Well I got back to Amman a couple weeks ago. The little vacation to Jerusalem was nice. It was great to see th Shakkours again. They all said my Arabic was immensely better than it was last year...well I would hope so, but it still made me feel good. Once I came back to Amman I started work back up at the Physics department. We are in the middle of trying to create some nano-structured materials using electro-deposition (thats for my science nerd friends) and I am the only one in the department who knows how to use the new microscope well enough to analyze the samples (which makes me feel kinda good). Language classes started on the 10th. The first day of class was great. We had a great teacher who was very organized, and we had a syllabus and schedule for the entire semester, and we had an organized book of texts to read...then the second day came, and we found out that the great teacher was not going to be our teacher and that the department did not know who was going to teach us. They have changed our schedule of classes four times now, and they say it has been solidified, but nobody really know what is going on. Until now, we still aren't sure of when, where, or what we are going to be studying exactly...welcome to Jordan.
On a brighter note me and two friends went for a day trip on Friday down to Wadi (valley) Hasa and hiked through a good portion of it. It was really awesome. There are natural hot springs throughout the valley, so the little river that flows in the bottom is like 80 or 90 degrees. Historically this valley was the border between the land of Edom and the land of Moab. It also intersects the Kings Highway (which has retained its name even til today, and is believed to be the same road as 3000 years ago) which the children of Israel desired to use to come to the promised land (Numbers 20,21). There were a couple of ruins along the way, but I couldn't identify from what civilization (most likely just Ottoman).
here is one panoramic of the valley
