Ramadan is officially over. It was supposed to end either today or tomorrow depending on when the first sliver of this month’s moon showed it’s sorry face, but whoever is in charge of that call saw the moon tonight. Hooray. Now, this means that we have a weeklong break for Eid al-Fitr (عيد الفطر). Some fellow teachers and I are headed down to Wadi Mujib to hike up a riverbed in a Grand Canyon-esque setting, then to the world famous Petra to explore the ancient civilization carved into the side of these beautiful red rocks, and will end up in Wadi Rum to camp in the desert for two nights with some Bedouins. Sweet.

Three weeks on the job, then a vacation – not bad! And I might get another vacation very, very soon. The Jordanian government is so freaked out by Swine Flu that if TWO CASES of H1N1 are reported from our campus, we get shutdown (indefinitely… but at least one week). Every person coming onto campus will have to have their temperature taken. There are 800 students, faculty and staff who work here. Chances of having Vacation Jr very shortly after this one are pretty good.

Eid Mubarak! Goodbye until Thursday…

The streets of Madaba, celebrating the beginning of Eid. This later turned into a mini-riot, a little scary.