On behalf of my husband & 2 dogs :), we wanted to wish everyone a most Happy New Year. I sincerely hope 2012 will be a wonderful year for all of you and that you are able to say a fond farewell to 2011. I am extremely excited for 2012! It is the year that I start work again (GASP! AFTER 16 MONTHS OFF??? What can I say? I've been a lady of leisure for far too long) and the year that we leave Amman and head off on our next adventure...NYC, baby! Will have to rename the blog "An American Family in New York City".......hmmm) We still have about 8-ish months left here in Amman, but I'm confident they will fly by - we have a family visit in March and we are SO looking forward to it, and we also have some travel up our sleeves to get us through the next few months! Not to mention my trip back to the States in a mere few weeks. I am starting to get the shakes for all things American :)
Anyway, much love to all of you and here's to a healthy, happy, & hilarious 2012! xoxo
Showing posts with label amman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amman. Show all posts
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Random thoughts as 2010 winds down
This has been a crazy year. I finished my tour in Iraq, was reunited with my fiancee, married her a month later, and then we moved overseas two months after that. Somehow, we still managed to squeeze in a good bit of travel in the midst of all this craziness. Here is a snapshot of where we've (either T or B, or both) been this year (because i know you're reallllly interested):
Iraq
Jordan
Austria
Germany (does a brutal 9 hour layover count as a visit?)
Turks and Caicos
Montana
Chicago
NoVa
Pittsburgh
Nellysford (Grandpa's cabin!)
Charlottesville
New Jersey
MD
Next year we hope to add a few more destinations to this list ... Oman, London, Paris, Prague, Dubai, somewhere tropical for our first anniversary ... I hope I can get the time off work ....
A visit to the first world
Thera and I visited Vienna, Austria in mid-December. Even though it was a quick trip T and I were really glad that we were able to visit a good friend before he leaves Vienna this summer, and also to see the city during the Christmas season. The Christmas markets were in full swing and we hit a lot of them and had a great time despite the cold and some rain! Typical Viennese weather, apparently.
The Rathaus (City hall) Christmas Market
The Stephansdom (St Stephen Cathedral) and Christmas Tree
We love the classic Kathe Wolfhart-style Germanic handmade wooden ornaments and managed to find a few places at the markets that carried them. They were in much shorter supply than I had expected! We found several ornaments, one of the pyramid spinner things, some smokers, and a nutracker or two. These ornaments remind me of home and are what I grew up with, I am so glad T and I got to experience Austria and start our own collection!
We had some great meals, hilarious conversation, and really enjoyed ourselves with the niceties of Europe! We're back in Amman now with the Christmas season in full swing with lots of Christmas parties and even a few Santa sightings. There are more Christmas decorations out here than I would have imagine and the weather is getting cold....we even got snow here last weekend...of course we missed it because we were in Vienna...typical! Regardless, even though T and I are away from our loved ones this year and missing everyone a lot, we will still make the most of our first Christmas together!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Pics, continued
Additional photos from around our neighborhood
This is looking north (towards the high rise on the left) at Jabal Amman and towards east Amman on the right. Jabal Amman is the older downtown type area with lots of shops and restaurants. It's an area we really enjoy. It looks far away here but only takes us about 5 minutes to get to that tower you see.
This is looking across the wadi towards east Amman.
And a pic of us before another diplomatic function. This one was Italian Military Day ... they served great food and great prosecco, of course!
This is looking north (towards the high rise on the left) at Jabal Amman and towards east Amman on the right. Jabal Amman is the older downtown type area with lots of shops and restaurants. It's an area we really enjoy. It looks far away here but only takes us about 5 minutes to get to that tower you see.
This is looking across the wadi towards east Amman.
And a pic of us before another diplomatic function. This one was Italian Military Day ... they served great food and great prosecco, of course!
Here are some recent pics from in and around our neighborhood. I've also included a few of our ongoing move-in process ... we arrived at 3am on 7 October with the susiemonster, 6 bags, and one large dog crate. About a month later (a month?!) we got about 450lbs of 'stuff.' mostly kitchen stuff, some clothes that i had pulled out of storage that had gone into storage before i went to Iraq ... I didn't even recognize half of what came out of that box! Either way it was nice to get some stuff of our own and get this place feeling a little more like home ... it's been a process, but it's slowly coming together and getting better daily.
the aftermath ...
susie was a big help
shots from around our neighborhood ...
down the street
unpacking!
the aftermath ...
susie was a big help
shots from around our neighborhood ...views from our balcony
down the street
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Goats
Amman is an interesting city. It has large areas of town that are very westernized and many things in english. It has areas of town that feel like I'm back in Saudi. It has amazing, multimillion dollar homes and beautiful shops and restaurants, right next door to poor bedouins living, literally, in tents and raising goats and sheep on an empty lot. We are lucky enough to live in Abdoun, a very nice part of town, full of westerners and rich Ammanis, and all the trappings ... fancy cafes, exclusive boutiques, etc. Despite this, there are still a fair number of poor families living in the undeveloped areas in between houses and neighborhoods. Many of them are Iraqi refugees, I'm told.
Our particular neighborhood is no exception. It is a fairly newish neighborhood, with many empty lots, brand new huge homes, and many other homes and apartment buildings under construction. An example of this interesting dichotomy between the haves and the have-nots in Amman .... if you look out our front door, you see one of these expensive, large, beautiful homes ... the owner has a mercedes in the driveway, a land rover parked out front, etc etc ... and today, he had a heard of sheep and goats going by his house feeding in the empty lot next door. the herd is based out of a bedouin camp right around the corner and down in the wadi from where we live. if you look out the window in our master bedroom, we have a nice view of a wadi (canyon) and another bedouin camp across the way ... they live without plumbing, without electricity, without anything really ... in the states it's easy to brush these things aside and not think about it because it's not in your face like it is here. i'm not trying to make some deep social commentary, just pointing out an interesting fact of life here in amman.
here are some pictures i snapped this am during breakfast of the goats coming through our neighborhood. the first pic is taken from our kitchen window (don't be alarmed by the bars on the windows, everyone in Amman has them, even though crime rates are extremely low); the other pics were taken from our balcony, which looks back towards the street in front of our house.
Our particular neighborhood is no exception. It is a fairly newish neighborhood, with many empty lots, brand new huge homes, and many other homes and apartment buildings under construction. An example of this interesting dichotomy between the haves and the have-nots in Amman .... if you look out our front door, you see one of these expensive, large, beautiful homes ... the owner has a mercedes in the driveway, a land rover parked out front, etc etc ... and today, he had a heard of sheep and goats going by his house feeding in the empty lot next door. the herd is based out of a bedouin camp right around the corner and down in the wadi from where we live. if you look out the window in our master bedroom, we have a nice view of a wadi (canyon) and another bedouin camp across the way ... they live without plumbing, without electricity, without anything really ... in the states it's easy to brush these things aside and not think about it because it's not in your face like it is here. i'm not trying to make some deep social commentary, just pointing out an interesting fact of life here in amman.
here are some pictures i snapped this am during breakfast of the goats coming through our neighborhood. the first pic is taken from our kitchen window (don't be alarmed by the bars on the windows, everyone in Amman has them, even though crime rates are extremely low); the other pics were taken from our balcony, which looks back towards the street in front of our house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)