Watch Out Amman.

I'm on the road.

Ian has been driving since we got our car a couple weeks ago.  I had my first venture this morning, dropped the girls and Ian off at the Embassy.  Easy.  Been on that route plenty of times, no surprises, and no one on the road. It's so quiet in the mornings here, I'm curious to see how things change after Ramadan and with the start of the school year.  Actually, no I'm not.  I'd like for it to stay just the way it is.  Thanks.

Mid-morning the boys and I drove over the to the Taj Mall and parked in the scary underground lot.  We can walk to the mall but we were there for groceries and no one wants to walk home with 50 pounds of frozen fish and brown sugar.  It was a pleasant grocery run, barely anyone in the store, in and out was a breeze.  I have got to take a picture of the grocery cart moving sidewalks.  In order to get your cart of groceries from the store (on the main floor of the mall) to the parking lot (in the underground garage) there are slanted moving sidewalks instead of escalators, and the carts have slatted wheels that lock into place on the sidewalk so they don't roll down into the glass walls below.  It's brilliant.

We bought ingredients for full meals which might seem kind of Duh, but you'd be surprised when you're starting from scratch.  We've had plenty of snack foods at home while we ate lunch every day at the Embassy, eaten out Thursday nights at the pool, ordered in on the weekends.  When we did cook, everything so far has been seasoned with salt and pepper.  We now have chili pepper, oregano and a BBQ spice mix.  Baking potatoes with topping options.  Enough frozen fish for several meals, and chicken too.  Ground beef is expensive, so I bought a package for either chili or spaghetti sauce.  The face wash was refused by the scanner so the checkout girl didn't bother ringing it up.  That was a touch annoying, but we were already having troubles with the scanner and a bottle of hand soap, I wasn't going to push it.  But hey, we found lemonade mix and peach tea mix!  Score.  Lunch was mac&cheese and chicken nuggets.  Spoiled?  Yeah.

It was a good morning.

But I think I'm getting a false sense of my own abilities, because in all honesty I get freaked out upon arrival in any new country.  Here I don't speak Arabic, I can't read some of the signs, the traffic has a mind of its own.  I'm terrified of getting lost.  Terr-i-fied.  I don't know what would happen if I got lost.  Probably nothing.  But maybe something.  And that's what preys on my brain cells and makes me freeze and unwilling to take chances on some things that I know would actually be pretty awesome and would show I actually am capable of getting myself around and where I need to be.

Because for all my bravado whenever we move, I'm still just plain scared inside.

And now you know.

And life goes on.

Tomorrow I'm off to another "new" spot, simply that I haven't been there on my own yet.  Donna offered, and I gladly accepted, for her to show me around town on Sunday and that has been a huge help.  I know where I'm going tomorrow because of her.  More than that, I know the trick of getting in, where to park, the door to the building, and all the rest.  Honestly, it's the details that make me nuts.  I can have an idea of "go to the 5th circle" but what about the rest?  Donna took all the mystery out which means tomorrow I can focus on driving and driving alone.  It might even be fun.

Right.

I'll put on a smile anyway.

:)