Today is the Canadian Thanksgiving, and perhaps not surprisingly, nobody in the Middle East is too interested in celebrating the bountiful Canadian harvest, or their freedom from religious persecution... I spent Thanksgiving in Paris last year, so this is the second year in a row that I'm missing out on Thanksgiving at home with the family, and it kind of sucks. It's definitely on days like today that homeland nostalgia comes creeping in, and that I miss my family and friends back home just a little more than usual. Regardless, I have a lot to be thankful for this year, whether or not there's turkey and pumpkin pie available.

On a slightly more upbeat note, I've left dusty Syria behind and am now in dusty Jordan. Yesterday afternoon, I hopped into a service taxi from Damascus to Amman with four Jordanian old men. They were a pretty quiet bunch until we made it to the Syrian-Jordanian border, and they made a mad dash for the duty free shop. While I had no interest in doing any shopping (small backpack still stuffed with books, increasingly small bank account balance...), they had a FIELD DAY, stocking up on Cubans and Johnny Walker, whipping out the greenbacks as though they're going out of style! Unfortunately for me, they made a long stop at the colognes and perfumes counter, each one trying on half a dozen scents, which made the remaining 90 minute ride down to Amman extremely, um, 'fragrant'...

I had originally thought that I would head straight for Petra today, but after doing a little bit of reading on Jordan last night, I decided to stop in Madaba, a town about an hour south of Amman, in order to visit a church here that is home to what is believed to be the oldest known map of the Middle East. Given my interest in Middle Eastern politics, it would have been almost unthinkable to not to stop. The map is actually a mosaic on the floor of a Greek Orthodox church, and it's a pretty remarkable piece of art work. There's not a whole lot to do in Madaba, so I could have easily made it a day trip to Madaba and spent the night in Amman, but to be honest, after five days in Damascus and a night in Amman, I need a break from big Arab cities. I'm excited about heading down to Petra tomorrow, and spending a couple of days hiking and taking in the ruins. From there, I'll either head to Jerusalem, thus completing my Paris to Jerusalem journey, or will first swing down to Dahab for a couple of days of diving...like I said, I have a lot to be thankful for these days.