This must be just like livin' in paradise... (Dave Lee Roth ex Van Halen)

We spent some wonderful days with Katja’s brother and N.H. We enjoyed our BBQ, hung out at the pool (fantastic to see how many times a person can change her bikini… I am still thrilled…;-) We went for a very nice dinner at our restaurant “Blue Fig” (check it out online! www.bluefig.com ) and later on, we went to the “Sanctuary” in my eyes the nicest lounge in Amman. They serve drinks and Hookah (or Argila, both Arabic for waterpipes). Katja’s brother and his girlfriend took one and after having finished, she started to change color but she blamed it to the neighbor’s smoke… ;-) As mom always said: Smoke hurts! ;-)

We had a fantastic last evening at home together with the two, with BBQ, drinks and a wonderful evening hanging out at the terrace. We tried or better B. tried to get a nice picture of all of us and after some attempts we managed ;-) I will post the picture after having asked the permission of all ;-) The evening was a blast! We really had so much fun and laughed so hard that we almost peed our pants! (Thanks a lot guys for having been with us. We really enjoyed your company! Hope to see you soon again! Take care, we love you guys!) They had to take the plane at 4 a.m. and so we got up in the middle of the night and drove them to the airport. Queen Aliah Airport in Amman is not so far away from downtown. It takes us, especially at that time, around 20 Minutes to get there. So we drove there, dropped them off and went back to bed. After having slept in we got up and Katja cleaned all the apartment as the next guest were already arriving the next night! You see, we opened a new business ;-) Lelli’s Lodge in Amman… This time is really busy, people coming and leaving, visitors and people who stay. But I just love it! So in other words we went to bed and the next night Katja (as I had to go to the office in the morning) got up again same time to go and pick up our very nice friends from the airport. I did not wake up when they arrived as it was literally in the middle of the night. Oh, I almost forgot to mention THE HIGHLIGHT of the weekend! For all who are in German Music: Did Toten Hosen from Düsseldorf came to Amman! UNBELIEAVABLE!! I couldn’t believe it! They are so big in Germany (don’t forget that Germany is the biggest music market in Europe!) and they simply fill every stadium in Germany and the countries around Germany! Used to play in front of tens of thousands fans I was really curious to see how they would perform in front of the few Jordanians that would show up. The local media sponsor was the best known radio (Spin Jordan) and they did a fantastic job in promoting the concert. The band was officially invited by the Germany Embassy here in Amman as part of the celebrations around the German reunion. The most kick a** thing was, that (especially me used to Swiss ticket entry prices) they asked only for 3 JOD (equals to 3 Euro or 4.5 USD) entry!! They arrived and they played their set as if they were playing in front of thousands of fans… just great! They venue was a roman amphitheater and some 500+ people were there! It was just fantastic to see families holding small children in their arms and even one lady in a Tshador and on the other side people totally gone crazy stagediving (= climbing on stage and jumping back into the crowd)! The front man even put together some words in Arabic to greet the crowd and they totally freaked out! Most of the band’s lyrics are in German but they covered some very famous songs from other punk/rock bands such as The Clash, The Ramones and even a Beatles song. I was totally exhausted after the concert (not 20 anymore…) but so happy to have seen them in Amman. It was an awesome night! Just to get it straight: this was the night before the second friends arrived…. Might be why I did not hear them arriving at our place at night ;-)

I got up and went to the office and all were still listening to their pillow…no wonder after the trip. It is really demanding to fly with a stop over and arrive at such crazy hours. The only way to avoid it is to fly RJ (Royal Jordanian) as they have the best time slots (and very nice airplanes too ;-) Depending from where and when you fly, you manage to get here to Amman straight without any stopover at a very good time of the day.

So after having seen Die Hosen and spent half a day in the office on Sunday I went back home for lunch and finally I met my very good friends! Unfortunately I was busy during the week and so I did see them only in the evening. But it was no so bad as they went to see Petra, Jerash, Ajloun and to the Dead Sea (not all on the same day of course ;-) I was away on business the day they went to Patra and the day they went to the Dead Sea I crossed them on the way to the Dead Sea (“Hi honey! I just saw you passing by on the other side of the road!”) in the evening as I was going there on business. I was invited to the Swiss reception as the President of the Federation Ms Doris Leuthard was there and I got an invitation. The reception was very nice. The reception was held at a pool area at the Mövenpick Hotel Dead Sea. The view was just fantastic…sunset at the Dead Sea, temperature going slowly down to a very nice level, view over the pool, over the Dead Sea towards Israel towards the sunset… just mind blowing!

I worked another day and after that I was on my first day off in Jordan! My first looong weekend as I am taking Thursday and Sunday off! Friday I went to the desert with my friend and again…it was fantastic! The desert castles and the desert are just overwhelming. It is the whole thing together. The silence, the colors, the rocks, the moment when you stand on top of a hill and you see only desert around you, in total silence and you realize how tiny you are… honestly, I became a big fan of the desert. It is definitely one of my most intense experiences so far.

Otherwise life treats us well in Jordan… Katja got her first ticket for speeding (hihihi… she was not very fast. She does really not drive recklessly…). We are still struggeling with some thing that should be fixed since we moved in (I told you that things take longer here…). Katja will have to start a new nagging round to get those things fixed. We hope to get the things fixed before we leave beautiful Al-Urdunn ;-)

We already had our first Arabic lesson too. It was weird as they apply a different strategy to teach people. They believe that if you just listen to what they tell you and don’t speak you get used to the language better as if you try to do both together. You will start to speak after 10 to twenty lessons. I was lost and did not like it too much but Katja liked it. Katja will schedule another test lesson with another school and then we hope to find a school that fits us and we can finally start to take regular lessons.

Oh a last thing…yesterday when we went to the desert we did not plan the return properly. Will mean, that we drove back to civilization at around 5 p.m. My friend was not allowed to drive as under Jordanian Law, non-residents are only allowed to drive cars with a green section on the registration plate. Green means rental, red means government (red with number below 500 are senior government people), yellow are diplomats. I have just a white one :-( we are just poor suckers ;-) Anyway, driving back from the desert is, let’s say…challenging. You have this long straight roads and huuuge truck driving at crazy speed. Every time they cross you, you feel the air pressure. We just hoped that none of the driver would fall asleep or a tire would burst. There were enough leftovers of rubber tires burst lying along the road… once we managed to get out of the desert, we hit AlZarqa. A free zone with traffic that is very demanding during the day…you can imagine during rush hour ;-) but we were not done… after Zarqa we entered Amman. Still during rush hour!! It was some kind of near death and outer body experience ;-) but I managed to get through it without any damages. In the morning, while driving out of Amman, a man with a car that was being held together only by glue, rust, body filler and sticky tape, touched my car with his “car” while coming out from a sideroad. As the roads were very bumpy anyway in that area I did not even realize it. My friend told me: “Oh, he just hit you!” I drove on and stopped at next safe possibility but I didn’t spot any damages. The man who “hit” me followed us and asked through the shield if everything was OK. Once I waved and let him understand that everything was OK, he drove off. A very honest man…

This week a good friend from my former office is travelling in Jordan but so far we did not managed to see each other. Today Friday is the last chance. Let’s see if we manage! (would be great to see you M.L. !!)

So, this was an update from Jordan. Take care wherever you are in this world. Miss you guys lots and we are looking forward seeing you soon somewhere in this world! Big hug from Amman!

PS: Usually we do not address a single person in this blog as it is meant for all, but under extraordinary circumstances we do;-) This goes to E.H.: Well done! ;-) Good, brave girl! ;-) I told you that everything would be fine… take care! Looking forward seeing you soon in Amman (with some teeth less ;-) Big hug!