Friday, May 22, 2009

Postcard from Uh-Oh

Monday is Jordanian Independence Day (I have to resist saying things like, “Oh, you mean, July 4th??”) and obviously a national holiday. In the planning of the play schedule I was going to take full advantage of this weekend by having an extra rehearsal on Saturday, and then one like normally after-school on Sunday, and then a long, leisurely rehearsal on our day off on Monday.

But as things happen here, things change even after a schedule has been set in stone!

It turns out that a week or so ago the Kingdom approved a longer weekend, a Sunday and a Monday off, and KA decided all the students would go home for a long weekend.

Everyone was excited about an unexpected long weekend—where should we go? What should we do?—buzzed about the campus.

Everyone except me! I lost three rehearsals, and in an already tight schedule, I knew we couldn’t open the play on June 1 as expected.

Well, there wasn’t much one could do except cancel those pre-ordained rehearsals, move the play a few days further into June, and look for a weekend getaway…

But you know the German in me doesn’t like to move schedules and change things like that…but the Jordanians around me love doing things like that. It is the norm rather than the exception.

I’m letting it go…

So, where should we go? From where will a blog postcard be sent???

Lucy, a new faculty member this year, asked if we could travel together somewhere. We decided on Beirut, Lebanon. Neither of us had been there, and many people here in Jordan love Beirut. Yasser, one of my colorful colleagues, grew up in Beirut, and a handful of faculty went to AUB (American University of Beirut) for college, and one lovely junior girl flies to Beirut every weekend.

Beirut it is!

Like many Americans, I have only a fuzzy understanding of Beirut. It had been known as the “Paris of the Middle East,” for decades, but then it got socked with a civil war that went on for ages, so became known as “Bombshell Beirut.” But people kept saying—you have to go to Beirut, it’s wonderful with rich contrasts and contradictions. The U.S. State Department did not issue warnings against it, so I did not worry. From all indications Beirut has shaken the cement dust off after the brutal civil war and has resumed work on perfecting the art of living the good life.

Beirut hugs the Mediterranean coastline and supposedly boasts beautiful French Mandate-era buildings…ahhhhhh…

I checked a guidebook out of the library and went on-line to book the tickets! Lucy and I would take a 7:00 a.m. flight on Friday morning and then return about 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night. The play cast had decided to still have a rehearsal on Monday evening, so the weekend would accommodate everything perfectly!

I clicked the buttons to buy the tickets, and presto! Two tickets to Beirut on Royal Jordanian! Next let’s look at hotels…I did a little research on-line but decided to wait and run the hotel ideas by Lubna the following day—she often has great advice about the location and quality of hotels. But I think the Crowne Plaza looked like the best deal…

The next morning I woke up with a sobering realization—wait a minute! I don’t think I can get into Lebanon! Uh-oh…

I go for my morning coffee in Lubna’s “Lizard Lounge” (as affectionately titled last year when Chris and I would do a morning dance number, you know, to get the day started) I asked, “Lubna, am I allowed in Beirut if I have a stamp from Israel in my passport?” Lubna started, “John I told you about that! I warned you!”

When I went to Israel in March Lubna warned me that it was not prudent to allow the Israeli border guards to stamp my passport. It was okay for them to stamp a separate piece of paper and so that way I would not be impeded in the future by the Israeli stamp. Few Arab countries allow you admission to their country if you have a stamp from Israel (Jordan and Egypt excepted from this). If you have the Israeli stamp, well, you just aren’t allowed in. I had a sinking feeling that morning that Lebanon was on that list.

But when I went through the Israel border I felt kinda tacky asking them to stamp a piece of paper. I felt it dishonorable almost to Israel not to proudly accept their stamp if I accept every other nation’s stamp. My plan was that I would get a second passport (everybody gets one in the region—one passport for use to/from Israel, and the other one for everywhere else) but I had forgotten that plan in the two months since I went to Israel. I decided I was either thoughtfully thoughtless about all of this, or perhaps just thoughtlessly thoughtful.

Either way the trip to Beirut was in jeopardy.

No one on campus is sure, so I call the American Embassy, finally get a human voice, and asked if I could get this second passport in 48 hours. I explained my thoughtfully thoughtlessness to the consul, but learned that it takes two weeks to get this second passport. I even say, “I probably know the answer, but would it be okay if I just tore that page out of my passport?” She discouraged the defacement of my passport, and surmised that the border guards would probably guess why and deny me admission anyway.

It was a strange feeling that I couldn’t just go on my trip to Beirut. On top of this Lucy did not have this stamp in her passport, and was I going to cause her to forfeit her plane ticket?? And ruin her weekend plans???

Lucy said it was okay, she just hoped we could travel together, but didn’t care about the plane tickets. I just kept counting my lucky stars that I hadn’t bought the hotel room, flown out of Amman, and found out in the Beirut airport that I couldn’t enter Lebanon! That would have been more of a disaster.

Lubna discovered that I could change the date of the tickets for another time and not lose the airfare…that was helpful…but then where should we go now???

I decided we should try Cyprus, that great island in the Mediterranean with tons of ancient ruins and gorgeous mountains and seascapes. I had been meaning to go there anyway sometime during this odyssey.

Well, there is only one flight in and out to Cyprus and that is on Friday and Monday.
Perfect! Returning Monday late night. Not perfect. There is Play Rehearsal.

Okay, I figure I can talk my cast into swapping a rehearsal at the end of a long weekend (Monday as planned) for one at the end of the week when they would have had an off day (Thursday next week). I try and sell them on that extra day to work on memorizing lines, and we can end the week with a bang!

Guess what? The cast (who does not know a trip to Cyprus hangs in the balance!) earnestly decides to use the time on Monday to work on the play, and they want to show me how responsible they are. Now they decide to be responsible!! I give them one more shot, and quicker than the fading of a sunset, the Mediterranean weekend in Cyprus is nixed.

I decide—why not get the Mediterranean beach scene like in Beirut or Cyprus but in Tel Aviv, in Israel?? I mean I have the stamp—might as well go again! The flights are just okay priced, but it looks exciting and promising.

The next bump in the road is that Lucy does not want to travel to Israel. Oh. I check the websites, trying all kinds of resorts across Northern Africa, Istanbul, Athens, Egypt—everything is already taken. It is getting pricier thinking about this weekend trip…

If only! Nope, I didn’t get the second passport, so let’s not go there…

I hear about a trip that about a dozen of the boarders are going on, but it is just the male boarders, so Lucy couldn’t go. But it does sound interesting.

Lucy politely decides that this weekend trip just wasn’t meant to be. I mention that the boarders who did not go home are going to Tala Bay on the Red Sea, to His Majesty’s beach house. She decides I should go on that trip…

The price is right…free!

I leave in a couple hours with a few chaperones, a dozen boarders, and the excitement of staying at the King’s beach house in a swanky beach resort near Aqaba.

I know, I know, I am lucky just to be mulling and stressing over such things. Which beach? Where? Why not there?

So we’ll see what this postcard will say…

2 comments:

Unknown said...

john--it's been a week and no update! inquiring minds want to know......

John said...

Thanks! I loved last year when you asked when the next "episode" is coming...

Just got backed up with the play all week, and I will write tomorrow morning, and have two morning entries in the pipeline...

Love the fans!! Tee-hee!