All Good Things Must Come to an End

I don't enough if I believe that title, but when it comes to my vacation in Jordan, it is definitely true. I've had an amazing time hanging out with friends, enjoying western food, and even seeing rain! I thank everyone who made me feel so welcome here. It was a great break. Here are some pictures of the fun.


I went to Petra one day. It is incredible that it was made so many years ago and stills stands today...truly amazing.



I floated in the Dead Sea. It is the saltiest body of water in the world...so salty that you automatically float. It's also the lowest point of the earth. It was so much for to get a day at the beach.




I got to see some great friends, including one of my favorite 2 year olds Micah. I also made some great friends and had great time experiencing community with the people here. Overall, an awesome vacay!!

A Taste of the Dub

It's no secret that I loved my college years and Wilmington, NC. There's just some great memories in that town. One of my fun hang out spots there was Port City Java. It's a great coffee shop chain that started in Wilmington. My college roommate, Mindy, and her husband Derek are my Port City Java Buddies. Derek actually got me addicted to the Mocha Shake....an ice cream drink that is way bad for you but so good at the same time. Most of the time Derek and I would beg Mindy to take us there so we could get one.
It completely made my day today that there is a Port City Java in Jordan!! I was so excited that I got to go there. It was like walking into Wilmington...it looked just like I remembered minus the surfers and studying college students. The Mocha Shake even tastes the same! Sorry Derek...I got one without you, but I had to take the opportunity while I had one. I hope you can see my joy in these pictures. Miss you Wilmington!!

How to Bond With People You've never met

Ok, I've just got back from a hiking/camping trip on vacation. I only really knew one person on the trip. I discovered some really good tips on bonding with strangers. I hope these help you connect with people you've just met.

1. Fall down a lot so people have to help you up
2. Start crying at about fall 45 because you're so embarrassed about falling all the time
3. Rely on other people's language skills to get you where you're supposed to be
4. Don't take any camping equipment so you have to use other people's.
5. Go to the bathroom in a line with 5 other girls outside while passing each other toilet paper.
6. Wear the wrong shoes so you get so many blisters that it gives you lots of pity attention.
7. Ask others for band aides because you have so many blisters.
8. Beg tennis shoes off of others because your blistered feet hurt so badly.
9. Rely on others to bring your food.
10. Beg people for a reward dinner after you get back from the trip

Thanks to everyone who put up with me on the camping trip. I promise I wasn't trying to be the needy one.

All By Myself

So I'm on vacation in Jordan which is amazing. On the way there I have a long layover in Paris so I braved leaving the airport. I was really stressing over it and looked all this stuff up on the internet before...and I prayed a lot because the last thing I needed was to miss my flight to Jordan. Amazingly enough I made it to the Eiffel Tower very smoothly. I was so proud of myself because the trip included finding a train station, switching train lines and actually finding the tower once I got off the train (which is a little more challenging than you might think).
The only problem was that is was freezing, and not just freezing to someone who is used to living in the desert, but freezing to everyone. Unfortunately, I did not have clothes for freezing weather so I couldn't hang out there long. My hands were so cold that I could barely hold the camera. Anyways, I have successfully left an international airport and gotten back in time for my flight. Amazing!

Pics of Life

Ok, I have just recently figured out to send pictures small in size so they can be put up here. I know, I know...if I had learned this sooner, my blog would have been a lot more interesting, but I'm not the best with technology so these are a little late.
There's one of our house. There are not many concrete houses in the area (most are made of mud), so we lucked out. It's surrounded by a big concrete wall too.
There's one of me getting my nose pierced....yes it DID hurt that bad. Refer to an earlier blog for the whole story.
The next is right outside our gate. Our house is right across the street from a huge mosque. We were walking home from work this particular day.
There's one of a typical meal. It is stew-like with meat and potatoes over macaroni noodles. The bowl gets dumped on the tray and everyone eats off it with your hands. It's messy, but you get used to it. It's better than is looks....promise.
The last one is just one of the many examples of doing stuff here I never thought I would do...like flying a plane. It was just for a minute but I did it nonetheless. Hopefully there will be more pictures soon.
Have a good day.

Always Kill the Man Chicken

Ok, so in order for us to eat a chicken dinner, we have to have our guard kill the chicken (only men kill chickens here), and our house help to pluck it and take the insides out. We get one chicken a week delivered to our house. Our delivery lady sometimes forgets that she's already brought us one during the week and we end up with a couple chickens running around the yard. This is usually not a problem unless we get a man chicken. There is a specific Arabic word for male chicken but we always forget it so how we say it in Arabic is literally translated as man chicken. Now a man chicken doesn't pose much of a problem unless you don't like getting woken up at 5am....which I don't!
Sometimes we haven't planned to eat the chicken for a couple days so we have a few early morning wake ups by cockadoodle dooing. Our guards have come to learn an important rule of the house. If we have a couple chickens, always choose to kill the man chicken first....we need all the sleep we can get.

Elephant Rock

Ok right after I finished that rather depressing blog, I thought of something fun that happened recently. On New Year’s Day (happy 2010 by the way), a group of us made the 2-hour drive to elephant rock. I had heard about this rock shaped like an elephant ever since I arrived here. I figured you could just walk up to the rock, take a few pictures, and head back. Like a lot of time…my expectations were completely wrong.
To get up to the elephant part of the rock…you have to climb. So I’m looking up at this rather steep rock face, and my first thought is how am I gonna do this in an ankle length skirt and flip flops. Right after that thought, I made myself rally like when you have a full count and runners on base, or when it’s game point, your serve, and you know everyone in the gym is thinking don’t put the ball in the middle of the net and choke on us now. So I begin the climb in my flip-flops and carrying a bag with my camera in it. A local boy starts the climb with me and about every 30secs asks me for money or a gift…not exactly what you need when you’re trying to rock climb. It didn’t take me long to see that my slippery flip-flops were not gonna help me out at all, so they had to come off and go in my bag. After all, I live in the desert of Africa...who needs shoes?? After some tense moments and heavy breathing I made it to the top, which is actually at the base of the elephant’s trunk. It was like reaching the end of any other summit…beautiful, rewarding, and totally worth it. I hung out at the top for a little while, still ignoring the kid asking for money. Unfortunately, there always comes the time when you have to go back down. The only way down safely is to sit down and scoot yourself along the steep parts, and remember…I’m in a skirt and it’s windy on top of a big rock. I’m sure the local kids ran home and told how much of the white girl’s legs they saw, but it was a fun day nonetheless.