Heartstrings 21.0: We're ouuuuutttta here!

You know it's been awhile since you updated a blog when you don't even remember the last thing you wrote about. I really MUST get better at this whole updating thing... it's the uploading of the pictures I realize that really makes me not want to update. Call it laziness.

So in a nutshell: I'm now settled in (ish) my new flat. I love it here. It's so much better then where I was before. I'm really enjoying this city living. I went over to Reem Island (where a vast majority of people went--with the exception of like 20 of the 190 teachers) and I realized that yes, it's nice to live on an island with a good view, but I would probably still feel a tad isolated over there. You have to leave the island on it's one bridge to go and do anything. But people have really nice accommodations over there--although I prefer mine :)

Travel update: I left the UAE for the first time during the Eid break in late October. I went to Jordan and loved every second I was there. The people, the history, the history, the history... if you get my drift, there is a crap-load of history there.

 Let me walk you through my friend Andrea and my journey to a little slice of Holy Land.

Andrea and I arrived flying from Emirates Air (which I <3 by the way--got to watch me some Amazing Spiderman AND I got a full course meal AND plenty of leg space! Did I mention the flight was only 2:30 hours?!? Yeah, you don't get that kind of service in the States.

Anyway, we landed and had our driver pick us up from the airport to take us into the traffic infested downtown area of Amman, Jordan. Since the airport was a ways away, I got to admire the scenery that reminded me a lot of the hill country back home. And I saw my first camel up close.

We checked into our hotel and had lunch. Funny story here... we noticed that lunch was taking quite a long time to make but we didn't hear any kitchen-like noises coming from the back of the dining area. Well, sure enough, we saw our waiter bring in a plastic bag through the front of the adjoining hotel and tried to sneak it by the customers. They had a menu and had no cooks! These fools ordered food from down the street and brought it in!) It was hysterical. It took them around one hour to bring me a burger... after they brought me cold chips and Andrea some cooked lamb. We had a good laugh about it.

the bill was delivered in the box and the Dinars we paid with

Andrea and I met a young girl who was studying Arabic in Jordan and chatted her up for a bit--then exchanged picture taking

I decided to go Rocky style and climb some 2,000 year old stairs

Not a bad view

On the way down we met these sweet young brothers who were just walking around.

Should have done the Heisman pose here... next time!

We left the Roman Theater and headed straight up to the Citadel at the top of the hill. It was quite the climb, but we enjoyed the trek up--minus all the honking horns (which we later learned they do so that you know the car is coming).

view of Amman on the hike up the hill. There was trash everywhere... such a shame.

An old Hercules temple remains standing at the top of the Citadel.

Massiveness... we were being stalked by some 12 year old fan-boys, so we didn't stick around here for as long as we probably would have liked.

The remains of an old Byzantine Church

There's a storm a-comin'... we thought we were in trouble. But not a drop of rain fell on us at the Mosque

But we did get to see a rainbow over the city (actually, there was a double rainbow). Reminded me of God's promise to us...

On the way back down, this little boy was "helping" his father unload these for his family. He was too cute!

While we were at the Citadel, we went through a museum (trying to escape those psycho stalker teenagers). They recently had moved the Dead Sea Scrolls from this location. I learned that the Citadel is the spot where David sent Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba's husband, into battle so that he could marry her.

The Citadel and the Roman Theater were awesome places (and super cheap--only one dinar for the theater and a couple for the citadel) for Andrea and I to visit on our first day in Jordan. We rounded out the evening at our hotel, which was located right across from the Roman Theater.

We enjoyed our dinner outside as the sun went down (and enjoyed every second of the cool weather change--it was in the 70s or cooler while we were there). We ordered dinner at our hotel... I had the Jordanian specialty, chicken Mansaf, and it was delicious! And surprisingly faster then the hour long wait we had for lunch. Our suspicious were confirmed as to where the food derived from as we saw one of the guys who worked at the restaurant bring in a bag from outside with our food in it.

Day Two... Petra and Wadi Rum. But I'll save that for another post seeing as this one is freakishly long.