Arrived!

Well, I arrived in Amman yesterday with Jen, Jaime, Rob, and Chris at about 5:30 PM local time. Being typical Americans, after hitting the local ATM (not yet available in Baghdad), we went to McDonalds where Chris and I at least enjoyed the "sweet ecstacy" of our own respective BigMacs, large fries, and a soda.

After that we had a little introduction meeting, then we went to the Blue Fig, a really trendy local restaurant. I had a salad with kinda weird blue cheese dressing, but it was still blue cheese. I miss blue cheese dressing. You can buy it in Baghdad, but there's not a "normal" salad on which to put it.

But by far the best thing was that this morning, when I woke up an hour early (due to the time change), I was able to put on my running shoes and go for a jog around the neighborhood. It was heaven. It's pretty hilly and I winded myself just in getting out of the guest house because it starts on a steep hill...but I managed to run for a while. And it was good.

Today we start our real training. I'm looking forward to it as much as anyone ever looks forward to training.