ahlan wa sahlan!

^which means 'welcome!' (to jordan, and to part deux of my blog). less than 24 hours in jordan so far and i've already had numerous adventures, the most exciting of which was swimming, or rather, floating, in the dead sea!! instead of holing up in a conference room today, we drove about an hour outside of amman to the dead sea, where despite the hazy and not-so-warm weather, we enjoyed the view and feel of the saltiest sea on earth/the lowest point on earth. the rift the sea lies in has some incredible geology- there were more different colors of rock rising up around the water than i've ever seen before in one place, and the faces and ridges are gorged in such a way that you know the water used to rush there.


the sea itself is shrinking due to evaporation and the derouting of its old sources by the surrounding countries due to their extreme water shortages (jordan is the 4th poorest country in the world in terms of water supply per capita), lowering in level by about 1 meter per year- not good! the water is huge but calm, and holds a peaceful silence over its valley. across the water are the hills of the west bank and israel, and on a clearer day we could've seen jerusalem in the distance- crazy.


"swimming" in it was lots of silliness- you literally cannot make yourself sink; if you try to swim freestyle your legs are floated uselessly up behind you and you don't get much of anywhere, so the best form of movement is rowing your arms while in a sitting position; if you try to float standing straight up the buoyancy just flips you to one side or another- i learned what the buoys in the lake must feel like just bobbing along :) and let me tell you, it is REALLY salty- tasting it burns your tongue, and if you are as careless as i am and splash yourself in the eye while attempting to swim, it takes a good five minutes for your eye to stop burning (oops). the water itself has a smooth silky texture, and when you get out and dry off the water, you are left with a nice layer of salt everywhere. anyway, quite the experience, a lot of fun, and a definite check-that-off-the-list thing for my time in jordan.


upon arrival last night mikki and i were for some reason treated to a private cab ride to the hotel instead of the ciee bus, so we jumped into the arabic speaking by chatting with our driver- it was a great way to arrive. after dropping our bags we were then treated to a wonderful little welcome party of baklava and tea with sage by simone, a girl who is starting her second semester here. it was interesting to see the reality of the separated-by-sex café scene, we women sat upstairs while men occupied the larger room downstairs. but everyone i've met here has been incredibly welcoming- from the ciee staff, to the man on the street who called out "hello, welcome!" to us while we were walking, to the kodak shop owner today who gave me as a gift a blown-up and flower-bordered version of the passport photo of myself i went there to take :) very kind, and very jordanian. mom, i'll be sure to bring that photo back for you because i don't know what in the world else to do with such a photo of myself haha.
all in all a wonderful time so far. hopefully dead sea pictures to come later, but apparently the whole country is notorious for slow/limited internet bandwith so we'll see :)