Tuesday, June 4, 2013

A visit to the United States Embassy

Today was our last day in Jordan and we were busy attending the 10th Convergence Summit Conference, visiting Sesame, and getting the opportunity to visit the United States Embassy in Amman, Jordan.
Today was our last day in Jordan and we were busy attending the 10th Convergence Summit Conference, visiting Sesame, and getting the opportunity to visit the United States Embassy in Amman, Jordan.

We started off the day early attending day two of the conference. Here, we listened to four entrepreneurs give their business models. The whole delegation was able to ask questions and at the end of the presentation, we voted on what we thought of the presentation, the future revenue of the company, and the future of the company. The group really enjoyed asking the critical questions, especially since a majority of the companies were modeled after United States companies but just adapted for the Arab population.

We then headed to SESAME, which is a synchrotron radiation laboratory. This is the first of its kind in Jordan and will greatly benefit the region for educational and research purposes. We got a brief explanation of the physics behind it and then enjoyed a tour of their facility. They are still in the building process and are expected to complete the final stage in 2016.

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We then headed back to Amman to visit the United States Embassy! After going through security and being escorted inside, we were able to talk with a panel of five individuals from different departments about what they are working on and how they ended up at the Embassy. Afterwards, we were able to go out to dinner with one of the staff members for our farewell dinner!

We are now at the airport in Amman for our 2:45 am flight home. We have a 25 hour journey ahead of us, with stops in Frankfurt and Toronto. It's been a trip of a lifetime and we are all so glad to have experienced the Middle East.