Jordan

So last week, I got to tour the country of Jordan with a college roommate and we had a blast!

Here are the 100+ Jordan pictures: (they don't follow the order below)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029514&id=79800981&l=f0eda5311e
(copy and paste the address in your address bar)

Here is the short version of all we did:

Day 1:
We toured old ruins at Jerash and Um Quays. From Um Quays in the North we could see the Sea of Galilee, and the surrounding countries. Had a wonderful dinner with friends at a traditional place. Then I met up with some young professionals for an after dinner party. It was great to reconnect with people that I had met the week before in my country.

Day 2:
My roommate arrives and we head to the DEAD SEA! Our first stop was Mt. Nebo, where Moses saw the Promised Land (Deut. 34) From there we went as close as we could to the spot where Jesus was baptized, without having to hire a bus and hike an hour. Then we explored "Prophet Lut's Cave and Monastery," aka Lot's Cave, where Lot and his daughters lived after Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. We were that close to where Sodom and Gomorrah used to be! (Gen. 19) Then we watched the sunset at the Dead Sea! The Dead Sea is so salty, that you just float in it. It was a really cool feeling! The mud there is supposed to be great for your skin, so we also enjoyed giving ourselves full body mud masks on the beach!

Day 3:
Off to Aqaba and the Red Sea. We stayed at a hostel less than 5 miles from the Saudi border, and could see Egypt across the Sea. We scuba-ed in the Red Sea; a first for both of us! We explored a sunken aircraft destroyer tank on the bottom of the Sea, surrounded by coral, fish, and a couple of snakes.

Day 4:
PETRA. Here we explored amazing, huge ruins carved into the mountains from on top of camels, and rode donkeys up 800+ steps to a Monastery. Oh, and got invited back to our donkey guides' Bedouin tents for the night, but unfortunately we had to get back to Amman! ;)

It was a great trip, even if we were a little under the weather most of the time!

What a Week!

new pictures: (cut and paste, link below)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029106&id=79800981&l=165c20bf3c

Wow! This week was really busy!

Wednesday: The Launch of the new year of the young professionals club with a Gala Dinner at a 5 star hotel! This event was very formal, and we enjoyed a nice 3 course meal! Very important people and ambassadors were in attendance.

Thursday: 5 star resort beach with the young professional club members from other countries.

Friday: I had to do actually work, then met up with the young professionals at The Island Club.

Saturday: July 4th! another trip to the beach, and then American food with American friends, complete with fireworks!

Sunday: Sarah's Birthday with lunch by the Sea!

now, fast forward a few days to this Friday, when I head out to meet up with my college roommate in another country for vacation, and then coming back to show my country off to her!

Enjoy the pictures, DAD!

Teenage Dance Party

Sunday was my friend Jill's daughter, Georgina's 15th birthday. My roommate and I went to celebrate with her family. It was a family party, we were the only ones that weren't family there. Several teenage cousins were there with their mothers. The party quickly became a dance party to Arab music. I really need to do so Arab music research, so I can say who my favorite Arab singers are. (along the lines of music, in EVERY conversation I have had with a national since Friday, they have always ask if I have heard about Micheal Jackson's death)

These girls were really good dancers! I wish I had video of their moves to share! Here the dance consists of shaking your booty alot, and turning your wrists with your arms up in the air. The national dance though is "Demke." Demke is kinda like a grapevine line dance, in that you dance in a line (or circle) and repeat the steps. It has some stomps and kicks in it. It took this white girl a little while, but I think I eventually caught on. The girls were very patient teachers.

After one girl said she liked my ring, I made the mistake of saying I liked her bracelet. Then she tried to give it to me. I knew this trick and knew that if I accepted her bracelet, I should give her my ring. After I refused over 3 times, and put the bracelet back on her wrist after she put it on my wrist, and she still took it off and put it on my wrist again, I put my ring on her hand. I was kinda sad to lose my ring, but it was just from AVON, so was not anything too special, but now I have an imitation diamond bracelet! Mostly I was frustrated, cause I knew this trick (that you never complement jewelery), but yet I feel for it, after she complemented my ring. In addition to good culture practice, the party was good Arabic practice, as well!

At the end of the dance party, we had a layered chocolate cake from a local bakery and orange soda. We all sang Happy Birthday in English and then in Egyptian Arabic, and then they ALL blew out her trick candles. They were all really excited to get to the cake, and pulled the trick candles off the cake before they were done. So they were stomping on the candles on the ground, like they were cigarettes.

Also to celebrate, they had fireworks, which is very common here. These were just really big sparklers. And for some reason they set them off right under the electrical cables. They made the mistake not aiming the sparklers away from themselves, and an 8 year old got a spark on his shirt!

Pictures are coming!

adding on and checking off life's to-do list

Had a good week, last week doing some training in another city. Enjoyed meeting co-workers from other countries. The highlight was having MEXICAN FOOD at a fancy hotel! It was sooo good!

The lowlight was getting sick! I caught a virus the last day. Let's just say that although vomiting on an airplane was not on my life's to do list, it can now be checked off! gross, huh?! They take swine flu very seriously here, and I was really afraid that they would think I had it, but I just played it off, like it was the take off, or something I had eaten. Anyways, it was only a 50 minute flight, so the humiliation didn't last forever!

Cars and Traffic

Everyone talks about cars and traffic overseas. It can get a little annoying, because it seems that traffic and driving is more difficult and crazy in foreign countries. The reason everyone talks about it is because it is true!

Two stories from today:
1) My first fender bender accident in a taxi. We were through an intersection, when another car hit my taxi's rear passenger tail light. I was sitting behind the driver, but of course without a seatbelt on, so I hit the drivers headrest. (please, don't tell safety officer, Rachel, that I was riding in a taxi without a seatbelt! :) ) We were not going very fast. It is rare to go fast here, because there is always traffic!

So, the driver and front seat passenger both get out, waving their arms to tell the other driver what-for, which is the appropriate cultural response. Leaving me in the taxi, wondering if I get out and get a new taxi, or just wait it out. After about 2 minutes of blocking the intersection and lots of cars honking at us, my driver returned and drove to the side of the street. They surveyed our car's damage and the other guy's damage, and then left. There is no exchanging of insurance here. What's done is done.

2) Cats are everywhere here. You know that I do not like cats. But today, I actually had compassion for a cat. A cat ran out into the street towards the car in front of us. And although the car in front of us slammed its brakes, the cat was hit. It was not killed, but scrambled/slithered across the street as fast as it could, on three legs. I did feel really bad for the cat.

At least now, I will have some stories to tell in Arabic class tomorrow. Yesterday we started our unit on cars. I can talk to you in Arabic about changing oil, getting gas, changing tires, and after tomorrow about car accidents!

When was the last time your cable man said you had gotten a little fatter since the last time he saw you?

Mine was today! except he said it in Arabic, and then when I asked what he said, he struggled for 30 seconds to find a word in English and then resorted to using widening hand motions.

It might have hurt a little, but I know that if anything I have lost weight since the last time I saw him, so my clothes today, just might not be that flattering. But that is okay, cause I am not trying to attract the cable man!

The funny thing is that here, he was not being rude at all. Just making an observable comment. There is nothing wrong with telling people they are ugly or fat. Thankfully, I was able to just laugh this one off from the shock of it all when I got home.

Moving

Where to start? Moving is a process in the States, but here it is an event and a half. To save you the details. Here are the highlights.

• All the furniture had to be taken apart to be moved. We have armoires, because there are no closets here. I am very thankful for our armoires, cause they are really nice and big and hold a lot. Still they must be taken apart and reassembled to travel. Pretty much anything that wouldn’t fit in the elevator had to be taken apart.
  
  
• Very little was damaged in the actual move. Half of our oven was hanging off the back end of the truck, so that was a little scary, but it made it. The most damage was done to my African Violets. My plant was looking really good, the best that it had been since I got it in January. Unfortunately, when I was not looking, the movers stuck my plant in a plastic bag with a lamp! Let’s just say that now, I have an A-symmetrical plant. But at least plants can grow back, right?! My TV could not grow back!
  
  
• Speaking of TVs, for the first time since January, we have a TV with Satellite. Although our cable line runs from the roof of the building through our balcony door. We had to pay $75 for this set up, because we did not want the TV in the dining room where the cable line was. We fit more into the community now, before we were thought of as really odd for not having a TV. And we have about 80 channels in English, Arabic, and French.
  
  
• It took 4 visits from our landlord’s assistant and 6 days to get hot water. Hot water heaters are not left on all the time here, like in the States, you turn the water on, and leave it on for several hours before you shower and then turn off the heater when you are done. For this we have to learn all the switches in our fuse box. Still not sure about hot water in the kitchen, but there is some in the bathroom now! LHUMDILILLA! (Praise God!)
  
  
• Electricity, now that is a blessing, not a right. At the old place we had access to a generator line when the electric was off. We could not use many appliances on generator, but enough to function. We assumed when we were told there was a generator in our building that we would have a similar set up! SILLY AMERICANS! What were we thinking?! Of course, it is not the same! Every part of our city goes without electricity for 3 hours a day. At our new building though, they don’t turn on the generator for the whole period we are without electricity. I am sure there is some reasonable explanation for this, at least that is what I am holding out for. Here is the schedule:

Time without Power	Time with Generator
6 AM – 9 AM	7 AM – 9 AM
9 AM – 12 PM	None
12 PM – 3 PM	2 PM – 3 PM
3 PM – 6 PM	4 PM – 6 PM

Thankfully so far, we have been able to work around this schedule so that we have not had to walk up 11 flights of stairs to our apartment at a time when there is no electricity. I have only had to walk down 11 flights of stairs 3 times, which is much better!

• Mysteriously, we had had water appearing in our bathroom floor. We could not figure out where it was coming from, until today. It was coming up from the floor drain! Yes, they clean their floors by squeegee-ing water here, which requires floor drains. We have since poured a product a step above draino, that would never be approved to be sold in America in the drain. The first time we did this though, the water came pouring up out of the drain. I waited 30 minutes, then went back in with a glove and a knife. Can you guess what I found in the drain? No, not hair or gross bathroom things. Rocks, gravel, and a few screws/nails! It is much easier to dig for these things. I can get my whole gloved arm in the drain. But this just felt like I was getting a water sample for earth science class, so I was not grossed out. In fact, I was joyful! For the first time here, we had a problem that I could fix and work to correct, I could not do too much about the water heater except depend on other guy and change my schedule so I could be home 4 times this week for them to come. I will post pictures of the drain finding eventually.
  
  
• There is definitely more of a community feel in this neighbor, except for the school on our street (which has school on Saturdays instead of Fridays, because Friday is the meeting day at the mosques here) and construction across from our building. The vegetable/fruit man across the street from us is very nice. On my third visit there this week (cherries are in season!) he asked where I lived and I pointed and said the name of my building and he responded with, on the 10^th floor. He already knew where we lived. Word travels fast here. And it is the community mindset. But he welcomed us and said peace be on my head. He was not creepy at all, just welcoming me to the neighborhood!
  
  

I will post pictures of the apartment when we get it ready to be viewed!