Our car isn’t here yet. Every day this bugs us because we live in a somewhat pedestrian unfriendly neighborhood and we aren’t supposed to walk to work. IF we were to walk to work it would take 15 minutes but sidewalks aren’t always available; there are often trees in the middle of the sidewalk; and cars aren’t looking for pedestrians. I think this is actually one of the down-sides to living in a posh neighborhood – it is not designed for walking around.
I like this website Walk Score which evaluates addresses based on how pedestrian-friendly they are. Naturally our Dupont Circle house which shares a back yard with a gym, bar and restaurant scores well; Megan’s Arlington house scores pretty well – but my parents house at the beach scores surprisingly low. I think this is because while there are some things on the island (coffee shops, book store, restaurants) some things are quite far away. I think our Jordan apartment would get an Arlington-like score (or maybe a little less) – we are very close to small grocers, a few restaurants and two English language bookstores. There actually is even a movie theatre within ¾ of a mile but it only shows Arabic movies – so we have to take a cab to get to the movies.
Cabs are really cheap here and plentiful. We dread them mostly because we don’t want to talk politics with the cab drivers. I would say ¾ of our trips in cabs have this bi-lingual dialogue (Arabic in red)
We: Good morning. How are you?
Cab driver: Good morning. Thanks be to God.
We: Our house is near the Housing Bank. Please go straight and then make a left at the circle. (Have we mentioned that they don’t really use street addresses here so everything is a description?)
Cab driver: Your Arabic is good.
We: No it isn’t but thank you.
Cab driver: Welcome to Jordan. Where are you from? (This sentence is sometimes in Arabic sometimes in English)
We: America but we really like Jordan.
Here there are two possible conversations:
#1
Cab driver: I like Americans. I don’t like George Bush. I like America. I am Palestinian. Why doesn’t America like Palestine?
We. (Awkward silence.) We really like Jordan – everyone is so nice here. (Continued awkward silence on our part for rest of trip. Optional monologue by cabdriver.)
#2
Cab driver: You work in the embassy? (We have either hailed a cab from outside the embassy or have asked to be taken there)
We: Yes.
Cab driver: More than anything I want to go to America. Can you get me a visa? (Sometimes they instead ask for work inside embassy.)
We: Have you tried applying? Have you visited the website – it explains what you need.
Cab driver: But you know people. I really want to go. I have 4 children and a wife.
We: How old are your children (hoping this description of family will last rest of cab trip.)
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2 comments:
Hopefully, you car will get there soon. Everyday, it sounds like an adventure. I am going to check my address on the Walk Score. I get 65 points out of 100 points. It looks pretty good. There are a lot of places to walk to less then a mile away from our home.
I liked the walk score website. Our neighborhood scored an 88 out of 100, which is not surprising. We specifically picked Rockridge as a place to live because its a good walking neighborhood - after living in NYC it was a must (our old neighborhood in Brooklyn scored even higher, 94 out of 100).
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