trip to Cairo

Once again, I am sitting outside the hotel, enjoying the evening breeze and waiting for my hot chocolate with nuts beverage, for which I have quickly developed an inordinate fondness.

So far I have spent two full days in Amman, most of it working at the office (more about that later). We have finished my friend's speech for his trip to Scotland tomorrow so one project is done.

The weather has been glorious, sunny and warm but dry during the day and cool in the evenings. I think I have finally caught up on all the missed sleep from previous weeks and am adjusting to the time difference. People here are fabulous, as before. Most are very friendly, speak good English, and always ready to help. My cabbie on the way home from the office was teaching me Arabic and will come back tomorrow morning to take me to the airport.

The pictures below are front the front of my hotel in Amman.

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This brings up another item on my fluid schedule. Since my sponsor and friend is flying to Scotland tomorrow on an official trip, I have several days free. And thus we hatched a plan for me to spend 5 days in Cairo. It will be a personal trip, Abercrombie and Kent (a fantastic travel agency locally and world wide) arranged for my stay there and a guide. With them, the trip is safe and without issues. The two of us will hit all the great spots around Cairo, including the museum, famous bazaar, and the pyramids, of course. Praise for the speed and efficiency of local travel agents, I literally booked the flight and confirmed the trip this afternoon for tomorrow. LOL 

historical timeline of Jordanian history

I am working on a speech for my friend and found this very cool app http://www.visitjordan.com/general_information/at_a_glance/history_timeline.asp/. No wonder Jordan is one of the richest historical and cultural areas in the world. Almost every civilization and culture crossed Jordan at some point in time, leaving their footprint in the dust of time.

back in Jordan!

It is hard to believe and a very long story (as most of mine are LOL) back I am back in Jordan again. Right now it is about 7am in Amman and I am sitting in front of my apartment hotel, trying to organize my thoughts. So much going on. What a glorious morning, too. It will be a sunny day, a bit chilly yet but with all the promise of a wonderful day ahead.

I am eating breakfast while writing this post and grinning madly. LOL I arrived fairly late last night, the plane from Heathrow was somewhat delayed and by the time my friends drove me here from airport, it was close to 11pm. And I was too excited to sleep and had the best cup of hot chocolate with nuts ever about 1am. Right now, I am trying to decide it is almost midnight my time or 7am local time. LOL Alas, it will work itself out.

I will be meeting with my friend and sponsor around 9am and we will plan for the next two weeks of the internship, more about that later. After the two weeks in Amman, I hope to travel with my friends around Jordan, and hopefully visit Israel and perhaps even Lebanon, time and circumstances permitting. My plans are pretty fluid, I just hope to do and see as much as I can while here.

Back to the beginning. The long story really begins several years ago but it sets the background. I applied for a position of Nuclear Medicine Program Director at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the same one I graduated from some time ago. Part of the application process was to prepare and teach a class - mine was on thyroid cancer. Since I put so much work and time into the presentation, I offered it to the local Society of Nuclear Medicine for one of our continuing education meetings. I was invited to speak at the annual conference of the Society of Nuclear Medicine in Toronto, in June 2009 (did it again this June in San Antonio, which I loved!). To make a long story short, because of that (I think), I was invited by People to People Ambassadors http://www.peopletopeople.com/Pages/default.aspx Medical Imaging trip to China in November 2009. I also visited Hong Kong and Macau on that trip and had an absolutely fabulous time. And here is where the story converges on me being in Jordan again. When I saw that the same organization was planning a humanitarian trip to Jordan in March with visit to Petra and Dead Sea (among many other places), I was sold. During the first trip I made several friends here and that is why I am back. More later, time to practice my Arabic. I need several years worth of practice, what a language! LOL