Most of the CASA students and our professors took a day trip to Ajloun this past Thursday. It is a town located in northwest Jordan and is famous for its 12th-century castle (which you can just barely make out on the top of the highest hill).
Before we drove to the castle, we took a hike through the Ajloun Forest Reserve.
Found a turtle!
After hiking for a few hours, we stopped at the reserve's small soap-making factory. Locally hand-crafted soap is pretty common in Jordan and Palestine, the soap usually being made with olive oil and infused with rosemary, sage, or mint.
We visited the Ajloun Castle, which was built in 1184 by Saladin's nephew in order to defend Damascus from invasion by the Crusaders.
There were some tremendous views and on the way back I got my first good view of the Jordan River, which was much larger and more imposing than I had been led to believe. These past few weeks have convinced me that spring is by far the best time to be in Jordan. It is like seeing a whole different country.
I will be leaving in a month and a half and I will definitely miss Jordan, the people I have met here, and the program in general, but I am looking forward to having new and exciting things to write about.
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