Corn-on-the-cob

These were a little over-cooked, but not bad.

Anyway, summer's over before you know it.

The road to my tutor's flat

Sunset

Graffiti

Rooftop

Sattelite antennas are more common than in the US. Our TV gets maybe 500 channels, including FOX Movies

Ghastly kitchen

Call the health department. (Don't look Carol!)

My cell

My humble cell at the house. (Calling it a room would be too pretentious!)



The only widow of the cell faces the courtyard to I can hear video games from the TV till 1 am.

Hotel in Damascus

Garden of Funduq Hamarien (Hotel of the Two Holy Places), where I ate breakfast until I moved to a house.


Typical Shami breakfast: tea, egg, cream cheez, jam, olives, cuke and tomato, bread (the apple is a little unusual and bread is not typically a hot dog bun).

Azm Palace in Old City

Ottoman governor lived here before World War I destroyed the Ottoman Empire. Now holds a cheezy museum

Proof I'm really in the Mideast

One of the few oval Forums in ancient Roman world. (Photo by tourist swimming in sweat and suffering from dehydration)

Ummayad mosque

Very old (700 AD or so), very cool.

President Bashir al-Assad, Fearless Leader of Syria

The son of the former president, Hafez al-Assad, Bashir was quietly going to opthomology school in London when his big brother died in an auto crash, and Bashir was called home to be groomed. Cuts quite a dashing figure, no?

Another Shia shrine

This is the mausoleum of the Martyr Hussein himself. It was much less crowded and had none of the singing and crying of his daughter's shrine had, despite the fact that Hussein's death is in many ways the epicenter of Shia emotion (if not theology).

Why? Apparently because the shrine contains only his head. It was brought back to Damascus as a trophy by his slayer, commander al-Hurr al-Riyahi, for the man who ordered his death, tyrant Yazid. The rest of Hussein's remains are at a far bigger shrine in Karbala. That shrine gets millions of pilgrims a year.

Shia shrine in Damascus

The crypt of Sayyida Ruqqaya, the daughter of Hussein, Hussein being the iconic martyr of Shia Muslims. (top photo)

These are clay things you use to hit your head against while prostrating while praying salat. They are a signature Shia practice, Sunni don't do this. There are almost no Shia in Syria but plenty in neighboring Lebanon and Iran. (middle photo)

The masoleum of Sayyida Ruqqaya and pilgrims. (bottom photo)

Roman ruins in Jerash

Main street
Oval Forum

The most impressive ruins in Jordan are Roman (or in the case of Petra, Nabataeans which loooks pretty Greco-Roman)

It's unseasonably hot here and I practically had heat stroke walking around in the midday sun.

Dynamic Trio

President Ahmadinejad, winner of the recent glorious election in Iran

President Bashir al-Assad of Syria, son of Hafez al-Assad

and Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

(from a poster in Damascus)

Back in business

His Majesty King Abdulla II at ease with family. One of several million photos of His Majesty on view in Jordan. A sign of the love of the people for their monarch.

Am able to post on blog again do change in LAN settings (or something) at the local internet cafe her in Damascus!

Internet 1
Censors 0

Dead Sea

sun setting over Bahr al-Mayit. The sun got lower before actually setting but the haze from evaporating seawater was so thick you couldn't see it.

Wahhabi family on an outing at the "Amman beach" on the Dead Sea.

Prophet Moses last view

This from atop Jebel Nebo looking West to Israel. It's where tradition tells us Moses was shown the promised land by God before dying. (He was not allowed to enter the promised land the bible says he had doubted something God told him and was being punished accordingly.) Funny thing is, the view is like this almost all the time I'm told. It's too hazy to see anything because of evaporation from the Dead Sea.

My lovely hotel in Amman.

Pile of backpacks people have left while making sidetrips. TV on Arab language soccer football all day.

Security helicopter keeping an eye on things

Big International Marathon today

Lots of streets blocked off. Music blasting, crowds cheering for the auspicious occasion. (Internet very slow.)
Here's the finish line as viewed from citadell hill.

Going to Amman

Amman has an old Roman amphitheater


Frankfurt is the O'Hare of Europe - big hub.

Took three flights to get here. Got a window seat