"Exit Wadi Rum by camel"

Midnight: We arrive in a Bedouin town in southern Jordan. We pile out of the bus. We put our backpacks into a pickup truck and we hop into Toyota. Off-roading through the Wadi Rum desert, we scream and hold on for dear life as our driver laughs and presses down on the gas pedal even more, sending sand flying up in our wake as we speed through the desert darkness. Half and hour later, we pile down and are received with a hot Bedouin meal inside a large tent on the sand. Dinner at 1:00 AM, Bedouin style. Chicken, rice, veggies, tea, and these amazing fig cookies send us off to bed. Five girls, three beds (they were a little short in the Bedouin camp), but we're exhausted so it's no problem.

The morning light did NOT wake us up, as Bruce anticipated, so he had to come barging in at 10 AM to get us moving for breakfast in the smokey big tent. I love Bedouin tea. Another off-roading adventure and we pile out for a mountain-top hike. Gorgeous views of the famous Wadi Rum--blue skies with white clouds topping off the reds, oranges and browns of the mountains and desert floor, which is spotted with green shrubbery. The hot sun pounds down on us and we feel on top of the world. Lunch is prepared by our Bedouin guides and eaten atop a flat rock, where we nap in the sun afterwards. Back to the camp, then I find myself climbing another mountain with Chris Lim and Sarah Iskander to see the sunset over the desert. Class meeting, more tea and hookah, then back to that cozy bed.

The adventures really begin the next morning. "Exit Wadi Rum by camel"--that's what our syllabus says. Oh boy. First off, Lim chooses a nice healthy looking camel. The camels are tied in groups of three. There's one more healthy-looking one and one very old, sickly, foaming, biting, gross-looking one. Of course, me and Audrey are fighting over who gets the ugly one...but then I just hopped on the healthy one and cut her off. She gets the sicky!

Later, Audrey is untethered by a Bedouin man and her camel proceeds to go absolutely crazy. It starts running in circles, sitting down and standing back up, trying to throw her off, and then runs straight out into the desert. We're cracking up, but also kind of worried she's going to fall off. She manages to stay on though, and Later, Audrey is untethered by a Bedouin man and her camel proceeds to go absolutely crazy. It starts running in circles, sitting down and standing back up, trying to throw her off, and then runs straight out into the desert. We're cracking up, but also kind of worried she's going to fall off. She manages to stay on though, and gets tied back up to Lim as punishment.

Riding a camel is just what it sounds like: bumpy, slightly uncomfortable, hard to steer, kind of smelly. But boy do you look awesome. Especially our group, in our kafias with the gorgeous desert backdrop. It also goes very slowly. It takes us over two hours to get out of the desert. In that time, I decide that my camel (I named him Buddy) and I were going to try to escape. We untie ourselves from the others and I start digging my heels into his side and clicking my teeth at him like the Bedouin guys are doing. After a while of trying, he finally begins picking up the pace...now he's trotting...then he's running! I'm literally getting air off the saddle, bouncing up and down a good foot or so--there's no stirrups so it's hard to stay in the saddle. As I'm hanging on for dear life, I can't really steer, so Buddy heads off the path and straight into the desert. A small Bedouin man is running after me yelling "La la la!" (which means "no" in Arabic) and "Stop stop!" But I can't stop. It's not till Buddy gets bored and slows down that the man catches me, leads me back to the group and ties me behind Bruce. I'm chained up to the professor for the rest of the journey (which turned out to be fun anyways).