Toledo Hotel Amman

... br>Anywho, after my stint as a camel jockey (hey now!) it was time to get serious. I needed shoes that could stand in for ice skates and white cheerleader-style briefs post stat. After hours and hours of shopping and trying to explain the difference between underwear and the type of briefs I was looking for (in a country with little to no cheerleading, gymnastics, or studio dance) and after being pointed in the direction of many a lingerie store, I finally ...

... thought I was peering at the Great Lakes for a moment. Quite a surprise when you are staying living in a desert. The Dead Sea was gorgeous and the only apparent difference from our lakes is that (1) you can see the insane salt deposits on the shore where the tide breaks and (2) you can see land across the way (Palestine to be exact). <br><br>At the Dead Sea we gathered with King's Academy students (high school aged), CIEE students (undergraduate Americans), and locals from ...

... just as I was sorting my laundry I got a call from the Thursday night people saying that they had been waiting for me for half and hour. Um....so basically their proposals were due Monday so Saturday was like crunch time for THEM which apparently also meant me since I helped them out on Thursday. Bah. So for the third time that weekend I threw myself together in like less than 4 minutes and was out the door. Thanks goodness the Hyatt is like the nuts here because I wouldn't have ...

... Valley and students at the Academy. I am actually really excited about it so hopefully soon people at home won't have to keep asking me if I am actually doing anything at work, lol. Before heading back to the office we stopped at my boss's family's house in Madaba for coffee and sweets. They had a great garden full of arbors and grapevines and fruit trees. Very nice. Then to the office for a bit and on my way home with Yoichi. Time to go help Jessica make stirfry. <br>

... a lot of milk, and I stir the contents. If you haven't already guessed it, yes, the Fresh Your Feeling mug contained hot milk with sugar...sans coffee. <br><br>I have to admit it was really hard to suppress my laughter once I realized I would be enjoying hot milk and sugar which is technically what I asked for...but I didn't want to offend my mystery cabana boy so I swallowed my chuckles and drank the drink. Not bad. <br>

... as well and they brought along a woman from Germany, Julianna, who they were showing around for a couple days. Despues de, we met up with Devan and Adib at Books @ Café and I cried my eyes out while Laith and Tareq told the most<br>ridiculous stories about their university days.<br><br>It was time for fourth meal (or second meal if you consider Ramadan) by the time we left so Adib and Devan and I went to Reem&#8217;s where we made countless ...

... although she hasn&#8217;t lost weight per say, she went from about 48.5% body fat to 32ish in about three months. Amazing! <br><br>Casey and his American-Russian-Jordanian friend Tony picked us up after our work out. We all headed to eat because we really hadn&#8217;t eaten all day. Technically none of us are fasting but unless you are in your own home it is hard to eat anything so you kind of fast by default. Rebecca only has a few nights left so she wanted to ...

Today we had to take a picture for our passport, it took about two seconds each, not that exciting. After that we went to a coffee shop called Tche echT Cafe, Maia ordered a strawberry smoothie, Hope ordered strawberry juice, Noor ordered mango juice, our uncle Youssef ordered a chocolate milkshake, and my mom ordered lemonade with mint. It was all very good. Then we went to what we thought ...

... guys walked in in full Bedouin garb covering everything and wearing keffiyes (headscarfs). They walked down to the beach, took off their full covering and robes and had on...you guessed it, a full array of speedos, tight pants, and one guy had normal board shorts. It was funny. There were also Muslim women enjoying the beach....in their full robes and head scarfs. <br><br>Of course, then came the task of finding a way back to Amman... <br><br>We were told we could ...

... t superb to travel with Takeshi, if you're reading ;p). Petra. In a word. WOW! I arrived to the gates of the city just before midday (following a very early start from Amman), and began my descent down the historic Siq. As the vast crowds had entered Petra at the 7am opening time, I had the magnificent passage, lavished with superlatives and praise throughout history and brought to the 20th century world audience through Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Arc final scene, all to ...