Random Rambling, vol. II

For some people, coming to Petra is like fulfilling a childhood dream, nurtured through multiple viewings of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'; having never seen an Indiana Jones film, and never learned much about Petra, I felt no burning desire to see it, and so I think that I was all the more blown away by what I saw, simply because I really didn't know what to expect. After spending seven hours exploring Petra today, I can definitely say that I am done with ruins for awhile. As far as grand finales go, Petra would be pretty tough to beat, so I'm glad that I saved it for last. I don't know what else to say about the experience, except that it was a great day, and I wish that I understood German so that I could have learned more from eavesdropping on the tour group of seniors being led around the site by a German-speaking tour guide. The only mildly unfortunate incident of the day involved an errant goat that took off with my earphones; as a result, I spent a good part of this evening trolling from shop to shop, looking for suitable replacements, with no success. I'm expecting it to be a long and quiet bus ride tomorrow...

I was glad to have the day to just wander around the site; I've been feeling increasingly pensive over the last few days, and so it was perfect to spend the day alone, moseying along at my own pace, and just allowing myself to be lost in thought for the day. The cause of my pensiveness? To be fair, as many of you know, I'm always a little lost in thought, but for a number of reasons have been more so as of late. As the date of my repatriation draws nearer, I'm realizing that I need to start making concrete decisions about the immediate future. Perhaps most pressingly, where the hell am I going to live, and what am I going to to support myself? There are a couple of interesting opportunities that I've applied for, but the application process takes six months, and so regardless of whether or not either one works out, in the interim, I'm going to need to find something to do with my time. I must confess that part of my angst with regards to the future has to do with the fact that I've been seriously pondering the idea of pursuing something that is radically out of my primary field of study, and that would require a pretty massive time, lifestyle and financial commitment over several years, but is something that I've been seriously considering for the last eighteen months or so. I don't mean to play coy, but as it's something that is rather near and dear to my heart, and I'm really unsure of whether I'm actually going to do anything about it, I won't elaborate any further for the moment.

On a totally unrelated note, I've been experiencing some major communication issues over the last few days. First of all, it has been brought to my attention that several e-mails that I thought I had sent out last week while never made it to their intended in-boxes; I apologize to those of you who thought you were getting the shaft, particularly if you are the special individual who had a birthday last week and felt as though the occasion had gone unacknowledged. Secondly, I have in my possession half a dozen postcards from Syria, all addressed and ready to be posted, but that I forgot to drop in a post box...grrr...this ALWAYS happens to me, and yet I never seem to learn. The lucky intended recipients can be expecting an extra insert in their Christmas cards this year.

I'm coming into the homestretch of my Middle Eastern adventure; I don't know where the last month has gone, but I feel like time has sped up considerably in the last little while. I'm leaving Petra tomorrow, bound for...it's yet to be determined. I'm still trying to decide if I want to take the side trip down to Dahab, or if I should just head to Israel. The idea of spending a couple of days unwinding in Dahab is very seductive, as I have some great memories from my trip there in February, but I'm feeling the crunch of time, and want to spend a good amount of time in Israel. Either way, I'm heading to Aqaba tomorrow morning, and will decide which border to cross at that point. I had originally thought that if I was going to go straight to Jerusalem, I would take the King Hussein border crossing from Amman into Ramallah, in the West Bank, but after several discussions with other travellers, have decided against it. Apparently, a passport stamp from this particular border crossing could cause problems when it comes time to leave Israel, and at this point in my travels, I'm trying to avoid any unnecessary headaches.