goodbye to Mahmoud
Mahmoud came down to Amman today, bringing my backpack I'd left behind, and we hung out. Walking to King Abdullah I Mosque, a very cool blue-mosaic-domed one, we ran into the National Gallery of Fine Arts (which I'd seen before while wandering about lost with my suitcase). It's very neat - two buildings full of modern-ish art with a big water-wise garden in between. My favorite was a red Turkish painting with Ottoman script and imbedded pictures from a story; Mahmoud's was a very disturbing one by a Benin artist called "Refugee Baby's Bottle" which was mixed-media and included a decapitated doll's head on a bottle. Then I asked the guy working the front desk his favorite and he took me around to those, then called the guy across the street to show us his favorites. In Jordan, it's all about connections ... but sometimes the connections are pretty easy to make.
The mosque was closed to me (only open to non-Muslims earlier in the day) so we cruised on up to the Citadel and saw cool Ummayad palace and museum.
We then went back to the bus station and his bus was to leave immediately. It was really sad to say goodbye to him - for almost a month now I've talked to him almost daily and seen him regularly. Suddenly I'll never see him again? Very sad. I've been blessed with the best Jordanian holiday ever, and now it's almost over.
Tomorrow to Petra. It's this incredible Nabatean (pre-Roman) hidden city carved into cliffs. Everybody says I must go there. I'm bummed because it's expensive ... the bus I wanted to take doesn't operate anymore, and every other tour overnights in Petra which I don't want to do - I just want the drive there (2-3 hours), a few hours there, and then back to pack and sleep well before an early Wednesday departure. Anyway, some guy called me early this morning (I was up until almost 2 a.m. watching "A Beautiful Mind") and offered me a really good deal to taxi me there. It's still not cheap, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right?
I met a woman this morning, from England, who might go with me there tomorrow, so that would even decrease costs more. She's been there numerous times before but says it's so amazing. Either way, I need to just do it and not regret it.
Speaking of that ... I'm looking at airfare for Ghana in December and I'm having a hard time justifying the cost, but maybe it would be a reward for me for going back so early and getting a job? It's just soooo expensive. And I worry that if I wait any longer that it will get even more expensive. I'm just not sure of holiday schedules for schools and which district will employ me ... sigh. I can kind of justify it because that would give me about a month or two to work on my prospectus and it would be great to touch base with the education people at camp and see if my plan is feasible. Schools will be closed then, but everybody lives on camp and I can just show up at their houses. In fact ... I wonder if I could make it a tax-deductible trip?? Hm .... required for research ... Maybe Roberta knows this answer.
Man, I hope the internet isn't costing me here; and if it is, I hope it's reasonable. I just keep asking the hotel desk guy to log it on again and again. Oh well.
I'm procrastinating going back out in the heat - I need to walk to the post office to mail off the last postcards to Avery and Ashton (before I lose them like I did several others), and oh, conveniently, the telephone call center is right next door. And since it's Ramadan, I don't know how late everything's open, so I need to go soon.
Oh, at the bus station after leaving Mahmoud, I bought an orange soda and asked for a straw. This lady said, "You're going to eat?!" Incredulous and borderline rude, and said, "Yes, I'm going to drink." The guy working there yelled at her to leave me alone (or something such). Hey. Just because everybody else is fasting - not even drinking water - doesn't mean I am. I'm not like chowing and slurping in front of people - I hid behind a pillar with my Mirinda soda and sucked it up quickly. I'm hot, I'm thirsty, I'm hungry - leave me the hell alone. It was a weird moment.
OK, enough procrastination. This 4-year-old kid is staring at me and giving me the creeps.
The mosque was closed to me (only open to non-Muslims earlier in the day) so we cruised on up to the Citadel and saw cool Ummayad palace and museum.
We then went back to the bus station and his bus was to leave immediately. It was really sad to say goodbye to him - for almost a month now I've talked to him almost daily and seen him regularly. Suddenly I'll never see him again? Very sad. I've been blessed with the best Jordanian holiday ever, and now it's almost over.
Tomorrow to Petra. It's this incredible Nabatean (pre-Roman) hidden city carved into cliffs. Everybody says I must go there. I'm bummed because it's expensive ... the bus I wanted to take doesn't operate anymore, and every other tour overnights in Petra which I don't want to do - I just want the drive there (2-3 hours), a few hours there, and then back to pack and sleep well before an early Wednesday departure. Anyway, some guy called me early this morning (I was up until almost 2 a.m. watching "A Beautiful Mind") and offered me a really good deal to taxi me there. It's still not cheap, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right?
I met a woman this morning, from England, who might go with me there tomorrow, so that would even decrease costs more. She's been there numerous times before but says it's so amazing. Either way, I need to just do it and not regret it.
Speaking of that ... I'm looking at airfare for Ghana in December and I'm having a hard time justifying the cost, but maybe it would be a reward for me for going back so early and getting a job? It's just soooo expensive. And I worry that if I wait any longer that it will get even more expensive. I'm just not sure of holiday schedules for schools and which district will employ me ... sigh. I can kind of justify it because that would give me about a month or two to work on my prospectus and it would be great to touch base with the education people at camp and see if my plan is feasible. Schools will be closed then, but everybody lives on camp and I can just show up at their houses. In fact ... I wonder if I could make it a tax-deductible trip?? Hm .... required for research ... Maybe Roberta knows this answer.
Man, I hope the internet isn't costing me here; and if it is, I hope it's reasonable. I just keep asking the hotel desk guy to log it on again and again. Oh well.
I'm procrastinating going back out in the heat - I need to walk to the post office to mail off the last postcards to Avery and Ashton (before I lose them like I did several others), and oh, conveniently, the telephone call center is right next door. And since it's Ramadan, I don't know how late everything's open, so I need to go soon.
Oh, at the bus station after leaving Mahmoud, I bought an orange soda and asked for a straw. This lady said, "You're going to eat?!" Incredulous and borderline rude, and said, "Yes, I'm going to drink." The guy working there yelled at her to leave me alone (or something such). Hey. Just because everybody else is fasting - not even drinking water - doesn't mean I am. I'm not like chowing and slurping in front of people - I hid behind a pillar with my Mirinda soda and sucked it up quickly. I'm hot, I'm thirsty, I'm hungry - leave me the hell alone. It was a weird moment.
OK, enough procrastination. This 4-year-old kid is staring at me and giving me the creeps.
posted by NOLA at 4:37 AM
3 Comments:
Well, as I emailed you, I don't think there's much hope for deducting the research trip unless it's connected to current employment, but if you're teaching then, maybe you can do it. It would seem that a research trip to Ghana would not be met, even by the IRS, with the particular cynicism evoked by, for example, a research trip to Hawaii, but ask an accountant, to be sure.
Roberta
Hey, what happens to the meewt blog when you get home? It's become a serious diversion for me at home and at work!
Jen
Quote: "This 4-year-old kid is staring at me and giving me the creeps."
He was wondering if you'd like to be his "deputy mother".
P.S. Patience? Somehow I couldn't get it in my mind to visualize you running around looking at pretty birds and flowers? Now, lecturing pretty birds to stay the hell away from the pretty flowers that don't belong in that area in the first f***in' place, but thanks to the plathora of idiots that dictate our society through corrupt and un-educated policies, we can't do anything about it. Ahhhhh! That's more like it. I can visualize that scenario.
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