Some things are easy...

If you know how to ask, you can get just about anything done in Jordan. We needed to get our Visas extended from one month to three months. The adviser at the university told us we needed blood tests, proof of registration from the university financial office, and a residence contract in order to get our visas. Then Saleh (our adviser from Miami) tells us that he knows some guys at police station that will stamp our passports for us without that. Saleh, however, is notoriously slow at getting thing done, and a friend of mine from France needs to get her passport renewed before Saleh will do it for us. So a couple of us go with her to get our visas, just to see if we can do it. We walk into the police station, without blood tests or proof of registration, and they tell us to sit in the lobby. The bench we sit on is no less than fifteen feet from a prisoner at the local jail. Soon one officer shows us into an office, where a man is sitting reading papers and doesn't look up when we come in. We tell him that we are students and that we need to get our passports renewed. He says in Arabic, "Speak Arabic, Speak Arabic." He apparently doesn't speak English. So when I finally come up with the word for Visa in Arabic, and tell him that we are students, he starts to speak perfect English. We continue on in Arabic as much as I can, filling in the gaps in English and he gives our visas without blood tests our proof of registration.

A few days later, I decide I want to take a raod trip to Mount Nebo, where on a clear day it is possible to see both Jerusalem and Damascus. I am ready to go at ten in the morning, but once I round everyone up, we (read: they) want to wait for our friend who has been studying in Dubai to get in. Once she does (now 11:00) we have to wait for her to finish her shower (now 12:00). Then "we" need to eat lunch before we go. Once we finish eating (now 1), we have to go back to the apartment and get everyone else. Thirty minutes later, we try to hail cabs, but someone has forgot something in the room and needs to go back and find. By the time we hail cabs again it is 2:30. We tell the cab drivers to go to the bus station so we can take that for most of the hour long travel time. Now after a few telephone calls and trying to find the right bus we realize that we can't find the people in the other cab. We soon realize that we are not at the same bus station. By the time we can convince their cab driver to take them to our station, it is 3:00 and too late to spend much time at Mt. Nebo. Now I am writing this post, not having gone anywhere and without any pictures to show you.