Thanksgiving!

(Ch)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Obviously this blog is way out of date, so I'll attempt to chronicle some of things that have been happening in our lives (including this picture).

First, some highlights of our travels while here in Jordan (we've visited quite a few places).

Clarke already posted about going to Israel, so I'll leave that at that. You can view more pictures of our trip on Facebook - unfortunately I haven't had time to add them on to photobucket.

After that we went out to the Dead Sea area to float around. That was fun, if a little bit salty. There are a number of nice spas and hotels down by the Dead Sea, but we decided to just find a free shoreline and "dive in" (as to speak). All you have to do is wade into the water about knee high, turn around, and sit down. You'll float. In fact, it's a little bit hard to get your feet back down onto the ground - also if you have any small cuts or anything you'll know immediately where they are.

That same weekend we went to Mt. Nebo which is where Moses was taken to see the Promised Land before he died. Although a bit of that was closed, it was still cool to see. The whole, "Hey I'm standing where people in the Bible stood" feeling hasn't really worn off yet. We also saw some nice mosaics in that area - including an ancient mosaic map of a large section of the Middle East.

We also made it out to some hot Springs, where King Solomon used to go and relax. That was... hot. It's really just some large pools of hot water filled by waterfalls from hot springs. You can just stand and get pounded on the back with falling water.

Last week we celebrated "Fanksgiving" - Fake Thanksgiving. It's fake simply because Thanksgiving is this week not last. But the food was amazing - turkey, mashed potatos, stuffing, etc... In fact, it was really more American than the Thanksgivings I have in America (at least in terms of food)! We also, for some reason, decided that it would be a good idea to dress up for Thanksgiving like we did for Halloween. That's what the picture at the top was about.

We also made it out to a church near Amman where Clarke and I gave about 15 minute (30 translated) sharings about what God has been teaching us. Around that area we also climbed on some ruins which was a lot of fun.

In terms of work, both Clarke and I have been teaching every week. We also meet up with students on somewhat of a regular basis to practice English and just hang out. The number of people during coffee shop has been up and down, but we always have a good time with the students every week. Our Arabic lessons have also been going pretty well - though we often don't have enough time to really study very much.


In our meetings with friends, we've learned a lot about the culture in Jordan. I'm constantly surprised by how small my worldview seems to be - how many ideals and perceptions in my life are cultural and relative. There is much to think about to be sure.

Well, we're going to be eating another Thanksgiving feast soon, so I'm off!