Leaving Amman

Today is my (Mo) last day in Amman for a while. It might also be the last day for the blog for a while, unless I can get Yo up to speed on blogging. Hopefully he will continue on in my absence with tales of his adventures with our friends Miss A, J and W here in Jordan.

I have really enjoyed my 7 months in Jordan. It was great to finally spend time with Yo, meet some new people, travel to Syria, conduct research and generally just get to know Jordan. My fellowship at ACOR(http://www.bu.edu/acor/) provided me with an excellent base from which to conduct my research, meet people and just hang out. The Director (BAP) and Asst. Director (CT) were gracious hosts and incredibly helpful. As an added bonus BAP makes a mean martini, which has become my new drink of choice... Here are some images of life at ACOR
Thursday night we (residents and fellows) usually cook, well really our Philippina friend Janet (that's Janet making a snowman) cooks because she is an awesome chef.

During the week we have our main meal of the day at 2:00pm where everyone gathers to eat some interesting delights cooked by Abu Ahmed, who has been cooking at ACOR for some 46 years. This is him with two of his sons, who also work at ACOR - Said the taxi driver (not really, but he was always gracious enough to give me a lift all over the city and we had a running joke that he was my personal taxi driver) and Abed the handyman.
Here is Miss A working diligently in the library. There is a great collection of books in the library, which made it all the easier for us to spend 10-12 hours day hanging out there. Yo basically took over a carrel and is now taking over my office.

I am off to Toronto late this evening for four days. I will get organized, repack and then head to Austin TX for the Society of American Archaeology meetings. From Austin I head directly to Greece where I meet the students at the Athens port of Piraeus. We then embark on our 6 week excavation adventure on Keros. We have no Internet access on the island, so I won't be doing any blogging until I get back to Canada at the end of June. I am sure that I will have many adventures to report on... Until then, I leave you in the capable hands of Yo, who will continue his adventures in Jordan. Next week they may be off to Bab ed Dhra and Numeira, so look for a post from him.