Getting Settled in Jordan

Slowly, but surely, we have been making Amman our new home. Our HHE was busy taking a world tour, but we got our air freight in early September, a little over a month after we arrived. We were okay though. We're used to making home wherever we all happen to be.

I got my classroom set up, and the girls and I started the school year off. Having a routine always helps, and the girls and I really love that we can all go together.

Jeff and I are working on routines of our own. We found a restaurant walking distance from our place that has a good happy hour deal, and some open air seating, which is important because Jordan is a country where people still chain smoke in restaurants.

They have a delicious spinach dip, and other yummy nibbles for a post work, pre dinner get together with friends.

It took about a month, but we now have a car, a Honda CRV we have dubbed Hermes, our god of transportation.

Driving in Amman is completely insane. Drivers don't believe in lanes or rules or basic consideration. Add to that traffic circles where no one yields and you have chaos. I have managed to find a route to and from school that avoids circles, and Ubers are cheap, so most of the time if I'm going somewhere other than work, I just get an Uber and avoid looking at what the driver is doing. Our first week in Amman, Vivi and I were in an Uber when our driver ran into another car in a circle. Luckily, we were close enough to the hotel to walk. Friday mornings are the best time to drive, because there is almost no one on the road, and once you get out of the city the highways are well paved and not too crowded, but trying to get somewhere in the evenings in the city is nuts.

Despite the crazy traffic, we have tried to explore. Elena was invited to a birthday party at a mall with lots of restaurants around an open courtyard, so Jeff, Vivi, and I tried out a restaurant and did some shopping while we waited for her to be done. 

We discovered a store called DNA that sells everything from books to blenders, and Vivi accidentally forgot her retainer at the restaurant, so I had to go back and help the wait staff go through the trash to find both pieces. Sigh.

One of our friends took us downtown to the Rainbow Street area early one Friday morning. There's an arts and crafts market that was just setting up. Our friend said you don't want to come much later, because it gets really crowded.

We also looked in some of the regular stores that sold what I have a feeling are not entirely legal riffs on famous movies.

Jeff actually really liked the Sand Wars with Lawrence of Arabia wielding a light saber, but he wasn't sure where he would be able to wear it.

We both love all the beautiful tiles though, so we will probably end up buying something with tiles before the end of our tour.

One of Amman's nicknames is City of Stairs, and we definitely got a workout going up and down the area around Rainbow Street.

Luckily, we are making our new apartment a comfy place to come back to. I was hoping the embassy furniture would have a nice arm chair for me, but, yet again, we got slightly uncomfortable furniture, so Vivi and I went to Ikea and got my favorite green velvet chair again, this time with a new pillow.

Since our HHE hadn't come yet, Jeff didn't have his regular chair, so he tried out my new one. He approves.

The weather has been warm and sunny, no rain at all, so we have also been trying to get out on the weekends. The embassy has a nice, big pool that's open in good weather, and on the weekends there's a little restaurant that has things like hotdogs and hamburgers for the kids. Elena loves it, especially since there are usually lots of other kids her age to play with.

The adults also enjoy lounging and hanging out. It's been a good way to meet people and make friends.

One friend helped me figure out how to get Elena into Girl Scouts here, and in October she had her first camping trip. They wisely required that each girl come with at least one parent, so Elena and I set off to explore a bit more of Jordan.

They were camping at an established site in the Dana Biosphere Reserve about two and half hours south of Amman. The drive down was mostly on straightforward highway. Then it got a little narrow and dicey, but we managed. The instructions said to park at the main entrance, and then take the shuttle to the campsite. I wasn't sure what the "shuttle" would look like, but this was definitely not what I had envisioned. 

Elena thought it was great!

There were really cool canvas tents already set up at the site with sleeping mats, sheets, pillows, and blankets inside. Elena and I had a whole big tent to ourselves.

A little farther along were stone buildings for bathrooms and an open air eating area where we had dinner and breakfast.

There was also a Bedouin style tented seating area with sweet, mint tea at the ready. The parents mostly hung out there while the girls did Girl Scout things like make tie-dye shirts. 

We all went on a hike together, and it was really beautiful. Elena was very proud of herself. 

The kids' favorite thing to do though was just climb around on the rocks around the campsite. They made various tribes and conducted both diplomatic and not so diplomatic missions between them.

In the evening it actually got quite chilly.

But that made it perfect weather for a campfire and s'mores. 

I also taught Elena how to make a perfect roasted marshmallow. She was very pleased with herself and demanded a picture.

We headed home after breakfast the next morning. It was fun to explore out of the city, but it was also fun to go back "home" and to start to feel like our apartment is becoming our home.

Ajloun Castle and Cable Car

Pretty much every embassy has a Community Liaison Office (CLO). As the name implies, they focus on community activities. They'll organize holiday parties and trips around the area, so that people can feel more at home. The CLO here in Amman is great, and they seem to have a trip or activity every week. We decided to try a trip that many people recommended as a "starter trip" to Ajloun Castle which is a little over an hour to the north of Amman. CLO provided transportation from the embassy, and the full day included a cable car ride, lunch, and grape and plum picking on the way home. Sounded like fun!

Jeff liked that the castle played a part in the Crusades.

Elena liked the commanding view,

and she very much appreciated the military set up of the castle.

Jeff and Vivian stayed with the tour group to hear about the actual history of the castle, but Elena wanted to explore too much, so I followed her around while she ran up and down stone steps exploring every part of the castle she could get to.

I got her to slow down enough to take a picture with some of the mosaics. 

The castle really is in a great position.

We got to appreciate it even more on a cable car ride across the valley.

What we didn't appreciate was the ride back. Instead of staying in and going back around (there really wasn't much at the other end), you had to get off, and then go around to get in line to go back. That would have been fine, but the other people in line, didn't really get the whole line concept. People shoved us and cut us. Jeff tried to hold our spot, and since he's pretty tall, he managed for a while, but then a woman shoved Elena, cut in front of us, and then pointed and laughed at Jeff for trying to stop her. We were shocked. She kept shouting in Arabic, "This is Jordan!" It was a really unpleasant experience, and soured the day for us quite a bit. We decided we weren't interested in any other activities that involved crowds or lines.

Luckily, the restaurant was not crowded. There was lovely, outdoor seating, and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. 

They had prepared maqluba or "upside down rice" for us. Rice, meat, and vegetables are all slow cooked together in a pot, and then the pot is flipped over onto a serving plate. The flipping is part of the fun. 

There was lots of pita bread and yummy side dishes as well. It was an excellent lunch. For "dessert" we went to a family owned fruit farm where we picked grapes and plums and paid about $1 a kilo for our bounty. They were delicious. Elena even found a chair under the grapes. It was a like a fairy fruit kingdom.

We came home with more grapes and plums than we could possibly eat, but it was a fun end to a busy day.