Aunt Randa and Umo Nasri had us for a great Arabic lunch where we met more of the family. Heard some nice stories and got a few good photos of Samir with the family. Later that afternoon Zaid and I walked from Souq al-Bakharia to the Wild Jordan store that sells products of the nature reserves in the country (handmade jewelry, soap, etc). We bought a birding field guide that seems really good, but cost 40 pounds!!! I decided to buy "a foreigner's guide to Jordan...

Most notably, and not surprising to me: Zaid's family all have huge hearts, a good sense of humor, and a lot of respect for Samir. Even strangers here have been so friendly and welcoming that they have on occasion offered a sort of brotherhood to us. It's very comforting and certainly special. It's been busy since I arrived on Tuesday night. The airport was confusing and there was no bank machine available to get Jordanian Dinars to pay for my visa. Luckily ...

Zaid's entry: I've been putting off going to the University of Jordan for a while but I did want to go there at some point. Today was the day. The main attractions that I wanted to see were the Museum of Archaeology and the Natural Heritage Museum. My Lonely Planet guide recommended the former but said there's not much going on in the latter... So I set off a bit later in the morning. It took about 15 min. to get to the University from our place - it's a bit out...

Zaid's entry: I decided to go visit the Roman theatre that I had bypassed yesterday for Salt. The cab driver was extremely friendly and it turned out that he has an uncle in Edmonton - go figure! The Roman theatre was built in the 100's AD for theatrical performances, concerts, etc. The structure itself is quite large, being able to house ~6000 people. It's pretty steep also - climbing up to the top bleachers winded me a bit but the views from the top were quite...

Zaid's entry: I was planning on heading down to the Roman theatre today which is located in downtown Amman (see Jebel al-Qala'a photo album for a view of the theatre) but decided at the last minute to travel to a town called Salt about 45km NW of Amman. My dad joined me as well which was great! He had never stopped in Salt before, only just passed through it in his army days - it definitely is a unique place to visit so I'm glad we had the chance. Salt is appare...