June 3, 2010\r\n

Today we went into Irbid and made many friends. First amongst our new friends was Rammi, a Yarmouk graduate with a PhD in Educational Technologies. He spent some time in Britain (possibly the origin of his fantastic English skills), and has a \”beautiful daughter\” – he invited us to enjoy dinner or tea with them. While I\’m certain he is correct in his assessment of her beauty, and I look forward to meeting his family, I think it is amusing (perhaps Molli and Melissa disagree) that the women with us were not taken to be with us. \r\n

We met this wonderful man while relaxing on University Street eating karuf shawarma (shaved lamb sandwhich wraps) that were absolutely delicious. Eating the shawarma reminds me of the time spent in Jordan with Genevieve, Joe, and Emily. As Genevieve and I arrived during Ramadan, there were not a lot of food vendors. However, as Ramadan ended, and Joe and Emily arrived, we began exploring the cuisine in earnest. After much searching, we successfully found the only place in Irbid that sold lamb shawarma (the rest sell chicken, or \’Dajaj shawarma\’ which do not taste nearly as good). In addition to the zakke (delicious) food, we had shisha (hookah) and qahwa (coffee). This is the life. \r\n

Our second friend was at the coffee shop (see picture). He was quite helpful in confirming our attempts at Arabic, and helped teach us a few new words (which I\’ve since forgotten…hopefully they\’ll come back to me). After showing the guys one of my favorite Arabic traditions (qahwa), I ordered a kilo of a blend suggested by our friend. As he handed it to us, we asked him how much (bekam), and he replied that it was on the house – Jordanian hospitality at its best. We were taken aback at his generosity and thanked him (shukran), and asked for a picture with him. He was happy to oblige and his friend took it. We\’ll be posting on facebook and e-mailing to him. Glad to report yet another great experience with the hospitable people of Jordan.

This blog will be updated much more regularly while I\’m in Jordan, allowing you to see what I\’m experiencing. I\’ll begin with my 11 hour flight to Jordan. I flew on Royal Jordanian Air from Chicago to Jordan. It was a very nice trip – I slept through the majority of it. We were provided with two meals, a dinner and breakfast. Both were very nice, especially for airline food (although the breakfast eggs were a little bland and rubbery, but who wouldn\’t expect that?) We left Chicago at 9PM (local time) and arrived in Amman at 5PM (local time). When we arrived, we deplaned and went to a large open room with several different counters that had people lined up. There were lines for Jordanian Nationals, Non-Jordanians, and Foreign exchange. We changed our dollars for Jordanian Dinars (our dollar is worth .7 JD) and then proceeded to the Visa line for non-Jordanians. We purchased a visa (10JD) After this, we went to baggage check, got our bags and went through customs – a much different experience than the US customs. They loaded our bags on the conveyor belt, scanned them and helped us out into the transportation area. Linda met us there and we met our driver and a member of the JUST public relations.

After we took all of our bags (I packed my CPU and monitor, so had a lot of very heavy bags) to the JUST car, a four-dour sedan, we began trying to determine whether the bags would fit in the trunk. They did not come close, but we packed several of them in the back seat with us, and our driver chased down a maintenance truck driving by and talked him out of a rope tied to the back of the truck. He used this to tie the trunk over the remaining bags:

We left the airport and headed to Irbid (where JUST and our housing is located).

Wow! Who knew how much nothingness was between Vegas and Reno? I sure did not. I have for the first time seen a mirage — the likes of which would entice me into a thirst-induced stumble towards the ‘lake’. It was quite amazing, very different than the ’shimmers’ I saw in West Texas (that I thought were mirages).
This — however, is NOT a mirage–it is Lake Walker:

So…we made it all the way through the desert, passed the lakes, and then pulled into Reno — around 6PM here! I was so glad to be here, and I’m sure dad was even more happy to be out of the truck.
I’m getting carpet put in my room Monday morning (at 9) so I can’t put anything in my room — luckily, there’s a garage, and I just put everything there — we returned the Penske 3 days early (too bad we don’t get money back:)
The house is cool, I’m excited to meet my new housemates! (I’m living with two girls — so we’ll see how they like it…Melissa said she was going to call and warn them — but I doubt they have any idea).
There will be a toy yorkie and a ‘mutt’. The mutt appears to be rather large by the size of dog crate in the garage and the bed on the back porch.
Speaking of the back porch — I’ve got a pretty neat view! I’m up high looking down over lots of houses with mountains in the background!

I’m off to meet the carpet guy — I’ll try to be a little more disciplined about posting as I’m sure this’ll be an exciting adventure!

Well, as the sign indicates — we’re now in Nevada..home sweet home for the next chapter of my life! I’m getting more and more amped!
We should arrive this evening — and then we’re going to watch The Simpson’s Movie…I know — kind of weird seeing how we’re just getting into Reno, and you’d think I’d want to explore, but Dad was too tired last night to see it (he has probably driven 80% of the time to allow for your reading pleasure! My dad’s the best there is — everyone that has met him can’t stop talking about how nice and generous he is. Even Melissa (who is probably the queen of nice) can’t stop talking about him. He is, by far, my hero. I’ve often said that I’ll be happy when I’m half the man he is. He puts up with a lot of nonsense on my part (as does anyone who tolerates me
Back to the subject though…we’re pulling through Las Vegas, and now are on a large expanse of desert.

Ok….so the website was correct! We were able to get across the Hoover dam after our truck was inspected to make certain no explosives or other contraband were aboard.
We were driving down the road when all of a sudden, we came across a road block. The odd thing–the road was suddenly blocked with cones and make-shift signs and we were redirected into a very suspicious looking area (reminiscent of a movie portrayed gypsie camp!)…
I thought it’d be a great con to setup a pretend road block where people were expecting to get their cargo inspected, and then asking them to open up the back of their truck, and then remain in the cab — all the while unloading their cargo into your tent/van. I suppose I have an over-active imagination!

This picture is myself with Lake Mead in the background — I’m facing the dam which can be seen here:

I had no idea that the dam was such a tourist attraction, but upon some further research, its the 5th busiest national park area!
Now, there is a helicopter flying about 300 feet above us, with a blinking light…I’m not sure what they’re doing…
anyways, back to the trip across the dam…
There were a lot of people parked and walking through they even have a tourist center and everything!!
We crossed without incident and I was simply amazed at the architecture of the bypass they’re building, and all the electrical towers/wires crossing everywhere. It was a great sight to behold!
Thank goodness Dad was driving, there were hairpin turns going downhill, I’m sure we’d have been dead (or lost the car we’re towing) had I been behind the wheel.
up next…Nevada!