Snorkeling for a Sunk Ship in the Red Sea

Went to the beach of the Red Sea today with the Wolske's to relax for the holiday. Here in Jordan, Friday and Saturday are basically taken as a holiday and are recognized as the weekend. It is typical for families to go the beach together, and when I mean go I mean like 12 + hours at the beach. You see, family and hospitality are valued highly by the Jordanian people and it is not uncommon for them to keep entertaining guests and spending time with family all day long and deep into the night. 

From the beach where we were located, you could look out and see 4 countries at once. To the left of the beach about a mile down was Saudi Arabia, Egypt is located directly across the Sea, to the right of Egypt at the end of the Gulf is Israel and I was obviously in Jordan. The beach was filled with people and shade was sought after like gold. Lining the rocky sand was little coverings made of of straw that acted as the best form of shade around. After searching around we landed a spot close to the sand soccer field and the water. After some Jordanian style pizza, Gene and I went snorkeling around the reef of the Red Sea. 

It was my first time ever snorkeling and as the Red Sea is so salty, I found the buoyancy to be the first surprise. With the big daddy fins I glided through the water around the reef  that started about 10 meters off of the beach. We swam among the coral and saw the most incredible colors and sights below. I kept my eyes peeled for Egyptian horse carts and luckily did not see any. One of the cool parts of the area of the beach we were at was that 20 years ago the government sunk an old ship off of the coast to help encourage the reef growth. I guess the reef uses the ship as a foundation to grow off of and around. The ship is identified by a huge floating buoy and Gene and I swam out to it during our snorkeling session. As I got closer, I had the most scared feeling that someone or something was going to come up out of the ship and grab me and take me below. As I swam over the remains of the ship I could not help but be filled with a slight state of eeriness. The boat was about 10 meters below but the details of the ship could be clearly seen. 

Back on land, I meet a new friend named Ahmad, who is a taxi driver. He has offered me his driving services for free and I spent some time meeting his family. During the time I was offered tea, which is the staple of Jordanian hang out times, which was amazing ("Zachy" in Arabic). However, in meeting his family I never was introduced to his three sisters and we instantly separated into a circle of guys and a circle of girls. Ahmad and me spoke of the way marriage works in Jordan and how when he wants to marry he will ask the permission of the father before he has every spoken to the girl. After our tea and chat, we swam back out to the ship which was scarier the second time. It was fun having him explain to me the different fish and identify things I did not notice the first time. We then played soccer and volleyball. We played volleyball with 9 Jordanian guys and they were laughing the hardest during the whole game. I would laugh because I was forced to create dialogue that I perceived them to be having in my head and then I would respond in English ("Ingglezy" in Arabic). This caused them to laugh even harder and it was such a fun time.

Then I got home and decided that as Tim was gone, it would be a perfect time to put clothes away and cut my hair. As the only outlets are in the kitchen I took a mirror and set it up near the sink and planned on cutting my hair in the sink. I started and the blade moved slowly to the point where it was pulling my hair out like in the days when my sister pulled hair (She actually never did that). I messed with the settings on the converted and thought that maybe my clippers just needed a charge. After some time, I plugged them in again but to the same result. I then figured I could just plug the clippers right into the adapter without the converter and they started up with the most force I have ever heard. Naturally, I smiled and started cutting my hair for the seven seconds the clippers worked. So it turns out the plugging in an item that can only handle 120 Watts into a socket that gives out 240 Watts will kill your appliance. Now I have no clippers and will be resorting to the good old barber.

My roommate has 7 friends over from Boston and they are spending the night with us tonight. They are all asleep now but it was exciting to hear about their journeys and compare challenges and adventures of our time in the Middle East. To my family and friends, you are missed.