Sonntag, 2. Oktober 2011

Guests come...guests leave...a normal day in Jordan...


Lately we were invited at the Aussie Party. It's a cool party at the Auustralien Embassy where thy collect money for a charitable institution. But basically it is a cool party with DJ and affordable booze and Burgers ;-) We are nvited by the country manager of a company who in the meantime became a good friend.
After the aunt and cousine of Katja left, we spent one weeek by ourself before katja's brother and his girlfriend arrived. They were the first visitors and the first to come back as they liked it so much the first time!  As they already knew the hole procedure at the airport, we asked them to grab a taxi and come to our area. It worked out perfectly and so we met them at 0245 at the main mall in Amman ;-) apparently the cab driver was a bit confused when my brother in law told him to drive them to the mall at 0200 ;-) But Katja and I were already waiting and so everything went perfect! The same day at 1100 we organized a brunch at Bayt Sitti. It is the same house where we went earlier this year to a cokking class with other friends. This time we did not cook or did anything except sitting down and enjoy our brunch! The host is such a lovely person and I really admire her drive and ability to make you  really feel home! Katja organized it and wrote to almost all of the folks we know here. W managed to get together a nice bunch of people from all over the world (which should not surprise you anymore ;-) we met with our two lovely friends from the Canadian Embassy, new friends from the US our Russian friend who came without her husband and in one corner we had the Swiss Fraction ;-)our lovely friend from the Swiss Office of Development and also a lovely couple. She is from here but lived many years in Germany and is fluent in Arabic and German, he came here, is from the Maghreb, but born and raised in Switzerland, and met her here, married and know run their own company! It was sucha good company and the food, don't even need to mention it was a) super yummy and b) enough for three times the people we were! We had so much food that all of us almost felt sick ;-) we sat and chatted ntil something around two o'clock. We drove back home as we and our guests were kind of tired. getting up at 2 a.m. is not really the nicest thing. But we also went back home as we had anothe party in the evening! It's funny...sometime you don't have anything...other weekends we have too man things! So this is one of those super busy weekends! So we went ack home and all of us put their head down for an hou or so... we then got up, took a shower and started with our BBQ :-) the weather is still nice outside. Not hot hot anymore and at night you need a sweater but still beautiful to have great BBQ outside... so we ate and after dinner we left for a so called Internations evening. Internations is a organization that brings expats together. They organize gatherings all over the city, usually once per month. I was supposed to meet with my Italian friends and they called me that they reserved a table for ten. We were aout to leave and were running one hour late but as t is a very informal gatheing it does not really matter when you arrive. unless... we arrive and meet the Italians at the table and after the greeting procedure it turs out that they thought we'd meet for dinner and they waited for us!! They waited 1 hr and 15 minutes (that how late we were...maybe I am assimilated already too much to the local cultre ;-) and when we finally show up it turns out that we already had supper!!! I felt so imbarassed! We went insde and the place was oo hot as some 50 announced themself but some 75 showed up. As it was second floor not even all open windows helped to cool down the room. On top the restaurant was not able to have enough staff to serve drinks so that people had to wait way too long until they go anything. Sometimes I don't understand how the restaurants plan here...you tell them that 50 + peopl will show up and they put two people to serve and the best was that they did not open the bar upstairs but the two person had to run down the stairs and get a drink from the court outside! Totally inefficient and against all logic... but hey... some things are just differnet here ;-) It was anyway too hot for me so that I decided to join my Italian friends who were sitting utside in the court where it was a lovely, nice temperature and just gorgeous. so instead of siting inside, where they even started to turn on them usic so loud that it was impossible to talk to each other anymore (main goal s to meet new expat folks...which you usually do by talking to each other ;-)
 it did not take too long until katja, our guests and other people joined us outside. We sat there until after midnight and then went hom. The enxt day we aplanned to go ither to the Dead Sea or to the club. But we all got up late and were so not motivated, that we just hung out, went to the mall and did some shopping and then back home. I managed to go to the gym, the others just hung out on ou roof top terrace enjoying the lounge. After I came back from practicing we had supper. You want to know what?... guess... BBQ! ;-)
Today i had a day off and we decided to get upearly (8ish...) and to drive down to the Dead Sea. We left at some 20° and down at the sea it was already some 29 at 10 a.m.! we are enjoying a great, relaxing day at hot, sunny summer temperature... Dead Sea is one of my favorite spots ad it definitely should be come one of the world wonders. For sll those who have facebook and are connected with me: go there and vote for it :-) I declared myself as an Ambassador for Jordan and the Dead Sea! :-)
I will be travelling soon abroad and will let you know about my trips... hope they will be exciting. The first one I had last week was quiet easy except that I had all seasons you can immagine... I arrived and it was BOILING hot, the second day it was cloudy and fine, the third day it was windy, stormy and it even rained while the wind was blowing sand and dust through the air, so hard, that I couldn't spot the airport anymore!!I was lucky that is was able to leave on time...
another friend announced herself last week to come and vist us here in Jordan. We are really looking forwarda nd we are happy that she managed to make it happen!  we are already taking reservations for next year and believe it or nt, two years will be over in June next year... we will see what happens next. If we stay, go or whatever... "In Sha Allah"...

Take care wherever you are in this world! A big hug from the Dead Sea in Jordan!


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