Part 1: Even Swine Flu has a Silver Lining: Carolyn's Jordanian Adventure Begins

There are many idiosyncratic little quirks that I have noticed about this country since I arrived, but by far my favorite little Egyptian eccentricity is their overwhelming terror of the Swine Flu. It permeates every level of society, sends shivers down the back of the lowliest beggar and the loftiest AUC'er, makes people slam their shutters, kill every pig in the country, and - - AND - - makes the government cancel University for two and a half weeks.

We went into class last Wednesday, and by the end of the day had learned that we would not be coming back tomorrow; we would not, in fact, be coming back til October 3rd!

But why? we asked. How could this possibly be prudent? Our schedules have already been all wacky because of Ramadan, and we've only had a week and a half of class so far! Why would you do this, AUC?

Swine Flu, they answered solemnly. Government orders. Go home, stay put, and for God's sake wash your hands.

So go home we did. But stay put we did not. When faced with such a wonderful opportunity for adventure, how can one NOT act upon it? And so, here it is: our Grand Jordanian Adventure.

God bless you, Swine Flu!

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Our adventure started at 4 am on Thursday. 4 am is an ungodly time to get up. But you know what: I always feel like Grand Adventures need to start disgustingly early. There's something about getting out in the pre-dawn gloom that really reinforces the fact that you're GOING somewhere. I mean, why else would you EVER agree to get up so early? There must be something really good waiting on the other side.

Autumn and I would be traveling by bus to Nuweiba, a port town toward the south of the Sinai peninsula. It would take about 6 - 8 hours, if all went well and it did not break down (buses here have a habit of breaking down), meaning, if we left at 6 am as planned, we should arrive around 1 or 2 pm. From Nuweiba we would take a 3:30 ferry to Aqaba, and provided we got our visas within an hour or two we should be headed toward Amman, the Jordanian capital, by 7 or 8 we figured. We had no idea how long it took to get from Aqaba to Amman. We hadn't really thought about it but we assumed no more than an hour or so. Once in Amman, we would meet up with our friend Cory, who would be waiting for us in the Amman Sheraton - Cory used to work at the Sheraton in Wilmington and thus gets sweet discounts, and we figured that, after four hours of travel (from Syria to Amman) on his part and 15+ hours of travel on our part, a little luxury would be well worth the extra cost.

The best part about this plan is, we put it together about six hours before we left. This is why I love traveling with Autumn. We had known for a while that we wanted to go to Jordan, because we were supposed to have a 5-day break anyway, to celebrate Eid, the holiday that comes at the end of Ramadan (which reminds me - RAMADAN IS FINALLY OVER!!! Thanks be to heaven! I do believe the entire Muslim world breathed a sigh of relief at that. You can't imagine how wonderful it was that first day, to see people drinking tea and eating snacks in the broad daylight. Magic.) But true to our laid-back go-with-the-flow attitudes, we assumed it would all come together and thus saw no reason to rush it. So the night before we left we finally looked up bus schedules, ferrry schedules, prices and locations, skype'd Cory, and voila! Six hours prior to leaving we had a perfectly functional escape plan, from dusty Cairo to beautiful, green, mountainous Jordan. Granted, we had no idea what we wanted to do once we got there, but we figured we would figure that out once we arrived. Again, no need to rush.

I won't bore you with the details of the trip, but suffice it to say we set out expecting at least something to go wrong - and were shocked when the journey went as smooth as one could possibly imagine! We got on the bus, got off the bus, got on the ferry, got off the ferry, with a minimal amount of fuss or inconvenience. We even stopped and had a soda on the way. And then we were in Jordan - happy day! - at around 6 pm, and all we had to do was get to Amman.

So we found a nearby taxi driver, only to discover: Amman was 4 hours away.

No no, this was not part of the plan! By now it was getting on to 6:30, and what's more, the driver wanted 60 dinar (about $70) for the trip! But after trying unsuccessfully to find a public bus to take us there, and wasting another half hour to an hour, and worrying about poor Cory, who had arrived at the Sheraton around 6 and would undoubtedly start to worry soon, we finally agreed. We managed to talk to driver down to 50 dinar total, and we were on our way.

Thus ensued one of the most uncomfortable rides imaginable. We had been traveling for 14 hours already, were dead tired, were in a rush, were not feeling particularly sociable - and the driver was being ridiculous! He spent half an hour driving around Aqaba trying to convince one of this friends to keep him company on the ride; we finally told him, firmly, that we were in a bit of a rush and he needed to start driving now, at which point he tried to convince one of us to sit up front with him to keep him company! Autumn and I have heard a few too many horror stories to agree to that, especially considering he had told me I was beautiful not fifteen minutes before, so we - again, firmly - declined the invitation, and - again, firmly - asked him to start the damn trip. Then we promptly feigned sleep to avoid having to speak to him for the next four hours. He kept trying to wake us up - by stopping and buying us sodas, by flicking on the inside cab light - but we were determined! And, as I said, dead tired.

But finally we arrived! And it was beautiful! And that bed was the most heavenly bed I have ever slept on. And we awoke in the morning and had a huge, delicious breakfast, and were ready to start our adventure.