful place. The towering, glittering sandstone cliffs are awe-inspiring, but what really takes your breath away is the widespread evidence of ancient civilization: facades carved into the sandstone cliffs, water-channels lining the walkways, and windswept remnants of sculpture everywhere.

I visited Petra twice more during my high school exchange. For years I longed to return to Jordan and especially to Petra. In 2007 I managed to return to Jordan for a week. I had been on a research cruise in the Indian Ocean, and the end port was Singapore. I booked my ticket home via Amman (for just a little extra), and my old high school connections lined up a place for me to stay for a week. I paid far too much money for a driver to take me down to Petra and Wadi Rum, but as a single female staying with a conservative muslim family, I felt obligated to pay for a proper driver/escort. However, I long to return (with a friend this time), stay in a backpacker lodge, and wander the desert, exploring Petra for days.

Below are some pictures I took during my 2007 visit to Petra. I hope you enjoy! I encourage all of you to visit Petra, though a part of me wishes Petra were still a lost (to Westerners, anyway) city. Petra is now weathering faster as a result of so much tourism. Hopefully, a balance can be struck between encouraging tourism (which helps Jordan's economy immensely) and protecting these incredible ruins from the devastation of millions of foreign footprints.

Click on any of the images below for a larger version. 

Roadstop on the way to Petra from Amman 1, August 2007.

Roadstop on the way to Petra from Amman 2, August 2007. 

Rocks for Danarra

I am a terrible person sometimes. In particular, I sometimes procrastinate actions that really don't take much time but which I cannot, for whatever reason, handle at a particular time. I think I feel most guilty about being a library book thief. I often procrastinate returning library books. I stole at least two books from my high school-- they are still on my shelf at home. I will return them at my next reunion, along with a donation to the library. In college I paid about $200 in late book fees before I was allowed to graduate. Here at MIT I have probably only paid about $100 in late book fees, but mostly because I can renew the books so many times. I love the library policy at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution- you can check out books for a whole year, and if they're recalled or you're late returning them the worst that happens is that the librarian harasses you by email or- in one case where I was in the field- confiscates the late book from your office shelf. If I am ever very wealthy, I will donate generously to all the libraries I have abused over the years... after buying the town of Al-Wuqbah in Oman sparkling new bathroom facilities, but that is a story for another day.

I suppose there are worse things in the world than being a library book thief. But I also sometimes procrastinate other things or cancel commitments when they are just too much. I can't explain it- I hope that when I'm not so busy and stressed with graduate school that I will be better about certain things, such as returning library books. When I am really busy and stressed with school, I don't even make time for rare social events, such as my weekly trip to the rock gym or hanging out with friends.  I guess when I'm stressed about my PhD I can't handle any other commitments, even when they're small (like returning library books) or fun (watching a movie with friends). Some days/weeks/months I do better than others. But many a Friday night I sit at home watching TV with my cats, relaxing from a stressful week before heading back into lab on Saturday.

I used to procrastinate blogging on Skepchick when I was stressed with graduate school... now that I have my own blog which I am making an effort to post regularly on (in addition to occasional Skepchick posts), I am going to try to un-procrastinate at least a few items. First on the list? Mailing some rocks that I should have mailed back in July.

After a long absence from Skepchick blogging, I posted a Where in the World is Evelyn the Geologist Quiz. Loyal Skepchick reader Danarra won this quiz, and I was supposed to mail Danarra a rock. A month later I apologized and promised to send two rocks. Then I had a stressful committee meeting and a trip to Africa and such... and I never sent the rocks.