So actually the bad thing is that Eid is over and there are no public holidays left :-( Xmas on Saturday, new year ditto :-(( Only day left: next Tuesday, Hijjri New Year (the muslim moon calendar) but I will be on a business trip :-( very bad planning... anyway, Eid was nice. Only thing was a colleague from a nortehr European country who continued to bother me and the rest of the world although I told him that the entire muslim world was on holiday... very unsensitive from him... is like keep calling people on the cell phone during X-mas holiday. But he has other issues...
During Eid we went to a nice forest reserve. Katja posted some pics in her last blog. Is a nice, quiet place up in the hills. No big deal, only 5 cottages, some tents and a house where the kitchen and the receiption is. We spent one night there and it was very relaxing. From there we had a beautiful view on all hills around us and we saw the Westbank (is actually on the opposite site).
We had an invitation for Thanksgiving as well. Believe it or not, we have a friend who cooked traditional US food and invited us. They always invite somebody and this year we had the honor of being invited. It was delicious!
As I wrote you my friend arrived, then he left for his two week trip to Syria and after that he arrived the weekend before Eid started. We had a great time. He is so easy and as he already visited Jordan earlier, he didn't had to go and visit all the nice places like Petra, Aqaba etc. So we hung out in Amman, enjoyed BBQ, brunch downtown Amman, went to the Citadel in Amman, all in all just easy, cool things. We really enjoyed having had him here. We hope he will find his way back here! FH, we already miss you! Was very nice having you here!! Unfortunately he left early this morning :-(
As I mentioned, temperature keeps dropping. Nevertheless we still have sunny days and temperatures above 20°C during the day. At night it drops to 10ish. The houses are not insulated the same way as they are back home (or in a different way...) So the interior cools down and inside the house it is cold (19°) while outside it is way up in the 20. So to heat up during the day we open the windows... crazy isn't it...
Last week I organized a climbing evening in the one and only indoor climbing hall in the Middle East http://www.climbat.com/ It was so cool for different reasons. First we were a cool bunch of people. Katja and I, two Americans, one Italian, one Jordanian and my colleague who did not climb (we invited a Canadian colleague too but she is afraid of heights :-(. The hall is fantastic and brand new. Very professional everything. I have all equipment as I used to climb years ago. Immagine, I had to go to the Middle East to start climbing again ;-)
I try always to bring you guys out there, the world I actually live in, a bit closer. One thing I learned (especially now that I start speaking Arabic) is that when they greet people, they do not only say "Hi, good morning!" or even worse "Hi!"only and walk on. Whenever you greet somebody you better have ready some 3-6 different questions and wishes... This goes like, "Goog morning, everything OK, how is family, how is work, anything new lately?" It is very nice as people really care and do not just say something to have said something. They really care. The answer is accordingly long of course. Just to say "OK" is considered to be impolite. All my colleagues are always so happy when I greet them in Arabic and some already started to use my Arabic name "Faris" (instead of Fabrizio which does not really can be pronounced in Arabic...) Faris means btw "The Knight" :-) A good name, isn't it? ;-)
This week a dork from the construction company that is building something around our office somehow cut the internet cable... we'll see how long it will take until we have cable connection again. Apparently they promised to fix the problem "Bukkra, In sh'Allah!" ;-) (if you are not a frequent reader, read earlier blogs to found out the real meaning ;-)
Last week we had colleagues from Italy in our office for a business meeting. I was not invited as I was not involved in the meeting. The manager called me and invited me to have dinner with them as he wanted me to meet my compatriotes ;-) Anyway, long story cut short, one of them during the discussion asked me: "I have to ask you, something. I mean you are here for now quite a moment. These folks here are all so nice... are they always like this or are they only so nice because we are here?" I was so proud I could answer him: "No, my friend they are always so nice! Welcome to Jordan!!"
We miss you all here. Especially when somebody left, it takes some days to get back to the normal track. It is just different... We are already looking forward to next year when new people will come. Unfortunately a very nice friend could not manage to come as she couldn't leave her work. She wanted to come this week. We really kept our fingers crossed but it did not help :-( SJ, hopefully next year! We would love to have you here!
OK everybody, that's all folks for today. Please take care wherever you are in this world. A big hug to all of you out there from Amman!
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