The Dead Sea

Landscape of Jordan

dead sea in background

Dead sea from a mountain

Again

Israel in the distance

A map of everything i the area

again

us Mizzou students

Us mizzou students floating in the salty sea

my first shwarma

Me floating

I went to the Dead Sea with my CIEE classmates yesterday.  This will be real short because I just want to upload the pictures.  But I will say it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I swam out in the sea and just floated.  The water was so salty that it was nearly impossible to go underwater because I just floated back up.  Standing on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea, I looked across and could clearly see the land of Israel. The pictures will speak for themselves.

Arrival in Jordan

   After a very interesting and tiring last couple of days, I finally landed in at the Amman, Jordan International Airport.   I am now sitting on my bed at the Hotel I am being put up in for the night.
    My original plans were to depart from St. Louis at 12:30 on the 19th and arrive in Jordan at 6:20 on the 20th.  My CIEE orientation was supposed to start in the morning of the 21st.
   But nothing worked out as I planned.  My flight got cancelled at St. Louis and I was not able to make another flight to get me to an international airport that would take me to Jordan that night.  So I had to schedule my flight leaving St. Louis at 5:30PM on the 20th and would arrive in Jordan at 6:30 PM on the 21st.  So I ended up taking that option.  I left St. Louis and landed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.  I then had a two hour layover and boarded the Royal Jordanian Airbus 340, which took me to Jordan.  It was an 11 hour flight from Chicago to Amman.  The flight was enjoyable, I got two meals, watched a couple movies, and got about an hour nap.
   I had an interesting time once I got out of the airport. I was met by a CIEE representative who drove me to the Landmark Hotel. It was with out a doubt the craziest car ride I have ever experienced.  The road laws are a little bit relaxed here in Amman.
    Once I arrived at the hotel, I checked in and went up to my room and took a much needed shower. I then changed into some nicer clothes and went down to be buffet restaurant and had my first tasted of Jordanian cuisine.  It was very good.  And now I am in my bed typing this and about to go to bed.

Flying over Athens, Greece

Flying into Tel-Aviv 

Over Tel-Aviv

the clothes I packed for the semester

Over Jordan

Scratch that. I was not able connect to the internet to post that So now I am at my host families house.  It is very nice. They have three bedrooms, a fully kitchen, a dining and sitting room, and a tv room.  My family is a Christian family. My host mom and her son Fadi live here.  They are nice and hospitable people.  Right when I arrived at the house my mom had food ready for me to eat and it was tasty.