Happy Anniversary!

Matt and I had our 2nd anniversary yesterday.  He celebrated by going to work, and I celebrated by going to the Roman Amphitheater.  He did get off early, but after taking a walk around town looking for a liquor store, and not finding one, (I have to have a chaperone for alcohol purchases... I'm not sure if that's a law, but I think it's probably just a good idea... I'm already pushing the boundaries with my exposed calves), we got too hungry to find a place to eat, and so came back here and ate free food at the happy hour.  It was mostly potatoes and hummus.  Consequently, we've decided we'll have a real celebration when we get back.  I want to go to Six Flags.  He wants to go eat.  I think we could probably squeeze in both, but we'll see.  I can't believe it's been two years already!  It seems like only yesterday that Nick gave that wonderful best man's toast about us "being about as good a couple as any".  Thanks, buddy.

View of the amphitheater from The Citadel.

Anyway, things have been going just fine here, and the amphitheater was a pretty amazing sight.  I tried to put it off so I didn't have to visit everything in town twice (once alone and once with Matt), but boredom won out.  It was a good call as it was pretty spectacular and I don't think I'll have a problem going more than once.  It's billed as "the highlight of Amman", and while I haven't seen enough of the city to agree wholeheartedly, I did enjoy it.  I guess it's the best remnant of Roman times from back when the city was called Philadelphia.  Imagine that.

It was built in the 2nd century A.D, and while not making it to the top of my "oldest things I've seen" list, it gets pretty far on the "oldest things I've walked and sat on".  The Great Wall comes in pretty high as well.  I know, I know.  I'm very spoiled.  Ahh, but never forget the hardships I face.  Anyway, my taxi driver (when not trying to solicit work from me for a jaunt around the country) told me they have a huge party at the amphitheater in the summer.  I asked him when "the summer" is in Jordan, and he said something along the lines of "3 or 6 days or weeks".  I'll let you make of that what you will, as I couldn't get much from it.  On another note, the driver also told me that 70 percent of people who live in Jordan are from Palestine.  I guess they had a huge influx of people who emigrated from Palestine in the late '40s during the war with Israel.  He said his parents came then and though he was born in Jordan, he considers himself both Jordanian and Palestinian.  And he was very careful to explain to me that while there are a lot of immigrants from different countries, they are "all one people.  Just like America".  Yeah, kind of.

Roman pillars.

View from the top.  

So that's about all that's been going on here.  I've been shopping a few times, and while Matt and I have hit up several Western fast food joints, we are having the hardest time finding Jordanian food!  It's getting kind of embarrassing, actually.  The closest I've come to is one tiny falafel ball at breakfast, and a lot of hummus up at the happy hour.  They were both fabulous, but we need something more!  Our hotel is in kind of a bad location for restaurants, so we'll probably have to research restaurants and take a taxi.  Maybe we'll have at least one Jordanian meal before we leave.  Cross your fingers.  Don't know our exact plans for departure yet, but Matt should be done with work in the next three or four days, and then we're planning to do some sightseeing around the country.  I was going to go see Petra by myself and then again with Matt, but I didn't realize it was a 3 hour car ride and will probably be kind of expensive to get there, so it'd probably be better if we just went once.  We also want to see the Dead Sea, which is less than an hour away... surely the minerals will cleanse our bodies and souls and we will return to you totally radiant and purified.  And riddled with bacteria.

This is the king of Jordan.  There are posters of him all over the city.