http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Stephie62/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Stephie62 en-us Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:41:31 UTC Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:41:31 UTC This last week has been pretty rough. This will probably be my last entry. Things with my dad are up and down. He is just kind of hanging in there. So I am not sure what will happen. I am still recovering from being sick. I haven't really left the building but like 2 times in 4 or 5 days. I've just been working on homework with no pressure thanks to my wonderful professor and trying to avoid ba http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-282263.html As some of you might have noticed I am not actually sure how many people check this daily I have not written in about 3 days. In the early morning on the 26th I received a call from my aunt. My dad is back in the hospital with pneumonia and not doing well at all. It is pretty much the end. There is not much they have been able to do for about a year now. He has been on hospice care and really in http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-281320.html nothing really happened today. we had paper 2 due at 600pm so most of the day was spent staying in doing that. alot of us were finished by like 12 or 1. we ate lunch some people went to the mall i took a nap and did some other reading. then went to dinner at pizza hut...ate some gelato of course then hung out right now it is 1100pm and i'm a bit sleepy. sorry this blog is a bit disappoin http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-280480.html Petra is a beautiful place Here is a website about Petra if you would like some more info on it httpwww.visitjordan.commajorattractionsPetratabid63Default.aspx. We were not there for very long. It is about a 34 hour drive there and back. The bus was very bumpy and there was not much to see along the way except for alot of desert Fortunately we went early in the day we left at 600am. http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-280123.html Yesterday we went to the Dead Sea It was really cool. For some of those who do not know much about it I will tell you. For starters it is the lowest point on the earth I believe. The neatest thing about it is you really cannot do much in it except for float It is so full of salt and so bouyant that you can't swim drown or hardly move It was quite an experience. My favorite part is that nothin http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-279679.html So today is not really much different than yesterday. I will say it was best to stay in most of the day it reached about 92 degrees. I don't feel it is that bad though there really is not much humidity as in Indiana. This morning we met with an ambassador. That was very nice he was a very intelligent man. We were able to talk a bit about politics in Jordan and the Middle East in general. He is http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-278719.html So I actually had this blog this afternoon my time and then the internet went down and I lost it So I will start over by telling you about my day yesterday. We went to two mosques yesterday. One was basically just used for tourists and special occassions. It was nice. The second one we were not able to go into it was closed for the day. Going into the first one foreign females have to be c http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-278718.html Yesterday was a free day Well I had some papers to write nothing too big but I like to take my time to write them. So I just hung out and wrote papers with some other girls. We had lunch. Then finished our papers. Then I began my reading for today until everyone was finished. Then Holly Jessica and I made our way back to Mecca Mall. Nothing too interesting really. We walked around forever http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-278158.html Today we visited The Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists. It was a very interesting place. We met with some of the Mansoor's which was the family we visited the other night. While we were there we also were able to meet the Editor in Chief of the 2nd largest newspaper in Jordan. He was a very intelligent and interesting man. Then we were finished with class by like 1130ish again today. http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-277717.html Today was a beautiful day here. The weather was not too hot there was a nice breeze all day and the night is a bit chilly but pretty perfect. We went to a place that is very high up in Jordan. Basically we walked around some ancient Roman ruins. In a sense we walked through the history of Jordan in a big circle on top of a very large hill. When you look down and around from the hill you can see http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-277314.html Hello everyone This will probably be short it is 10pm here and I have reading to do and some sleep to get Today we did not have class until 330ish so I basically got up early and lounged around the place we are staying it was nice. Then we went to a family's home and had a traditional Jordanian dinner. It was good. There was chicken and lamb with lots of new spices It was almost too much t http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-277015.html Today we went back to the market and was able to walk around for a few hours. Then we went to a restaurant that served Jordanian food it was very good and there was alot of food It was a very nice touristy restaurant so the service was better than any I have ever had in the states. Then we came back it was exceptionally hot today but it didn't feel that bad. We were put into groups this time http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-276626.html So we finally made it to Jordan last night a bit after 700pm here and 1200pm your time. We set our room up and went to bed. Class starts at 900am each day. This morning we had our first experiences with public transportation The first was a bus it was ok. We went to the vegetable and fruit market and were given a list of them in Arabic with the pronunciations of course That was an experien http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-276229.html Well the between the plane ride the time change and figuring out the metro I was a bit exhausted after arriving After we figured out the metro it became a bit easier. The hotel is nice despite the area it is in Twice I have had the most amazing chocolate cake Luckily we met some people from Austin Texas after getting off of the metro we were very confused and turned around. They got us to http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-275490.html