One Year Today!!!!!!!!

It has been one year today August 31, 2005 when I started this adventure, which is the day I stepped on the MV Explorer to start my “Voyage of Discovery”! A day that I will never forget, a day that I should never be aloud to forget, a day that began to shape and mold my life, emotions, outlook, love, passion, personality, spirituality, and beliefs about my Faith, family, friends, world, country, and mentality.

This has come from visiting 17 countries entailing six out of the seven continents (Australia you can’t hide from me forever), one circum navigation by ship around the globe, numerous flights, uncountable amounts of cities and villages, tens of thousands of miles, but most importantly getting to experience and interact with the unbelievable variety of cultures that make up this planet. Several words come to mind when I think of this such as perception, insight awareness, observation, view but most importantly I would say that it has taught be sensitivity. To be sensitive it brings on a whole new meaning to look, analyze and educate oneself before placing judgment or assumption on a person, place or thing. Obviously there are things that with out question that are evil and the Lord shows us these things with out question. But a lot of what I see is in views and perceptions that leads to anger is lack of sensitivity and communication.

I hope that through the last year I have helped not necessarily shape but helped enlighten and educate through one persons perspective and experiences, those of you who have been so kind to read this blog to the great World that God has created and the amazing cultures and people that make up this amazing creation.

To put some numbers behind it (it’s the businessman in me) in the last year there have been over 7,000 viewers to this site, and an amazing total of 17,960 viewers of my photo journal at http://community.webshots.com/user/chadgriggs . It has now been three months since I have been away from my home in Texas. Away from my family, friends, and comforts. But through your love, support and encouragement along with Gods faithfulness and watching over me I am thriving in the Middle East. A place that has such a negative reputation in the states, a place that I hope that the people of the US and the world will truly look to the heart of the region and see the true beauty, friendliness and love that is here.

All my love and hope for another amazing year where ever the world takes us on our travels.

Chad

News Paper Article

Hey everyone I hope that this finds everyone doing well! I just wanted to pass on a link to a newspaper website that recently did an article on my work here in Amman, Jordan for the current division of the company that I am working for called US Television. Which is a private production house producing exclusive country reports for Fox 5 New York.

The following is a direct link:

http://www.star.com.jo/viewNews/DetailNews.aspx?nid=2877

It doesn’t have the picture that was in the article on the web, but it should give you a little better understanding of my job, and at times the article is kind of funny seeing the translation into English. Talk to everyone soon.

Chad

The Lights of Israel at Night!

Hi everyone, this week marked the projected half way point for my projects, which we really want to meet our goals because if we do then we get bonuses and a week extra paid vacation with the option to use any of the hotels in the world that the company has nights with. We found out on Thursday afternoon that we were going to end up getting a three day weekend because Sunday turns out to be a Muslim Holiday therefore all of our meetings that we had scheduled got canceled. Had I known sooner I would have planned a trip to Egypt or to the Red Sea. But what we ended up doing was as good if not better. We got invited by the general manager to come spend the night at the new Kempinski Dead Sea Hotel, this was the same hotel that we went to the first time we went to the dead sea (link at http://www.kempinski.com/en/hotel/index.htm ). It is so nice to have such a great spot to go and relax just about 45 minutes from downtown Amman.

Anyways they take security very seriously here at this hotel, not just for like terrorists stuff but to keep non-hotel guests out of the hotel property. The entire hotel isn’t finished yet but the lower level of where all of the suites are down by the sea is finished. The main building up next to the entrance is still not finished it will also house, a movie theatre, bowling alley, and two first for Jordan the largest night club in Jordan as well as a 10,000 sq meter spa which once complete will be the largest in the Middle East.

So they stop you at the main gate and check to see if you are on the list and then they come by in golf carts that are waiting for you to the main entrance of course they take care of the car and the luggage. Then they pull up to the main building that has two huge wooden doors that are at least 2 or 3 stories tall that they pen into a long hall that is covered with tables of fresh orchids looking out to the dead sea. We were immediately greeted by the chief butler who we had met on our first visit to the hotel. They seated us at a waiting area and came around offering an assortment of fresh exotic juices (mango, etc. a lot of which I had never tasted before). Then the General Manager came up and invited us out on this round terrace over looking the sea, as well as the “property” with him pointing out the many amenities such as the zillion pools, restaurants, and large suites. It was funny because the guy was half Irish and spent most of his time around the world managing and opening luxury hotels put he said that he actually grew up in Detroit, who would have thought?

They then escorted us to our rooms on one of the many golf carts where we were shown to our complex of suites which there was a main entrance with different wings each having one of the three suites that was ours. We decided after checking out the rooms, and since this was the same company that built and manages the Emirates Palace (the one in the UAE that was so amazing) I had to compare the two. This one was very minimalist trying to be very chic not over the top like the palace which was kind of refreshing but at the same time I am not going to say that I don’t prefer the 80 inch plasma TV over the topness that is Emirates Palace.

Anyways we decided to go swimming in one of the infinity pools that is next to the room. Where we got to experience night time at the Dead Sea which is nothing less then spectacular. Because of the amazing view looking out at Israel – Jerusalem, Jericho etc. across the sea in the rolling mountains in the distance. There were a lot of people at the pool still at this time. I meet a little girl that reminded me of Erin (although Erin is not that little) anyways she said that she was Jordanian but lives in London and that she was 10 years old. And when I asked her which she preferred. She said that she likes, Jordan but prefers London’s shopping. I couldn’t believe it the girl was 10 years old and talking about preferring London’s shopping, this was a quick reminder of the type of clientele that the hotel serves.

We decided to eat at the Bar B Que that the GM had talked up so much that night it was right next to the upper infinity pool which is one of the coolest I have seen. It is huge and in a shape of a circle gradually getting deeper at the center but the coolest part about it at night there are hundreds of fiber optic lights throughout that change colors almost looking like a solar system the pours into the dead sea with the lights of Israel in the distance. We were actually sat right next to the table where the GM, his wife and two kids were sitting. It makes me wonder what it would be like growing up living in a 5 star hotel on the dead sea.

The wine list was extraordinary with numerous labels from Rothchild in France with a couple Robert Mondavis Opus mixed in. Lets just say that the Kempenski knows how to throw a Bar B Que. The first station is grilled vegetables every type you can image. Then was the main event the grilling station, fillet mignot, swordfish, salmon, sirloin and then at least 1 pound T Bone steaks all grilled to order. Then the salad bar with all the traditional Arabic and American things but some great smoked Salmon and an interesting Sushi Sea Bass dish that was worth noting along with Gazpacho. Then there was a Tempura station with mushrooms, squid, and other vegetables, and finally the Leg of lamb carver.

During dinner the Assistant General Manager just happened to stop by the table to tell us how glad he was to have us as guests and if there was anything else that he could bring for us to let him know. Colleen said a couple of the masseurs from the Spa and he said as you wish. She said that she was kidding, but I thought about pushing it but was satisfied with the meal at hand to. We stayed there at the table dragging it out for almost three hours enjoying the food, drink, and dessert presentations.

Of course we sleep in, but then it was time for the show that they put on by the pool and sea. They fixed us up a couple of chairs with umbrellas and then started pampering us with chilled towels, Evian water misters, fruit injections (which were fruits pureed and put into a syringe looking thing) the service never stopped. We decided that we wanted to have lunch next to the pool and when they brought around the menus I noticed that they didn’t have the sea food lasagna that I loved so much last time, the waiter went and asked and said that he chef would love to make it for me.

We decided that we had to go then to the Dead Sea and get all lathered up in the Dead Sea Mud that is supposed to be so good for your skin, and the guy insisted that you are supposed to let it dry before you get into the water with it on. It was amazing how hot it got as it dried on your skin, then we ended up just getting in anyways. The water was unbelievably flat and when you would moved it seemed to send a ripple all the way to the coast of Israel. After returning to the pool the service continued, they brought over chocolate baby scoops of ice cream, then the spa staff come over and gave five minute minny massages (they actually imported Thais to come in to run their spa and do the massages) and then finished us off with frozen cucumber slices for the eyes. I must say that they get the best rating for poll service and luxury that I have ever experienced or heard of. Although I am sure that it doesn’t hurt to have the GM come by about every hour and a half checking to make sure that everything is ok. We enjoyed the sunset as it soaked away into the mountain line of Israel. Then we made our way back into Amman for the evening. Where we meet up with Chase (who is also working on a different project for the same company) and several of his friends who are random expats from around the world.

Yesterday, we made our way to the Turkish Spa for our massages, it was excellent again in relaxing away the stress from the work week that had past and the stress for the future week to come. This was turning out pretty good though two massages in two days not a bad role. We also got our copies of the local newspaper who featured a half page article on our project here, with a big picture of us getting interviewed so that was pretty exciting. They drag the posting onto the internet for one week, so when it comes up I will post the link to the article. Pretty exciting having my first work interview for the papers with hopefully more to come. In other exciting news the company comes out with the rankings from all of the teams across the world for the top three for each month, and out team is ranked number two in sales for the entire company for August so that is extremely exciting since this was my first full month with sales since I have started with company. Hopefully we will be able to get some more large sales and bounce up to number one!

All for now I will post pics and the link to the newspaper article soon.

Chad

A Week full of VIPs

(The left meeting is with HE Dr. Bassam Awadallah Director of His Majesties Royal Court and the second is of Colleen and I with Former Prime Minister Dr. Abdel Salam Al Majali at his home in Amman, Jordan)

It is interesting to think that I have now lived in Amman Jordan for over five weeks now. Longer then I spent in Dubai, who would have thought the Lord Defiently works in Mysterious ways. Yet at the same time Dubai still feels like my home in the Middle East, although it could never take the place of Texas to me!

We had another interesting week as you can imagine. We started off by meeting with Jordan insurance company which is the largest here in Jordan.

Later that day we meet with His Excellency Dr. Bassam Awadalah the head of the Royal Court (which he is His Majesty King Abdullah’s right hand man). It was very interesting going through the security checkpoint and having them look under the car. And then the pulled another car around and told us that we weren’t aloud to bring our car on the property. Military opened the doors for us and when we pulled up to this European villa looking build among the military guards was a butler looking guy that greeted us and escorted us into one of the waiting rooms, which looked like of the famous rooms in the White House with the double French doors and they started serving us coffee and juices. When a women was escorted into the room who we began chatting with, then His Excelency came in and said sorry that we had to wait that he first needed to speak with the Ambassador from Spain. So that was pretty interesting the women who was sitting in there was the ambassador. We ended up meeting with him a very kind and friendly guy but extremely busy and it was interesting see them drive away in the motorcade after our meeting.

The next day we also got interviewed by the local newspaper who is doing an article on us and our program here in Jordan. It was kind of an interesting feeling and where the tables are turned on me where I am usually the one doing the interviewing. The story should run this coming Thursday so that will be fun to see our pictures in the paper for the work that we are doing here.

Then we meet with Former Prime Minister Dr. Abdel Salam Al Majali who among other major accomplishments signed the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. It was very interesting being invited to come to a former prime ministers house to sit and listen to stories, goals and hopes for the future and see the different pictures and things that he had collected over the years. His schedule is still extremely busy representing Jordan to the rest of the world with trips in the next 6 months to India, Tokyo, Georgia, Hawaii and Rio de Janeiro (I wish that I could tag along on many of these).

The next day was airline day where the first cool meeting was with the CEO of Royal Jordanian Airlines which is known as one of the best here in the Middle East. He was a very nice man who is actually the son of the former prime minister. His office was amazing it took up the whole top floor of the RJ building which is one of the tallest in Jordan which sits on the top of one of the mountains here in Jordan so as you can imagine the view was amazing.

Later on that day we had a meeting with the Managing Director for the Middle East of Alpha Airports group which is one of the largest airport service providers in the world, right under LSG Sky Chefs that almost everyone had heard of. We waited for about thirty minutes getting through the different security procedures to get to the guys office. Which was on the other side of the run way so it was very interesting being one of those cars out driving around on the tarmac that seem so tiny when you are sitting up in the plane. It was a very fun meeting getting to learn and see all that goes on behind the scenes in airports from food production, running the restaurants and coffee shops in the airport, to cleaning of the linens for the airlines. Of course he had a buffet of Royal Jordanian Airlines first class food waiting on us in the board room with fresh squeezed juices so it made the meeting run a lot smoother and more enjoyable.

That evening we went out with our Italian friends who had a colleague in town from Rome who invited us to all come and stay at his place the next time we are in Rome. We ended going back to that Centro restaurant that was completely booked but we press passed it and sure enough there just happened to be a table available who would have thought? Dinner was excellent as usual then we made our way back to the Marriot and enjoyed the rest of the evening in the Cigar bar and restaurant there at the hotel.

We woke up late on Friday and made our way to the Turkish spa that is here in Jordan that had been recommended by our friends that works at the Le Meridien. It was great there are several different treatments rooms with different scented steams and then the massage was amazing. Really worked out all the tension from working so much from the week. We actually ended up getting memberships there that were drastically discounted for the next three weeks so we can go and enjoy once a week the facilities and get a massage so it will be a nice thing to look forward to in the future each week. Then we found out that same day that Sean was going to end up leaving to go back to the office to start on his own project. He has been with us training and in fact did all the prep work for this project for me since I was in Dubai. He ended up flying out at 3 am in the morning this morning to make his way back to the office. Of course they will not tell him where his project will be yet but he knows that it is in Europe.

Last night we ended up going to Romero’s Restaurant for dinner, and it was one of the coolest outdoor restaurants in a court yard with candles everywhere that I have been to. Each table had its own umbrella covering thing really hard to describe but it was one of the restaurants that is owned by the President of the Restaurant association that we had previously meet with.

Looking towards to the coming week we have several big meetings coming up among them the US Ambassador, and some large ICT companies. All for now, hope everyone is doing well back in Texas and everywhere else in the world and states that reads this.

Chad

Arabic Wedding and House Party

Photos have been updated At http://community.webshots.com/user/chadgriggs

and videos from this blog at the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voRA9eufKZs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri9QAh9Zezo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVwSeo8ctE4

Hello everyone, I can't believe that it will be 2 months that I have been away from home on Tuesday. Things are going well Jordan is much different then Dubai (but as the locals say -- Same same) at the same time.

I do miss Texas especially family, friends, and food (Mexican that is) the three F's that you can only get in Texas. But I am enjoying life in Jordan although I work way too much. It is also funny living in a 5 star hotel now for a month. The Le Meridien is very nice and as you can imagine it comes to feel like home. I have made friends with all of the staff who mostly all know me by name and we have made other friends such as some from Italy that we went out with last night. We move into the Marriot on Wednesday, and are meeting with the director of His Majesties Royal Court on Sunday so we are now just one step away from meeting His Majesty King Abdullah so that is pretty exciting. My last blog that I posted was never finished because I always thought that I would get back to it but never did.

Anyways so last weekend I had my first Arabic Wedding that I talked about but I never got into detail about the reception which was the main event. So it was being held in one of the ballrooms here at the hotel. And everyone waits outside the elevators for the bride and groom to come down from their room and then the 6 piece Arabic band and singers start playing. And it is at this moment that the dancing and clapping begins. And everyone is doing it from the little kids, the grandma to the bride and groom and of course the two gringos that everyone is starring at trying to figure out how we fit into the picture.

So they dance but they really aren’t walking forward just dancing with the band leading the way and they just barely keep up to the entrance to the ballroom dancing which it probably takes us 45 minutes to get from the elevator to the ball room. Lots of fun but boy your hands sure do hurt from clapping. Then they did a little slide show thing and start dancing again. It was a lot of fun, they would come around with drinks and we would just dance with the bride and others that were there from the hotel that we knew. It was a lot of fun and a true testament of the hospitality of the people here in Jordan for her to invite us to her wedding and go as far to dance with me on her wedding night. They would lift the bride and groom up in their chair while dancing and the grandma would come around with silly string and foam shooters at the crowd on the dance floor. And about 3 hours later at about 1am they finally served dinner. I couldn’t believe how long they danced!!!!

So this weekend was very relaxing, first we started out at Centro Brasserie (http://www.grumpygourmet.com/april_06/resturant_reviews.shtm 4th on the list) restaurant which is Italian food - it was really great a nice fillet minion with a béarnaise sauce just what I needed to finish off the week. Then we headed to the Le Royal which is probably the nicest hotel in Amman http://www.leroyalhotel-amman.com/ to one of the top floors to the Buddha Bar which is really cool themed with a great view of the city. Then we received a call from one of our friends who is a manager at our hotel who invited us to come to a party at her uncle’s house. So she calls the hotel to send a driver to come and get us to take us out to the house. It is a long ways outside of Amman probably about 20 minutes and just next to where we are going was the Kings main palace. We start driving up into the mountains which was so beautiful with all of the lights from the city. When we start hearing this really loud music coming from the house that we were going to. They had huge speakers that they had sat up on the gates outside the house pointing into the courtyard where everyone was. With a keyboard a couple of Arabic drums and the uncle singing on the microphone. Where they immediately greet us and all of the family about 75 of them start coming up to us telling us how glad they were that we were here and welcoming us to Jordan. Everyone was lined up in chairs along the wall of the courtyard watching the people dancing and the music. When they got some chairs and sat them up right in middle of everyone and the grandfather came and they brought a chair over for him and he sat down right next to (his special guests) as he said. Then they brought out a coffee table and sat it in front of us and starting bringing on the food. Probably 10 plates of the traditional Arabic food and drinks.

It was bad because we were both stuffed from a huge dinner and the Arabic food I really don’t care for. But anyways you can imagine what time it was --- time to dance. So they insisted that we get up and start dancing with them. And they loved us we were as much entertainment for them as the party was for us. And they danced and danced especially with Amanda all the uncles wanted to dance with the blonde girl. But it was soo much fun seeing the family and the kids playing together. When finally we had to call it a night about 1:30am or so. We ended up meeting a few of her cousins that actually go to school in California but were back in Jordan for the summer that said that they would call us and we would go out some time.

Well they did and last night they made reservations for us to this club across the street from the le royal hotel. This is a big thing here people do not go out to clubs or dinner till late especially on the weekends maybe 10:30 at the earliest and every place has to have a reservation. Infact the funny thing is about the reservation it doesn’t matter if there are several tables empty with no reservations if you do not call ahead to make a reservation they will not let you in. Anyways it was a cool lounge type atmosphere with all kinds of beautiful people and Amanda and I were the only gringos there. And of course they had invited a few of their cousins to come join us, and we invited one of our Italian friends as well. It is very interesting because not only do you have drinks at everyone’s table you have what they call huble bubley which is the hookas. We had a lot of fun listening to all of the different music when American music would come on people would dance in their chair and when they would play an Arabic song everyone would start clapping in unison very interesting seeing the two cultures combined into one.

Well that’s all for now email me and let me know whats going on with you!!!

Dead Sea and Jerash the last couple of weeks new blog coming soon

So wow I can’t believe that it has taken me this long to write another blog. It has been I think two weeks now and much has happened. As most of you know I am working all the time so I have very little down time so there is no time for me to blog although I am getting to continue to meet a lot of interesting people. And as I said that this huge network of people that we are building up will begin to start to pay off and this week it did. We signed over $57,000 this past week and we haven’t even scratched the surface or begin really going after any of the corporations yet. So that is very exciting news. Well I have this weekend and last weekend to tell you about.

As for last weekend it was very short on Thursday night we went to the interconitential hotel which is actually very nice. It has a huge pool area that a night they turn into several different them restaurants each with their own live music. We decided that we would spend the night at the Arabic one, who had a real live 4 piece Arabic band playing. After a while I couldn’t tell if they were singing or reading the Koran (not the right spelling I know) but anyways all of the tables had the hookas and then after the band would take a break this women came out and started doing belly dancing as they call it, which is basically a women gets up and dances with her stomach showing, but she had this cane that she kept swinging around very interesting to say the least. Then the next day we had arranged with one of the tourism offices to take us on a tour of Jerash ( more http://www.bamjam.net/Jordan/Jerash.html ) anyways it is about one hour north on the direction towards Syriah. It is a great drive along the way because you can see all of the olive farms where they grow all kinds of different olives both to eat and for the olive oil which is harvested each year in October. A lot of the aribic food they drizzle the olive oil on top of so it is a big part of the cooking. In fact the driver said that every year he buy barrels of it.

And along the way we stopped at one of the many fruit stands selling everykind of fruit that you can imagine but what they really wanted us to buy was the eggplant which was apreantly in season at the time. But what I was really amazed with was the baby apples I mean I really can’t believe how small they were (photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/chadgriggs ) anyways so we tried a couple and then what the driver really was excited about was the cactus. I know I was a little skeptical at first but anyways he was saying that it is the choosen fruit here instead of an apple his kids would eat some cactus. Anyways its not the typical texas cactus it is round and still has the thorns on it. But you cut away the outside layer of skin and it is green inside and really sweet. I don’t know if it is worth the trouble I guess the closest thing that I could compare it to is a pinapple.

When we finally got to Jerash the first thing that you notice is the roman pillars and ruins that are in middle of the city. And they said that there is still tons of ruins yet to be uncovered but where most of the people lived is where the housing for all of the people lived today it is underneath and so it probably will never be uncovered. But there are tons of roman pillars and the guide did a thing where he put a stick under the pillar leveraged by a rock and the pillars actually are moving just ever so gradually to adjust for the winds (this is why they believe because they give just a little bit why they have lasted so long) anyways what I was really impressed with was the roman theatre which was amazing. Round shapped with a stage and the actual seats where numbered in greek, and they said that there was actually a VIP section even back then which was the seats to one side that would be in the shade during afternoon and early evening performances. But what was the coolest part of all was when you would stand in the very center on a certain stone and you would speak every seat in the whole place could hear you perfectly. And if you would step one foot to anyside it would through the hole thing off and it would not be half as loud. It was one thing that really impressed me and showed the intelegience of the Roman people even way back then. There were also remains of Churches that were where John the Baptist would preach at when he was in town.

Jerash is said to be one of the largest collection of Roman archetcture outside of Rome and Amanada said that she liked it better then what was in Rome. That afternoon we had a traditional Arabic lunch there in the area of the ruins. It was quit good and since it was a buffet I was able to try many different types of their food. On of the main things that you find is a big bowl of yellow rice with pieces of lamb in it that has been soaked in what they call yogurt (that it has been cooked in and very thin) but it was a great meal and very fun. On the way back instead of going up through the mountains we went through the valley to Amman where there is the largest Palestinian camp. And why they call it a camp is because originally it was just a camp site where the Palestinians put there tents when they forced to leave the West bank. Anyways they finally built buildings and houses/apartments but very close together and since it was just kind of done piece by piece there is no real planning of it and there is no real roads just walkways but today it is home to a little over 100,000 Palestinian refugees.

Sadly the next day we had to work but we ended up signing a $20,000 contract so that’s not so bad after all. Then this weekend was a lot of fun too. On Thursday night after working til about 7 or so and taking a nap Colleen and I went to dinner over by the mall in an area that was apearntly the big hanging out for the upper class lots of porches etc which I really hadn’t seen since leaving Dubai. The food was good Italian and we had nachos for an apitizer which were ok considering that they were outside of the states oh how I miss my Mexican food. Which was one thing that we discussed the fact that almost anywhere in the world you can get Chinese food, Indian food, Italian food, etc even Japanese food with such a small island. But you can forget Mexican food I just don’t understand.

Anyways then yesterday we got into the car and drove down to the Dead Sea and spent the day at a different hotel this time at the Movenpick ( website http://www.moevenpick-hotels.com/hotels/dead_sea/ ) it is right next to the Kempenski where we stayed at last time. Very nice and built in the traditional Arabic Architecture. It had several cool pools the first of which was one that was a circle infinity pool (well it seems like all of the pools here are infinity pools [an infinity pool is one of those that if built next to a lake or ocean it looks like the water from the pool is that of the same in the ocean/lake]) anyways the cool thing about this one is the fact that it is one of those sand pools. Where the pool actually has a sandy peach and the bottom of the pool is covered in sand. This area was covered with kids and in fact at one point they even had a clown come out and the kids went nuts. Definetly a nice touch 5 star all of the way. But we finally made our way to the spa. Which they invited us to spend the day at of course there was a womens only side in fact of the room was where the women who were “covered” could go and lay out and get some sun but there were walls so you couldn’t see in. But the spa had two areas one with a infitinty pool which had the bar and restaurant all of this being inside the spa. And the other side was where we spent most of the time at the group of Hydrotherapy pools. They have these in the spas of most cruise ships and it is where there are different stations inside the pool where different jets, boubles and fountains do different things to relax and take tension away for you. And there are water chairs and places where you could lay down in the pool and have the boubles massage you. As you can imagine after a very intense week of no telling how many hours it was great to relax and unwind.

Lunch time, I got to enjoy my first Friday brunch (which is equivalent in the Middle East to Sunday Brunch in the states) but anyways it was fantastic with every kind of meat, seafood, dessert (even a chocolate fountain) and even aribic food it was great. After words we made our way down to the sea, and got all mudded up again and jumped right in. All though we were missing the Kempenskis bamboo walk way into the sea because on your way in at this beach you had to suffer stepping on all of the jagged rocks, I really was surprised that they didn’t do something about it. But it was amazing just laying there and enjoying floating around felling the salt and different minerals massaging you.

Later we went back up to the spa and experienced their indoor dead sea pools. They had two of them on was half regular water and half dead sea water and the other was all dead sea water. But this was a different experience from the sea because we were actually in an indoor pool with dim lighting when I would lay back and just float as if I was on a pool mat I almost feel asleep a couple of times. And finally the dead sea sunset is one of the best I have seen in a while. We got to enjoy the infitity pool, corona, and seeing the sunset into the Isreal mountains looking onto the cities of Jerusalem in the background. A great way to finish of the day.

On the way back it was night and very interesting takeing the winding roads through the mountains back into Amman. Along the way it was fun getting to see the huge firwork shows that were put on after each wedding. Again I can’t believe how many people get married here everyday. I guess the only time people get married is during the month of June.

Speaking of I just got back this afternoon from my first Jordanian and for that matter Arabic wedding. It is interesting it was this womens that we have become friends with who is in charge of the business center here in the hotel. She makes my life so much easier handling all of my faxes, printing, and technology troubles. Anyways this morning she swung by the hotel to pick up Amanda who she had invited to go get her hair done with her for the wedding (the same day of the wedding) now this is a great sign of the generosity, welcoming friendly spirit of the people of Jordan. I know in texas it is a special thing on the wedding day for the bride to go to the spa and get all of her makeup and hair done only with close friends and family there. But here she is hosting Amanda someone she has known for less then a month – I hope this shows you how friendly these people are. Anyways Amanda said that they went to her house first where she got to meet all of her family and then to the church, and then to the spa with all of Manals friends.

So the wedding is at a church on top of one of the hills right next to the Four Seasons and there is a band of 2 drummers and 4 bag pipe players (we see this all the time in the lobby as the wedding party walks through the lobby on the way to the receptions here at the hotel) anyways it is a beautiful church they are greek orthodox ) there are about four priests that spoke at different times where they constantly directed us to stand and sit. It was all in Arabic so I didn’t understand a word that they were saying but still it was a lot of fun. And towards the end they signed there names to a book where the priest made the bride, groom, maid of honor, and the best man all kiss the book. Then they touched two crowns that were linked together to the bride and grooms head several times and then finally put them on their heads then joined all of the wedding parties hands together as they circled the table about 4 times with the priest throwing rose pedals at them. It was a lot of fun. Something interesting during the wedding different men that were in attendance would just get up and leave and go hang out outside where you could see them through the open windows. Then the wedding party went outside and the band was playing and we formed a line to greet both sides of the family and the bride and groom. Both sides of the family were so thankful that we were there, and it was a good chance for us to thank them for including us to this special event.

So I started writing this one and was planning on coming back to it and then posting it but I have had several emails asking me if I am still here so I will go ahead and post it incomplete. Sorry you wouldn’t believe how buisy work has been I promise to do better in the future if anyone still reads this. Email a short message if you still read this so I know to keep trying to write or not. Thanks.

Chad