Orientation Week begins!

Today was our touristy, 'honeymoon' adventure into Jordan.  First, we visited the Abdullah Mosque.  I don't think I'm ever going to get bored of looking at minarets while I'm here (and I swear it's not because of my indulgence in Assassin's Creed well, maybe a little bit).  The Mosque was gorgeous. All of us ladies had to put on full length, hooded black dresses to be respectful inside the Mosque.

Here are a few pictures of the Abdullah Mosque:

The Apse, which points towards Mecca

Some nice geometrical patterns for Chris

Okay that's not the Abdullah Mosque.  But it's cool! Viewpoint!

I did not notice any hay bales to preform leaps of faith into. 

 The Citadel, (Jabal  al Qal'a or جبل القلعة).  It was awesome.  Definitely the best place we visited today. I wanted to climb everything We had a tour guide telling us about the history as we walked through.  I'd really like to go back and just wander/explore some more for myself. Pictures!

The man to the left was our tour guide for the day; we also had a CIEE guide with us.

The next few pictures tell the tale of the occupation of the Citadel

Temple of Hercules now...

Temple of Hercules then

A Byzantine Mosque

I seem to have a fixation with doorways... minaret in the distance!

I like the sunlight effect in this one...

That ceramic pipe to the right was used to collect rainwater in ancient times!

Especially for Chris: Pottery! 

Half a horsey annd...more pottery for Chris!

After the Citadel we walked about twenty minutes through downtown Amman to a resturante named "Jafra" (جفرة - at least I think that's how it was spelled).  This first venture into Jordanian cuisine was a marvelous success.

We're ready for a meal!

The decorations of Jafra were rustic and homey.

My first cup of Turkish Coffee...black!

Appetizers

Main Course!

Another picture of the main course: beef, lamb, and chicken

Dessert

All four of the CIEE groups ate lunch at more or less the same time. 

After Lunch, we visited the late King Hussein's Automobile Museum.  Not being much of a car person, this wasn't terribly exciting, but of course I still took pictures of the shiny things...

Shiny motorcycles are...shiny!

I dub this the Portal car.  If only there was another just like it but blue...

I love having excuses to take silly touristy pictures.

After the Automobile museum, we went to ACOR (American Center for Oriental Research) and listened to a short talk.  ACOR is near the University of Jordan, and they have free, fast wi-fi, coffee and tea, and extensive non-circulating library and, because they are American, have access to JSTOR, which is a huge online collection of academic journals, articles, and books.  They are only open 8am - 4pm, which isn't exactly convenient during the week because I'm pretty sure I'll have classes, but I think I'll try to study there some if I have time, and I'll definitely use JSTOR for research if I need it for papers. 

Thus concludes my first official day in Jordan! For the rest of the evening, I plan to hang out and SLEEP. 

This guy knows the definition of "hanging out".