...and we're off!!

Day 1 began with the good news that Lei got her Jordanian visa.....at the 11th hour!! We were both so excited that it was reallllllly hard to concentrate on work the rest of the day.

I left work around 5:30pm. The game plan was to meet at Lei's house (out in podunk Ashburn) where I would leave my car. Her husband would drive us to the airport. I arrived at Lei's house about an hour later and she's tinkering with the contents of her bckpack -worried that it was too heavy and suggesting that she could lighten the load by removing a couple of small plastic bags. She's got a lot to learn!!

Starry, starry night.

On the drive home today, I couldn't help but notice the full moon that was lighting up the nightime sky. It got me wondering about what I would see in the sky on the nights we'll be sleeping on the deck of the felucca, floating up the Nile, or sleeping in the desert of the Wadi Rum. So, I Googled "Egyptian sky" and as expected found endless information on the role that the stars played on Egyptian life. I think that the astrological signs as we know them today we created by the Egpytians as the symbols often show up in their descriptions of the night time sky. Can't wait to see the Egyptian sky for real!!

The education of Julee - lesson on the flags of Egypt and Jordan.

The currencies of Egypt and Jordan are fairly similar - with common elements such as the bilingual Arab and English faces and the common piastre subdivision. I was curious to see if the symbolism of their flags also shared common themes. As it turns out, aside from the design that is based on 3 horizontal bands and colors common to many of the Pan Arab nations, the underlying symbolism of flags is remarkably different.

The education of Julee - lesson in currencies.

This past Wednesday, Lei and I went to the Credit Union and placed an order for Egyptian pounds (EGP) and Jordanian dinars (JOD). According to our Egypt guidebooks, there are plenty of ATMs in Egypt so we basically got a small amount of currency to get us going and then we'll use our debit cards to withdraw whatever else we need while we're there. I'm hoping we can do the same thing in Jordan.