2 Awkward Moments in Italy

2 awkward moments in Italy, and of course, Charlee girl is at the center of both of them ;)

The first, a lady with a long pointed nose wearing a black jacket walks into the terminal to wait for the subway.  Charlee pointing at her yells, "Mom, look, a witch!  Ahhh, I scared."  (all as she dramatically shivers) Luckily, I don't think the lady spoke English or really heard her, as we would have been mortified!

The second was in the Borghese gallery.  The Borghese gallery is one of the most famous museums in Italy.  We knew very little about it, but the owners of our bed-and-breakfast offered to book us a tour, so we said sure.  A beautiful museum, but as soon as we arrived, we knew we needed a plan.  First off, we explained to Hailee how women and men's bodies would be shown in Italian art.  She was very mature about it I might add!. Then when we got in the museum, Bill took Hailee so they could talk about the pieces and read about them, while I took Charlee and we played a whisper game.  I would tell her to find the dog or the baby, and she loved it.  She actually was pretty amazed with the ceilings on her own.  Here's the awkward, well actually hilarious part.  Charlee didn't get the same conversation about what she might see.  So when she saw the naked women, she said "Mommy, she take a shower."  Now, when she saw the man, she pointed at him, covered her mouth and giggled.  I asked her what was funny, her response- "Mommy, he pooped."  We were all laughing so hard we were nearly in tears!!

By the way, we got several compliments from other's in the museum about how well behaved our girls were.  Little did they know ;)

Public Restrooms in Italy

I guess I'm spoiled coming from the states, okay, I know I am in many regards!

But one thing I don't understand in  Italy is public restrooms.  First of all, they are few and far between.  You may recall that Charlee is only 2 and hasn't been potty-trained for long.  For those non-parents reading this post, this means when she has to go, she has to go now! However, you first have to look for a bar (p.s. not an American bar, more like a restaurant), and then hope they'll let you use the restroom.  Oh, and ask for a toilet not a restroom, as restroom is not a word many use outside of the states. 

Here's the kicker, many of them use it for business.  They know they are the only place around with a public restroom, and will make you buy something in order to use the restroom.  We've had a few that have made an exception for our cute smiling girls, but not many.  One in fact, wanted me to buy something first, until I got angry and even though he didn't understand English, I think he understood this mom was not happy! 

Here's the real kicker- we have PAID to use the restroom twice now!  Yes, I guess there truly is a first time for everything.  At the food court at one of the terminals, we rushed into the bathroom only to run into a man standing there with a cash register!  I was sure I must of went down the wrong hallway, but nope, it was his job to collect 0.50 E from anyone who wished to enter.  You could be reimbursed if you bought food, or if you had already bought food you could use your receipt for entry, but it was all still pretty crazy.  The same was true at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, except no reimbursement.  Kindly though, they let kids pee for free :)

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I plan to do most of the blogging about our trip after the new year when we arrive back in Jordan and I can go through our pictures, but since Charlee is down for a nap, I have some time to do a couple short ones.

While our car (which we're still making payments on  I might add!) sits back in the states, the Nelsons have mastered the art of public transportation!

Since we've left Jordan, we've taken public transportation in the form of  a plane, taxis, the metro, the bus, and trains.  We didn't bring a stroller with us ( the Chariot is too big for trips like this and Charlee is not much up for riding in umbrella strollers anymore), so this was all with two kids in tow.  Sometimes it was difficult, especially when we went to Florence and also had a suitcase to take on the metro and then on to the train.  We handled it like pros though, once we figured out how everything works and received some help from a few kind strangers who helped us understand the foreign language printed on our tickets. 

The girls are becoming really great travellers!  We try to make sure we always have the ipad with movies for long trips (neither of the girls like to sleep very much during travel), snacks, books, and of course toys.  Oh, and we mustn't forget the new American girl dolls Santa brought.  They seem to really enjoy the metro and train, and our 8 year old and 2 year old are great at waving down taxis!

Those of you that know me well, know that I love movies and always relate things to movies.  Here are a few that came up during our travels-

-I thought of Home Alone several times.  In the airport, and then again when we got off of the train from Florence back to Rome and Hailee ran back on the train to get something she had forgotten.  The train was continuing on from Rome and I was sure she was going to end up in another city!
-On the Polar Express the conductor (Tom Hanks) walks around with his hole punch and punches the tickets, and when one of the kid loses their ticket, he escorts them off the train.  I didn't know they really did this! (the hole-punching tickets not escorting off the train)  When we got on the train, no one checked our tickets until halfway tthrough the trip.  I thought this was crazy, but I guess it works.  Anyway, as much stuff as we were lugging around I was sure we were going to misplace our ticket, which of course means you'll be thrown off the train!!  Okay, okay, I knew we wouldn't be thrown off the train, but I kept that ticket in my sight just in case ;)


Can't forget the horse-drawn carriage on Christmas Eve!  More on that later...



Today's the day! Italy here we come!!

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring not even a mouse,
the stockings were packed in the suitcase with care,
in hopes that the Italy trip soon would be here!

I set my alarm for 7 am today.  Our airport pick-up time is 8:15.  It's a quarter to 6, and I'm up.  I tried to go back to sleep, but no luck. Far too much excitement!!

In less than 12 hours, we will be in Rome!! When I began this international teacher search, Bill and I decided that if I got the job, we would travel to Italy for our 10 year anniversary (Dec. 29th).   Back then it seemed like nothing more than a dream.  That dream has now become a reality! Chase your dreams friends, they really can come true!!

We've never spent Christmas in a Bed and Breakfast/hotel, so packing's been interesting.  We aren't taking much as far as gifts, but we have Chucke (our Elf), the Christmas movies for evenings back in the room, and our stockings.  The owners of our bed and breakfast have thought of everything, and they made us reservations for a Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas lunch-- Italian style. Breaking tradition this year, and eating spaghetti for our Christmas meal. I'm sure the girls won't mind one bit :)

We will be in Rome until the 26th, then off to Florence for 3 days (so we can take Hailee to see the leaning tower of Piza), and then back to Rome from the 29th to the 2nd of January. 

It's still a little early to say, but I think this might be our best Christmas break yet!

Christmas in Amman

 

We have been pleasantly surprised with the Christmas spirit seen throughout Amman!   We knew we were moving to a (mostly) Muslim country, and so we weren't expecting a whole lot of holiday cheer. Which is why we have been so impressed and thrilled with all we've seen!  We are told there is much more this year than years previous, which leads me to believe that someone knew the Nelsons were coming  ;-)










Here are a few Christmas season highlights-

-Holiday decorations in most of the stores we frequently visit- Christmas trees, lights, Santa figurines, etc. More and more as each week passes! We even saw some lights when we were walking home one night. 
-We've attended many holiday bazaars, which are like craft fairs back home.  Some were rather small and disappointing, but some were fantastic!  Our favorite was hosted by the Orthodox Club and was amazing.  We walked into a decorated gym filled with Christmas spirit from the various items for sale, to the real-live snow globe (which the girls adored), to the nativity scene and Christmas music filling the gym.

- We visited Santa at one of the bazaars and he was well... different, lol. I mean it was a great effort and we truly appreciated it, but he was wearing Nikes, his beard was falling off and his hair covered his eyes, he was skinny.. and instead of elves, he had Hello Kitty by his side! He loved the girls though, and since there weren't many kids, they got to spend much longer with him than previous year's Santa visits.  A great memory that we will surely laugh about for years to come!


-We weren't expecting it, but the girls had another Santa visit!!  We walked into Taj Mall, and to our amazement we found an AMAZING Santa display!  I have never seen such an elaborate Santa display, so we were quite thrilled.  It was by far the best we've seen (but the best Santa award still goes to Santa at The North Pole theme park in Colorado Springs).  The stairs in the picture are part of the display, and the elf was wearing a costume like the elves in The Christmas Story :)  That day we also got to color Christmas cards in the middle of the mall.

- At work we are doing Secret Santa!! Yay!!  I've done Secret Santa every year as a teacher, so I am thrilled I get to continue the tradition. We also have a beautiful Christmas tree.  I love the little things. Little things that make a big difference, and make me smile :)


We've really enjoyed the Christmas season, and the best is yet to come! Only 4 days left of work, and we are off to Italy for 10 days to celebrate Christmas, New Year's, and our 10 year anniversary!  The Christmas season is always great, but instead of shopping endlessly to find all the perfect gifts, this year we are giving each other the gift of travel, and more importantly the gift of time.  The girls are only getting gifts from Santa this year, and a few from family members.  Their gift from mommy and daddy is our trip and time together as a family and turns out, they don't mind one bit.  When we told Hailee, she was getting a trip to Italy with her family, instead of gifts, her response was, "Can we see the leaning tower of Pisa?" 

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!  We love and miss you all!!

 

 

Start to our Holiday Season in Amman

The holiday season is off to a great start here in Amman! Those of you that know me know that I absolutely love this time of year!  This year, I seem to be even more obsessed with all things Christmas. I have to stop and look in every store that has Christmas items and displays (likely because I wasn't expecting them).  I've been playing Christmas music for over a week now, and we cheated and started watching Christmas movies the week before Thanksgiving ;-)


Chucke joined us after Thanksgiving.  Chucke is our elf on the shelf. Yes, I know his name is kind of creepy, but Hailee named him (the spelling is her's as well) when she was in Kinder. He brought the girls a north pole breakfast complete with hot chocolate, donuts, and of course lots of candy. We enjoyed our north pole breakfast while watching Elf, another great new holiday tradition.

Yesterday, we had friends over to watch a Christmas movie and make salt dough ornaments.  I made a yummy ham and potato soup (here's the recipe-- ham and potato soup). It was delicious (although the husband still prefers cheeseburger soup).   We also enjoyed Cadbury hot chocolate with marshmallows  (yep Cadbury-- which beats the pants off Nestle!). It was such a fun afternoon!

Afterwards, we went to church for the first time since we've been to Amman. It was amazing!!  I'm embarrased to say I had forgotten how amazing it is to feel God's presence.  I am excited to go back next week!!

Oh.. although not holiday related, a couple exciting things have happened with Charlee that have made life much easier around here! Charlee is now potty-trained!! Diapers are only needed for bedtime :)  Also, she is back to going to sleep by herself in her own bed. Such a big deal, and has made evenings so much nicer.

Lastly, we have to brag on Hailee a bit.  She got a level 7 on her math test this week, which is the highest you can get! She got a perfect score!!  We are so proud of her.  She's really working hard, and is becoming so responsible with her studies.

That's all for now... Happy Holidays!!



1st Thanksgiving in Amman

Thanksgiving was well, amazing!! 

Of course, Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here in Amman, so we worked on Thursday. Thursday we started a new family tradition, and huddled around the computer to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We enjoyed it.. well, except for when the giant goldfish balloon came on the screen.  Charlee cried for about 10 minutes because she wanted goldfish!  When we head home this summer we are taking nearly empty suitcases, that way we have room to bring important things back with us-- you know, like goldfish ;)  I am devoting one whole suitcase to Costco!! 

Anyhow, back to Thanksgiving. Our neighbor across the hall and colleague Christine, put together an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.  I mean, amazing!!  We got a menu ahead of time, so I was drooling for a week!  Christine is an amazing host, and worked so hard to put together an amazing Thanksgiving. Thank you Christine!

My job was pumpkin pie, but since we couldn't find frozen pie crust, I didn't have a pie pan.  Solution--mini pumpkin pies in a muffin pan!  A fun little dessert that the girls and I enjoyed making together.  Looking forward to next year! 

Oh, and to finish off the night we put up a tree!  Yay!!  Bill found us a tree-- actually Christmas decorations here aren't too hard to find, much to our surprise. So in Nelson family tradition, we decorated the tree and watched National Lampoon's Christmas vacation <3  A great start to the holiday season. 

Hope everyone had an amazing turkey day!  We all have so much to be thankful for!!

appetizers



(part of) the IAA family

Just look at all the amazing food!

our wonderful host

Charlee and Carrie

Hailee and Carrie

Charlee and Sheena

Natasha and Hailee

Christmas tree time!

So thankful for our cute little Charlie Brown tree <3

My glass is half full!

I've been pretty upbeat and positive on the blog (and in life), while on this quite amazing journey. That is not to say that there are no frustrating moments or difficult days. I just choose to look at my glass as half full. Actually, in reality, it's more than half full. This is our year!  We have been afforded many amazing opportunities because of this journey, and that is where the focus must remain.  The days are few, but there are those days when one has trouble moving past a deep longing for a sense of  "normalcy" that one can only find at home.  BUT, Jordan is our 2nd home.  It is home now for us, for at least 2 years (and I'm quite happy with that I might add!).  Today, I must remind myself of that and focus on all the good that it entails.. and I mustn't forget it's only a short time until we will get to spend time with family and friends in our "1st home", America!

I've always been a person that loves quotes.  Anytime I'm going through something, I always search to find inspirational quotes. Here are a few worth sharing-

The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude.  ~Dennis S. Brown

 Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.  ~Voltaire
 
So what am I finding particularly frustrating right now?  Nothing and everything.. if you know what I mean. I don't know if it's because it's the holidays, the normal ups/downs of being away from home, the (sometimes inaccurate) chaos that the news medias like to shove down our throats in every avenue possible, the fact that I can't jump in my car and go wherever it is I want to go.. really, who knows?!?  What I do know is since I can't even seem to pinpoint what has caused this (temporary) down, I must move through it. Time to moveon.com

These are the best times to keep a positive focus-
I have an amazing support system-- right here in Jordan!
We get to travel the world!  Rome is next, only 5 short weeks!!
The Jordanian community has been fantastic and welcoming.
I work with some pretty amazing people, and have quickly formed bonds with many of them.
We will have our first visitor! My auntie is coming!
 I am blessed to have a job, doing exactly what I love.
Did I mention my auntie is coming? ;-)

This list really could go on and on, and for that very reason this blog post has done exactly what I was hoping for, lifted my spirits.   I have way too much to be thankful for, time to climb back up!

This is me.  Being real. The only way I know to be.

More posts on the fun stuff... coming your way soon!!  Inshallah ;)

Halloweens past and present

For the last few years, our home in Eagle was "base" for friends who joined us for trick-or-treating. We would cook hot soups-- my favorite was always Tiff's cheeseburger soup, which I have now mastered and shared here in Amman.  We then of course took lots of pictures of our kiddos, and headed out to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood.  We lived in one of the best neighborhoods to trick-or-treat! Kids filled the streets, houses were decorated, and the kiddos came home with enough candy to last them until Christmas.

I loved Halloween. I mean, I could do without some aspects (eventhough I don't buy into the nonsense about the so called 'meaning').  What I love is the gathering of friends, kids in costumes letting their imaginations run wild, laughter filling the streets, and who doesn't love candy? Ha!  Don't pretend like your kids eat it all themselves!!

Although, I miss our traditions, it's always fun to start new ones. This year, my boss (who lives in our building and is a fantastic person!) took us over to the Brit Club (@ the British Embassy).  I guess first I should mention that prior to Halloween, Hailee had a book character day at school, right before the Eid holiday.  She was supposed to dress up as her favorite book character, so she picked Hermoine from Harry Potter.  When, I showed up at work that day, what I saw was Halloween. Call it what you want, but primary students were dressed up in costumes, I guess you could say that all those characters were in a book somewhere, but honestly, it didn't look much different than the Halloween parades I watched at Red Hill Elementary.  It was fan-tas-tic!!

Back to Halloween night. So, Martin (my boss) took us over to the Brit club.  They were hosting a Halloween party for kids- games, candy, dancing.. the girls had a great time.  The games included pin the eyes on the skeleton, bobbing for apples, and doughnut on a string.  Now, those of you that know Hailee know that she is pretty competitive-- seems to be a Nelson family gene! This competiveness and desire to always push herself applies to most areas of her life including of course, bobbing for apples.  I actually stopped her twice to see if she was okay because she was soaking wet and sucking air, but she was determined to get all of those apples! She didn't stop until she got them all- 6 in total, I believe. The doughnut game was quite comical as you can see from the pictures.  We literally could not stop laughing :)


Charlee was not much into the games, settling on only one. When we first arrived, she headed straight fort the pool because what better way to celebrate Halloween then going for a swim? She enjoyed playing in the play area and soccer field until she heard music, and then she and her sister danced the night away! Oh, and I must mention that Charlee picked out her costume. I was happy she picked out items that totaled less that 5 JD, because the Halloween costumes we looked at at Hamley's were upwards of 50 JD. She spent the night saying, "Argghhh, pirate!" Next time you see Charlee, you must ask her what a pirate says for a good laugh!

The girls had a fun-filled night. We feel fortunate to work with people who are so welcoming and who are so willing to extend so much of themselves to help ensure we are able to settle into our new life as expats. Thank you. 

Eid in Dubai

Sooooooo.. Dubai was AMAZING!!

We went during the Eid holiday, so it was super busy, but it was worth it!  The trip was a last minute booking through a travel agent. Probably the worst part of the trip was the fact that our flights both to and from Dubai were at 8 am, so we were up with the birds.  The girls did really well though, and it was nice to arrive with time to get out and check out the city.

First off, our hotel was amazing!  Those of you that have traveled with my husband, you know he is a Motel 6 kind of guy ;-)  His motto is "all I need is a bed".  I prefer a little more, so I've been able to talk him into hotels more like The Holiday Inn.  What that means is we usually stay in 3 star at best, and that's perfectly fine with us. This hotel our travel agent booked, however, was a 5 star hotel!! We were like The Clampetts from Beverly Hillbillies!  We probably won't stay in such an elegant hotel again, at least not anytime soon, but it sure was fun while it lasted.  It was crazy to have so many smiling faces ready to do anything and EVERYTHING for us (take our bags, fold up the stroller, open the taxi, bring us bottled water, you name it.. they would do it!). The hotel was on a beautiful harbor and their was lots of grass! Living in the desert, let me tell you- we truly appreciate green and grass! The girls sure enjoyed it :)
Most of our time was spent at malls.   That's because everything is in the malls!  I've never seen such large malls in my life.  Seriously in the malls- 1,200+ stores, 160 restaurants, aquarium, ice rink, ski resort with lifts, theme parks.. unbelievable! They were definitely packed for the Eid holiday and for this reason they were open for 24 hours for the holiday! It seems Dubai is a very popular travel destination for Brits.   We're thinking we saw as many Brits as we did Arabs.  A few that we talked to told it was for the shopping (Dubai is referred to as the shopping capital of the world and we sure do believe it) and the weather. During this time of year the Dubai weather is great. It's still pretty warm, but during the summer we're told the temperatures are unbearable. 
Mall of Emirates is near Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world.  It really is quite amazing, as are many of the buildings in Dubai. We watched a water show in front of the building and it really was quite amazing.  It's one of those surreal moments, as until now traveling to places like this, standing in front of the world's tallest building, these were all beyond our imagination.

Our last day in Dubai was spent at The Palm/Atlantis resort. A fun water park and yes, another aquarium.  The water park was amazing! Our favorite part was the lazy river, which had some really fun rapids. It was probably a 2k lap around the park, and we were able to ride double tubes with the girls.  They had so much fun and laughed every time we went through the rapids. Bill also went on the craziest water slide ever! It was so high, and sends you through a tunnel surround by sharks!


4 days flew by- but we brought home many memories! Cheers Dubai, we'll be seeing you again soon!