Snow Day

Sorry it's been so long since the last entry. Ironically enough, classes were canceled yesterday because of snow. The weather this weekend has been really bad: cold, wet, and windy. It didn’t really snow today aside for briefly in the morning, and there was no accumulation at our apartment, but I guess the threat was enough to close things down.

On Saturday I went to the Dead Sea with my roommates and a few other people. Because of the weather, it may not have been the best day to go. It was cold and rainy in Amman and cloudy and very windy at the Dead Sea, though probably about five or so degrees warmer. Nevertheless, it was still a good experience.

We left at around one in the afternoon and took a cab to a bus station near downtown. We then boarded a bus bound for the Dead Sea. It was only about a forty-five minute ride, and that was with several stops. We were dropped off along the side of the road near the Dead Sea. There we met a Japanese student named Kira who was traveling across Asia. He decided to join up with us. After walking for a bit we came across this empty playground. We decided at that point to turn off the road and go toward the sea.

We then proceeded to walk down the coast for a few kilometers. It was slow going because the mud was really thick. It ended up caked all over my shoes. Along the way we came across a guy on a horse who offered us rides. Unfortunately, it ended up costing ten dinar. After a bit longer we came across some guys in a truck who offered to take us to Amman Beach, which was our initial destination but it would have cost an extra dinar each to get there on the bus.

There was a long and fruitless discussion with them about logistics, but we ended up going to the road and hitchhiking. We wound up in the back of a mostly empty delivery truck, but the driver apparently didn’t understand where we wanted to go and dropped us off about 10 kilometers too far. Another van took us to Amman Beach, but by that time we were all really tired and weren’t going to swim so one of the shuttles took us back to Amman.

Amman Beach felt like it has a similar atmosphere to the beach in America. There were resorts, hotels, and restaurants. It was empty, however, either because of the weather or maybe it’s out of season. It really felt just like the ocean, not the lowest point in the world or the Holy Land. This also marked the first time I had been outside of Amman since arrival. It was fun just improvising. That’s not really something I’ve had a chance to do in my limited past travels. Hopefully this is the last weekend that is rained out and from now on we'll be able to enjoy all that this country has to offer.