The King's Palace! well, one of them anyway.....It was really cool. We visited Raghadan palace, which I think was the first palace built in Jordan by the king in the 1920s. They had two history teachers give us the tour and we got to go to all the state rooms and sit on couches where the King sat and where foreign dignitaries sat. There was a lot of pride and history of Jordan contained in the palace. The guides basically told us that the history/founding of Jordan is contained there. It is simply decorated except for the gifts that people have brought for the kings, which are usually made of gold. We got to see a racing cup awarded to King Hussein (King Abdullah's father) when he raced against Nixon. The palace was, of course, heavily guarded, but we did not have any problems getting in. One of the military guys was our......i know this isn't the right word, but he was basically our babysitter: rode in the bus with us, followed us from room to room, escorted us out, etc. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the palace because we were not allowed to take cameras, but I did get to take pictures in the royal burial area. The imam allowed us to take pictures and to go in without our hair covered and we even got to pray with him if we so desired. (just as a side note: everyone here loves king hussein, who basically built jordan, and his son, king abdullah II, is liked but they like king hussein better)
We also got to visit the U.S. Embassy--one of the students set up the visit for us. It wasn't quite as exciting/pretty as visiting the palace, but it was still very cool. The embassy is also heavily guarded; I had to chug a small bottle of water I accidently brought in with me, but it was cool. We didn't get to tour the embassy, but we did have the opportunity to talk with people in the public and foreign services (US Aid, Political, and Economic areas). Unfortunately I don't have any exciting stories about the embassy because we mostly just sat in a room talking to the aforementioned people. It was informative, and honestly, it was kind of nice to be in America for just a few hours. That sounds horrible, I know, but I haven't seen anything truly american (besides people) in months. I didn't think I'd miss it, but I actually kind of do. Okay, no more sappy crap. I couldn't take a camera to the embassy either so I don't have pics of it :(
So, before I go to Wadi Rum (the desert!) and Aqaba (seaside resort!) with the University this weekend I want to describe my last school trip to a city called Madaba and Mount Nebo. I think all of the Miami students, except one, and a bunch of other students from the university went on a university bus to see Mount Nebo, which is where Moses was supposed to have been given a glimpse of the Holy Land and where he is supposed to be buried. I could kind of see Jerusalem, Jericho, and the Dead sea from the mountain, but it was really hazy out so I could only make out blobs and point in the general direction of things. Unfortunately, our guide from the university didn't know anything about the history there and the site was under construction :(
Madaba is a christian/muslim town with tons of mosaics and churches. One mosaic is particularly famous because it is supposed to be one of the first maps ever made. Again, our guide stunk, but the church where the map was contained was absolutely beautiful. It's a Greek Orthodox church, St. George, and the map is actually on the floor, which is totally cool. I'm sorry I don't have more details, but it really wasn't that exciting. I will hopefully have better stories after this weekend.
Ahh! I will have to post pics another time because blogger won't let me right now, and I must go get ready for a bedouin wedding we're going to =) I'll try and get back online sunday and put up tons of pics/stories.
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