Blogs from Amman, North, Jordan, Middle East - page 26

Moving on Jordanian time has dominated my mentality. Everything that is planned could easily change at absolutely any moment. It's a wonderful lesson in patience. The presentations have been good although the turn out has been questionable. Already we have much intrest in students here who want to start a branch of Amnesty International. Great! As long as we change one perspective we've made a difference. We've also met some incredible people. Last night we celebrated Jude (my Jordanian coyear)'s birthday at her house. Her mother made a traditional Jordanian sweet whose name I can't remember. It was made of orange cheese and cream cheese and combined savory and sweet in a weird way. It was very good though. Tomorrow we hopefully go to the dead sea. It hasn't been hot at all yet but ... read more

HI! Just a quick email to say that I made it and I'm alive. Everything is really good it's really nice being with all these people again. The hotel is not a hostel and is really nice. I think we're there the whole time except a night or two in the desert at the end ot the three weeks. We work on presentations tomorrow. I'll try to write more later. It's late now and I'm tired. -Malia... read more

Ich bin zurueck in der Zivilisation! Ja, wirklich. Ich hab einen Supermarkt gesehen - und einen McDonalds. Beides doch sichere Anzeichen fuer eine zivilisierte Welt :) Naja, fangen wir mal wieder morgens an: Viel zu frueh klingelt mein bloeder Wecker (genaugenommen 2 Wecker... better safe than sorry) und ich mach mich halte mein letztes syrisches Taxi an. Ich habe genau noch 500 Lira uebrig, davon brauch ich allerdings 200 fuer "Flughafengebuehren", ein Taxi sollte maximal 300 kosten, aber eigentlich will ich nochn Kaffee trinken, also muss ich den Fahrer auf 250 runterhandeln. Ich schrei ihm also myaten we khamsin ins Taxi, nachdem er 300 wollte, und er nickt. So einfach kanns gehen... die 15 km zum Flughafen schafft er in 10 Minuten, wie immer ohne seines defekten Tachos oder den roten Ampeln eines Blickes zu ... read more

Aqaba - Amman - Jerash - Petra - Wadi Rum - Dead Sea - Amman We're heading north on Jordan's Desert Highway. Dusty tracks disappear off into the endless desert on either side. Road signs point right to Iraq & Saudi Arabia and ahead to Syria & Lebanon. A few hours behind us lays Egypt & although the signs make no mention of it, Israel & Palestine are just a few miles to the left. We're heading north from the tropical port city of Aqaba to the capital Amman & with signs like these you really get a feel for where you are in the world. We'd arrived in Aqaba by ferry from Nuweiba, Egypt. It had been a long day. Although the ferry is supposed leave every day, nobody knows if or when it really ... read more

We arrived in Amman, Jordan by mid-afternoon. Stepping out of baggage claim we walked to the taxi stand. Along the way an eight year old boy walked past us and when he was only three feet away used his fingers as a toy gun and pretended to shoot us in the head. Welcome to Jordan. After negotiating with the cabbies to takes us to our hostel we ventured out into the rain. Unlike Egypt, the weather in Jordan was cold, rainy and windy. It was quite a shock after the incredible weather in Cairo. Once we checked in we arranged a car to take us on the three hour drive to Petra, wait for us and drive us back for only $100USD. There is a public bus that can take you there for considerably less but ... read more