i'm a woman in amman!

dad and i somehow managed to get to the cairo airport on tuesday amidst "unprecedented" demonstrations by egyptians who turned out to voice their frustration with the longtime president mubarak. (one egyptian we spoke to, when we asked what about egypt makes him proud and what makes him ashamed said: "easy! fantastic, amazing people. horrible government.") such numbers were able to make it out to the streets because it was a national holiday celebrating the day when egyptian police forces joined the military in the fight against israelis over the sinai peninsula. it took us longer than we hoped to get to the airport, but we made it on time. here is a link to an article about the demonstrations across cairo, which escallated yesterday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12289475
so now i'm in amman, but i don't get to enjoy my new home because i've been sick in bed for the past two days!! dad has ditched me to visit the dead sea (which i will luckily get to do later with my program) and i'm taking the opportunity to catch up on some reading and apply for some summer internships and watch the news.
based on what i've seen between the drive from the airport and the window from our hotel room, amman reminds me in some ways of the bay area. some of the architecture is surprisingly similar (though the buildings here are made from limestone, something you definitely don't see at home), and there are hills galore (24 in amman, i think) with well-paved roads barreling up and down them. the january weather here is almost exactly like home, though a bit more dry and less foggy. it definitely suits me better than cairo, insofar as the pace seems markedly more relaxed (understandable, when the city of cairo has 4-5 times the population of the entire country of jordan). the traffic flows easily, the streets seem more enjoyable to walk around on. and, as our cab driver from the airport assured us, it is safe to walk down any street, any time day or night. the infrastructure is much much better, indicating a government that is more responsible towards its people. (the same egyptian man who told us he was very unhappy with his government gave us an example: the main tourist road that you have to take to get to the giza pyramids is horribly cared for, with potholes everywhere. well, just about 10 million tourists visit egypt each year, with most of them visiting the pyramids, and the government hasn't bothered to repave to road that each of them must drive on.)
so, once i get out there and actually see more of the city, i'll have more to share! but for now, i'm going to take a nap.