Happy 6 Months to Us!

The boys had a snowball fight.
The snow packed beautifully but turned to slush.

Nicholas decided rolling down the hill was a great idea.

Thankfully there were no cars.
And it distracted them from the idea of sleds.

Palm trees are unimpressed.

Icicles!

I promised we'd go to Starbucks if we were all off.

The end of our road disappeared in fog.

Starbucks was A-OK.

The coffee mug is a little out of perspective.
It's not as big as her knee.
And why does it look like they are in a ski lodge?

Amman.  The land of the smoking Starbucks snowman.

In front of our home is a hill.
A big hill.
A hill that ends in a little road with a little barrier.
And then the hill continues on into a ravine.
The ravine is covered in fog.

Does snow make next year's olive harvest even better?

Happy the lockout is over.

Our home.

But don't you live in a desert?

Even deserts get cold.  Really cold.  At night, in winter, the daytime temps vary drastically from the drop to nighttime temps.

And if it is winter, then yes, Virginia... the desert does get snow.

Wednesday afternoon, after rain and hail from Saturday night onward , the moisture turned to snow.  This was us late Wednesday afternoon (above).

Coming Thursday morning, after a full night of snow... and it is still snowing at 10 a.m.... we have a significant accumulation.  Enough for a snowball fight.  Enough for little snowmen.  Enough for another day off school. Oh who am I kidding... the day off yesterday was for rain.  There has been so much rainfall in the past week that the reservoirs are filling by record rates, streets are closed and tunnels are flooded.  Amman is big on tunnels.  Following the British system of roundabouts, in order to bypass an intersection we have tunnels under the circles.  Several are filled with several feet of water as the drainage systems are overwhelmed.

This is us today, Thursday, 10 January.  The kids are off school today, the Embassy even closed.  I'll take a photo of the road outside our driveway and you'll see why.

Our front entry, where the rain was pouring in earlier in the week through the ceiling.  The dripping has stopped, most probably because all the liquid is now frozen.

The snow has drifted against the glass door and in the backyard where the snow has settled nicely on tables and chairs I'd venture it's 2-3 inches deep.

The driveway slants up, and the street outside the gate slants down at a steep angle, plateaus at a cross-street, then has a drop off into a valley with a road at the bottom.  It's a scary road on dry days, iffy on wet days, and not even worth an attempt on days like today when the snow covers a sheet of ice.

And it's still snowing.

I'm sitting here in the kitchen watching the snow fall outside, listening to the quiet as everyone is still sleeping. It's remarkable.  I never thought it would be like this in Jordan, never in a million years but I'm thankful it is.

I'm even more thankful that there's a Starbucks within walking distance.  A perfect excuse to go out and enjoy the beauty of snow in Amman.

Getting Juiced

Hello Christmas present.  It was bought for Ian, but I have to admit I'm enjoying it quite a bit.  The best part besides the juice, it's so easy to wash.  See, we'd love to own a waffle maker, but we used to own a waffle maker years ago and while the waffles were yummy, cleaning the iron was nigh impossible.  We couldn't make waffles, clean up quickly, and look forward to doing it again.  It was just always icky with leftover bits stuck here and there, waffle batter stuck on, dribbled on the counter, cooked into the hinge. OK, we probably just didn't know how to make waffles properly but if the learning curve means a colossal cleanup every time, it's just not fun.  The juicer parts are easily rinseable, the catcher bag makes the pulpy stuff easily disposable, and the grater plate is the only thing that takes a few minutes of scrubbing with a brush in the sink.  Easy.

It's a lovely thing to see a bowl full of goodness turned into a large cup of goodness.  True, it's light on the fiber when you juice fruits and vegetables, but it's so darn tasty.  And while I'd have a hard time eating 2 carrots, a cucumber, a pomegranate, 2 kiwis, a lemon, and an orange, I can drink it all just fine.  Ian had the cup with the broccoli and celery added.  I haven't ventured into broccoli yet and celery will never enter my cup.

Voila.  Juice.  Healthy fruit and veggie mix perfect for either breakfast, a snack, or an after dinner dessert drink.

Petra was Awesome, then we went to Aqaba

How can we not love a place that has a Cat Cafe'?

We stayed at the Movenpick Tala Bay resort.  It's pretty awesome.  With 7 pools (one with a slide), 3 jacuzzis, beach, Zara Spa, Scuba certification, snorkeling, 4-wheeling, there was plenty of fun to be had even on the 2nd of January.

Of course we didn't do it all, we couldn't nor did we want to.  The water was warm enough to snorkel, so that's where the family headed.

The underwater viewing included coral and a sunken ship.  Aqaba is a port city and to get to Tala Bay we drove past serious transport ships and cruise ships.  This is where our household effects arrived, afterall.  But for all that, the water is clear and lovely.  The beaches are clean.  And the family had fun paddling around for an hour finding Nemo and sea slugs.

We ate, we rested, we played Scrabble and Yahtzee, we ate more, we read on the beach and watched movies in the room.  Truly we enjoyed doing a lot of nothing while the kids swam and spaaaaaa-ed.  

Next time either Ian and the girls will get Scuba certified or we'll do some 4-wheeling.

Decisions, decisions.

Petra Part 3

Our kids on donkeys, heading off to the Treasury.

"Petra"

Aside from rocks and history (did you know that Petra means rock?) there are people still making a living in the ancient city. The tourism industry is doing well even in the low season. Saddled horses or horse&carriage bring guests from the entry to the Treasury.  From the Treasury camels and donkeys make their way to the old city.  From the old city, donkeys can be hired to trek up to the Monastery.  And along the way are stands selling the usual trinkets, souvenirs, drinks, and sometimes even some treasures.  Ian purchased what were claimed to be Nabatean coins from a Bedouin with a baggy of curious looking monies.  The initial asking price was 300JD ($422) for a single coin.  He worked his way down to 20JD ($28) for 3 small coins. It helps to live in Amman and speak Arabic, though he still might have overpaid some.

We'd never make it out of the Siq if we had to carry all this.

Where I know we overpaid was at a shop built into a stunning rock wall and filled with jewelry of every value, beautifully crafted pieces I could never get away with wearing.  The table out front held carvings, lamps that reminded of Aladdin's genie, pots, rustic necklaces.  Along with the carpeted floor and the little tables with modest settees, the shop offered drinks to the thirsty passerby.  Apparently my girls were simply parched.  A 10JD bill later they each had a small glass of freshly squeezed warm lemon with mint.  Don't be like me and request a mint lemonade anywhere.  You will be unceremoniously corrected.

Further down the stretch were more vendors, one of whom was lucky enough to part Ian with a goodly amount of JD for a Bedouin knife.  It's a lovely piece, marked with the family name that created it, and it will join our small dagger collection.

The ancient boom box.  It rocks.

The city of Petra looks remarkably like any other Roman ruin.  The broken road, the toppled pillars, the frames of abandoned homes,shops, and temples. In the little museum at the end of the road, before the climb to the Monastery, lies a very brief history of the area and the realization that this area was inhabited for thousands of years.  Tools and jewelry and pottery are discovered regularly from all eras.  The ancient city was once a crossroads for trade and therefore had a regular influx of supplies and culture from all around the region as well varied points of the Roman Empire.  Then the trade route shifted to the north along the Silk Road and the west to take advantage of sea routes, the Petra valley rift was hit by yet more earthquakes, and the ancient city was largely abandoned.

It's no wonder it was a well kept secret from then until the 1800s.  The area is vast while Petra is nestled deep in the valley and protected on all sides by massive cliffs.

Hopefully the earthquakes will stay quiet and the visitors conscientious so it remains another 1000 years.

Tossing rocks off this ledge led to Physics theories.

Duck face.

 ...to be continued...

Part 2 - Petra

Rocks. Lots of rocks.  Carved rocks by man and nature.  My kids may sigh but I just love them.

Look around the interwebs and you'll find all sorts of sites about the history of Petra.  Suffice to say it was rediscovered in 1812 and has been a tourist destination ever since.

Take a close look at the photos and the people in them give you some scale.  These caves were often tombs.

So are the big carved doorways, but for much wealthier dead Nabateans.  The doorways were small compared to the columns, and the interiors are cramped and sparse.

I'd put those camels about 1/4 mile away from the carvings in the hills.  The columns were reassembled from fallen parts and constitute part of the entry arch to the central part of the city of Petra, where shops and homes were built along a central road.  All that is thanks to the Romans who ruled over Petra just as they did the rest of Jordan.

The first and last place you see when visiting Petra, aside from the Siq, is the Treasury.  Like the other carved entries, it did multiple jobs over the years, and like the other carved entries the interior is nothing like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."  It is small and unadorned with no hidden challenges.  Also unlike Indy, visitors are not allowed in.  Too much damage is done when thousands of people visit and touch things (check out the Great Wall of China... sad), so the entry is blocked off.

 ...to be continued...

Outside

My word for this year.

Outside.

I think we started well.

On January 1 we drove our way down to Petra.  It's about 2 1/2 hours away from Amman, mostly on a well-paved 4-6 lane divided highway.  Our send off was a dust storm in the valley just outside Amman.

And by lunch time we were at the Petra Marriott.  Which has a stunning view over Wadi Musa and the Petra valley.  We skipped lunch and decided to snack at the park.

On New Year's Eve we forced the kids to sit and watch "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."  It was good prep.

But nothing really prepares you for visiting a wonder of the world.  The kids moaned and groaned about an afternoon looking at rocks, but I think if you caught them off guard they'd say they had a blast.  Jonathon had difficulties not climbing on millennial old carvings and boulders.  Katherine received a little too much attention from the locals.  And I do believe that Nicholas and Rebecca enjoyed the donkey ride.  I grant that 2 1/2 hours of walking (and chatting and taking photos and stepping out of the way of careening carriages) just on the way in without even rising towards the Monastery is a nice hike, especially as it's all down hill. I read that from the entrance to the city center is akin to dropping 45 stories.

Petra, especially the Siq, is spectacular.

... to be continued....