Amman got humps, possibly lady lumps

Amman is built on seven hills (or thirteen, thanks to refugee expansion due to the war in Iraq. Thank your family for me, Neda). Although I have been outside the midwest and experienced that thing the rest of the world knows as "elevation," living in a hilly, third-world city has already taken its toll on me in the form of two rolled ankles. DUHHHHH!

The program has been relatively structured so far, and aside from the resident director telling me I'm going to be in "special housing" (she insinuated a basement apartment with a little window and some kind of crushing motion), everything has been entertaining and educational. Edu-tational. So, basically its been pretty lame. The city tour was cool though.

Some things I've seen:

-Parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls claiming Jesus was a hermaphrodite (kidding)
-Temple of Hercules, ruined
-Roman Amphitheatre

Feed the Christian to the lions!

-Byzantine Church, ruined
-King Hussein Mosque (for the nerds: its an Umayyad Mosque with a hidden sound system behind the wood paneling and seating (or squatting?) space for 5000)
-Amman Children's Museum
-Royal Automobile Museum

The royal family will get its own post later, because they are easily the most ballin-est family in the country. How baller, do you ask? The kids had their own BMW motorcycles by age 9. And they stock-race competitively. And hold national records for cross-country racing.

Rollin wit .50's

Imagine Dale Earnhardt Sr., Travis Pastrana, Brad Pitt, and Warren Buffet as one person. That was the late King Hussein.

Random Jordanian Fact of the Day: Jordan has a secret police. They are everywhere; driving around, disguised as beggars as well as civilians. They speak PERFECT English, and apparently they stopped at least one terrorist plot last May to blow up a Catholic Church. So thanks to former Egyptian President Nasser (and indirectly, Stalin and Khrushchev) the Jordanian KGB are my friends. YAY TOTALITARIANISM!