That's how long we've been in Amman, Jordan. Two weeks and three days. The morning after we arrived I jotted down these notes. So much has happened since then that these twelve stories hardly seem worth telling now!
- Ten bags! (That needs no explanation for those of you who have seen the Facebook updates. Dave S., this is the picture I am referring to.)
- The nice man in seat 17A on the flight from Vancouver to Chicago handing me a pair of...my underwear. (That story would be worth telling if I had any idea how a pair of my underwear found their way out of my carry-on and onto the seat. Maybe they weren't my underwear?)
- The unsweetened iced tea at the Macaroni Grill in the Chicago airport. (That was such a disappointment for our girls - iced tea at a restaurant is usually a special treat!)
- Realizing that I read the departure time for the second leg of our journey incorrectly off our e-tickets. (I need to brush up on my 24 hour clock. We still had an hour and a half to get to our next flight, but that's a bit of a shocker when you think you have three and a half hours!)
- An hour and a half to get our bags once through immigration in the airport in Amman. (That was excruciating. Everyone was tired and sweaty and dying to get out of the airport. Little did we know it was even hotter outside at 7:00 p.m...)
- Camel spotting on the way to the city of Amman from the airport.
- Our place. A palace!
- The master toilet doesn't work. (Good thing I know how to flush a toilet with a bucket! But wait...we don't have a bucket...)
- We don't seem to have any hot water in our apartment. (Those of you who travel by plane will know just how badly you want that hot shower after any length of flight! In truth, we didn't have hot water for five days. Then hot water came out of both taps for a couple of days. The plumbing is a bit tricky in our apartment!)
- The A/C works. Ahhhhhh...sleep.
- Hays wakes up at 2:30 a.m. I've been asleep for about two hours. She gets dressed in the clothes she laid out the night before and is ready to go for the day. It appears Jason has not yet fallen asleep. We doze until the call to prayer wakes us all up for good at 4:30 a.m. (Maybe sleeping with the windows open isn't such a good idea?)
- Family walk around the neighbourhood at 6:00 a.m. One block radius is all we feel comfortable doing; every corner looks the same! There are some nice houses on the streets around us. And some nice cars. (The red Porsche Boxter continues to be an excellent landmark.)