come fly with me...

I hope I can remember everything since I haven't had a computer since I arrived in Jordan. and i'm writing this as people in the office are talking to me, so i'm pretty distracted and it might not be too coherent. Flew to New York at 10am, had an 10 hr layover, so I checked in my baggage and hung out at my Grandma's house for awhile. Very nice, since I didn't have to wait around in JFK. Went Back at 6pm for my 8:01 flight. British Airways was sooo nice. Maybe I thought it was since I haven't been on an international flight before, but maybe I liked it because I had three seats to myself for the overnight flight. Heathrow was ok, but I know terminal 3 inside and out tho bc I had so much waiting time. I even fell asleep a couple times, tho I'm not sure for how long. One woman approached me and asked me if I was American. She was in awe and was just asking "is it different there? I would like to go there so badly" in her cockney British accent…FINALLY, I got on my Royal Jordanian flight, which was not too bad, (2 seats to myself… I think the airline people think I smell but I won't complain). Then I arrived in jordan. the passport people gave me no problems, but baggage took forever to arrive. finally I met my sister who handed me an itinerary and "welcome packet" :a little overwhelming after all of those flights and no sleep. Then introduced me to the taxi driver and his nephew. We took the taxi back to her apt (a 2 hr trip). the driver was very talkative, but nice. We had a checkpoint stop, where the police took the ids of the driver and his nephew, but not our ids. About 1/2 way thru the trip I really had to pee. I mean not one of those, I should go to the bathroom; one of those shifting around in your seat to find the best spot times. my sister told me to wait, there were no stops along the way. we were sooooooooo close to the university (I could see the entrance in the distance) and there was another checkpoint. this time they took the ids again and took awhile longer. I had to get out of the car and walk around, my sister yelled at the police to go faster, and they replied "one minute" which really does not mean one minute. with the university within sight, I decided to walk, but I saw the police asking the nephew (mohammed) some questions. then the officer opened the door, took his arm and began handcuffing him, upon which we were all confused. this was NOT what i needed. the driver then told me to get into the car and he would drive me, and as we sped off the police said to wait, but we finally got to a bathroom and i finally moved all of my stuff into my sister's room. what an interesting start to the trip... my sister assured me that those things never happened here but i'm not so sure.
right before we went to bed my sister and i asked each other in disbelief... "did mohammed just get arrested ?"
driving in Jordan, people make up their own rules.
there basically are no rules… passing is extremely common, and it is also common for people to pull over and yell across the street for something like coffee. dogs also roam the highways and chase cars. our taxi driver honked at some dogs but didn't appear to be slowing down. prophet Mohammed was a cat person, so the quran says no to dogs.