So it has gotten a little dicey of late for westerners to be out and about. I first realized this directly when I went to teach at the University on Wednesday ... none of the students showed up for class ... the campus was dead. Apparently Al Sadr said stay home and the students said, "Yeah!"

Today I spent the day cleaning and moving into my new flat (just above my old flat), so I was mostly insulated from the news but by evening I had heard of the kidnappings in the south (three Japanese) and on the road from Amman (Korean Christians) and also the British Contractor. The next few days we will try to keep a low profile (but I don't know how much lower we can go!).