US & Ayy!

I really have the impression to live in airports and airplanes... Last weekend London, this weekend the USA :-) I travelled from Amman to London (again ;-) had four hours stop-over and continued to Washington DC. The trip door to door (my place to the hotel) took me 22 hours! It's quite a distance... I left at 0600 in Amman and arrived at 0400 Amman time at my hotel in DC... I spent one night in DC and then hit the road or better the railtrack to Philadelphia where my friends live. I've seen them two years ago when they got married in Sweden. That was in the very beginning of my stay in Jordan. I am really looking forward seeing them! The biggest news is that it snowed in Amman... although it basically snows every year it is always a big deal! It started Wednesday during afternoon. It got colder than usual. The clouds were hanging very low. The wind was blowing hard and whenever we have wind in Jordan that means sand/duststorm. So with the clouds hanging low, the wind blowing, the sand could not get into higher atmosphere and was trapped. The sun was kind of shining and so it produced a spectalcle that I havent't seen in my life before! The sky was all over amber, yellowish! Everthing got into that color and the visibility was very low. The tha sun want away and it became pitch black at 1500 in the afternoon! It looked like the end of the world! Then it cleared a bit up and then it started to rain and it went slowly over to snow! It was more a slush in the beginning but it kept snowing persistently and the parked cars slowly got covered with snow. That's not really extraordinary for me... but you should have seen my colleagues and all the population in Amman...! Everybody run immediately home! The office was emty so fast as I haven't seen it before! Everybody kept dropping by my office saying that I should go home as they would be blocking the streets and I wouldn't be able to get back home! Well... (my office has a window to one of the main streets of Amman) the streets got jammed in no time and it looked like Thursday evening before weekend starts! Everybody was rushing home... I had to close some things and was relying on my 4x4 German quality car ;-) I finally left around 1900 and I was literally the last person! The streets (not the main one) were almost emty and it was actually cool to drive home. The only really dangerous thing is that the streets are flodded and you don't se if there is a hole somewhere... that would be deadly. And of course the other drivers... with all due respect. There are many things that are good in Jordan. Traffic is DEFINITELY NOT one of them. The quaity of some cars is just poor and the quality of the tires also. So if they drive and are not used to such weather and conditions they can easily loose control of their vehicle and crash into you. That would be really nasty... But nothing happened and I was home in no time as there was no traffic :-) The next day I was supposed to drive to the airport... when I came back to my office after lunch one of our assistants asked me if I had a 4x4. I said yes and asked why... she said that the cabdriver called and said that if it'd be snowing the next day he wouldn't be able to come and pick me up as he does not have an appropriate car!! So we agreed that we would talk on the phone early morning next day to see how the conditions are and if the weather conditions would be rough Katja would drive. Next day I got up at 0500 as I had to leave around 0600. It was snowing a bit but not hard... I told the driver not to come as I didn't want him to risk anything and to be honest as I felt more secure having Katja driving me to the irport with my car ;-) We left early enough as we were expecting the worst. But it tured out that it was just great! NOBODY on the street! It was like Friday morning. The school closed and people did not go to work! This is an official practise in Jordan. When it snows, people stay home. Regardless if you are a pupil or a workman. The funniest thing was when Ktja went home and on her way back she stopped at the shop in our area. The shop was open! A real surprise. She ent in and was totally by herself. The employees apparently stared at her and asked where she was coming from. She said that she was living in this area and they were all surried that she left home with such conditinons (5-7 cm snow / two inch or so...). She asked them how it came that they had the shop open. Their answer: They slept in the shop to make sure they would be able to open the shop the next day!! This is what I call dedication and custome care ;-) My gym closed on Wednesday at 1800 (when I was still in the office) and will re-open Insha'Allah if the wather gets better on Saturday!! We ta about 10 cm snow max! It's funny to see our friends from countries with heavy snow like Sweden and Canada. They couldn't believe it that people stay home for a little snow. Regardless, it is just fantastic to see Jordan covered in snow! It is so different and most important it bring the so much needed water! It is, despite all hassle we have (shops close, streets are blocked by the Ministry of Civil Defense, the risk of accidents is suicidally high etc.) it is such a great and nice experiance and if we think back to summer wth 57°C the highest temperature I have seen, something I can hardly believe. As many things in this part of the world, the weather also is full of extremes and controversary. You don't know what to expect... so as everything here you better take it as is and one day after the other! A "funny" anectode at the end. The proofe that I am becoming one of my friends here... When you check in at Amman airport, you have to put your luggage through an X-Ray machine before you enter the check in area. I was queueing up behind a british gentleman. The flight to Lodon was one of the only one going and the airport was empty because a lot of people did not go to the airport because of the weather conditons! Anyway, the eledery man started to gently put one piece of luggage on the belt then the other then tured back to pull out the belt from his pants and to fold his jacket... this was going just too slow for me... (that's when I realized that I am becoming one of my friends here ;-) I lifted my luggage on the belt and was almost grabbing my hand luggage when he turned around givng me an angry look:"Sir, would you mnd to wait your turn please?" (Immagine to most British accent you now... that was him!) I looked at him and said:" seriously? Welcome to Jordan!" That's the sentence I heard gazillions of time in the beginning whenever something happend that I did not understand or I was estonished of! So now I finally was the guy who was using the sentence!! Achlan wa sachlan fi'l Urdun!! (Welcome to Jordan in Arabic). So that's all for the moment folks! I am sitting in the train towards Philly and have another 40 minutes or so. Train is full but extremely on time and so far good. i am sure I will have more stories about my trip in the US of Ayyy! Take good care wherever you are in this world! A big hug from a train in the US!