We made it to Jordan!

Hi everyone!  We made it to Jordan!  We finally have internet at the house (a little slower speed than I had hoped).  I did not even know MJ had died!  Wow, what a week it has been.  The flight here went better than we expected.  We flew from D.C. to New York, and then we took a direct flight to Amman.  It was the red-eye and the kids surprisingly slept for a good eight+ hours.  So that left only a few hours to keep them entertained in the morning.  The embassy had someone there waiting for us at the airport with two large vans (one for us and one for our 14+ pieces of luggage).  It was a bit of culture shock in and out of the airport.  It was crazy like Mexico was, but overall I think it is definitely cleaner and a little nicer than I expected.  It reminds me of Arizona, only not as hot. 

Our sponsor family took us to our house and we were very pleased with it.  Our house is the whole bottom floor of a six-floor building.  It has five bedrooms and a great kitchen with a small sunroom off of it.  All the rooms are very spacious.  We have a small patio and garden area the wraps around the apartment.  We live in a really nice suburb on the edge of the city.  It is a great location, we are just a few minutes from the embassy, and Alex’s co-workers all live around us.  The driving here is insane, it may be worse than Mexico!  We have been taking taxis and the kids think it is pretty exciting.  If you travel during non-traffic hours it is not as bad (so I will try to run errands in the late morning).  Thank goodness I don’t have to worry about it for a while since it will be months before our car arrives.  I am happy in taxis for now with my sad attempts at Arabic. 

The Embassy has been the highlight of our week so far.  It is so much nicer than the consulate was in Guadalajara.  They have a whole area that looks like a country club.  There is a large pool with a playground, basketball court, and exercise room.  They also have a building overlooking the pool that is a restaurant on the top floor and it has several small businesses on the bottom floor (barber, gift shop, etc).  Then there is a commissary building as well.  It is like an American grocery store inside.  Everything costs more than in the U.S., but if you want it at least you can find it.  Gaby and Andrew started “summer camp” at the Embassy this week.  It is from 8-12 a.m. and I enrolled them in both sessions.  Lets hope that is enough to keep them busy this summer and me sane!  So far they like it and have each made a friend.  

Besides the commissary, there are several really nice grocery stores here close to where we live.  We shopped at Safeway (yes, Safeway!) over the weekend and we were very happy with the prices.  Produce, meat, and your basics were very reasonable.  Imported items can be quite expensive, Campbell’s soup was around $4-5.00 a can and cereal was about $8.00 a box.  Bad news for Andrew who is use to cereal several times a day!  We did find an off-name brand that has been o.k.  We are loving the fresh pita bread that is about 50 cents for a large bag hot from the oven.  I was also happy to find a milk that tastes pretty close to skim.  The Safeway store was more like a Walmart, they sell household goods as well.

They have very nice malls here with all the American fast food chains, and movie theaters with current movies.  They even have the shwanky VIP theaters like they did in Mexico (YEAH, fun date nights)!  If I never mentioned them just picture this:  watching a movie reclined in your own leather recliner while a waiter takes your order and serves you awesome crepes, baguette sandwiches, or sushi on a table next to your chair!  All for the same price as a regular movie and snacks in the U.S.  LOVE IT!  

We live near a mosque, so the kids already know what the “call to prayer” is.   Thankfully it is not very loud.  When we are inside the house you can barely hear the call.  It was pretty cute the other day when Colin heard it and said in his three year-old voice, “mom, it is time to pray”.  He loves to say the prayer at dinner, so he thinks it is pretty neat they pray so often.  For the most part I don’t see anyone really stopping what they are doing when it sounds.  Jordan is a pretty westernized and it has surprised me how all the signs are in English and Arabic, and sometimes just English!  Everyone we have met has been extremely nice and they all want to practice their English with you.  I don’t know if it is just our nice neighborhood, but we have seen lots of Americans around.  I have been conservative in my clothes, just cause we do draw attention.  I have noticed the Jordanian women are either fully covered or dressed very modern.  You see everything.

            Well, the kids need to be put to bed.  We are finally feeling better with the schedule.  We all had horrible jetlag.  It took the kids a good 4 or 5 nights before they were sleeping the whole night.  It was hard functioning for a few days because one of the three kids was waking us up every hour saying they couldn’t sleep, and then we could not fall back asleep.  On a funny note, I have always wished our kids would sleep in, they are up at seven or earlier every morning.  Well after a few nights of not falling asleep till pretty late they slept in on Saturday until 10:00 and 11:00 a.m.!  I was so thrilled.  But of course it didn't last cause they had to be woken up for camp this week!  It only took moving half-way across the world to get to sleep in again finally!

            We will try to take pictures of the house and our neighborhood soon.  We are not very organized yet, so I will have to first find the cord to charge the camera!  At least we have internet now J.