Blogs from Amman, North, Jordan, Middle East - page 9

I returned to the university the next day, by myself, to find it open. I uncertainly walked in to a man seated behind a desk. “Ahlan wa sahlan,” I greeted quietly. The man returned my greeting and continued to ask what I needed in Arabic. At this point in time, I was getting comfortable with understanding what people were saying, but still a bit shaky on answering them in Arabic. I am in serious need of a verb-vocabulary increase. So I just went to my mother tongue, “I’m looking for Stephen Bush?” I said with a questioning tone. It’s a bad habit to get into: making statements as if they’re questions. A woman was in the process of walking past the glass doors near the reception, but on the opposite side. She saw this ... read more

Thank God for laziness! I woke up at around 12pm the next day, Saturday. While most say that’s lazy, keep in mind I had 6 hours of sleep when I’m supposed to be on vacation. Delayed jet lag is the worse because you think you’re fine the first couple of days and then bam! You’re dead tired and sleepy in the middle of the afternoon. If I hadn’t woken up at a teenager’s time and started to head out to wander the streets at 1:15pm, I never would have met Michael and Landon. I met them as I got a small card with the hotel’s information and a simple downtown map on it. (The previous night I went to a café down the street for a couple of hours and couldn’t find the hotel for 20 ... read more

I awoke the next morning to a somewhat still darkened room. I sat up checking the time: 10:34. Not bad for someone who went to sleep 5 hours earlier and it was 2am back home. After checking my body for obvious bug bites and finding none, I walked slowly out of the door and into my assigned bathroom. I knew now that they called it a Water Closetfor a reason. After trying to take care of getting over the idea of putting used tissue in the trash can next to me instead of in the toilet, I walked back into the room and closed the door quietly. My miniature balcony door was still closed and I could tell that the light behind it was screaming to be released. I moseyed on over and turned ... read more

Welcome to Jordan! We made it - our Middle Eastern adventure has finally begun! 22 hours after take off we landed in the surprisingly cold city of Amman, Jordan. We decided to treat ourselves to a night of luxury at the Grand Hyatt before our jam packed adventure begins! This turned out to be a great decision as when we checked into our tours starting point hotel the following day, it wasn't exactly going to be topping any "best lists".We had read in lonely planet before leaving that there is this amazing local street cafe to eat at. So good, the Royal family even dines there! As always, Lonely Planet never lets down and it was an incredible meal. For about $1.50 each we feasted on felafel, hand cut fries, fuul (a delicious Fava bean dip) ... read more

Dinner last night was a great success. I rounded up three from our trip (Kathy, Andrew and Michael). We were joined by a Monitor couple who are colleagues of Andrew’s . We ate at the “Living Room” a very westernish restaurant about 15 minutes from the Crowne Plaza. Jennifer ordered about six dishes and we all just dug in. This morning we spent in a three hour meeting. Local staff at RTP told us about the local operations in Jordan. Then we drove 15 minutes through Amman to a Community Centre to take part in a session organized for teenage girls (and observing moms) by the Jordan Chechen society. Turns out that these Islamic Yugoslavians were driven out of their own countries by Stalin , and others, and were taken in by the Jordanians. Nevertheless they ... read more