It Had To End

How is it fair that a 15 minute visit to the dentist seems to stretch on for ever and ever while a two-week holiday is over before I can say "yay"?

Yep, I'm back. Back from Amman, and there you go I'm gonna say it now: YAY!
I'm trying hard not to succumb to the greediness of the human nature, which means you'll be spared any grumpiness as I go on about wishing it was longer and whining about it being over. Instead kindly sit back and allow me to relive those 14 amazing days back home...... the highlights of which were:


1. Getting my first taste of Amman the second my plane landed, from the Bluefig stand that I've grown to adore. It just isn't the same if I don't start my Ammani experience greeted by their cookies and latte. It isn't the best latte I've tasted, nor the chewiest cookie, but that's not the point at all. It's way beyond that. It's the taste of home... Try to beat that:)

2. Stepping in our house, our dear dear old house. By all standards, the house was FREEZING (it's been locked with no heating since the beginning of winter). Normally, I would've curled up in a corner, turned blue and shivered like a leaf, until someone felt sorry for me and threw me a blanket. Instead, my cheeks were red and flushed, my hands warmer than they've ever been, and my jacket and cardigan carelessly thrown on my bed. The excitement of being home had me all warm and fuzzy, it could've been -30 and I wouldn't have cared. It wasn't until hours later that I started to feel the cold (but once I did, MAN WAS IT COLD).

3. Finding a mountain of gifts from Dalia awaiting me on my bed. My instinct was to instantaneously and savagely unwrap them, that by the time it occurred to me to photograph the cute arrangement, they were all but unwrapped. Isn't getting gifts the best thing ever? I love you sis!

4. Breaking our previous Jenga record, without even knocking it down!! It stood like that all night- that's something.

5. A Chewy Gooey Evening of Chocolate Chip cookies with milk shared by my fellow chocoholics (sorryyyy sis, I swear I'll make it up to you! :D). Aah, Life Is Good.

6. Being one of the "Three crazy individuals mad enough to camp at Rum not only in February but specifically on the night with a horrible forecast". It was wet, it was muddy, it was positively freezing, but it was also RUM, which by default makes it mesmerizing.... At night, the clouds selfishly blocked the million stars I was so looking forward to seeing, but it was a full moon that night. It more than made up for it.


7. Consuming a bucket full of the best cinnamon flavored tea on the whole planet in Beit Ali camp in Rum. It was sweet and hot. The perfect companion during a freezing night in the desert and my solace as I lost terribly in Scrabble to Dalia. Jeez woman, can't you let me win every now and then?:P

8. Learning how to use chopsticks!! Finally!! I had all by lost hope in myself. Mind you, it's not that I didn't think chopsticks were useful (try poking people, or engaging in a mock sword fight- they are priceless!) but seriously, actually expecting me to pick up food with them wasn't exactly gonna happen. And yet it did! And I have my dear cousin Nasser to thank for that. A crash course during our dinner in Wox put me on the right track, followed by a Sushi dinner to make sure I got the hang of it. I feel so proud!

9. Eating a "Ferrero Rocher" flavored ice-cream at Gerard's. If happiness came in a cone people, it would be sold there. No question about that.

10. Morning run in Madina with Lina (no trace of Nasser) followed by homemade pancakes for breakfast (at which point Nasser miraculously and conveniently appeared:P)

11. Riding in Amman's multitude of Taxis. It isn't necessarily pleasant, but always interesting.
Seeing that I spent my four years of college in and out of taxis, you can understand why I'd be nostalgic. This visit, I road with the sweetest Taxi driver on the planet. The whole ride he was sharing with me his views on life and giving me advice that I think would come in handy at some point.

11. Overdosing on chocolate. I guess when you put three die hard chocolate lovers under the same roof, you're really asking for this:













(seen in different locations throughout the house)

If only if only chocolate was a vegetable, I'd be one heck of a devoted vegan.

So basically it was two weeks loaded with fun, laughs, good food and lots of kicking back.... which is just what I needed after months of chasing kids in hallways and playgrounds!

Riding on the bus on my way to the airport, I gazed out the window and thought: Damn, that's one dirty window!!!:P
hehehe not really (it is though, isn't it?).
I sat there and made a little prayer. I prayed to be back. Soon.