Relaxation

Have I mentioned how lovely this place is? It's really spectacular and the weather couldn't be more ideal. It's in the high 80s, clear sky, lots of sun and a nice breeze.



My very "busy" day.

The Dead Sea

I arrived back in Jordan on Sunday morning and headed down to the Dead Sea yesterday. It's about an hour south of Amman and about 20 degrees warmer. At the urging of my colleagues, I decided to splurge and I'm spending several days at the Movenpick resort, which is right on the sea.



The sea at sunset. Right after I took this, I headed into the water, which is incredibly salinated making it unable to do anything but float. The water also feels a bit oily, like many people went in wearing too much sunscreen. Those shapes you see in the photo are people bobbing in the water.



My room.



Tea this morning on my balcony.

Amman

I ventured out of "Swanky-ville" today and headed downtown to see the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. It was quite spectacular. After wandering around a bit, I walked halfway back to the hotel before getting lost in a maze of shops and street vendors. I wish there was a device to record smells. Coffee, spices, leather, pollution _ quite an orchestra or sights and sounds, too. Pictures didn't capture it.






All is well. I've spent the day trying to get my mouth around key Arabic words and phrases: hello, goodbye, please, thank you, etc.

The Rest

While I'm excited to be in a new place, I'm taking the advice of others and plan to spend today resting and reading a book for fun!


The view from the spa.



The whirlpool at the women's spa.


I spent most of the afternoon in this spot reading my book. It's only in the mid-70s outside and a bit blustery, but the heated pool was bathtub warm.


My late-night cold Mezzah dinner _ hummus, baba ghanuj, labaneh, moutabel, tabouleh, fattoush and stuffed grape leaves. I also ordered a bottle of Jordanian white wine. If I'm doing the conversion right, the whole thing cost about $28.

Saying good-bye to the English countryside ...

I bid a fond farewell to my Centurion buddies yesterday. Rather abruptly, we all left the training bubble and returned to the real worlds with our brains chock full of great information.


(Daniel-Madrid, Connor-Moscow and Ingrid-Brussels ... please get in touch as Connor's email to me never arrived.)


... and tonight I said hello to Amman. This photo was taken from my hotel room on the 16th floor just a short time ago.

Too Much Information

Day Four of Training - I can't believe how tired I STILL am. It's absolutely incredible the amount of information they've attempted to cram into our heads here. The days are long, we have few breaks and we spend alot of our time outside putting into practice what we've learned in the classroom _ everything from first aid and land mines to CPR and hotel security. It's really fantastic. I feel much more confident in my ability to deal with life in a hostile environment. I also would be pretty darn handy to have around for a car crash or bombing.



Daniel "treats" an arterial bleed.



Matt gets hassled at a "checkpoint."

Heckfield Place

Day Two of Training - I can't believe how tired I am. We're outside much of the day and the weather is beautiful. Crisp, clear and cold - much like you'd imagine an autumn day in England.

Heckfield Place, while grand on the outside, is less than spectacular on the inside. It was originally built in 1790 for some rich guy's daughter. Lucky her. Thankfully, my bed is extremely comfortable and covered with a luxuriously warm duvet, which is good because the English don't seem to believe in heat.