India and Birthday

Last week I was out of town on a business trip to Hyderabad India. Traveling to India is burdensome as there are no direct flights to Hyderabad but I managed to get a flight with only one stop over in Dubai. The only thing was that I had a stop over of some 5 hours in Dubai and arrived at three a.m. in India and finally around 4ish at the hotel... but if you are a regular reader of our blog you know that I am used to it ;-) India is amazing... so many impressions and the food is just not from this world! Katja and I decided to go to India on our next holiday :-) It was lots of work but nevertheless we managed to see some things around the city of Hyderabad. I posted some pictures on my last blog. Hyderabad is quite a different to Amman. India is at the end of monsoon rain period and therefore it was always cloudy, around 25ish +/- degrees warm but for me, brutally humid! It is interesting how fast I got used to the dry weather and the sun in Amman. That was the thing I missed most in India ;-) And when I was flying into Amman it was soo nice to hear the captain saying:" Ladies and gentlemen, we are landing in Amman, weather is wonderful, shining sun at the temparature of 35 degree Celsius!"

I was so tired when I came home from India that I basically had dinner and went to bed although it was my birthday. Yesterday September 11, Katja and I invited all our friends here in Amman who even brought other people along. It was a blast!! All different nationalities, languages and all nice folks! It was so much fun... we had a very casual, "BBQ and beer style" birthday party. This party was to make up that I was traveling on Friday on my birthday and spent my birthday in airports, endless security checks and airplanes... We were some 17 people at the party and most did not met each other before. Nevertheless or maybe just because it turned out great. I was so nice seeing all together having a good time and our kitchen being crowded with all these nice people. For Katja and me it is important to have some nice people around us. Katja and all the other ladies are more or less in the same situation. Husband works long hours and they need to find their way along in a all new country. That's why it is so important have so nice people here in Amman with whom we can hang out and spend social time together. We are planning to go climbing, outdoor BBQ, having breakfast and visit things around Jordan together.

This week is a short week as we are having Eid al Fitr, the end of Ramadan.

Eid ul-Fitr (Arabic: عيد الفطر ‘Īdu l-Fiṭr‎), often abbreviated to Eid, is a three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting (sawm). Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity", while Fiṭr means "conclusion of the fast"; and so the holiday celebrates the conclusion of the thirty days of dawn-to-sunset fasting during the entire month of Ramadan.

Source: I know that Wiki is not a source but it was the easiest thing to find ... ;-)

Everybody is on holiday now and there is a lot going on. If you want to find a hotel room in all Jordan: Mission Impossible!! No chance at all. Everything is booked and overbooked. So if you want to do something these days in Jordan you should definitely make sure that you call in and make a reservation before.Otherwise you end up showing up and all is booked...

Life here getting more and more normal here. Might have to do with the facts that we are getting more and more things done. To be honest Katja and I are both looking forward to days where everything is normal and we do not have to think everyday how to fix something. It might sounds boring but after the last three month that were, let's say "demanding" we are just waiting for "normal" days...

The next highlight is for sure the visit of Katja's brother and his girlfriend. We are so looking forward having you guys here! We can't wait :-) Right after their visit we are having very good friends coming over with all the family. At the same time two other very nice colleagues are visiting Jordan. Can't wait to see you all here in Jordan!!

You see... the busy season is about to start!

Take care wherever you are in this world! Big hug from Amman!