(no subject)

[nibot]

Well, it looks like we will be stuck here in Rehovot for four extra hours -- which means we won't make Amman tonight. )-: Toni's supervisor found some more work for him to do so we were sadly unable to escape on the 17:30 bus to Jerusalem as planned. The new plan is to take the 21:45 bus to Jerusalem and find a cheap hostel when we arrive around 22:45. Ideally we will pretend to be Jewish and stay at the Heritage House (which is free!) but I think the probably have a 21:00 curfew. Ugh.

The plan was as follows: take the 17:30 Egged bus to Jerusalem; cross to East Jerusalem and catch an Arab shared taxi from Damascus Gate, across the Palestinian Territory, through Jericho, to the Allenby / King Hussein bridge. We'd be there around 20:00.. Perfect night atmosphere, tolerable temperatures. Cross the border, arrive at our hotel around nine or ten, sleep on the roof at the hotel in Amman ($2), have a nice breakfast in the morning, and then set out for Jerash and then move south to Petra... It's fine if things don't go as planned, but such horrible delays at the beginning of a trip are really depressing.

It's been kind of a stressful day. My plans seemed completely reasonable yesterday morning, but then with the Hebrew University bombing everything has been thrown into a big mess. Our route is now threatened not only by terrorism but also by the IDF retaliation. Furthermore, having just about everyone tell me that I'm totally crazy does not decrease the stress level. Also apparently my housing arrangements in Berkeley have fallen through, leaving me homeless in three weeks, which is just another thing to worry about.

I guess we could adjust the plan for tomorrow to stay in Northern Jordan and still stay in Amman. For some reason I'd really like to do that. But that means less time at Petra. Ugh, this delay really messes up the plans. If we aren't going to Amman, then there's no reason to go through Allenby, so we can save money and risk by going via Eilat, which I really don't want to do. Meh.