Category: Jordan

I started this blog three years ago to document a time in my life that I wanted to share with my family and friends as I embarked on an adventure. I wasn’t as disciplined as I thought I might be but that’s okay, when it comes to hobbies I don’t really have discipline I guess, I’m more loosy goosy – I write when I feel like it just like I paint when I feel like it.

Anyhoo… enough about my shortcomings of not keeping up with my blog as often as I’d set out to and get this final chapter written about my beautiful life in Jordan.

March 2021: Picking up chronologically from my last post where Will visited us and I mentioned that I was hospitalized. I have a condition called diverticulosis, I know this because I’d had a diverticulitis attack about 8 years ago and found out that it isn’t a condition that goes away, you just do your best to keep inflammation at bay so it doesn’t happen again. Fast forward to March 2021 in Jordan and it happened again and it was bad. In retrospect, I know what I was and wasn’t doing, specifically not listening to my body at all, which isn’t like me. My left side had been aching and burning for a few weeks at that point but on this particular Saturday, while in the first few raw days of grieving Finn, I just wanted to get out of the apartment for our ‘one day a week of freedom’. Our plans were to show Will the splendor of Wadi Rum – one of our favorite places in the world. Not feeling well in the general sense when I woke up, I took my temperature and told Mike that I was running a low grade fever and was going to walk two blocks to the pharmacy to get Tylenol. While I was walking, I could feel with each step of my left foot that there was a sensation on my side that I’d never felt before, I was also feeling dizzy as I walked back to the apartment but for some dumb reason kept telling myself that I was okay – until I made it up our one flight of stairs with no energy and realized I had to come clean and tell Mike exactly how I was feeling, there was no way I could walk for miles in literally the middle of nowhere. He had me call the Embassy doctor right away who sent us straight to the emergency room. At this point, we’d had our first COVID vaccine shot and were on schedule to get our eagerly awaited second one the following week. At the hospital we were whisked to the CT scan and back to the waiting room where shortly thereafter we were told that I was going to be admitted due to Complicated Diverticulitis with perforations, which is the even more serious form of diverticulosis. I burst into tears and told the doctor “but I’m supposed to get my second vaccine dose on Monday” and he said “I’m sorry but you’ll most likely be here on Monday, longer if you need surgery”. I’m so thankful Mike was there and reassured me that he would find out if the Embassy could save my vaccine for me (spoiler, they did have some extra and I was able to get my second dose once I was discharged) and we quietly reeled at the mention of surgery (spoiler, I didn’t need it). My stress level only went up, admitted to the hospital in a foreign country with a severe infection, during a surge in COVID in Jordan, with a guest visiting and just 5 days after Finn passed away. After a rocky start due to language issues, a little panic attack that felt good to get out, and lots of quiet time, I was the best patient who followed all doctors orders, looked out the window at the busy street below, listened to songs that Jillian would send to me and colored. I left Abdali Hospital after 4 days with a bouquet of gorgeous flowers from my work team and strict diet to follow with the support of my doctor and his intern who was studying to be a nutritionist and excited that I was her first patient.

After six weeks of a low fiber/low residue diet – which was very hard for me – I saw my doc, had my follow up “test”, given the ALL CLEAR and moved on to a high fiber diet and back in business. I will never ignore what my body is telling me again! I’m listening ol girl, I got you!

April 2021: What does a fully vaccinated couple living in one of the strictest COVID lockdowns, post hospital stay, who haven’t seen their daughters in a year and four months, and with a guest visiting from the US, decide to do this month? If you guessed “travel to the Maldives!” you’d be right! Taking advantage of the fact that Will was working during the day and could house and cat sit for us, Mike booked us an amazing stay at the Hard Rock Resort. Wearing our summer wardrobe and most importantly, NO MASKS, we enjoyed a part of the world I’d only dreamed I’d ever get to visit. Lots of sea life, snorkeling, kayaking, walking, listening to the live band and chatting with the amazing resort staff made the trip so memorable for me. Having to watch my diet was a bit of a bummer but I was able to eat all the delicious low fiber foods and drink bubbly to my hearts delight.

I was really impressed by how ecologically friendly the resort was, it has to be self sustainable because as we learned, the archipelago’s waste practice is to burn trash so of the occupied islands – they burn what they don’t reuse. On the boat ride over I noticed an island with smoke coming off of it and thought maybe it was a smoldering volcano or something, but a day later from our resort I realized I could still see the smoke and looked up what it was. Turns out, it is an island called Thilafushi entirely devoted to the main island/capital city Male’s trash! And by trash I mean everything, plastic, appliances, discarded food. I was pretty shocked to learn that it has been burning NON STOP for like 30 years! That toxic smoke going up into the atmosphere! Blowing back to the city from whence it came! UUUGGGHHHH!

May 2021: Back to Jordan, back to work for my final month! With the evening and Friday lockdowns eased we were able to get out and do a little more. For Mike and I that meant more time at the pool, walking and going to our favorite restaurants. Two of my walking ladies and I spent a long weekend at the Ma’in Hot Springs Resort and Spa, a place that had been on my list to see in Jordan! It wasn’t crowded or super-ready for visitors but we just enjoyed being together as everyone’s time in Jordan was soon coming to an end.

June 2021: After almost two years (shy by one month) my last day at USAID Jordan on the Education and Youth Team came to pass. It is so strange to think that I only worked physically in the Embassy with my team from late July 2019 – early March 2020 and from then on, it was all remote work. But despite that, we remained a super tight-knit group who worked and played well together.

With the girls and JB (Jillie’s boyfriend) all booked for their visit, I had a week between my last day of work and their arrival. My ever adventurous friend Margaret, who is now living in Zimbabwe, had her summer vacation planned and wanted to know if Mikela and I could meet her somewhere out in the world. At that point COVID numbers were stable in some places and travel between countries was opening up. Turkey was one of the locations that would take us all in and turns out, one of Mikela’s good friends was also going to be traveling there so we booked Istanbul! What an absolutely fabulous trip this turned out to be…

A year late and with an additional traveller, Dianne and Mike finally get to see their daughters Amelia and Jillian! HURRAY! In a time when many families around the world were kept apart, we felt super thankful to be able to get the girls over so that we could take them on a literal whirlwind tour of everything they hadn’t had a chance to see yet. Getting them up and out into the sun is the best thing for jet lag so we started close and visited the Citadel and Roman Theater in Amman and then stopped off at the Dagger Man where Zayid taught Amelia how to engrave a blade!

Finally, the trip that the girls had been waiting for – to Petra!

From Petra we spent the night at the Red Sea, even though they were tired and not feeling 100% Amelia, Jillian and JB enjoyed every moment of the private pool that we somehow had the good fortune of being taken to. Mike and I asked someone where we could get some towels and next thing we knew we were at our own pool! Love that Jordanian hospitality!

Next stop, the creme de la creme – Wadi Rum!

Took some chill days in Amman, spent time at the pool, the Royal Automobile Museum and a puppy puddle at Carakale Brewery.

Next stops – the city founded by Alexander the Great, Jerash and then since we’re up there, a side jaunt to Ajloun Castle!

Next day next stop…Dead Sea for the day! I didn’t track how far we’d walked over the last week but spending a day at the Dead Sea at the Marriott Resort was just what we needed. We spent our time hanging out at the pool, having lunch, floating in the sea and Jillian and JB went to the spa.

We kept at it, for their final day in Jordan we had breakfast with my friend Luma and then off to Madaba to see the great mosaics! These three were the best travelers, so appreciative and fun to be with. LOVE THEM!

July 2021: my days are running short, the kids are back in the US, my ticket is purchased and our pack out is scheduled!

After the movers left, I visited the Embassy one last time to say goodbye to my team and to Luma. I never thought that I was going to make a best friend in Jordan, I imagined that I’d meet great people and that we’d keep in touch when we went our separate ways, but I really fell in love with my friend. We laugh at my first impression – I was nervous around her because she seemed so serious and no nonsense, and she thought I was an “I’m too busy” type because she had emailed me asking if I would be her language partner and I didn’t respond for weeks. Turns out, she was acting so serious because she had just joined the team and wanted to make a good impression and I wasn’t too busy for anyone – I’d gone on a three week vacation right after I’d joined USAID and had a bunch of email waiting for me when I returned. First impressions aren’t always right and certainly not in our case.

That night we had a farewell at Biera, another one of our favorite places in Jordan with good food, delicious beer, amazing friends aaaaaaand a cake!

…while you are living your life! I can’t believe I didn’t blog at all during April, I experienced so many moments that I’d love to share with you! As per usual I will provide a status update of my pending items:
Our house is rented and the tenants are moved in! Our household effects were delivered shortly after my last post was published and finally, I started my job at the embassy. I am also happy to report that I have been going to the gym and following my tried and true Body For Life plan, I named my calendar on my phone where I’m keeping track of my progress – BodyForDi, LOL. I started it as soon as we returned from Italy because…mama mia…was I eating and drinking with reckless abandon but we can get to that later. In a nutshell, BodyForDi is 6 days a week of 6 meals a day consisting of a portion of protein and a portion of carb with serving of fruit or vegetable for 2 of the meals and 8 glasses of water. 6 workouts following the Upper (45 min)/Cardio (20 min)/Lower (45 min) schedule and for each muscle grouping you do 4 sets with progressively less reps (12, 10, 8, 6) and increasing weight (if you can, sometimes I do the same weight for all the reps). On the 7th day no workout and you can eat as you like. I make bargains with myself though hence the name BodyFor Di, like yesterday – I followed my plan but had two slices of pizza for dinner, didn’t do my cardio either. Today, I added my cardio to my Upper day and was only in the gym for a little over an hour, but I’d skipped breakfast because we were busy and I had a grilled halloumi sandwich and a side salad for lunch. I started on May 6th and am 3 days short of “21 days and you have a habit”. I do feel SO much better, not achy – which has been my biggest reason for getting back at it. OK so blah blah blah about exercise, lets talk a little about Jordan and throw in some Italy!

What I’ve been doing: April was a busy and bittersweet month for me. CRP had it’s Spring Break which gave Lareena and I two free days to do something and since the car was delivered in March I thought “why not drive us somewhere?” My first time behind the wheel in 4 months, let alone in a new country and I decided to drive to the Dead Sea, EASY (as our students like to say). We went to the Amman Beach which was interesting in and of itself – it is the beach where tourists to Amman go (are bussed?) so it is a little worn but we really weren’t going to be pampered – we just wanted to get a float in the sea, catch a few rays, people watch, study arabic and chat. Down at the sea we saw a cute couple documenting their Dead Sea mud experience for (I can only assume) their Instagram followers, a really boisterous group of big and tall men – calling to one another in what sounded like Russian from within and out of the water, and then this one guy – someone helped him to put the Dead Sea mud on his entire body, he waited the requisite amount of time and then found himself back in the water. I watched him from our chairs and in my persuasive way said “that poor dude has a big group of friends sitting up there on the beach and not one of them is going to help him get that mud from between his shoulder blades?” Now Lareena is watching with me as this guy crouches down into the water a few times and splashes and reaches to no avail. “Poor guy” I say “you should go help him, I mean you are a Reflexologist” (which had nothing to do with anything we are involved in at that moment!) and the kind hearted Lareena goes into the water and I can hear her gorgeous Australian accent “sur, SUR? Would you like some help?” His answer is quiet but from my vantage point I can see him crouch back down as Lareena takes some water and rubs off the bit of mud from between his blades.

We went up to the pool to sit under the umbrellas and study but the people watching up there was just as good; a topless sunbather, a couple of guys in their Calvin’s (underpants party), a group of older, tan, Italian ladies rolling up their pants and sleeves to get maximum sun exposure… we did study but all in all, just had a really nice day out. Drove back to Amman and Lareena told me I drove like I’d been living there my whole life. Let’s hold off on that determination until I’ve gone through some of these traffic circles at rush hour, but I do love to drive and it felt good to be back in the saddle.

I talked a little in my last post about being happy to have found an indoor hall for the dogs to play, we did a couple more dog play dates so I am going to share a joyful picture because the pups had so much fun. Our playgroup ended up having a big scare with one of the dogs, she was being boarded at the facility and got loose in the wilds of Jordan for two days!! Thankfully, she was found and returned but I have to say that was the scariest thing I have experienced since I’ve been here. Here’s a fun pictures of Finn and his friends and a few of Finn in Repose for his fans who have put in special requests for “more Finn”

Finally went to the amazing, vegetarian Shams El Balad restaurant and while exploring the gorgeous building I captured some poppies that sprang up. Is the sky bluer in Amman?

April also brought my volunteering as an English teacher at CRP to a close; the semester ended with a final exam and that was that. The teachers went out to another dinner so we could celebrate the successful semester and to say goodbye to our intern Hannah.

With our volunteer commitment behind us, each of us made plans – mine to visit Italy with Mike and our friend Abby and Lareena to Greece to volunteer in a refugee camp. Here is her fundraising page if you’d like to help.

Once our household goods were delivered I had to figure out where I wanted to hang our stuff! Mike put in a request for help hanging the artwork and they showed up at 8:30 on a Saturday morning (oops) but most of the stuff is up on the walls save for about 10 pieces – I still need to figured those out but here is a quick look at our place:

So enough about Jordan, as much as I have loved living in Amman and learning as much as I can about the city, the country and the people – it was time for Mike and I to take a trip. With a combination of US and Jordanian holidays we could take a weeklong vacation and only use a day or two of annual leave. As we were starting to taxi for our flight to Italy, the pilot came on the speaker to tell us that we had to stop because there was a warning light on for one of the engines – we needed a part – it was in Dublin, Ireland – and wouldn’t be in Jordan until around 1pm the next day. I gotta hand it to our fellow passengers – almost all Italians – because they carried on and got their things and boarded the busses and went back to the airport without batting an eyelash. Mike, Abby and I grumpily went home only to turn right around the next morning to find all of our Italian friends back in check in, security, at the gate, waiting…waiting…waiting… we could see our plane from where we were waiting, the crew were working on something for sure, there was a commotion around the belly of our plane… time ticked away as we all watched the plane and the departure screens and listened for the airport announcement telling us that it was finally time to board around 3pm. Bologna Italy is a 4 hour flight from Amman once we landed we hopped onto a train to Rimini which is a little beach town on the Adriatic Sea so we could spend a few quiet days away from the big city life.

We went into the charming old town of Rimini and learned that it was the 2nd most destroyed city in Italy during the second World War and has the oldest Roman Arch…

We loved the heck out of Rimini for a couple of days and then headed to the Republic of San Marino, which is a country that is surrounded by Italy and let me tell you, it was pretty cool – I felt like we were in Minas Tirith.

After some Limoncello we headed back to Rimini to visit our favorite new local spot to have some more pizza and beer with Leone, the proprietor of Angolo Blu – we went there twice during our three days in town! Next day found us on the train to Bologna where we fell in love; the architecture, the food, the drink, the gelato! Bologna is a foodie city and we absolutely dove in with both feet, clocking in around 7 miles per day!

The basilica above is dedicated to Saint Peter and remains unfinished outside; it was beautiful inside as were the other cathedrals in the city center. I think we went into 3 or 4 of them!

We had amazing meals in Italy, of course. Mike and Abby had the dish that is famous in Bologna, Tagliatelle alla Bolognese. This was my dish, tortellini with sage and butter sauce,mmmmmm. The next day we went on a food tour of Bologna and Mike rolled a perfect tortellini after we watched the women at Le Sfogline working their magic!

I’m getting ahead of myself, first we went to a coffee shop where I had a coffee/almond milk drink that tasted like marzipan (which I love).

…and had a cute repurposed way of offering up sugar!

Our guide for the 4 hour tour walked us through shops and alleys all the while teaching us about the food of the region. We went in and out of markets and stalls and gathered ingredients for our lunch as we went to each place. We finally stopped at the oldest pub in Bologna – Osteria del Sole – which was marked with a sign above the door that just said “WINE”. Click here for a look and to read about the place, it’s been around since 1465!

~ INTERMISSION ~

May: Back to Amman and to our Finny boy, I had a week before it was time for me to report to work! Ramadan started on May 6th and being in Jordan during Ramadan has been so interesting! Most stores and restaurants are closed during the day and people who observe Ramadan fast from sunrise to sunset, but once the sun sets – it is a time of celebration! To break the fast the meal is called Iftar – we have attended two Iftar meals and they have been just beautiful. We are attending another tonight with the teachers and students in the Arabic classes!
A lil excerpt about Ramadan from Encyclopedia Brittanica “God forgives the past sins of those who observe the holy month with fasting, prayer, and faithful intention.” Since I am a student of the arabic language and maybe some people reading my blog don’t know arabic; Allah is the arabic word for God. Many greetings and exclamations in Jordan are faith based so you hear a lot of “God willing/Inshallah” “Praise be to God-Thank God/Alhamdulillah” so that is my religion lesson.

My friend Margaret asked me if I wanted to attend an evening walk/fundraiser in one of the cool neighborhoods of Amman. Of course I said yes – on the evening of my first day of work from 9-11pm… SURE! I am so glad I did, we paid our money towards scholarships for bright students without a means for a college education and went on a walking tour that consisted of art and food! In Amman if you are in the street, cars just have to wait until you move out of the way – regardless of how long you take. Well, Margaret and I were Jordanian on this night, taking our time walking in front of cars, talking with our new friends and just enjoying the sights and smells of the neighborhood. The leaders of the event were woman local to that neighborhood who talked nostalgically about the buildings, meeting a boyfriend (who turned into a husband) at one house, going to dinner after a dance at this restaurant – it really was a wonderful way to experience the neighborhood. They were classy and cool and well, we fit right in!

We went inside to see the art gallery and learn about the Petra National Trust, click on the Iink above to learn more about what they do!

I was excited that we were going to Bunni Roasters Coffee because I had been there before and the coffee was delicious and I had met the owners and their baby daughter on an EcoHike (see the link above for a picture of this cute family) – so I was pleasantly surprised when I walked up to the counter and Shireen recognized me and gave me a big hug, I felt so local! I had an even bigger surprise as Margaret and I were walking to the car and someone else I’d met on an EcoHike called out to me. Amman is not a small town, so it was pretty surreal to hear my name and it was another pleasant surprise to get a big hug from someone I’ve met here.

Parenting from the other side of the world has it’s interesting moments – Amelia’s car wouldn’t start, Jillian needed to sew a button onto her shirt – but technology is great and we send pictures, videos and messages in our group chat. We get to enjoy the occasional FaceTime when everyone is available or so I can give Jillian a sewing lesson…

My awesome neighbors have been taking care of Gracie, and by neighbors I mean everyone on my court! I got the reminder from the vet that Gracie needed her shots so off she went with her Guardian Judy and like a good girl told her when it was time to go by getting back into her crate (before getting her shots!) Again, technology for the win – I could send the money right away and have pictures of my good girl whenever Judy can snap one of her being still.

Final picture for the epic-ly long blog post is my cute “Moroccan Lady” painting that I did with a fun group of ladies this week led by Lucy Roman – we had a great time at Patricia’s house, eating, drinking and painting. I think I will do another one at home and give her brown eyes so I can have one for each of my girls!

What I’ve been watching: finished up Game of Thrones (I liked it!) then watched and finished True Detective, getting ready to watch Big Little Lies in a couple of weeks. Started watching Dead to Me on Netflix and I need to finish Riverdale.
What I’ve been reading: what I read on the trip to and from Italy was Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis.
What I’ve been listening to: FKA twigs new song Cellophane is just beautiful. The video is stunning (and maybe a little NSFW). Love the new Interpol song Fine Mess, too.

Happy June, happy Pride and I will be making sure I stay on a better schedule for my blogging… thank you for reading. bye for now.