Just outside of Amman is an old Roman city called Jerash.
This city has been inhabited since about 3000BC and has some amazing ruins!
Jerash was inhabited by the Romans for most of its history and is sometimes referred to as the Pompeii of the Middle East.
Jerash was part of the Decapolis and because Christ spent time in the
Decapolis, it’s possible (but not probable?) that he visited Jerash!
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The city has some remarkable amphitheatres and about 1000 columns. It’s a little hard to be impressed by ruins after visiting Pompeii earlier this year, but Jerash has a major perk in that it is completely unguarded. You can climb anywhere and you [probably] won’t get in trouble. Much of the city has not been reconstructed so there are column pieces and capitals lying all over the place. I loved it! 
On Wednesday, we started our day at the mosque. As I’ve mentioned, mosques are a little anti-climatic since there isn’t much to it. Our tour guide explained how women and men are separated during prayer services, men on the main floor and women in the balconies above or in a separate mosque attached to the side. Lots of the girls were so put out by this information--so annoyed by the unequal treatment of men and women. Things like this really don’t bother me. As much as feminists would like to deny it, men and women are different and at times, treatment tailored to a specific gender is appropriate. Muslims pray in an awkward position, squatted down on their knees, forehead on the floor, arms outstretched above their head, fanning up and down. They separate men and women for reasons of modesty and appropriateness. What’s so wrong with that? Jews separate men and women so the men aren’t distracted by the women while they worship. I don’t see why this should be so upsetting to people. 
In Amman, we visited the Citadel lookout. When we arrived EARLY on Wednesday I was unimpressed by the old Roman temple on a big flat platform. I thought it odd to visit this tiny Roman ruins site after spending several hours at Jerash the day before which was huge and cool. But I realized the Citadel is the exact location where Captain Abu Raed was filmed! I took a group of people to see that movie at the film festival last week. The overlook provided great views of modern day residential Amman. I still have no idea why we stopped there as a class, but to me it was so exciting to be on the location we had seen in the film! 
The citadel also has the Amman Museum which is a spectacular collection of artifacts from every time period since the Stone Age. The artifacts rival those found in the biggest and fanciest museums in the world, but there are almost no restrictions or barriers between you and touching an ancient Roman statue, and so I did! I touched everything that wasn’t behind glass, just because I could. 
There is an interesting issue with passport stamps in the Middle East. Several Arab countries do not recognize Israel as a state, and if you have any evidence of a visit to the "Zionist entity" in your passport, you will be denied entry, end of story. If you cross into Israel from the Jordan crossing points you can usually avoid the stamp(s).
Not just any Jordanian border crossing will do though. The King Hussein Bridge (Jordan) / Allenby Terminal (Israel) border crossing is the only place where the Jordanians will not stamp your passport upon exiting the country (it's not enough just to avoid the Israeli stamp, since a Jordanian exit stamp on a land border with Israel is just as incriminating). Even though Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel and recognizes its existence, in an interesting case of self-delusion, the Jordanians do not consider you to be leaving Jordan if you go through this crossing (conveniently though, they still charge a $15 departure tax).
Jordanian customs and immigration weren’t a big problem for us, but it did take an hour of sitting and waiting on the bus to make it through. The actual King Hussein Bridge is surprisingly short, and the Jordan River, which it spans, is pitifully small. Blink and you'll miss it.
Our last stop on the drive back home to the Jerusalem center was the traditional site where Christ was baptized. I know I’ve talked a lot about the heat, but here I was the hottest I have ever been in my life. I think the potential for a really spiritual and meaningful experience was lost in heat waves... It’s hard to imagine exactly what the place looked like when Jesus was baptized there because today there is no river. Water runs from the Sea of Galilee in the north down to the Dead Sea in the south and back in Jesus day it probably would’ve been a pretty strong current of water. Apparently irrigation and damming further upstream have reduced the once powerful Jordan River to a trickle. (I hope all that information is accurate, that’s what I understood from our guides but much gets lost in translation/accent interpretation).
In front of the Dead Sea a little nervous about the experience in the water...
It's such an odd feeling! It's hard to stay upwards, your body just floats up. It's very weird not to tread water. 
These are stones from the Second Temple built in Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD and these stones were pushed off the edge of the high temple platform to the street below. They are still there for us to see today!
On our way to Galilee we stopped at Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea. This old Roman city is where Pontuis Pilot ruled and was centered at the time of Christ. Paul spent time in this city in prison. It's beautiful!
Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel to learn about her impending pregnancy. We completed the visit with ice cream and super soaker purchases...
