Days one and two!

Alden is still alive after two days!

Day one: Alden pays Gringo price for a taxi downtown and gets up on the Citadel and the Roman Amplitheater. These are the old-timey sights that you got go see as a foreigner in Amman. Also, it was really hot. Alden wandered around a bit- good, but sweaty, times. He realizes he paid too much when he takes a cab with a meter back to meet BK (aka "Da Ampersand").

Fun adventure: Getting a cell phone to work. Alden's Arabic is alright, but there was a considerable amount of vocab about "sim cards" and such that Alden didn't know and was very tricky to pantomime. But worked out in the end- Alden's got digits!

Evening: Books at Cafe- a great rooftop restaurant/bar with amazingly good BBQ "Chicken Chunks" and beer. And Nargileh. But the waitress didn't quite understand what Alden et al. wanted until they asked for "Hubbly-Bubbly." Best flavor, rather unexpectedly, was Watermellon-Mint. This was a good time; Alden was joined by FZB, who just gradumacated from SAIS and appears to be working for a CIA front organization (JK!) in Kurdistan (not JK!). Alden really wants to visit Kurdistan. But this is a big "rabooma" or "mumkin" ("Maybe").

Day two: The 4th of July at the Dead Sea

An only slightly hung-over Alden, BK (aka "Da Ampersand") and roommate (Mark) headed to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is very salty. Alden enjoyed himself, but he found floating in the hyper-salty sea a quite odd experience. It would have been better with beer, but this is Jordan, and Alden went to a public beach. No beer. But an all-you-could-eat buffet.

Having taken a taxi to the beach, Alden and folks were a bit stuck. There were taxis, but they seemed to all be hired. Flagging a taxi was thus impossible. An hour's drive away, this was going to be a very long walk back to Amman. Luckily a really beat-up cargo van picked Alden and folks up and tossed them in the back for 1 JD per head for the three very salty beach-goers. The three got left at a wee-little truck stop, where refresments were consumed. (It was still hot.) En route to the wee-little truck stop Alden saw a cow, and he thus won the cow game.

More waiting until a 2006 Honda Civic pulled up. Alden noted that this is the same car he drives back home. There were two empty seats, and the individuals inside allowed the team to join them, and refused payment for the ride back to Amman. With BK (aka "Da Ampersand") on his lap, Alden et al became friends with the Jordanian, Palestinian, and Chechnyian in the Civic. The Chechnyian was the most talkative, giving Alden all the advice he ever needed on how to pick up Russian women in the various cities in the Middle East.

Lessons learned: Hitching a ride in Jordan=Fun Times.

Alden also noted the differences between the 2006 Civic he rode in and his own. Mostly, with Jordanian-levels of honking, the horn and steering wheel were quite worn down after only two years.

Alden has a safety suggestion for cars in Amman: Since everyone honks and blinks their lights (all the time, at the same time) to gain attention, the lights really ought to be rigged directly to the horn. It is impressive, but probably dangerous, to honk and flash one's lights while smoking, down-shifting, talking on the cell phone, eating candy, and informing Americans the ways of Russian woman, all at the same time.

Tonight, a slightly sun-burned Alden plans to enjoy a James Bond marathon. Hopefully he will not be rudely awoken by the dueling cats and/or a rooster again. Seriously, those three should start a band. Their harmonies were amazing.