JORDAN!!!

Well, I have a meeting at 7:30 in Wilmington and it is now 5:01am. I didn't plan on staying up all night but since I am, and since I haven't done anything productive in hours, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to update this thing..

Soooo here's JORDAN. This is the first thing I saw that let me know I was definitely, definitely in a (almost completely) Muslim, extremely conservative country.
There are lots of norms for gender roles in Jordan, as with many Arab countries. This one still really effects me though, because I thought the two genders would at least be able to pray together? That seems like the most wholesome thing a person can do, but maybe it also makes you the most vulnerable?

This was the first course of our first meal in Jordan. We thought it was the whole thing. There certainly was enough of it! There was some hummus, babaganouche (i'm spelling that sooo wrong) and so many things! It was much more delicious than this picture makes it look.

We were lucky enough to be accompanied by a native Jordanian... actually she's Saudi but she's a resident of Jordan because her family is originally from Palestine (this is all a product of the convoluted Middle Eastern conflict that we think we all know about). Anyway, she took us to her grandparent's house. They were the most beautiful, welcoming, hospitable people I have ever met. Her grandfather is truly a visionary. He said some things that really stuck with me and made me understand that there can and will eventually be peace between the countries of the Middle East and even America... When we left, he gave us all beautiful flowers from his garden :)

We also went to PETRA, which is one of the manmade wonders of the world. It's like Jordan's pyramids.

We also went for a crazy drive through the desert.. I forget what it was called but if I remember I'll edit this post.. We met authentic Bedouin people, who are famous for their hospitality, and they made us lunch in the ground. And it was delicious!

THEN - maybe one of my favorite parts of the entire trip! THE DEAD SEA one of the natural wonders of the world.

We happened upon the Dead Sea at the perfect time. We were going to go to a sandy beach with showers at the edges and pay about 20 dollars to take a shower after but we were afraid that the sun would go down before we got there. So we pulled over on the side of the road, hopped the fence, RAN down to the rocky shore stripping off all of our clothes as we went and slowly waded into the water just in time to witness the most beautiful sunset in the most sublime, serene place I probably ever will go.

While we were in Amaan, the capitol city, we saw lots of monuments:

including a colosseum built during the Roman occupation thousands of years ago:

we ate at a fair trade, organic restaurant that was AWESOME

and when we went grocery shopping we found 25cent newspapers, milk in boxes (not refrigerated) and entire baguettes for about 7 cents American.

And yes, I would definitely go back. Yes, it is safe for Americans in this Muslim, Arab country. No, Jordanians do not blindly hate Americans.