Impressions

First, I will need to apolagize to the visual viewers - my laptop is stowed away in Cyprus and has not accompanied me to Jordan, and therefore can't come to India with me tomorrow. In short, no pictures for the next few weeks - sorry about that! Which is too bad because Jordan is a hauntingly beautiful country - I have never seen topography like this before, either in the city or in the countryside. The capital looks something like out of the movies. Apartment buildings jammed together along the sides of mountains, all one colour and style, flat roofed, dirty beige, and squashed together. Many have shops on the ground floor. Traffic is a river, not a road, and driving means accepting that the lines aren't necessary reference points. The rural area is made up of a thousand shades of brown, but it is breathtaking in its own way. I don't think I've seen a single flower growing wild here. Just me - glad to be a part of this world for a little while. A few of us swam in the dead sea yesterday, and had a mud fight with the stuff that is so expensive to buy in the stores in the rest of the world... and only one real injury (Stuart's eye - he'll be ok) The people are hospitable and friendly, and the amount of food I've eaten in the last few days reflect this:) I've been trying to speak Arabic - the few words I know - and after stepping on the back of a man's shoe on the street I stated "asfar" which means "yellow" instead of "esfa" which really means "sorry". I hope he's laughed about it as much as I have... anyways, so there's the Jordan first impression... Happy new year to each of you in your places of the world - today I am enjoying mine!