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!