Amman, Jordan

So back at the laid back Cleopetra Hotel (not Cleopatra, CleoPETRA) I met two young female American journalists. One of them had lived in the Middle East for quite some time and spoke fluent Arabic. She started learning it, of course, with Maha and Khaled, the educational characters from what is basically the only textbook available for teaching Arabic to foreigners. She gave me a badly needed crash course in Levantine Colloquial Arabic. They gave me a heads up though: Facebook is blocked in Syria. They weren't sure about blogspot, but if I drop off the radar for a while you'll know why. They told me that the most accurate source of information in English about the region is actually Haaretz, the Israeli English newspaper, whose website is, amazingly, not blocked by the Syrian government. However, I would feel a little nervous sitting in an internet cafe in Damascus reading an Israeli newspaper. Later that night two Italians and I chatted with Mulasa, the owner of this hotel. Mulasa has four brothers and four sisters. His father is 55 years old and has nine children. When the Italian guy joked about everybody around here being named Mohammed, Mulasa explained that every family must have a Mohammed. He himself has about 100 cousins named Mohammed. There are some families in Jordan that have no Mohammed, but they are regarded as strange. It is usual for the first born son to be named Mohammed. The only exception is if the father himself is a Mohammed, then he will give his son a different name to avoid confusion. But then his son MUST name his son Mohammed. When Mulasa has a son, he will name him Mohammed. Mulasa then told us that his favorite guests are the French, followed by the Spaniards and Italians. His least favorite guests are Israelis, Koreans and Indians. Israelis for obvious reasons. Koreans because each one of them takes 30 minutes in the shower. They always have plenty of hot water, except when there is a group of Koreans in the hotel. Indians because they come to this budget place and expect a 5 star hotel for budget prices.