Day 2

This morning came pretty fast, and I did not hear the call to prayer at 4:30 AM.  This is the view outside my hotel room.

Everyone met for breakfast - which is wonderful and free!  The coffee was fabulous too (no Diet Coke though....).

After breakfast we went on a walking tour of the area and to buy used cell phones for our stay.  The walking here is tough because everything is pretty hilly and the sidewalks are not very smooth.  You must watch where you walk (which isn't always my best method of walking..).  This is the picture from the top of the hill we are staying on.  The walk down - no problem!  The walk up - Oi.

The streets in Amman are very busy and noisy.  There are constant horns beeping.  Taxis will beep at you when you are walking to let you know they are available.  Cars travel very fast too.  Here are some comforts from home.  Notice the sign is in Arabic - but on the other side it is in English!  No, I did not have a diet coke from McDonalds.  I am afraid of drinking the water here, so I probably won't have one. :(

After getting 11 cell phones, we ate lunch at a nice sandwich/smoothie shop.  I had the shawarma wrap with chicken.  It was delicious!  I also had fresh grapefruit juice.  All for 2.500 dinars.  To get a feel for money, a 1.5 Liter of water cost 0.40 dinars - where in America it would be about $1.50-2.00.  However, trading in American dollars for dinars was $500 to 310 dinars.

Here is a picture of the shawarma:

A.J. asked if it was warm....YES it is!!  The sun is always shining and it is about 96 degrees.  We are closer to the equator, so the sun is very close to us.  I had lots of sunscreen on, but I still got burned today.  It doesn't feel much hotter than a hot day in WI, but since we are in long pants and longer shirts, it can get a little sweaty and sticky.  We made sure to drink a lot of water.

I haven't slowed down to notice the people as much as I would like, but that will come.  Women are mostly in headscarves - some are very beautiful headscarves and the men are dressed mostly in jeans and t-shirts.  I have seen some women in full burqas too. 

Another stop we made was to a park in Amman looking for a festival.  We found out it didn't start until 8:00 tonight, which would make more sense because of the heat.  The park was very nice.

Here is a shot of Amman from the King Hussein Park.

Tomorrow we will begin our Arabic class and be at the University of Jordan's language center. Sunday is the start of the work week here (like the American Monday).