On the Road Again

Well, I'm getting ready for another long trip - although getting ready is not particularly accurate I suppose. So far I've managed to pack nothing. I've been way too buried with my online class and various and sundry Global Module related chores - discussions with lawyers and grant-writers, sending out emails by the hundreds to interested partners (and partners who don't know they're interested yet), being cajoled into speaking at the Champlain 50th anniversary dinner of the move up the hill (the boos from the audience were deafening, but I guess that at least meant they were awake) - to do much of anything. I do have around 30 JD (Jordanian dinars) in my pocket thanks to my god friend Bob Mayer who just returned from Jordan. I guess I've come to believe that as long as I have my passport and ticket I can fake everything else. That said, I have nothing but e-tickets for the entire excursion, which makes me slightly nervous (or at least as nervous as I get). That said, if Rochelle, my long-suffering travel agent, says I'm cool then I'm cool. This trip is an odd one - three days in Jordan and then a week in Egypt and then two more days in Jordan (odd travelling glitch) then two days in the United Arab Emirates and then a week in Oman. This will be my fifth trip to Jordan and the UAE (although I'm avoiding Dubai or Abu Dhabi this time and instead spending time out in the eastern desert at Al Ain), but the first trips to Egypt and Oman. I tried to take advantage of the week in Oman to arrange trips to Iran (shot down by the powers that be, but I'll get there yet - I have two Iranian universities that are interested in running Global Modules in the fall so it's just a matter of time) and then San'a, Yemen (logistics killed that one). More from the road . . .