Blanket irony

Madaba, Jordan
Friday, November 30, 2012

One of the first things we did in Mongolia was to rush out and buy lots of warm blankets. The apartments in Ulaanbaatar were so overheated, however, that we ended up using all those blankets approximately once. Imagine my surprise, then, when I realized that we were going to need heavy, thick blankets to stay warm here in Jordan during the winter. Finally, a colleague took me blanket shopping yesterday evening. I think we are ready for winter!  

She misses Windows 7

Madaba, Jordan
Saturday, November 24, 2012

This morning A and I did a little painting. When I looked over to see what A was doing, I thought she was painting the four seasons. "Nope," she said, "I am painting the computer flag. I miss it."

Frank recently "upgraded" us to Windows 8. Turns out that I am not the only one who misses the old format.

It's amazing what kids notice...

Blast from the past

Madaba, Jordan
Saturday, November 24, 2012

Several weeks ago we were wandering in downtown Amman when we happened on a street seller demonstrating a cheap imitation of a spirograph. For 1 JOD I bought the thing and brought it home to A. This morning she designed a garden and added fruit to the trees.

 As a kid, I loved that spirograph...

Grandma's rolls, the Jordanian version

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, November 22, 2012

Today was a work day here in Jordan, of course, but we still had time to gather for a Thanksgiving potluck after work. The school provided the turkey, and we teachers made all the trimmings. At first it seemed that my locally purchased yeast (from Russia?) was not going to do the job, but with a little extra rising time, Gram's recipe pulled through!

Here's the recipe...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking by the numbers

Madaba, Jordan
Friday, November 16, 2012

Events in Jordan over the past few days gave us more time at home than expected so we did some baking. Some of my students joined us and things got quite creative...

Hashem's at last!

Amman, Jordan
Saturday, November 10, 2012

Hashem's at last! I ate at this icon of Amman "street food" dining three months ago when we first arrived, but Frank didn't get to try it out until today: falafel, hummous, foule, pita bread and sweet mint tea. Lovely food! And a bargain, too.

We'll be back!

Halloween, one week late

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, November 8, 2012

With all the students back from Eid break, it was time at last to celebrate Halloween. It was a campus filled with ghoulies and ghosties and glowing pumpkins...

And the weather was cool enough to make it feel like Halloween for sure--even this far from home.