Many of you know that I love Middle Eastern food and today was a culinary high point for me. After our morning lectures, we had a delicious lunch of hummus, falafel, etc. at Kafha, a "fast food" type restaurant in downtown Amman. And we just returned from a wonderful farewell dinner at Tawaheen A-Hawa, a beautiful outdoor restaurant with fountains and Bedouin tents. SIT staff gave all of us a traditional Arab headdress (keffiyeh) and Rafael de Sa and I enjoyed trying them on and posing for photos.

In addition to the cuisine and fun, we also had had many serious thought-provoking discussions today. Our morning lectures featured Dr. Abla Abu Ilbeh, who spoke about Jordan's political parties and the role of women in politics. Then Dr. Haitham Al Zuabi gave an intriguing presentation on the current refugee crisis with Syrian citizens as well as Iraqi and Palestinian refugees. Our day ended with a round-table discussion on the Israel-Palestine conflict with several Palestinians/Jordanians and they also joined us for dinner.

After lunch, we took a brief tour of the city and visited the Amman Citadel, a national historic site and one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. The views of the city were fantastic.

Now on to Haifa in the morning!