Blog as blog can... ;-) Hi all. First week successfully over!! So many things happened and still every day is full of surprises... OK,I'll give you the in a nutshell thing... I'm officially resident of Jordan now, we moved to the apartment, we visited almost all car shops in Amman, I tried to register Katja as resident, we watched football, dealt with a sales lady from OSN (pay TV provider), visited a wonderful club and went to the dead sea. So that was for those who have no time to read the whole blog ;-)
OK after only three days the ministry cleared me and I was called to get my resident permit. The work permit had already been issued before. So as usual my man here took me to third circle where the police station is (btw: I will explain you later what this circle thing is about...). Police stations are the same all over the world. So no big thing. We found our way into the right office and were immediately welcomed and helped. The police officer typed my details into the computer and called me one moment later to a table where they had a metal plate that was covered with thick ink. For all those who ever watched movies with bad guys when they have to leave their fingerprints with the cops... yes, that's really how it is :-) so he put plastic gloves on and took one finger after the other starting with the thumb and ending with the small finger. Then he rolled in the same row one finger after the other on a paper starting again with the thumb and ending with the small finger. Then again I had to wet all four fingers and the thumb and leave prints of all four fingers together each hand and the single thumbs... after this procedure they sent me to the restroom where I washed my hands (luckily enough the ink went off ;-). Back to an office and waiting a moment and then we left to the next office where we had to wait 1 Minute until the police officer stamped my passport and after some paperwork with two other gentlemen the whole thing was over! The police officer handed me over the credit card format residence permit and said: “ Congratulation, welcome to Jordan!“ Honestly I cannot stop to say how friendly people are here! Oh I forgot, while I was waiting a high ranking officer dropped by in the office. He entered the room greeted entering the room in Arabic „A salaam aleikum“ and everybody replied (me included ;-) yes...I already speak some words Arabic, believe it or not! But not enough, the officer went to everybody, shook hand with everybody and greeted again and changed a few words. Very nice, really. So now I am officially Jordanian resident (which allows me now to drive a car with Jordanian registration plates, open a bank account and many other things. This was one of the biggest achievements this week. Honestly, everything went smooth, well organized and in a very polite way. The next day I wanted to immediately apply for Katja's residencial permit. My man and I drove to the Ministry and queued up to get through security (metal detector). He passed and disappeared around the corner, then it was my turn and the officer started to talk to me after the metal detector. I answered “Inglisi only” (is a mix of Arabic and English ;-) for “English only”. He immediately started to smile and said: “Welcome to Jordan!” and let me through. We queued up and got a number to queue up at the counter. Imagine a hall some 50 meters long (at least) with a wall that reaches up to your belly and then a window of grey milky glass with holes in it. Between the wall and the window there is a small space to put through your papers. The whole (goes without explanation) is to talk to the gentleman on the other side. Believe it or not our desk was empty! Means nobody was queuing up!! So we rushed there and my man started a conversation but after 30 seconds he pulled his head off and said to me: System is down.... bukra (tomorrow)!” So we left as unfortunately they could not process my request :-( and I will try next Sunday to get the permit for Katja.
During the week the real estate agent called us (the one that organized our flat) and said that he had three wonderful apts! Wow... I called Katja to immediately touch base with him and this is what she did. She went there with him and then she called me that the apts were very nice and that if I wanted to see other as well he would be available tonight. After work I had a test drive booked for two cars. We went there and right after it I called the agent if it would be possible to see some flats. He promised me to call back what he did after 15 minutes. Problem is, that he was somewhere and we were somewhere else and he tried to guide us on the phone to a meeting point! Too bad that we did not taped the conversation... ;-) he is Syrian but lived many years in Canada and other countries so he speaks good English. Nevertheless he had to use Arabic words as the street names are all in Arabic (obviously ;-) And now I can explain you the thing with the circles... In the area where I work and live there are two main roads, one is Mekka Street and the other one is Jabal Amman. On Jabal Amman you have one circle after the other starting with circle one close to downtown and then getting further and further until it reaches circle seven. So if you come to Amman and you refer to the circles everybody knows where it is. So when I explain somebody where our flat is I say: “Next to the third circle” and they know where it is :-) The seventh circle is the one where the street to the airports starts. So after a long discussion on the cell we managed to meet the agent in a circle where he was waiting for us. He drove off and we followed with our rental car (Mazda 3 ;-) First flat...HUUUGE! Some 300+ square meters with four bathrooms, and an endless amount of rooms! The nicest thing was the terrace. A big terrace with room for a table for ten and with a separate lounge corner. Below there was a garden section with built in fire place for BBQ, a covered corner with a table for six, lawn and and and... I couldn't believe it! And all this even in the range of our budget :-) But of course there is always something... the apt was located right next to the street that goes to the airport and therefore the apt was pretty noisy, especially if you want to sit outside and I can imagine that the traffic gets on your nervs pretty soon when you are sitting outside and you want to chill.
So this apt was not an option. Up to the next... wonderful area, in the middle of Amman very nice place. Big rooms, brand new... problem: small balcony (NO BBQ!!!)and we'd share the house with the landlord. He and his family live 1st floor we'd live in the second and the third is being prepared for the sun for once he's married. So this apartment as well was not an option... the third apt was enormous some 300+ square meters with some 8 rooms or so but was in a building at the second floor with no view and a bit dark... long story short: we are still looking for an apartment ;-)
A little bit outside Amman city there is a nice club which has a pool, tennis courts, gym and other facilities. I heard that it was a nice place and so Katja and I wanted to go there to check it out. Is very easy to find...is right on the airport street...you can't miss it! (What I was told...) In the car, 7th circle, turn left and off direction airport... after some 20 minutes I had the impression that “a bit outside Amman” is different ;-). Next exit, U-turn back to Amman.... hmmmm 7th circle shows up again... was a bit too much driving back ;-) in the circle, again turn left, again airport road but this time with Katja on the phone with the club explaining (again...they already explained it to me ;-) where they were. OK, finally we found the right exit (no wonder, was all in Arabic!) hard turn right, under the bridge and there we saw the sign that pointed to the club! (it took us some 45 minutes to get there... if you get there straight it will take you some 15 minutes ;-) anyway...the place is magnificent. Nice big outdoor pool, indoor pool, a variety of outdoor courts, gym, TV room, whatever you want. Katja and I will give a thought to the membership...if you come to see us we will tell you if we bought the membership as we will take you there ;-) …if… ;-)
We then quickly went to another car dealer to check out two other cars and then we went to another shopping mall as we are checking all different places to find out where we can buy what... as previously told we have some 400 TV stations but 398 are in Arabic. So that's why we decided to buy pay TV which is called OSN her. You find stands in all shopping malls where they sell you whenever you go a special offer valid only the day you ask ;-) we really wanted to buy it and we decided to ask the sales lady to prepare the form. All was good until she asked for the address...we know where we live and even have a piece of paper where it says the name of the street in Arabic. The piece of paper is always in our car as we need it in case we get really lost (luckily never happened until now ;-) So back to OSN... she spoke very poor English, we no Arabic. So I tried to tell her that we would call her tomorrow (“Call you bukra!” by pointing first to me and then to her...) She wanted to sign the contract and I was trying to tell her that we a) do not know our address by heart and b) do not carry enough cash to pay the yearly fee c) I'd call her the next day with a colleague who speaks Arabic to solve the problem. It was hopeless... until Katja asked a clerk from a nearby shop who spoke English. He translated and the world was in order again ;-) So if everything works as we want we will have pay TV at home and we can follow our favorite series like House MD again ;-) Most important: they show the football world championship! The rest of the day was not so spectacular... back home, dinner and chill out at Blue Fig (check out the homepage if you find a moment :-)
Next day up at 0700. No this is not a fire drill but we just wanted to get up early to go to the Dead Sea :-) To get to the dead sea seemed pretty easy as there are signals on the airport road that point to the direction. So again, 7th circle, turn left, airport road …. Dough!! too far again! It says Dead Sea only from one direction! From the other direction it says AQABA which is the port city at the red sea but of course in the same direction! First exit, U turn,back to the right exit and off we drive to the Dead Sea! Amman is at around 900 to 1000 meters above sea level, the red sea is the lowest point in the world at 442 meters below sea level. Do the math and you will end up at a difference of height of almost 1500 meters in 45 minutes! I can tell you the road is really steep! We finally arrived at Dead Sea level where it is always warm and sunny. I read that they have an average of 337 days of sun, with 8.7 hrs. of sun all through all the year 30° ++ (today it was 38°C). We picked a nice hotel where you can use all facilities even not being a permanent guest. Just pay an entry fee. Before you reach the hotel area you have to pass a road block. You have to show the passport and it is like crossing a border somewhere. So a police officer stops us and asks while looking at our passports:” Where are you from?” “Italy.” “Oh, they are very nice people. Welcome to Jordan! Enjoy the day!” Again, people even from law enforcement are very nice. So we went to the hotel that has access to the Dead Sea with a very nice beach. Swimming in the Dead Sea is an adventure (btw. driving here too...I hit almost TWICE wild dogs crossing the street! Once I had to really block the wheels in order not to hit the poor thing!) anyway, swimming in the Dead Sea: it is incredible! The water is so salty that you cannot go under! You just swim and the best way to float is to just lay on your back in the warm water. Next to the entry points they have pots filled with mud that you can put on your skin and apparently is very healthy. (People look very funny after having put on the mud I tell you…) It is very nice but if you have the tiniest cut or scratch on your skin that you did not realized before you definitely will when you have the mud on or even worse when you go into the sea!! You shouldn't stay in the water for more than 15 minutes as DEHYDRATION starts! Again...DEHYDRATION! and this being in water ;-) Funny isn't it?
OK, that was our update for this week... Take care wherever you are in this world and a big hug from AMMAN or better from the Dead Sea in Jordan. Stay tuned to follow our journey in the Middle East. Btw: a small incentive to write us ;-) if you write us an e-mail we will send you a link where you can find some of our pics.
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