So you know you are living in a desert when:
Everyone's favorite season is winter. We do conversation test with students and one question we ask is what their favorite season is. So of all the students I've asked almost without fail the favorite season is winter. Having experienced the heat of only the end of summer I have some idea why winter is favored.
You can now distinguish and appreciate at least five shades of brown.
You've forgotten how to use a clothes dryer. Who needs one when the air around is about as efficient a dryer.
Road trips go much faster. It seems I can drink gallons and not need a "potty break".
More homes have water coolers than water heaters.
Weathermen can't begin a sentence without saying, "Mostly sunny".
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Clarification
To clarify on the last comment on my soccer post. The Blue Knights would have easily taken the group I was playing with. Some questions had arose from this so just wanted to clarify. Don't want to be thought of as downing my team.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Soccer
This weekend I played soccer with some guys here in Jordan. A coworker of mine plays each Friday and so I and some others from work joined him and some of his friends. Unfortunately grass is a scarce commodity in Jordan and so our field was a basketball court with rock piles for goals.
Myself and some other Americans were wondering if we were about to be demolished as we drove out to play. But as it turned out although many here have a passion for soccer it does not necessarily equate to having talent at soccer. It was about the mix you'd expect anywhere. A few guys really good, a few really bad, rest somewhere in between. For those of you familiar with the Blue Knights, well we would have taken them easily.
Myself and some other Americans were wondering if we were about to be demolished as we drove out to play. But as it turned out although many here have a passion for soccer it does not necessarily equate to having talent at soccer. It was about the mix you'd expect anywhere. A few guys really good, a few really bad, rest somewhere in between. For those of you familiar with the Blue Knights, well we would have taken them easily.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Picnics and Rain
Thankfully these two happened on different days for me this weekend. Together they wouldn't have been so nice. But apart they made for a nice weekend.
Friday afternoon we packed up the car and headed up to the "mountains." I use quotations because after arriving I realized the "mountains" wouldn't exactly earn that title in a New Mexico or Colorado. But all the same it was a nice change of scenery (I will post some pics) with a bit more greenery and especially nice change of temp as it was refreshingly cool in the mountains. And apparently a Friday afternoon picnic is the thing to do in Jordan. As we drove along most any roadside spot with a bit of shade had a family gathered around picnic-ing. Much of our food was pretty standard stuff; sandwiches, Pringles, Pepsi. But we also had some hummus, a pomelo (combo of grapefruit and orange), and some dates which were great.
It was the next afternoon, on Saturday, that the rain came in. With our windows open we could hear the growing creshindo as the rain crashed down on the stone buildings and then a breeze of air carrying that wonderful dusty yet fresh smell. Windows began opening and heads popping out from balconies as the rain came in and then before long a block party was underway as kids gathered outside dancing, laughing, and playing with the rain continuing to come down. It was really neat to see a true sense of celebration at the arrival of rain.
Friday afternoon we packed up the car and headed up to the "mountains." I use quotations because after arriving I realized the "mountains" wouldn't exactly earn that title in a New Mexico or Colorado. But all the same it was a nice change of scenery (I will post some pics) with a bit more greenery and especially nice change of temp as it was refreshingly cool in the mountains. And apparently a Friday afternoon picnic is the thing to do in Jordan. As we drove along most any roadside spot with a bit of shade had a family gathered around picnic-ing. Much of our food was pretty standard stuff; sandwiches, Pringles, Pepsi. But we also had some hummus, a pomelo (combo of grapefruit and orange), and some dates which were great.
It was the next afternoon, on Saturday, that the rain came in. With our windows open we could hear the growing creshindo as the rain crashed down on the stone buildings and then a breeze of air carrying that wonderful dusty yet fresh smell. Windows began opening and heads popping out from balconies as the rain came in and then before long a block party was underway as kids gathered outside dancing, laughing, and playing with the rain continuing to come down. It was really neat to see a true sense of celebration at the arrival of rain.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Black Gold! ?
Voting is closed and the results are in! If this were final Jeporady many of you would be heading home sad. 91% of you overestimated the amount of oil in the sands of Jordan. To the 3 of you who chose correctly well done! Yes the answer was 0. Jordan does not have oil as a natural resource. It is smack dab in the middle of the Middle East but must import all its oil.
And extra credit to our friend Jason Irish. I will let his response speak for itself:
And extra credit to our friend Jason Irish. I will let his response speak for itself:
Ok I think you're starting this Blog out w/ a trick question.....are we talking about Crude Oil or Olive Oil? If it's crude oil, Jordan is only an importer as far as I've read. As far as Olive Oil, they produce quite a bit, albeit not nearly on the scale of Spain, Italy, & Greece, the top 3 worldwide in that order according to most figures!
That's my final answer!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)