Meet and Greet

Hey all, Sorry for the lack of posting. I have been very busy lately.

Recently I have gone to The Kings Palace, The American Embassy, Jerash, Mt. Nebo, and Petra.

Going to the Palace is an experience in itself. We passed about six security checkpoints, which are guarded by Unit 71, Jordan's CIA/FBI/Secret Service unit. We were told not to take pictures, but someone on our bus attempted anyway. One of Unit 71 members came to confiscate her camera, but was laughing when he did it. After he took the camera he said he wasn't going to give it back, but as soon our bus started to go foward he ran up and handed the camera back with a big smile on his face.

The Kings Palace is less of a palace and more of a large house. It doesn't have large spires or tons of gold the way Saddam Hussein's palaces did. Instead it has mosaic ceilings and lots of gifts from leaders of foreign countries, including a trophy Richard Nixon gave a previous king for beating him in golf. While at the palace we were aloud to sit in the chairs in the living room, which is where the king greets visitors. They told us which chair was the king's and which chair was the main guest's, so we all took turns sitting where all the leaders of the world who have visited Jordan, including Bill Clinton and Goerge W. Bush, sat. The king's chair was the most comfortable.

At the American embassy, we spoke with some knowledgeable foreign service agents. We were all excited to meet them, but as soon as the came in the room, our adviser Saleh, started to complain about someone that works at the university and how the embassy needs to get him fired. Most of the students were embarrassed and tried to change the subject quickly, but he brought it up a few more times. Apart from this fiasco, we learned some interesting things, including that Jordan recieves more US aid per capita than almost any other country, largely due to its cooperation with Israel.

The people at the embassy also remarked that there is almost no region to settle the region of Jordan. We saw this first hand when we went to Mt. Nebo. This is the mountain the Moses suppossedly climbed in order to see the promised land that God forbid him to go to. To be honest, if I were Moses, I wouldn't have felt too left out. From the top of the mountain you can see all the way to Jerusalem, yet I could probably have counted the number of fertile looking areas on one hand. There is just alot of desert and the only large body of water is the Dead Sea (very salty).