Good times...

I can now say that I’ve been to the sight of Moses’ death and Jesus’ baptism, along with swimming in the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. We had a great time yesterday to say the least. We started at Mt. Nebo and got some great pictures before touring the site of Jesus’ baptism. It’s crazy to think that I was in the same general area as Jesus, John the Baptist, Moses, and so many other people from the Bible. It was somewhat surreal. At the end of our tour we stopped at a beautiful Greek Orthodox church on the bank of the Jordan River. A few of us decided to go swimming and were closely monitored by a Jordanian guard to ensure we didn’t cross into Israeli territory. The river has dried up significantly in the recent past so it was probably only 15 feet wide or so where we took our dip.

After that, we returned to our bus and headed towards the lowest land point on earth: the Dead Sea. I think it’s what we all looked forward to the most. For $10JD we spent around three hours at the public beach, which included access to a large pool as you don’t want to spend too much time in the sea itself. Words cannot describe the way you feel when swimming in the Sea. Because of the insane concentration of salt in the water, you float! I don’t mean that you just feel a little more buoyant than normal; I mean that you can literally sit Indian style or stand up straight or lie on your back in the deep water and be completely comfortable! I learned the hard way that the water also stings really badly if you get it in your eyes or nose. Not a good feeling at all. You can’t really stay in the Sea for too long or it starts to bother your skin, so after a bit we all headed up to the pool. I’m sure you’re all wondering about the obvious clothing dilemma that may face some Muslim women in a pool. To be completely honest, everyone seemed quite normal with the exception of a few wearing full-body wet suits or long one-pieces. It was just really nice to get to sit out by a pool and relax for a couple hours. On the way home we stopped in Amman and got some Chinese food, which was a really nice change of pace food wise.

I’ve been swamped with homework lately. It’s not the most fun thing in the world but hopefully I’m learning a lot.

Happy birthday to my Dad… I love and miss you a lot.

Six weeks left. I think I'll make it.

! سلام

اسكندر