Noah in Petra

These are pics we got of Noah on my phone while in Petra. We realize that we didn't get any of him with anything interesting. After you've seen Petra a couple of times you forgot that it is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Noah in his backpack carrier.

Noah and his beautiful mother.

And this is how Noah spent most of the trip. He didn't even see Petra.

and this is a baby donkey. proof that even baby donkeys are still ugly.

All Drinks for a Dinaar!

We took Noah to Petra this week for a couple of days. I'll post some pics as soon as we get them, but I wanted to let you hear a little story.

We are walking through Petra and we here a guy standing outside of his shop hollarin', "all drinks for a dinaar, all drinks for a dinaar! Tea! Coffee! Pepsi! All drinks for a dinaar!" Then immediately after that, he switches to Arabic and says, "ربع دينار للعرب" which means, quarter dinaar for the Arabs.

So I walk up to him and say, in English, "I want a Pepsi."
"Okay, 1 dinaar please."
"But I want to pay a quarter like the Arabs," I said in Arabic

that's when it got interesting.......
here's what followed. This is me speaking in Arabic and him speaking in English. His grammar mistakes aren't me not typing correctly, it's what he said.

me: "but I want to pay a quarter"
him: "uh...uh....no, that price for arab students only:
"okay, I am a student"
"no you no student, you have baby on you back!" (I did. Noah was chillin' in the baby backpack)
"so? he [Noah] is a student too! he is learning both English and Arabic!"
"no you too old."
"but you didn't say that. you said a quarter dinaar for drinks!"
"but you no arab!"
"but then you said it was for arab students and I study Arabic, so i'm an arab student and so is my son, and so is my wife!"
"okay, okay" (he is shaking his head and my hand at this point. its the Arab thing to do after a well fought bargaining battle)

then he calls out to the boy by the drinks "hey boy, get a pepsi for Ahmed!!!" I guess, he felt like he had to give me an Arab name to give me the Arab price. Oh well, I gave the kid a quarter, and put the pepsi in my bag and forgot about it. The pepsi is still sitting in the bag on the floor in our house right now. I don't know if I'll ever get around to drinking it.

It wasn't about the pepsi, it was about being Arab....

It's Snow...Sort of

Here is proof that it snows in the Middle East. I must apologize though. Nature wasn't cooperating and the snow wasn't sticking. So when you see the video and you think, "What? That is just fat rain." YOUR WRONG, IT'S SNOW!!!! It's snow I tell you!

The Fat Rain/Weak Snow Video

The Umayyad Palace Ruins Video

This is a video of our search for the Dead Sea Scrolls. We found them. The musuem is in the midst of the ruins from the Romans, and early Islamic Period ancestors in this region. It is on the hill in the midst of the city. Great place to see the city.


Umayyad Palace Ruins Video