Grand Palace Amman

... seen so many men expertly cooking away in one kitchen. Me gusta! It was a bit torturous though since the entire apartment smelled delicious. People began arriving and eventually we were about 16 people I think, including Adib, Mango, Rebecca, Annette, Jessica, Mohammad, and a couple of friends of Annette and Jess. Good group and we feasted well...okonomeyaki, miso soup, salad, Japanese pickles, and a billion ingredients for rolling our own sushi. Yum yum yum ...

... and ended up eating with a car salesman from Baghdad. first Iraqi I'd met in the middle east who still lives there. We stayed away from politics.<br><br>I met the driver outside at the planned time of 6:30 A.M. and discovered his car to be much nicer than expected. It was the first automatic transmission I'd seen since arriving in the Middle East. The rain and the soothing voice reading the Quran on the radio put me to sleep pretty quickly after beginning ...

... They suggested we share the taxi, so helpful chap comes outside the airport and gives<br>instructions to the driver. Hoever, clearly the instructions weren&#8217;t good enough, because the<br>taxi driver drives over to Terminal Two, to ask his taxi colleagues over there, if they knew<br>where the Ibis was. Evidently somebody did know, because the driver got a big grin on his<br>face, said &#8220;OK, we go&#8221; and we dashed off with Jordanian dance music blaring from ...

... we think it looks important, and sounds well. As we are not particular about the meaning of our liveries on state occasions, if they be but fine and numerous enough, so, the meaning or necessity of our words is a secondary consideration, if there be but a great parade of them."<br><br>Self important? Style over content? Superfluous utilization of excessively ornate diction?<br><br>OK, this blog is guilty on all counts.<br><br>Final score: Chung ...

... Euchre in a weird way. For if-tar Devan and I had what is supposed to be amazing pizza, but I beg to differ. Probably because I am not that removed from American foods right now and before I left I gorged on Engine House pizza. ::drool:: <br><br>Again, not enough sleep. Ramadan is for the hardcore. <br><br>Friday:<br><br>Devan and I went to every mall you can imagine to find the damn Lonely Planet for Syria/Lebanon. Good gawd! WHY?! So two of the malls didn&#8217;t ...

... de derde cirkel, waar we te laat waren voor de bus, dus toch maar een taxi namen (voor vijf kwartjes..). 's Avonds zouden we met de nieuwe groep Poolse couchsurfers pizza gaan eten, maar die kwamen niet uit Syrie gelift, dus gingen we maar met zn vieren. Megapizza voor 2 euro, die we natuurlijk niet zelf betaalden.. Jezus wat erg! Daarna gingen we naar een hip cafe om pool te spelen, maar "jij mag hierna" betekent hier ongeveer hetzelfde als "two minutes"... Niet dus..<br>

... or 4x4. Amman even has a Humvee showroom.<br> There is less conspicuous consumption at the Books@Cafe, a wonderfully stocked bookshop with a bohemian café and bar on the upper floor for rebellious and trendy Jordanians.<br> Jordan is a conservative, predominantly Sunni Muslim society but with a westernised and well-educated elite that is outward-looking but still patriotic. Portraits of King Abdullah, often with his late father King Hussein, sometimes with his ...

... with Emily to figure out a little more about what she was doing at the camp and how she liked it, but she was a total dud. All I got out of her was that she'd been living there not too long...about 3 months... Seems like pretty long in a Bedouin camp to me! <br><br>After singing their songs and grabbing plates of food they all left abruptly, I guess the charade was over. <br><br>So I guess in this instance it certainly seemed like the Bedouin dress and traditional garb ...

... town which the lonely planet warned us had no accommodation, but nevertheless we took our chances. Upon driving into Jerash, on our left was Hadrian's Gate, lit up with dramatically placed theatre lights, and on our right the Hadrian&#8217;s Gate Hotel. We booked in and dumped our bags, then asked the man at the front desk if he knew of anywhere cheap to eat in town. He said yes, then began leading us outside. "I take you" he said to us ...