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Arabic uses the same word for “push” and “pay”– “idfay”. This morning at the but stop, the bus stalled in front those of us waiting. The man that takes your money jumped out and said, “Hurry up and idfay.” Everyone laughed as we commenced to “pay” or “push” the bus. It is these small things in the language that help you understand the culture, their thought processes and world view. Because to them to “pay” is to “push”. Think about that one for awhile.

Last night and the day before it was below 32 degrees and well let us just say Jordan’s water system is not set up for below that for many days on end so this morning there was probably one or 2 pipes on every main street that was either an earlier leak or a new one from the cold and Amman is a city in the hills it is like San Fransisco (I say that never have being there) and no one knows how to drive in these conditions there isn’t just ice but lots of black ice I fell on one patch of it trying to walk down the mountain after we had ditched our car on the top wanting to wait for the sun to melt the ice but as we continued on we watched car after car try to maneuver down this one teribal patch and car after car would put their breaks on and just slide you could tell they where praying that their car was pointed in the right direction and that they would fly straight in between the 2 cars park on either side most of them would make it down and they would count their lucky stars and go on every once in a while a car would hold on to their brakes and get through and then spin in a circle and as they were getting squerad away the next one was sliding in to meat them they would kiss just barely then the drivers would yell but then they would just go on so the lesson to learn in this situation don’t drive in Jordan when their is ice just because you know how the other drivers don’t and they are your problem

I had a friend come and visit me. He was on his way back home from working in Pak, so when he showed up we drove down to Petra–the same trip I made with my brother when he was here. We had a good time and made it back to Amman in time for Christmas. We went to a party on Christmas Eve and then watched the kids while the parents went to a midnight mass. We spent the night and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The next night we had another dinner together and stayed up again playing games. The next morning we got in a service and headed to the border. After an hour and half of waiting, the service driver left us at the border. Lesson One: Don’t take a service to the border. After another hour and a half we got entry to Syria. We found another service who drove us about 10 miles and then stopped and put us on a bus that took us in to Damascus. Lesson Two: Don’t take a service from the border. In Damascus we walked to see the old city and met up with some old friends who we stayed the night with. In the morning we headed out to Allepo. We road the bus and when we got there we made our way to a hostel where we dropped our bags and went to see the city. I love Allepo. It has a special place in my heart. We walked all around and saw many things. The market there is so fun and exciting. I got another tea pot for my sister-in-law. I hope it gets to them. My friend said he would clean it and send it to her. We went back to the hostel and early in the morning we went to the train staition and took the train to Lattakia on the coast. We got there really early and the twon was dead but there was a tractor with a dump bed so we jumped on it and rode it to the beach. When I tried to pay he refused to accept anything. We took pictures of the beach and found a cop and asked him for a good palce to eat breakfast. He put us in a service and the service took us down town to this great restaurant. It was the only place with a lot of people so we knew it had to be good. It was some of the best I have ever had. We thought of going to Cyprus by boat like a ferry but there were no ferries during the winter. So we wasted 3 hours just walking around asking people if it was possible. Concluding “no” we finally went to the bus station and headed out to Homs. We got there and saw friends of mine I had met the last time I was in Syria. They were nice to us and it was good to catch up with them and encourage the relationship. Up the next day, we went to the big castle to the west of Homs. It was just as grand as I remembered. We played on it for quite a long time and then hired a car to take us to the border of Syria and Lebonon. We got to the last checkpoint on the Syrian side, walked about a kilometer and got to the Syrian exit office. We got our stamps after some chaos and then walked another kilometer in open land to the Lebanese boarder check. We didn’t understand how that was possible. I mean we could have disappeared and there never would have been any evidance we had left Syria–just poof… gone. At the Lebanese border there was much more order. We got another car to take us to Tripoli, had lunch with our driver and then he put us on a bus to Beirut. Along the way we decided we wanted to go snowboarding so we asked the people in the bus how to get to the mountain. They were so nice and dropped us off right where there was a service going up to the mountain. Once we got there we found all the hotels full because it was New Year’s weekend. We finally found a place and had to pay double because it was high season and had a room that would have housed 20 people. There were 3 in it including us but it was a nice place. We got up the next morning and went snowboarding– had a good time laughing and playing until I realized I had lost my camera. We still had fun after that but no more pictures. It was just as icy as last year, so we decided you definitely should come later in the year. When we got to Beirut and got in a hostel, we started to explore and got stopped by the army because we looked suspicious. So we went bake to the hostel. It was a nice one. I liked it. The first day in Beruit we went to the down town area and walked around, then headed to the beach. We played at the beach then made plans for New Year’s Eve. We found one of the popular streets in Beirut, sat on a stairway for four hours that was located between 6 bars. So we people watched the whole time and made many new friends and saw a majorly different culture than either one of us was used to. I am not doing justice to this story but it was too long ago. Ask me about it in person. We celebrated the New Year by eating cake. Next day we slept late and then tried to get in touch with my friend. He couldn’t meet us till the next day so we went to the musemm. Of course it was closed but we enjoyed walking around. The next day it started to rain and rain hard. We met my friend and then walked around in the rain. I bought a new journal. The next day we went to the Syrian border and waited 5 hours this time. When we got out we got on a bus full of Iraqis and one of the guys had the same camera I had lost, so i gave him my cord that goes from the camera to a usb port in a computer he was happy. We got back to Amman and rested a day at my house, then went camping for 2 days in Wadi Rum then back to Amman and we finally rested. I put him on a plane and that was that.