Peace 平和

Something incredible happened: yesterday I found a small circular bronze-colored charm in my apartment.  I had no idea how it could have gotten there...I'd been the only person in my apartment for four days and I'd cleaned the apartment and had never seen this pendant.  The only possibility is that it was dropped by one of the cleaning staff.  Anyway, the pendant had some writing on it that I honestly (sadly) could not distinguish as Chinese, Japanese or Korean, but it did have beautiful cherry blossoms on the back which I associate with Japan.  I turned to google translate for help and learned that the pendant says "Peace" in Japanese.  What are the chances!  Even if it was dropped by the cleaning lady, all of the staff are Jordanian, Arabic-speakers.  It's pretty bizarre.  It was the most beautiful coincidence just as I set off for my Japanese adventure.  I've decided it's my good luck travelling charm.  And so far I've had an easygoing and humorous trip.  I'm sitting in Queen Alia airport (so I haven't left Jordan yet) with plenty of time to spare.  But of course the start of my journey was typical Jordanian.  I call the taxi cab number I was given by someone at King's and talk to a guy in broken-Arabic/English and he says "Okay, okay" as if agreeing with everything and then hangs up on me.  I am confused.  A couple minutes later I receive a call from another guy who then shows up with a taxi.  I find out that the original guy was not even a taxi driver at all but just a friend of the taxi driver.  Luckily he just called up his homie and I had a ride.  We get to the airport and I find the terminal with flights departing for Dubai.  I'm not allowed through the initial gate because the "airline isn't open yet."  So I ask when it will be open; "Oh, maybe 30 minutes."  So funny.  This is typical relaxed, chill, arbitrary Jordan.  One has to be able to go with the flow here.  So I had a seat, sipped a nice cool Pepsi for about 30 minutes and then tried again!  I can't wait to check out the Dubai and Korea airports.  When I tell people that my trips are 24-48 hrs long, they freak out and say how awful it is.  But honestly, I LOVE air travel and everything associated with it.  I never get tired of it...the security checks, sitting in the terminals, exploring the many paths of an airport, take-off, landing!  Maybe it's because I'm young, but I love the solitary nature of travelling alone.  More to come soon--