{"id":132,"date":"2025-10-19T17:31:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/?p=132"},"modified":"2025-10-19T17:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:31:43","slug":"my-day-with-gertrude-in-petra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/my-day-with-gertrude-in-petra\/","title":{"rendered":"My Day with Gertrude in Petra"},"content":{"rendered":"

*I am going to do a different take on this prompt and imagine my vacation to Petra in Jordan with Gertrude Bell in the modern day. It imagines a portion of our day as we walk through the ruins. Italicized text was taken out of readings we did in class.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a hot and windy day in Jordan. Gertrude and I are on the third day of our week-long vacation through the ruins of Jordan. We are currently in Petra. Gertrude refuses to wear modern-day dress, instead choosing to wear the same muslin gowns that her mother, Florence, had sent her throughout her time in Baghdad. Crowds of people surround us, tourists with their families. Men and women are dressed in over-the-top Oriental outfits, selling trinkets and camel rides to the tourists. It is safe to say that it was a typical day in Petra (at least in the modern day Petra). I am unfazed by the bustle, but when I look over to Gertrude her face tells a completely different story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThis place used to be a <\/span>fairy tale city<\/span><\/i>, I camped <\/span>amid a row of ornate tombs, three stories high, <\/span><\/i>what has happened to this place?\u201d she asked me with a disgusted look on her face. I laugh, telling her that this is normal. As we make our way through the crowd, Gertrude walks with her nose in the air, ignoring everyone around her. We are approached by a man dressed in bedouin attire. When he begins to speak to us in English Gertrude looks offended. Scoffing, she exclaims, \u201cThis is not the real East, I wish I was in Iraq. <\/span>I like Iraq. It\u2019s the real East\u201d. <\/span><\/i>The man, confused, walks away. I tell her that she shouldn\u2019t talk to people like this. Her response was to glare and bustle away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As I trail behind her, I hear her muttering, \u201cOh how degraded this place has become. All these people, the children, the women. The Arabs have ruined it with their greed. Their need for money and tourism. If the British were in charge this would never have happened. We would have kept it preserved. Only the best could visit, the bravest, certainly no women or children. Only the true explorers.\u201d Once I catch up to her, she suddenly stops, clearly she did not want me to hear what she was saying. Those thoughts were only for herself. Instead, she comments on the weather \u201c<\/span>it\u2019s breathlessly, damned hot\u201d. <\/span><\/i>I chuckle, telling her that if she didn\u2019t refuse the modern fashion of shorts or light linen pants and a t-shirt she wouldn\u2019t feel so hot. Brushing my comment off she walks away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We make our way up the hike to the Monastery. I don\u2019t blame her, it is hot. As we climb our way up the steps she remarks that when she had been in Petra last she made this hike on camelback, \u201cWhy do these people insist on walking? Camels are much more efficient!\u201d. Laughing, I continue on without comment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She can be a little bit stuck up. I think she would prefer I wasn\u2019t here at all, that she was all alone in this place. Maybe with her servant Fattuh. She definitely doesn\u2019t want any other tourists here. She would much rather cosplay a lone adventurer than be one of the many. Be the <\/span>first European women <\/span><\/i>to see these places. She is clearly knowledgeable and interested in our surroundings but would rather explore solitarily.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go back to our hotel, maybe there we will be treated with the respect we deserve\u201d she says, interrupting my thoughts. Knowing that I can\u2019t change her mind, I agree to be done for the day. Hopefully some of the other places we visit will be <\/span>more authentic <\/span><\/i>for her. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*I am going to do a different take on this prompt and imagine my vacation to Petra in Jordan with Gertrude Bell in the modern day. It imagines a portion of our day as we walk through the ruins. Italicized text was taken out of readings we did in class.   It\u2019s a hot and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “My Day with Gertrude in Petra”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-colonial-fantasies","category-gender","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/gss206-f25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}