Happy New Year!
I know, I'm very late. The Christmas post extravaganza took most of my energy, so now I can give you a quick account of our January thus far.
We got back from Paris on Dec. 29th so we celebrated New Years Eve at home. Benjamin went to sleep at his normal time, around 8pm. Thomas played a video game and I read until close to midnight, when I brought out the sparkling apple juice. Pretty delicious. After that I went to bed and Thomas stayed up til the wee hours. Welcome, 2013!
I started back to Arabic class, but Laura dropped it because she's very busy and needed to let it go. So now it's just me, as Emily is still at home enjoying her new baby girl. I hope they can find someone else to get in the class, it's awkward with just me. I know it's a great opportunity to have one-on-one language lessons, but my instructor is pretty scattered most of the time and honestly, I don't study. So, that might impact how prepared I feel at class. We did start the alphabet today, so hopefully I can master that and then feel more confident. Fingers crossed.
It's been a little sad to not be in Western Europe, I miss the good, soft sandwich bread and the abundance of pastry places. I'm sure I could find equally unhealthy sources of bread-y food here, but since I'm in the car whenever I go somewhere, it's not like I'd just happen upon it while ambling around. And I'm not using up anywhere near the number of calories, so it's a good thing there aren't amazing sweets everywhere. I think I gained about ten pounds while we were on vacation. Totally worth it, though.
The biggest surprise/excitement of the new year was all the rain we got a couple weeks ago, and then the snow last weekend. It was nuts, after my class and lunch with Thomas on Wednesday I had him drive me home so he could take the car back to work, so I wouldn't have to pack Benjamin up to pick him up later on. While we were walking to the car it was just blowing snow everywhere and felt a lot like living in Virginia again. Very odd. And it just kept coming for a couple days. It was fun to walk around and talk with Benjamin about the snow crunching under our boots.
After the storm, it became sunny again and it's been in the 50s this week. Not warm, but the snow has all melted. I'm glad to have the sunny skies back, and to not be afraid to drive anywhere. There were a crazy number of accidents within a 24-hour period, due to the storm and people being idiots. Just yesterday I was stopped at a light behind a small-ish sedan with three little kids and a woman in the back, the kids were just hopping around, not buckled in, definitely not in age-appropriate child seats. It makes me so angry. I mean, don't you care about the lives of these children? Ugh. American rage moment.
That's it so far, just back to normal, eating lunch at the embassy and hanging out. I'll post again once exciting stuff has happened! This will be the year of seeing things in Jordan, or at least that's my hope. I've been trying to drink more water but that's not really a resolution. And I'm attempting to just drink one caffeinated beverage a day. We'll see how that goes.
I hope 2013 is off to a great start for all of you!
-Rachel
I know, I'm very late. The Christmas post extravaganza took most of my energy, so now I can give you a quick account of our January thus far.
We got back from Paris on Dec. 29th so we celebrated New Years Eve at home. Benjamin went to sleep at his normal time, around 8pm. Thomas played a video game and I read until close to midnight, when I brought out the sparkling apple juice. Pretty delicious. After that I went to bed and Thomas stayed up til the wee hours. Welcome, 2013!
I started back to Arabic class, but Laura dropped it because she's very busy and needed to let it go. So now it's just me, as Emily is still at home enjoying her new baby girl. I hope they can find someone else to get in the class, it's awkward with just me. I know it's a great opportunity to have one-on-one language lessons, but my instructor is pretty scattered most of the time and honestly, I don't study. So, that might impact how prepared I feel at class. We did start the alphabet today, so hopefully I can master that and then feel more confident. Fingers crossed.
It's been a little sad to not be in Western Europe, I miss the good, soft sandwich bread and the abundance of pastry places. I'm sure I could find equally unhealthy sources of bread-y food here, but since I'm in the car whenever I go somewhere, it's not like I'd just happen upon it while ambling around. And I'm not using up anywhere near the number of calories, so it's a good thing there aren't amazing sweets everywhere. I think I gained about ten pounds while we were on vacation. Totally worth it, though.
The biggest surprise/excitement of the new year was all the rain we got a couple weeks ago, and then the snow last weekend. It was nuts, after my class and lunch with Thomas on Wednesday I had him drive me home so he could take the car back to work, so I wouldn't have to pack Benjamin up to pick him up later on. While we were walking to the car it was just blowing snow everywhere and felt a lot like living in Virginia again. Very odd. And it just kept coming for a couple days. It was fun to walk around and talk with Benjamin about the snow crunching under our boots.
 |
| Making tracks in fresh snow. |
After the storm, it became sunny again and it's been in the 50s this week. Not warm, but the snow has all melted. I'm glad to have the sunny skies back, and to not be afraid to drive anywhere. There were a crazy number of accidents within a 24-hour period, due to the storm and people being idiots. Just yesterday I was stopped at a light behind a small-ish sedan with three little kids and a woman in the back, the kids were just hopping around, not buckled in, definitely not in age-appropriate child seats. It makes me so angry. I mean, don't you care about the lives of these children? Ugh. American rage moment.
That's it so far, just back to normal, eating lunch at the embassy and hanging out. I'll post again once exciting stuff has happened! This will be the year of seeing things in Jordan, or at least that's my hope. I've been trying to drink more water but that's not really a resolution. And I'm attempting to just drink one caffeinated beverage a day. We'll see how that goes.
I hope 2013 is off to a great start for all of you!
-Rachel
sorry i'm still a little slow here...it SNOWS in JORDAN??? I was picturing camels and desert, maybe i need a geography lesson....:)
ReplyDeleteHey Meredith!
DeleteYeah, it's pretty crazy. Amman is at a high elevation, but there's lots of places in the Middle East that get snow. Lebanon has skiing, which blows my mind.
Hope you guys are well!
-Rachel