Day 2

First, I should let you all know that I've spent 2 utterly frustrating hours today trying to post photos from this computer at the internet cafe, but it just doesn't seem to be working. I'll continue to struggle with the problem and hopefully get it going eventually. Before you ask, I did try emailing a few as well, and it doesn't seem to have worked. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out sooner or later.

Meandered around town today with Steven, my neighbor across the street. I'm now generally familiar with the top of the Great Big Hill(tm) upon which I live, and slightly less familiar with the valley between this Great Big Hill(tm) and the next one over. This valley contains Amman's "downtown," the Balad, which resembles a large, dingy, teeming outdoor mall several blocks wide and maybe a KM long(not the way I'd have thought of downtown, but that's what the locals insist upon calling it). Anyway, anything I can't buy in little shops near where I live (and that's quite a bit, actually) I can buy down there. Today, that included a cell phone and an adaptor so i can plug my laptop in to the very different wall sockets here. So, I'm back to being more or less wired, which is nice. Lemme tell ya, though, a walking tour of a city built on Great Big Hills (tm) is no joke for a pudgy fella like myself; my legs were, by the end of the day, definitely ready for a break.

Had a pleasant meal with Steven, who is 35 with a wife and 3 kids. Apparently what I ate was the Jordanian national dish. It's called mensaf, and basically it's a pile of rice with a hunk of meat on top (in this case lamb, but chicken or beef are also fine) over which you then dribble a layer of a tart sort of yogurt sauce. I passed on the sauce, but the rest of it was pretty good. Lamb is nice, it's too bad we don't eat much of it in the states.

I continue to struggle with jet lag (it's currently not quite 3 AM and here I am blogging). Hopefully that will straighten itself out before too long. Church is tomorrow at 10, and then after lunch I'll be meeting with my future roommate.

Amusing sight of the day: We passed a teenage boy whose t-shirt proclaimed in what might have been iron-on letters "MY BODY IS A GUN!" Not quite sure what he meant by that.

Amusin sight of yesterday that I forgot to post: I ate at a Chinese restaurant yesterday called the Shang Hai, in one of Amman's wealthier districts, which is imaginatively called "West Amman." The waiters there wore nametags without names, but with 3-digit numbers instead. One of them, inevitably, was waiter 007. I was sorely tempted to ask for a picture with him, but decided I didn't know the etiquette well enough. Dinner was good, by the way, about what I'd have expected from a similar Chinese place back home.

Silas Of Arabia

So, let me describe what I'm doing right now. I'm sitting by a computer in an internet cafe on Ashrafieya hill in Amman. Amman is, so I've been told, built on seven hills. Ashrafieya is the tallest of these and the population who lives there is the poorest (so I fit right in.) I'm eating what's called a Falafel sandwich and drinking a coke. I am describing this because I expect to spend a lot of time here blogging for all of y'all (that was for you Braydon) and eating the same thing. I don't actually like the sandwich too much, but it costs the equivalent of a quarter and I don't hate it either; beggar's can't be choosers, after all. I'll likely be online a lot: internet costs .5 JD (or around $.70) per hour. Pretty reasonable.

The flight was the way transatlantic flights usually are, but no worse. The horrible movies did nothing to distract me from the large number of wailing or squealing children, so once my Ipod ran out of batteries I wasn't really able to sleep. I read a lot in my biography of Stalin, though, which I recommend to anybody who has 1) a bunch of time, cuz it's long, 2) an interest in one of history's most neurotic megalomaniac murderers, and 3) a strong stomach. I've read slasher novels that didn't creep me out so much. However, it did help to pass the time. Anoher thing that helped was some really heartwarming notes that were sent along by some great friends. Yes, guys, I caved and read them all (not the birthday one, though), but don't worry, I'll be reading and rereading them over and over as the days go by. Just think of me as Reuben from Ocean's 13, with yourselves in the role of Basher.

My living arrangements are the basement apartment of a home owned by a lady named Regina (pronounced with a "guh" not a "juh" because she's German). It has a seperate entrance, and a bathroom that a Roman legionary might recognize. The toilet is functionally a hole in the floor with a little rough patch on either side so your feet don't slip as you squat. You have to flip a switch on the wall outside the room to activate the water heater an hour in advance before you go to shower. This isn't really a big deal though, since I'll be taking a lot of cold showers; it's crazy hot around here.

I've got a bunch of neighbors that I'll probably be spending a lot of time with, given the fact that I know about 3 words of Arabic and will eventually have to buy something or I'll die. Across the street there's a family from Herefordshire (sp?) England, with 3 almost sinfully adorable little kids. Nearby live Reti and Annandien, 2 ladies from New Zealand will be involved in teaching English with me for the next few weeks. I was picked up from the airport by an Australian gent named Rick Weymouth, who kindly gave me a small walking tour of my immediate area. That's how I found falafel sandwiches, and also a bakery where I can get fresh, warm flat bread at almost all hours of the day. With those two, plus a little rotisserie where I can get a whole chicken at a moment's notice, and a little shop owned by Abu Farrah, a Jordanian who speaks passable English, I'm guessing that will be a lot of my diet for a while. Wicked cheap, and no trans fat; who could ask for anything more?.

I've had a couple of rough moments today, firstly in the airport in Detroit. I was wandering around looking for some food and I walked past a flight back to Minneapolis. I had a nasty spasm of temptation to just rush to the ticket counter and put a ticket home on plastic. That one passed quickly, but once I got here and it really started to sink in that I have taken [reverb] THE BIG STEP [reverb] I actually shook a little. Might have just been fatigue... maybe not. At least, I took a nap and felt better.

I'll post some pictures when I get the chance and the technology permits. Grace and Peace to everyone.

Lyrics of the day:
Leavin' on a Jet Plane
Don't know when I'll be back again...

Apparently I'm Versatile

So, I've got my list of what I'll be teaching at Whitman, and it is quite varied. It looks like this:

7th grade geography

8th grade language arts ( American history based literature)

9th grade English

10th grade English

and Spanish 1&2

Each teacher is also going to take a 2hr/week Bible class discipleship group.

I know it is a heavy load! We need to really be in prayer that another Language Arts teacher, computer teacher and P. E. teacher will come in!

So, that's a concern. Please be praying for another teacher, or if not that, please be praying for poor overworked me starting in August.

I believe I can fly...

I bought my plane ticket yesterday! I officially leave for jordan on the 21st of June at 6 in the morning. I did pretty well on the price, paying a little over $1000 for a one-way flight.

I've been in contact with some of the people (so far, all British ladies of indeterminate age) who will be joining me on the MEET trip that will be the first thing I do once I arrive in Jordan. More details about that later, for now I just want to revel in the fact that I'm finally, officially, irrevocably going!

Introductory Post

Hello Everyone!

This will be the blog I will be using while on my trip to Jordan. I don't know at this time what my internet situation will be, so I'm not going to go on the record saying I'll update once a week/month or anything like that. However, I'll try to make sure that this is a way to keep fairly good track of what God is doing through me and in me during my travels.

I'll post more later as things continue to develop.