Amman year 2

We are back in Amman for our second year! We are still battling jetlag, despite our attempts to not nap, etc. Thought we had it figured out for year 2.  Ummm, wrong. Charlee and I seem to be doing the worst.  We both woke up around 2:30am (5:30 pm Colorado time)-yikes!  I go back to work day after tomorrow, so hopefully we figure it out before then.  Hailee and I got out for a short run early this morning, but that was about all my body could handle.  I fell asleep after breakfast, as did Charlee, which made perfect sense.  After all, it was 11pm in Colorado and our bodies said it was time to sleep!  I slept for an hour and woke Charlee up after two hours, but I for one and am still super exhausted.  Thank goodness we gave ourselves a few days to try and recover.
 

Other than the jetlag, year 2 is off to a good start. One of our new colleagues moved in across the hall, and we've really enjoyed their company thus far.  They have a daughter just about 1/2 a year younger than Charlee, and they've hit it off really well. Today is day 3 of playing together and Charlee is so thrilled to have a friend just across the hall.  One of Hailee's BFFs from England is back in Jordan as well, and coming over tomorrow, so she's pretty excited too.

It's going to be a busy year for the Nelsons!  Bill and I are both taking classes that will begin in the next couple weeks.  We are also excited to be welcoming our first visitor this year- our dear friend, Annette! She's going to have an amazing year traveling around the world, and we are excited  she's making a stop in Amman in December. If you like reading blogs, be sure to follow her amazing journey http://annettefulloffish.wordpress.com.  Others are throwing around the idea of visiting us, and we definitely welcome any friends and family to come and stay as long as you'd like :)

As far as traveling this year, with school and doing some saving, we won't be doing quite as much traveling this year, but will definitely get in a few trips.  After all, we can't seem to keep our feet planted for long ;-)


 

April Update

Well, it's been over 2 months since I've updated the blog! Sorry friends! I have to admit, I'm not very motivated to get on the computer after work, and we've been pretty busy on the weekends. 

We've just started our spring break (it lines up with the Greek Orthodox Easter).  We've rented a car for the break, and we leave tomorrow to explore Jordan.  We will be at the beach for two days on the Red Sea in Aqaba, then camping in the desert in Wadi Rum for two days, and then finally on to see Petra!

So, what have we been up to since the last blog post?

During the Feb. break, we went to Jerusalem with a couple colleagues/close friends, Eileen and Regina. 

AMAZING! It's impossible to describe experiences such as visiting Christ's tomb, his place of birth in Bethlehem, and climbing Mt. Olives to watch the sunset, to name just a few.  Visiting Jerusalem truly was an unforgettable experience. One of those places you keep asking yourself, am I really here?  We will definitely be back before we leave Jordan, hopefully with some of you! Another must see- the wall that separates Palestine and Israel, and the signs that accompany the zones.  Reading about it, seeing biased news reports, nothing can substitute.  One must see it, and I'll leave it at that.



















Bill and I also competed in Dead to Red.  A 242 km relay race from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea.  I ran on a team of 10.  We ran through the night and finished the next day in 18:29! Shattering our goal!!! (excuse me, I get incredibly excited every time I think about how amazing my team did, especially towards the end when we were exhausted but pushed through).  The Dead to Red is another one of our unforgettable experiences in Jordan. This race is definitely one of the most challenging, but most memorable and rewarding races I have ever participated in.  Bill competed with a team of 5 cyclists.  His team did well, finishing in 3rd place!  I hope to run it again next year, and Bill plans to compete as a solo cyclist.  I know he will do well and look forward to cheering him across the finish line again next year. 

I also had an amazing birthday party, shared with my lovely friend, Sheena.  We were surrounded with great friends and the food and atmosphere were fantastic!


We also hosted an Easter BBQ with the boss man on the rooftop.  The kids had a fun time hunting for eggs, and we again enjoyed great company and good food. 



When we get back from break, we only have 7 weeks until the school year is done and we fly home! It will be a busy time, and I 'm sure time will fly. Other than work, I will be racing a 10k in Wadi Rum, that is likely to be very tough (think deep sand and then think running in it).  We will also take a trip to the Dead Sea as we've seen it, but not been in it yet, and Hailee's been begging for the experience. 

That's all for now! See you all soon :)

6 months.. the adventure continues

It's crazy to think we've been here for 6 months already! Only 4 more until we get to travel home to the states. We turned in our dates of travel this week, and couldn't be more excited to see all our friends and family!

We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy.  Bill has made some great friends and has done several rides at/to the Dead Sea. In fact, it's almost 7pm here now, and he's just left for a ride at the Dead Sea.  He's really enjoying it and I couldn't be happier for him. Hailee's becoming quite the young lady. She's done with her first semester and we are very proud of her marks. Her Arabic is getting pretty good too!  In fact, she translated to a cab driver for us last week ;)  She's had a bit of a struggle learning to deal with a class 'bully', but she is becoming a stronger and more confident person because of it.  Mean kids are everywhere, and she's learning to stand up for herself while staying true to herself. Our baby girl is growing up! Charlee is Charlee, lol! She's still just as wild as ever.  Everyone loves Charlee and she's pretty well-known in our neighborhood, lol. Daddy and Charlee have lots of fun exploring during the week, but we do want to give her a chance to play with some kids her age. We are planning to look into getting her into a preschool a couple days a week. As for me, I'm just as busy as ever.  The life of  a school teacher.  Working hard to help establish a strong learning support department at the school.  It is both rewarding and challenging.  I'm also very committed to my fitness at the moment, and doing loads of personal training and running. On that note, Bill and I are both training for the Dead to Red Relay.  He is on a biking team and I'm on a running team. Our relays will cover over 250 km, traveling from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. Competing for a full day (we start at 4 pm and will finish sometime the next afternoon) will be exhausting, but the experience of a lifetime! Can't wait :)

We feel so fortunate to have done so much since we've been here--both in and out of the country. We definitely have the travel bug and have been fortunate to visit Dubai, Rome/Pisa/Florence, as well as some of the amazing sites here in Jordan. We are also incredibly excited about our upcoming trip. 2 more days of work and then a week break.  We are off with a couple friends/colleagues to Jerusalem and Bethlehem!!! Sometimes, I still feel like I'm living in a dream.  Visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem is bigger than my dreams.  Prior to becoming an international teacher, seeing Jerusalem and Bethlehem was so far from being 'realistic', it was not something that I even dreamed of doing.  Now, in 5 days time we will be walking on the same ground as our lord and savior and visiting the place of his birth.  There are no words to describe how incredibly blessed we feel!!

More updates on our next adventure soon!!  

Visiting Jerash

Today we visited the ancient city of Jerash.  I've been before on a field trip, but didn't get to do much exploring and Bill and the kids hadn't been yet.  It's only about 45 minutes from our flat and we really wanted to get out and check out some of Jordan's sites over our 4 day weekend!

We got up early hoping to make the chariot races at 10, but apparently they aren't doing them again until Feb.  We will have to plan a return trip to see them! 

One of my favorite things about our girls is they don't complain about having to hike around and look at ancient ruins. We always have a map or guide to look at, so Hai enjoys telling us what everything is and which direction we should go next.  Charlee, well, she just likes running around and climbing on all the rocks :)  This earned her a goose egg on her forehead after a fall today, but it only slowed her down for a few minutes.  Whenever we enter the ruins, Charlee gets really excited and tells us it's a castle! Hai joins in and it's fun to watch their imaginations run wild. 

Because of my attempts to eat healthy, we just happened to have carrots in our bag when we saw a local with his horse, so he gave the girls a free ride.  We of course tipped him.  When we were in the south stadium, we ran into some locals playing drums and a bagpipe.  Because we were Americans, they played us Yankee Doodle ;)  They even let Charlee beat on the drum. Afterwards, a guy followed us around for a bit telling us where he should take our picture.  We knew he would want a tip, but that's okay, we enjoyed getting some family pics. 

Here are a few pics from the day...

 

Snow days in Amman

So we've had 4 days off work and probably a week's worth of delays so far because of winter weather. We're not complaining! It was nice to get a vacation immediately following our vacation ;)

Winter weather is much different here-- nearly everything shuts down. We spent much of the time indoors, but when the real snow came we of course got out and enjoyed it! Note to self-- bring cold weather gear back with us next trip home!

 

 

 

 

 

Hailee is 9!!

Can't believe our baby girl is 9! We had a great time celebrating!  The morning started with waking her up with a happy birthday song, followed by a #9 pancake. Then it was off to school. 

After school we had a small party at the apartment. Hailee invited her best friend, here in Amman Juweirya (sp?) and her neighbor friend, Donna. We also had some of the friends from work she's made a connection with over, and of course our awesome landlord.

We had spaghetti, her favorite, and cupcakes and ice cream.  Then the presents.. which we were so excited to give her! Hai's 'big gift' was a folded piece of paper inside a purse.  She's always wanted to go to New York, so her gift is we are stopping there on our way home in June! She was ecstatic. In addition to the sites, we are hoping to maybe see a Broadway play and of course take her to American Girl :)  The girl's got the travel gene, so she loved her gift. More memories to be made!