Grand Hyatt Amman

... earlier than normal but it felt late. Everyone trickled out over last minute sushi and final drinks until it was just the roomies, our sometimes boarder Josh, and Moha who was being pressured to stay because it was suspected he was drunk. Having seen Mohammad drunk on various occasions I can say he was most definitely not drunk but he did hang around while I finished cleaning and we had a good chat. I kept calling him Oprah but I suspect he was actually a better ...

... probably 2 or 3 years. I lied and told him I was on scholarship from the US Govt. Big mistake. He starting grilling me about why I would work for the devil Americans. I tried to explain the concept of no strings attached scholarships and he wasn't buying it. Maybe the reason is any money America gives to the Middle East has so many strings that the countries get tangled in them. Ahhh good old American Aid. As I went to pay for the tea, I realized I had three ...

... Thank you, Larry.) I actually was. The hotel website didn&#8217;t have any map, and<br>googling the street address only produced a map in Arabic. No problem, I thought, I&#8217;ll get a<br>map from the hotel. Except they don&#8217;t have any. And they could not point out the hotel on the<br>map in my trusty Rough Guide. Oh well, at least I knew I was in Amman!<br><br>So after settling into my room, I headed out at about 9pm to get the feel of the city. The<br>hotel is ...

... with Arsenal, to which he was as helplessly devoted to as a mistress to an older married man, and (in his eyes) as much abused. Parceling out facets of his character, insights, and infantile bathos through anecdotes each revolving around a different match, Hornby is equally endearing and frustrating, victim of his obsession and perpetrator of it onto those around him.<br><br>It's a fantastic, funny and fast read, and the poster child of ...

... we headed out to the Friday market since it will close for the Winter now and Devan only has one more week to buy her souvenirs and stuff. Apparently my moodiness wasn&#8217;t totally gone because I was getting so annoyed by people moseying around, stopping in the middle of the market (right in front of me of course), or staring at the ajnabat walking around man-less. Bah. Frickin idiots. Wow, remember it is actually putting me in a bad mood again so I should move on ...

... of Ramadan I will blog to try to give outsiders an overview of what it is like, and also examine societal undercurrents and trends.<br>I will continue to use this blog as a platform to blog about my travels, which for the moment are trips in and out of Palestine to visit new parts of the West Bank that I haven't been to before.<br><br>Here is the new blog, please bookmark it, and I hope you like it!!!!<br>http://www.apassiveobserverin theme.blogspot.com/<br>Cheers!!<br>Mike <br>

... smile when they heard of recent plans to establish a &#8220;Freedom Square&#8221; akin to Speakers&#8217; Corner in London&#8217;s Hyde Park.<br> In the absence of a Freedom Square, many Jordanians will speak openly and informatively in private about the myriad problems facing this poor desert country. The US and Israel are hardly warmly regarded but a tour guide says he would like to see a boom in business like the one that immediately followed the peace treaty ...

... most pictures he appears smiling in either a Western suit or just a Western shirt, with no head covering...There are also pictures of him though dressed in the full outfit, keffiye (headscarf) and all... Is it merely just another status symbol? Madala dressed in an impecibly white outfit both when he picked us up and the next day...was that cleaned in a Bedouin mannder? <br><br>After dinner, which was unfortunately decent at best since the bread had hardened when it ...

... to his beaten up car. We jump in, and he took us the 1 minute drive into town to a local shish kebab joint, where he helped us order some cheap kebabs, some bread for Ben, who was still feeling worse for wear, and a bag of the best felafels I have ever eaten!<br><br>The next morning we were up early and across the road to explore the ruins of Jerash. Through Hadrian&#8217;s Gate, which marks the entrance to the site (and is covered in scaff ...