Jordan (not Michael)

I've arrived in Jordan. Don't have a whole lot of time to blog right now, but just thought I would update my whereabouts.

Despite arriving at 3:30am, my friend Andrea met me at the airport to give me a lift to Amman. I met Andrea while studying Arabic in Jordan in 2004. She now teaches at an American school here and has lived in Jordan for 2 years. The purpose of my visit, to be honest, is really just to see her. Amman isn't a booming tourist hub and while there is tons to see our in the country, the city itself really lacking.

Since gender rules are a little more complicated in Jordan than say in Japan, I couldn't stay at Andrea's place and instead ended up sleeping in one of the most interesting places yet. Andrea has arranged for me to stay with a family here, but seeing as how my flight arrived at such an ungodly hour, I slept in the hallway of Andrea's school. It worked out quite nicely, actually. I had a nice foam mat and a pillow. I slept extremely well.

When I finally rolled out of bed this morning we went on a little excursion to find some hummus and bread- two staples of the Jordanian diet and a favorite of yours truly. I quickly became re-oriented with the city even though it has changed a lot in the last four years. For starters, they now have Starbucks, which they didn't back then. Amman is a very very westernized city- probably the reason I like it so much. I immediately felt more confident here and more at home. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact I've been here before and know a little of the language and have friends already, but something intangible really puts me at peace about this place. Also the fact that there is little humidity does wonders for your mental state.

Not much of a plan here. Just see and hang out with Andrea for a little while and then move on to Syria. Tomorrow, though, I will go with a couple CSers to Petra in the southern part of Jordan. It's about a 3 hour car ride away from town. I went to Petra back in 2004 but I feel that it is a place you cannot just see once. It is truly magnificent and very worthy of the honor of being one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

So that about sums it up. I'll check back in later. Take care.