JORDAN'S "WONDER"FUL VICTORY

Yesterday I was talking to Pam on the phone and she said "wow, is that the call to prayer? That is cool." Indeed, the deck we were sitting on is only a block away from a mosque and is easy to hear during our dinner but is also easy to hear at 3am when it is less cool. Last night, however we not only heard the 3 am call to prayer, which we can increasingly sleep through, but we also heard the 1 am victory fire works. Last night at 1 am local time, Petra's victory as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World was announced. Woo hoo. In the office, there was talk about what this means - will more people visit Jordan now? will more people who are visiting Israel make side trips? how can you make Petra a destination that you'd go to more than once?

It's worth noting that we can actually see/hear fireworks every night. Weddings are celebrated with fireworks and honking horns and since we have deck-views of most of the city's big hotels we see fireworks every night. Weddings seem to happen not just on weekends - for instance we were invited to a wedding tonight (the first day of the work week).