Yesterday was a very unexpectedly pleasent day. So last weeks we took a trip to the 2nd biggest city in Jordan called Irbid where we met with university students. You may recall if you have read this blog before that the bus driver refused to take us to a castle because he "wanted to go home". Well I guess after some complaning, they got the same bus driver to take us back to Irbid and go to the castle with the same students. Of all the castles I've been to, this one has to be the most impressive. It was built by the people who were fighting the crusaders, so they put it one the top of a very tall mountain so that there was almost no chance of the castle being overthrown. The university students all had their favorite people from the time before who they followed around, and even one of them is coming down here to Amman to pick up some of our group, take them back to Irbid for a barbeque, and take them back to Amman and drive back (the drive is 2 hours one way).

Latter that night when we returned the news was set on Al-Jezzera, which for those of you who don't know is kind of like the CNN of the middle east except that al-jeezera will show just about anything. Well anyways, there was a story about a building in Lebanon which had been bombed by the Israelies who were using AMerican bombs, and killed over 50 little kids and maybe 2 adults. The owner (who I think I've discussed before in this blog) was absolutly furious! He started yelling at the TV as they showed pictures of childrens dead bodies being removed from the ruble of this building. He then started complaining about Geroge Bush and how he is a evil man because he supposedly told the Israelies to keep bombing. I started talking to him about how many Americans don't support what he is doing. A few minutes latter, my friend Faud called his dad in Florida to see what the news was there. According to Faud, his dad didn't see any thing on the news about it, but on al-jeezera (they get it through satelite) there was no signal. Coinsidence?

That brings me to today. After classes were finished with, I was going to walk out to the front of the university with my friend Eman to get Filafil when we noticed that the front gate had been stormed by a few hundered people holding up signs and chanting "allah akbar" which is what they say when they are getting very emotional about something. The protest was because of the bombing yesterday, and at that momnet I was scared out of mind to be an American!

I'm seeing things being reported about this whole Lebanon thing here in Jordan which they don't show on TV in America because it makes Israel and us look bad! There is a whole part of this conflict which America just isn't seeing and it's really upsetting me a lot right now. I've lost almost all respect for President Bush (there wasn't much there before) since I've arrived here in the middle east and I can now understand how bad he makes America look to people over in this part of the world who are watching their fellow brothers and sisters being slaughtered by Israel, and the United Sates who is all the way across the world is supporting them!

Well that's all I can right for now. Sorry about the over zealous nature of this entry.

cheers