Alexandria Library

Wow, we still haven't posted all of our Egypt pictures.

Another installment... On our third day, we headed to Alexandria. In another blog entry we will eventually tell you about our dreadful tour guide but the highlight of our day was seeing the new Biblioteca Alexandrina - the new library in honor of the old library at Alexandria. The actual collection was pretty modest but the building was beautiful. Situated with a view of the Mediteranean, the building was covered with examples of every known written alphabet.

The library includes a large cultural center and their website shows that we missed the class on reading hieroglyphics.

The lion head writing was one of our favorites.

Blackberry holiday

Yesterday was Veteran's Day - which is why we were able to head up Um Qais on a weekend. Yesterday also turned out to be a Blackberry holiday. Nearly everyone in the Embassy has a Blackberry - which is good for productivity (especially on Fridays when Jordan celebrates the weekend and DC keeps working) - but is very poor for letting one actually have a weekend. But yesterday the Blackberry gods (or demons) were smiling and while the phone feature still worked no email came in (and hence no new work). Now when I go into the office this morning those email will be there but the break was welcome.

What a difference some rain makes

Umm Qais November 2008Last December, we made a day trip up to Umm Qais - in very Northern Jordan with views into Israel of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights (formerly Syria). We and our fellow daytrippers had all remembered it as one of our very favorite places in Jordan - with the same Roman ruins as everywhere; a nice restaurant; and GREENERY. We returned yesterday and while the ruins are still interesting (thought to be the site of Jesus turning demons into pigs); and the restaurant still a tasty source of hummus; a long drought has meant that it wasn't very green. Jordan is very very dry and people don't even try to create lush green grass like in Arizona (except in the Ambassador's backyard which is beautifully green) - but northern Jordan tends to be greener than everywhere else.

Umm Qais December 2007We did eat tasty hummus and my favorite mezze -shanklish -which is a spicy goat cheese dip. This restaurant did not make a very tasty mint lemonade. Mint lemonade is one thing that I will miss a lot from Jordan (also available in Israel and Egypt and presumably elsewhere in the Middle East). It is lemonade with very finely chopped mint added to it (like a virgin mojito). It varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant, however - and varies in color from yellow to dark green depending on how minty it is; it is sometimes in slushy format; and sometime like yesterday it is more sour than sweet. My favorite mint lemonade is available at Crumz, a sandwich place near the Embassy - it is sweet, slushy and pretty green.

Election Night and the Day After

Last night the Embassy hosted an election night party - I think many embassies do this and in South America you'd be staying up late just like you would in the states. Here in Amman, we stayed up late just waiting for the polls to close and to get a glimmer of the result. We made it until 1:00 (polls not closed anywhere except Dixville Notch NH). The party was a huge success - for the first time ever - large numbers of people were calling my office trying to get on the guest list (this doesn't happen at the more typical embassy reception in honor of a visiting violinist or trade delegation.)




The party started at 9:00 with a mock debate with two teachers playing the two candidates followed by other formal programming. Dan has designed the playlist so fun music came through between speakers praising the virtues of democracy. I and a Jordanian colleague were in charge of a presidential trivia contest - sample questions below. The winning table had a mixture of Americans (who had a pretty big advantage) and a few Jordanians who could help with the "what gift did President Eisenhower give King Hussein" questions.



Prior to the party, a local bakery offered to donate cookies to the event. The Embassy was interested in the offer until it heard that the cookies were decorated with just one of the candidate's names. The Embassy asked if plain cookies could be delivered or if the cookies could be decorated 50/50 between the two candidates. The bakery refused and no cookies were at the party. But fortunately for we cookie-eaters, a box of cookies arrived in my office today bearing the name of the new president-elect - we'll just have to assume that if the election went the other way I would still be eating delicious cookies.








1. How many presidents were elected president without winning the popular vote?

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4

Answer: D) 4 John Quincy Adams 1824 (elected by Congress) over Andrew Jackson. Rutherford B Hayes 1876 (declared the Electoral College winner by an Electoral Commission) over Samuel J Tilden. Benjamin Harrison 1888 over Grover Cleveland. George W Bush 2000 over Albert Gore.



12. Who has NOT been to Jordan in the last 18 months?

A) Sen. Obama
B) Sen. McCain
C) Sen. Clinton
D) First Lady Laura Bush

Answer: C) Sen. Clinton. Senator Obama visited in July; Senator McCain visited in March; and First Lady Laura Bush visited in October 2007.



19. What was the last state admitted to the union?

A) Governor Palin’s home state of Alaska
B) Senator Obama’s birth state of Hawaii
C) Senator McCain’s home state of Arizona
D) Senator Biden’s birth state of Pennsylvania

Answer: B) Hawaii. Nicknamed the "The Aloha State," Hawaii became the 50th state admitted into the Union on August 21, 1959. Alaska was admitted into the Union on January 3, 1959, becoming the 49th state. Arizona, nicknamed the "Grand Canyon State," was admitted into the Union on February 14, 1912, becoming the Nation's 48th state and the last in the continental United States. Pennsylvania was one of the founding 13 colonies.





20. Who has appeared on the comedy show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 13 times?

A) Sen. Obama
B) Sen. McCain
C) Sen. Biden
D) Gov. Palin

Answer: B) Senator McCain. Senator McCain has been a guest more often than any other person.

Bad week but cheap alterations

This week at work has been exhausting combined with a lot of nighttime events - some fun and some just work. I can say that one way this week has been good has been the availability of an on-site dry cleaning service that does alterations. Our Embassy is having a formal party next week and I ordered a bunch of dresses from Nordstrom figuring one of them would a. fit and b. be attractive. One of them was attractive but it also assumed the wearer was 6 feet tall. I was able to get the dress - which has elaborate fabric layers altered and pressed for the party for $8 and it was done in less than 24 hours.

Islamic Cairo

After the Cairo Citadel, we stopped at a couple of Cairo's must-see mosques

At the 14th century Sultan Hassan mosque we admired this, the oldest known exiting Koran reading stand, which is still in use. The wood carving and inlay were beautiful - I'm not sure if the picture does it justice.






















Here more pretty light fixtures at Sultan Hassan. (It was nearly empty of visitors)























Plastic lights and gawdy Eid decorations adorn the tomb of the important Sufi Sheikh Ali Al Rifai at Al Rifai mosque (only a century old), just next door to Sultan Hassan.



Al Rifai is also the burial spot for the last king of Egypt and (pictured here) the final shah of Iran. The shah received medical treatment at Duffy's alma mater George Washington University (just like Reagan and Cheney and Dan!). The shah's room was filled with beautiful marble panels in creams, greens, and browns. It also had an exceptionally nice Persian carpet left by his widow.

Vote for the Queen

Last summer, you had the opportunity to vote for Petra as World Wonder. Now here is your chance to vote for Queen Rania as most inspirational guest on a CNN International tv show. Deadline December 3rd.