I had a wonderful time in Jordan. My friend, Megan's, parents came from Iowa, and they had a blast. Her mom is already planning for her next visit. We visited the Dead Sea, Mt. Nebo, Petra, and Wadi Musa. After they returned to Syria, I stayed on in Jordan with Ghassab. We did a lot of hiking, visited the Red Sea in Aqaba, and camped in Wadi Rum for a night. The only bad thing about the trip was that the village where he lives has a lot of dogs and donkeys, and they make A LOT of noise at night. Braying donkeys, not cute at 3:00 a.m. Not to mention, he lives directly across from the mosque, so they blare the call to prayer (the first one starts at 4:30 a.m.)
Last night they blocked off the huge traffic circle by my house, and held a concert. We didn't go to the concert since it was an Arabic singer we weren't much interested in, but we made it for the other activities. There were Cirque Du Sole type performers, hot air balloons, and the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen. They must have gone on for half an hour, and the grand finale was non-stop fireworks for 5 minutes. They shot half of them off right there in the circle and the other half up on the mountain. Megan lived in China for 4 years and said she'd never seen anything that amazing, even there.
Tomorrow we go back to school, so I'm up here trying to do lesson plans. Good times.
Wishing you all a happy 2008!!
