Movie Recommendation: Lives of Others

As mentioned, we are now living in a hotel partially selected because it is a block from a movie theater. Yesterday, we saw and LOVED (or loved as much as one can love the East German secret police) "The Lives of Others."

It won best foreign film and is great - fascinating story, interesting characters. Add it to your netflix list - it's not out yet but I imagine it will be out soon.

We are in Arlington!

Okay, so the goal of this blog is to keep everyone updated on our adventures and misadventures in Jordan but honestly, so far we have only made it 5 miles west and not 5924 miles east. (We are living in an Arlington hotel this week). Nevertheless, we have achieved some significant milestones:

1. The house is rented. Our 130-year-old house is now in the hands of a Dutch diplomat whom we hope will love it as we do. We also hope she will check the sump pump regularly as spelled out in the contract.

2. Our stuff is packed. This Thursday and Friday, three very nice men packed all 6300 pounds of our belongings. Some of it will go via air to Amman. More will go on a slow boat to Aqaba, but it should eventually arrive at our apartment. And the rest will go into a warehouse in Hagerstown, Maryland. God-willing, the dishes, books and clothes ship to Jordan while the vacuum cleaner, electric blanket and space-heaters stay in Maryland and not the other way around. The good news is, we've only used a third of our weight allowance, so we can start acquiring heavy wooden collectibles with abandon.

3. We have plane tickets. Dan heads out in ONE WEEK. Duffy will spend an additional three weeks in Arlington living with Megan and Justin and their 3 kids. Mikayla and goddaughter Isabelle think this is very funny. Duffy will head out at the end of June.

4. We have an apartment in Amman. An apartment has been rented for us by the embassy and paid for by nice taxpayers like you. Other nice taxpayers are also buying us electricity, gas and water. We must pay for our own satellite television in order to keep up with American Idol and so that we can watch Law & Order 24/7 just like the Constitution guarantees. Our place is in a neighborhood called Abdoun - close to the embassy and close to one of the Starbucks in Amman. We think the sheep are an added bonus.