My next trip definitely surpasses all other trips due to its completely different lifestyle and extreme interest to me, and not to mention my region of “expertise”. I went to Jordan a couple of weeks ago to attend a conference about democracy in the Middle East, specifically regarding Jordan and the American implications. I stayed a few days after to explore and it confirmed my love for the region I’ve never once visited.

I arrived in the middle of the night on Wednesday, April 18th. Fortunately, I ran into two other Americans on the flight who were attending the conference as well and who were also just as anxious to visit the area too. Thankfully two of the conference’s organizers were awaiting our arrival at the airport and took us to our lodging. To our surprise, it was barricaded and kind of secluded to the main parts of the city but I later learned its location makes it strategically vulnerable (it was next to a military compound). I headed to my room and met my roommates, a guy from Missouri who was studying in Spain, a Syrian guy from Philly who was living in Dubai on a Fulbright grant, and another Fulbrighter from the Philly area living in Damascus. They were all cool guys. By this time it was about 3am and we knew we had a long day ahead of us the next day.

Thursday came rolling in and I was up bright and early. Registration went quickly along and I met people from all over the world, but most from Jordan and the U.S. To my surprise I met another Mexican-American who was a Middle East fanatic and living there in Amman on a Fulbright Grant as well. I previously thought that would never happen. The conference began with Prince Hassan speaking and we were delightfully surprised the attendance of former-United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali. It was amazing. The panels begun and we head our discussion groups which brought up some very insightful ideas. The second panel on Political Islam was particularly interesting to me since I was originally going to discuss it in my dissertation. Also, I might add that we were to be joined by the Secretary-General of the Islamic Action Front but he backed out at the last minute. He instead wanted to send a replacement whom we recognized as an attendee to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s funeral last year. Due to the replacement’s sympathy for the death of one of the masterminds of several terrorist attacks, we refused to be associated with him and continued the panel without him. We eventually ended the evening and headed out to a local tea-bar to socialize and get a taste of the social life in Jordan, well social life for men since women are usually shunned from most “improper” places. I had some amazing tea and phenomenal houmous, my weakness, and then headed back to our room and passed out knowing I had to wake up early again the next morning.

The next day we had more panels and discussions. As leader of my discussion group, I had to end the day in a meeting that lasted for hours! We were preparing the conclusion of the conference for the following day and had to consolidate our policy recommendations for general discussion. Hours later we finished and I had to refrain from going out and instead headed to my room to work on another paper for school. It was a long night.

The next day we all gathered to discuss and choose the final recommendations that were to be presented to the American Embassy and the Jordanian government. We went way beyond our time limit and spent at least six hours amending and choosing the necessary and appropriate recommendations. When it finally ended a local, who was in attendance a the conference, took me and two other friends to the Dead Sea where we floated for a short while…the Dead Sea is so salty it is virtually impossible to sink therefore you can simply walk in the water, fall back, and lay on your back for hours without any effort or getting the feeling you will ever sink (as you can see from my picture above). Not only that, but its sand and water is famous for the wonders it does to your joints and skin. I walked out of that sea softer than a baby’s bottom…kind of weird for a guy. It was an impressive view to be on the Jordanian side of the water and see Israel on the other side. When we headed back to Amman we went for an AMAZING meal! We went to a grand, traditional restaurant where we had an extremely long table seating about 30 people full of food…I am not exaggerating when I say it was like sitting at a buffet. The food kept flowing out to the middle of the table and we could choose whatever we felt looked good and boy did I! Being surrounded by Arabs all in their traditional clothing was really cool too. They had a traditional band playing throughout the place and we inevitably got up to join in the dancing. It was a blast.

The next day I went with the other leaders to meet with Prince Hassan to present our recommendations and it generally went well (picture above). The meeting was abruptly ended when we said something that wasn't to his council's liking...so it goes with all opposition in Jordan, apparently. Afterwards, I went with a group of friends to the south of Jordan to a desert called Wadi Rum. We drove out into the middle of the desert and had a guide make us a traditional badouin (another word for Nomadic Arabs) dinner in the sand. We ate, drank tea, and then just laid back and stared at the stars until we fell asleep. Since we didn’t get to see the desert when we first arrived (we got there when it was dark) we were pleasantly surprised the next morning. We could see miles of sand and mountains all around us. We checked out some ancient caves and ruins and couldn’t stay too long since me and my friend, John, who is studying Arabic in Cairo, had to hurry over to Petra. If you have seen Indiana Jones then you know what Petra is…it is that castle-looking thing built into the mountain that is pictured above…that is what we had to see. We finally arrived and walked the long path to it in between naturally made caves and ancient ruins until we came up to it. It was simply amazing. Of course I had to ride the camel and take a picture in front of it. It was just breathtaking. We then went further and had to climb the hour-long steps to atop a mountain and see mountain ranges that surround the area. I can’t describe everything in detail since I wont be able to give it justice so I’ll just let the pictures above explain it.

Afterwards, I had to hurry back to Amman which was a few hours away so John could catch his flight while I worked on my paper and get ready for my flight early the next morning. I didn’t want to leave Jordan, but I knew I had to get back to Brussels to work on my finals…egh!