Jordan day 2

Today Omar picked me up from my hotel and took me to see the Roman Theater. This is a huge piece of Jordanian history and this theater is beautiful and ancient. There is a museum attached to theater that displays pieces of clothing and jewelry that was worn in different times and also some artwork. It was a very beautiful place.

After we toured the theater, we walked around old downtown Amman. There are shops and people everywhere. It was very exciting!

After this, Omar took me to his home, where I will now be staying the remainder of my trip. I met his mom. She is so beautiful and so sweet. She welcomed me into her home and had everything ready for me including a fabulous lunch of rice with almonds, lamb, chicken and a yogurt sauce that was again, DELICOUS!!

I settled into my room and then sat around talking with Omar and his mom while the rest of the family arrived. Omar has a terrific family. They are all very happy and so kind.

After I met everyone and the sun had set, Omar decided to take me to Rainbow St. It is Amman's version of uptown. Many fun shops, cafe's, book stores. We walked awhile, checked out books stores and then I had arabic ice cream. It is made with milk, vanilla and pistachios. YUMMY! We then went and picked up Omar's friend Ayed and the 2 of them showed me all around Amman. Rich parts with mansions, not so rich parts. It was great. We then stopped to have dinner. Omar suggested I try Shewerma. I call it the Jordanese (yes I know that's not really a word . . . ) but it is pit bread with lamb, a special kind of herb sauce, tomato, onion and its rolled tight like a taco. As with all the food I have tried to this point. DELICOUS! After that we dropped of Ayed and headed home. By this time it was midnight and I was ready to crash.

Arrival in Jordan

I arrived in Jordan on Feb 26 at 2pm, one hour earlier than I was supposed to. I exit the plane, have to jump through a bunch of hoops at integration and my luggage was lost in the back of the airport somewhere. Needless to say, I arrived at 2, but did not get out of the airport and into the fresh Jordanian air until 3:15pm. At this point my phone had died so I was unable to get ahold of Omar, who was no where to be found upon my arrival, so I decided to have a seat and wait. Since my plane was due to arrive at 3, he probably didn't think I would be out of the airport until 4. Finally about 4:30 Omar arrived to pick me up. He thought my flight arrived around 3:40 and he had car issues.No worries though. I enjoyed the fresh air and people watching.

Omar picked me up with his friend Ayed. He is a very nice guy. The first place they took me was to have dinner. We went to a Turkish restaurant and I had lamb kabobs, hummus and some other stuff. It was SOOOO delicious! I am so in love with the food here!

After that they drove me around and showed me a bit of Amman on the way to my hotel. I requested to stay at a hotel my first night so I could crash in peace after my long flight and not put the burden on Omar's family to let me rest in peace.
My first day in Jordan was FABULOUS! The city is beautiful, the food is amazing and the people are fantastic!

Airlines don't make traveling easy . . .

I arrived at the airport about 3 hours prior to my flight, which was recommended for international travel. I haven't traveled to a foreign country other than Mexico so I wanted to be sure I had everything I needed.

Anyway, to kill time I had a margarita! I know, I quit drinking, but this was a special occassion. (and I didn't quit because I abuse it, I quit because I'm running) I got pretty intoxicated from the on giant margarita, but I stumbled over to may gate, which happened to be right outside the bar, about 45 minutes prior to takeoff. The gate agent then announces that my flight to New York will be delayed up to 2 hours due to air traffic trying to get into JFK. WTF??? Who over books?? Apparently this happens ALL the time, but I don't have 2 hours to wait, I will miss my connecting flight, so the gate agent tells me to try to rebook another flight to Detroit, then I can catch a flight from there to Paris and Paris onto Amman. . . WHAT??? Are you kidding me? But I do it because if I stay with the JFK flight I will miss my connection anyway, so while I am on the phone with Delta and they are rebooking me to Detroit, that flight becomes delayed, due to weather this time, which means I will miss my connection to Paris. OYE!! So I tell him put me back on the JFK flight, I will have more options to fly international from there than from Detroit.

So our plane finally departs Minneapolis at 5pm. Exactly 2 hours from my original departure time. We arrive in New York ahead of schedule due to tail winds, but, because they were not ready for our early arrive we had to taxi for an additional 15 minutes. By this time I am panicking, I have exactly 10 minutes to run my ass from the arrival gate to my departure gate. We arrive at gate 25 and I depart from 14. Sounds easy right? But I have never been to JFK before so I didn't know what to expect. 1-its full of people, I can't really run without knocking people down, but I do it anyway. As I feel I am getting so close, long hallways and corridors appear and I'm getting further and further behind. Finally a lady on a cart stops and picks me up and brings me to my gate. I arrived at exactly my departure time, the gate agents were actually beginning to rebook my ticket to Paris which left in an hour . . . but I happened to get lucky, and the co-pilot was on a delayed flight as well, so I had 1 minute to spare before the doors were sealed. THANK YOU GOD is all I can say! I already have a short time in Jordan and with these delays, I would've had an even shorter time.

But, I arrived and I arrived an hour early and I am having an amazing time!

Today's the day!

I board my plan in 7 hours. I have 8 million bags, good thing my first 2 are free!
I don't have much to say other than I could not be more excited to flee the country! When I tell people where I'm going, I always get the "Oh, interesting choice. Why would you go there"? C'mon people! Live a little! I've seen a ton of the US and Canada, I've been to Mexico and a Caribbean Island, the Middle East seems like the most logical choice! Not only is the landscape beautiful, there is so much history there and it will be amazing to get to experience the culture first hand. So, bon voyage! Jordan here I come!

1.5 days . . .

1.5 days?!?!? AAaaahhhhhh!! I scream with both excitement and anxiety! 1.5 days and I will get to see my friend! 1.5 days and I have two weeks of homework to complete, a suitcase to pack, a job to do, and newly delivered furniture scattered chaotically throughout my place.

1.5 days will come all too fast, but I am totally looking forward to the much needed break from my busy, chaotic life. I am excited to explore a new culture, new language, and as picky as I am, even new food . . . well to a point anyway!

As fun as this is, I must cut is short, too much to do and so little time!

Goodnight!

2.5 days and counting

It has been requested by several of my friends that I keep a blog while I am overseas. This is my first blog, so please be kind!

Here it goes!

I am two and half days away from boarding a plane to Amman, Jordan. My first "real" international vacation. (Mexico doesn't cound) I'm bursting at the seams with excitement and can't concentrate worth a damn. Not good when I have two and a half days left of work and school.

I keep wondering how the heck I'm going to survive a 15-hour flight crammed into a window seat. Advil PM, that's how . . . The longest flight I have been on, was a 7 hour flight to St. Maarten. Being 6 feet tall makes being crammed into an airplane seat extremely uncomfortable.

What do you pack for a Middle Eastern adventure? I have not begun this task yet. What do you wear to ride a camel? The temperature ranges from 60 to 80 degrees depending upon where our adventure takes us that day. Looks like I'll be hitting that baggage weight limit as I always do . . .

Again, 15 hours is a LONG time, so what do you pack in your carry-on to pass the time quickly? You can only read, listen to music and do crosswords for so long. This is where traveling alone can be a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, traveling alone is a wonderful adventure, it just makes for a boring plane ride.

I am traveling to Jordan to visit my friend Omar. I met Omar the summer of 2008. We became the best of friends and we have kept in touch ever since. I CANNOT wait to see Omar again. It has been two and a half years since we have seen each other in person. Omar's family is kind enough to let me stay with them while I'm in Jordan. I want to thank them by bringing a gift. Alcohol is prohibited, so I cannot bring a bottle of wine. There are semi-strict clothing restrictions so I do not want to bring clothes. So I've been asking around. My friends have come up with some fabulous ideas. Peanut butter is a rare commidity, so it was suggested I bring a jar of peanut butter and some peanut butter filled chocolates. It was also I suggested I bring some pure maple syrup and pancake mix along with some universal games for the family. So I have purchased all of the food items along with the game Jenga and Blockus. Doesn't require any reading in English, so they should be easy for everyone to play. I hope these items are well received by my friends.

More to come on my Jordanian adventure!