Mount Nebo - Moses Burial Site

Madaba's Mosaics

Castle at Ajloun

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ingrid & I wish you all a fun, safe Thanksgiving Day. I sent an email to my American teachers with the attached video from Charlie Brown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovXfuTvuy-8
One of the teachers, an Egyptian American from New Jersey, showed the video to his year 1 students at the Men's campus. He wrote me back with the follwoing: "Just showed this to my class. They were surprised to learn about Thanksgiving. We had a nice conversation. A student noted, 'So they thank God for everything? That's like us...in Ramadan.' It was a nice moment in class, bridging cultures." Miss you all alot.

Ajloun

Ingrid wants everyone to know she did not wear the same orange shirt every day. We visited all of these places in just one day! Because the country is small, a lot can be seen in a short period of time. We were out the door by 8am and home by 5pm! The small town of Ajloun was way up in the mountains, and there were people selling sheep for Eid Al Fitr, and the air was really cool and windy. For more info, see http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/ajloun.html.

Jerash - Roman City

Our guide took us about an hour north of Amman to the largest Roman ruins outside of Italy. It was impressive. We also had the best meal in Jordan at, of all places, the cafeteria! For more info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerash.

Roman Theatre & Forum, Amman

My people (you know, the Romans!) were here around 100 AD when they built these monuments. We were surprised by how cheap the entry fees were - $1.50 per person.

Jebel al-Qala'a, Amman

In downtown Amman, there is an area of ancient ruins called The Citadel. It is the original settlement of Amman dating back to the Bronze Age (~3000 BCE). It is also the highest point in Amman (2500'). Unlike other ruins we have visited, here you can touch them & even climb on them - though we did not. As you can see, the weather was great.

Jordanian Adventures

I will load pics as time permits then add stories after. If anyone wants to take an awesome vacation, Jordan would be the place. Coming from the planet's newest "civilization", it was amazing to visit one of the world's oldest. When we arrived at the Queen Alia airport, immigration and customs were a breeze. Finding a cab was chaotic, as there was no place to get in line. Somehow, we ended up at the local bus stop. Some man spoke to us in Arabic, a daily event as everyone thought we were Lebanese, & asked where we were going. I replied "Da'wa'eer Khamis" (Circle 5) and he said "OK, 3JD each." Taxis are 25JD, so we took the deal! We hopped on w/a local guy and off we went. 2 minutes later, we stopped at the next terminal to get more passengers. There were 14 seats on the mini-bus. 3 were already taken, & 12 more got on. Do the math. Someone did not buy a ticket. SO for the next 5 minutes, everyone had to show their tickets 2 or 3 times while the ticket seller, bus driver, and the jerk without the ticket yelled at one another in Arabic. Ingrid said, "I knew we should have taken a taxi." I said, "But this is so much more entertaning!" The extra guy refused to get off, so we drove away with one person standing. It took about 45 minutes through bone dry, barren, hilly terrain to get to Amman. Our hotel was the Crystal Suites, a nice family run place with 1 & 2 bedroom apts & HUGE free breakfasts. In Amman, it is best to avoid staying at the big western hotel chains as they can be targets for terrorism. Even our little local hotel had a bomb/weapons scanner that you had to walk through every time you entered the front door. We spent the afternoon walking around Amman, eating great local food like mixed grilled meats and went to the new Mecca Mall to buy some stuff. At the mall (another bomb scanner), Ingrid wanted something from the food court, so I went & got a table while she ordered some food. I opened my wallet to count my money when Ii noticed a woman standing to my right and a guy just behind her. I had a flashback to Madrd's gypsy thieves and as she spoke to me in Arabic, I said loudly & rudely "La La Arabayya, Ingleze." (No no Arabic, English). Ingrid heard me and looked over. Then the woman said in perfect English, "This is the family section. Where is your family?" They were mall security! Everyone was looking. I said, "My wife is over there getting food." I was pissed because there were no signs ANYWHERE stating this was a family area. It was the middle of a food court! Then she said, "OK, I am just asking." To which I replied, "You need to put up a sign." Then Ingrid arrived with her chicken and said, "Stop fighting with the people!" We didn't go back to that mall for the rest of the trip!

Jebel Hafeet

Ingrid & I spent the day in Al Ain with Paul Barney. We drove up to the top of Jebel Hafeet, the tallest mountain in UAE near the Oman border. It's only 4000 feet, but it felt a lot higher! There's a hotel up there as well as mega-mansions for the Emirati royal families. It was also the coolest temps we've felt since last March!

It's a SMALL SMALL World!

Sorry for the looong delay since last post. All is well in UAE though it's still almost 100 every day. At least it's not so humid. Two of my former classmates from University of Arizona started jobs here in August/September: Paul Barney moved from Boston to Al Ain and Jeremy Palmer from Cornell to Sharjah. I will upload some photos eventually. Both are settling well. Anyway, I almost fell over when I saw the local newspaper carrying a story about going to RHODE ISLAND for higher education. Agreed there are some great schools there, but honestly, I doubt anyone from the Gulf States would feel very comfortable living in Rhode Island - the climate & culture are just too different! Here is a link to the article: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/seaside-education-on-rhode-island-1.690640
It even has pictures of Johnson & Wales! Could you imagine a young Emirati guy falling for an Italian girl from Johnston?!? I think we'd have a sitcom in the making. Anyway, hope everyone is getting ready for Fall foliage, apple pies and Halloween!

Saudi Invasion

When word gets out that we are home, my former students from KSA always come to see us. Here are some pics with Bader & his cousin Mohammed, and Massad, Hamad and Mohammed. I'm happy to report everyone's English is better than the last time I saw them, Bader finished his master's in Engineering at New Mexico State and Massad has his MBA from Scranton, PA. The guys brought us a freshly slaughtered lamb, which we cooked on the grill, as well as some non-alcoholic beer. Yeah right! Some things never change.

Every town around us has had between .5 an 2.5" of rain. But we've only received .08! So the watering continues. Yesterday, we picked more than 20 pounds of grapes! All I need now is a recipe for wine. The green apples keep coming, plums are finished, and the almonds are almost ready. Also, my parents and aunt & uncle from LA were all here this past weekend.

Home Sweet Home

Despite the heat (105-110F/40-45C) every day and no monsoon yet, the yard & garden look great, thanks to Cousin Michael. We have apples, plums and grapes ripening now, and expect the almonds and limes to be ready in a a few weeks.

Weekend in Chicago!

We spent our 1st few days in the US with Pete & Paula. Paula & I went to SLU together almost 25 years ago! We went to Taste of Chicago, had severe thunderstorms twice, ran into Tina Turner and took an awesome dinner cruise from Navy Pier.