We do not live in a 100% Jordanian-centric world - in fact, by working in an American office and being married to each other are lives are very American. I have recently noticed the "averaging out" effect of American and Jordanian sense of time at events here in Amman.
If I have a one-on-one meeting with someone here I am prompt. By prompt I mean I arrive at the time scheduled (although I have been told serving in Switzerland or Austria will make one reassess their own natural promptness). When I arrive on-time, my Jordanian contact is available and expecting me - they know that a 10:00 appointment with an American happens at 10:00.
When I go to primarily Jordanian events, even business events, they never start on time but instead typically start 45-60 minutes late with no one at the event at its start time, and people in the hallway near the event smoking starting at 15 minutes late. Some Jordanian event invitations do note at what time an important minister (or non-King member of the Royal Family) will be making the opening remarks and indeed everyone is there by that time.
The timing of events is trickier when a gathering has a mix of American and Jordanians and it seems to me that the lateness sort of averages out with an event starting 20-30 minutes late but everyone there at the venue smoking at the start time.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Odd article in N Y Times on Jordan
This article was in the NYTimes yesterday. It seems like an advertisement for expatriates to come live in Jordan. It seemed a little weird to me - since it contained no news and wasn't really a travel article. In a testament to how small Amman is - we know one of the people quoted.
In Jordan, a Blend of Cultures
By JON GORVETT
AMMAN, Jordan
With Iraq to the east, Syria to the north, Israel to the west and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan is in the eye of the Middle Eastern storm. Despite its proximity to conflict, Amman, the capital, is a very peaceful place where people come to do business, leaving their disputes at the border.
“It’s a very livable city,” said Robert Pingeon, a New Yorker who moved to Amman in 2006 with his wife, Emily Lodge. Both work for an energy consultancy that has projects in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.
“The climate is wonderful,” Mr. Pingeon said. “It’s one of the highest cities in the Middle East, making it cooler during summer. It’s also a great place to get to other places — Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv — they’re all only a short distance away.”
Ms. Lodge, who is originally from Boston, agreed. “The beauty of the desert and the archaeological sites around here is exceptional,” she said. “There’s also a great generosity and openness about the people.” The city is close to archaeological destinations like the “rose-red city” of Petra and the well-preserved Roman compound of Jerash.
The couple own a 310-square-meter (3,337-square-foot) apartment, which also has a 60-square-meter (645-square-foot) penthouse one floor up. Its 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) terrace has a panoramic view of the city from three sides of the building. “It’s like the Fourth of July up here most nights,” Mr. Pingeon said, “as you can see fireworks going off all over Amman for weddings and celebrations.”
The apartment has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with an additional bedroom and bath in the penthouse.
The Jordanian capital spreads out across a series of hills. In the past few years many new buildings have increased the height of the skyline, although there are still very few skyscrapers in this city of around 1.2 million inhabitants.
At its core is the Citadel, which has a Roman temple and amphitheater, surrounded by Ottoman-era stone houses. Farther out, a series of numbered traffic circles are used to define neighborhoods. The city also has eastern and western districts, the latter being the more affluent.
The staff members of embassies, aid groups and international and nongovernment organizations own or rent much of Amman’s housing. With many neighboring countries considered unsafe or politically sensitive, Amman is the natural place for the United Nations, the Red Cross/Red Crescent and many other aid groups and international organizations to put their regional headquarters. The United States maintains one of its largest embassies here. In addition, Amman’s reputation as a safe haven is attracting many Palestinian, and now Iraqi, refugees.
Foreigners are allowed to buy property in Jordan if the internal security department gives permission, which generally is not difficult for Westerners to obtain. However, a law designed to discourage speculation prohibits resale for the first three years of ownership.
Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge’s apartment is close to the Fourth Circle and the Abdoun district of West Amman, which is popular among diplomats and expatriate executives as well as locals. (Other such areas include Jebal Amman and Dabouq.)
Residential sales prices in all areas of the city increased in the last few years. According to Nirvana Ilich, head of rentals for Abdoun Real Estate, a leading property agency, “a 200-square-meter apartment in Abdoun, which was selling for 500 Jordanian dinars a square meter two years ago, would now go for at least 1,000 dinars a square meter.” (A dollar is worth dinars.) A 2,152-square-foot apartment, which sold for $66.45 per square foot two years ago, would now sell for twice that amount. Apartments like Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge’s could sell for 500,000 dinars, or $710,732, she said.
“Rentals, too, have shot up,” Ms. Ilich added. “In fact, many foreigners are starting to buy here because the rentals are so high.” A 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) apartment she recently rented out near the American Embassy in Abdoun went for about $1,500 a month, she said. (Higher-end apartments are often priced in dollars.)
The blend of cultures has contributed greatly to the city’s artistic scene — something that was a help when Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge began decorating their apartment. In relying on local artists and designers, they created a home that combines a wide range of influences.
“In Amman, we are at a crossroads,” Ms. Lodge said. “We are in the Middle East, between the Mediterranean and Indian worlds, the African and Asian. This has been a meeting place of cultures since before the Bible.”
The apartment reflects that idea. In its large entrance hall, Fortuny silk lampshades from Italy cast light on Persian carpets. There are chairs made from wooden wheat threshers by a local Palestinian designer; there are Iraqi fabrics, Western color schemes and modernist furniture, all blending together.
There is a similar mix in the home of Adnan Habboo and Aysar Akrawi, an Iraqi-American couple who live in a 557-square meter (6,000-square-foot) apartment, also near the Fourth Circle, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
In their living room, a finely worked Hand of Fatima, a Muslim symbol, stands next to a statuette inscribed with sacred Jewish texts. In another corner is a Syrian painting of the Virgin and Child with the names of Muslim prophets inscribed in its corners.
“If someone asked me about moving to Amman, I’d say don’t hesitate,” Mr. Habboo said. “Don’t give it a moment’s thought. It’s a place that gives you a beautiful blend of tradition and more liberal cosmopolitanism.”
Mr. Habboo and Ms. Akrawi both grew up in Baghdad, leaving Iraq in 1974 and eventually moving to the United States, where they lived in Chicago and New York. Their daughter is still in New York, working for National Geographic magazine.
Both of them are staunch supporters of monarchy, the Jordanian form of government. “It gives the country an extra degree of political stability,” Mr. Habboo said, referring to King Abdullah, whose government is friendly to the West and to other Arab nations.
Most expatriates in Amman say fears about political stability and security in the Arab world seem very exaggerated when it comes to Jordan. “I actually think it’s very safe here,” said Barbara Porter, director of the American Center of Oriental Research, who has lived in the region for many years.
“As a woman too, I’ve felt totally accepted here from the beginning,” Ms. Porter said. “There are many women in positions of power in Jordan, too. I haven’t encountered any problems for being an American here either.”
Yet life in Amman isn’t without its difficulties. “All of Jordan has a problem with scarce water,” Mr. Habboo said. “Each district of the city has water piped in once a week, which you learn to live with, storing it for use on the other days.”
Sometimes the city can be a shade too tranquil. “The most common complaint about Amman from Westerners is that it’s dull,” Ms. Akrawi said. “They say it’s too quiet. I’d say that while Lebanon might be the Italy of the Middle East, Jordan is the Switzerland. Yet that is changing, too, and there are many more clubs and nightlife spots these days.”
Still, “as an American working with Arabs in the Arab world, it is a wonderful experience living here,” said Ms. Lodge, who is a granddaughter of the war-era United States ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. “Given its history and mix, it is a place with multiple layers of meaning, where people are respectful of different faiths. When you look at it closely, at the crossroads, you can see a common heritage reflected here, rather than a place of differences.”
In Jordan, a Blend of Cultures
By JON GORVETT
AMMAN, Jordan
With Iraq to the east, Syria to the north, Israel to the west and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan is in the eye of the Middle Eastern storm. Despite its proximity to conflict, Amman, the capital, is a very peaceful place where people come to do business, leaving their disputes at the border.
“It’s a very livable city,” said Robert Pingeon, a New Yorker who moved to Amman in 2006 with his wife, Emily Lodge. Both work for an energy consultancy that has projects in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.
“The climate is wonderful,” Mr. Pingeon said. “It’s one of the highest cities in the Middle East, making it cooler during summer. It’s also a great place to get to other places — Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv — they’re all only a short distance away.”
Ms. Lodge, who is originally from Boston, agreed. “The beauty of the desert and the archaeological sites around here is exceptional,” she said. “There’s also a great generosity and openness about the people.” The city is close to archaeological destinations like the “rose-red city” of Petra and the well-preserved Roman compound of Jerash.
The couple own a 310-square-meter (3,337-square-foot) apartment, which also has a 60-square-meter (645-square-foot) penthouse one floor up. Its 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) terrace has a panoramic view of the city from three sides of the building. “It’s like the Fourth of July up here most nights,” Mr. Pingeon said, “as you can see fireworks going off all over Amman for weddings and celebrations.”
The apartment has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with an additional bedroom and bath in the penthouse.
The Jordanian capital spreads out across a series of hills. In the past few years many new buildings have increased the height of the skyline, although there are still very few skyscrapers in this city of around 1.2 million inhabitants.
At its core is the Citadel, which has a Roman temple and amphitheater, surrounded by Ottoman-era stone houses. Farther out, a series of numbered traffic circles are used to define neighborhoods. The city also has eastern and western districts, the latter being the more affluent.
The staff members of embassies, aid groups and international and nongovernment organizations own or rent much of Amman’s housing. With many neighboring countries considered unsafe or politically sensitive, Amman is the natural place for the United Nations, the Red Cross/Red Crescent and many other aid groups and international organizations to put their regional headquarters. The United States maintains one of its largest embassies here. In addition, Amman’s reputation as a safe haven is attracting many Palestinian, and now Iraqi, refugees.
Foreigners are allowed to buy property in Jordan if the internal security department gives permission, which generally is not difficult for Westerners to obtain. However, a law designed to discourage speculation prohibits resale for the first three years of ownership.
Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge’s apartment is close to the Fourth Circle and the Abdoun district of West Amman, which is popular among diplomats and expatriate executives as well as locals. (Other such areas include Jebal Amman and Dabouq.)
Residential sales prices in all areas of the city increased in the last few years. According to Nirvana Ilich, head of rentals for Abdoun Real Estate, a leading property agency, “a 200-square-meter apartment in Abdoun, which was selling for 500 Jordanian dinars a square meter two years ago, would now go for at least 1,000 dinars a square meter.” (A dollar is worth dinars.) A 2,152-square-foot apartment, which sold for $66.45 per square foot two years ago, would now sell for twice that amount. Apartments like Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge’s could sell for 500,000 dinars, or $710,732, she said.
“Rentals, too, have shot up,” Ms. Ilich added. “In fact, many foreigners are starting to buy here because the rentals are so high.” A 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) apartment she recently rented out near the American Embassy in Abdoun went for about $1,500 a month, she said. (Higher-end apartments are often priced in dollars.)
The blend of cultures has contributed greatly to the city’s artistic scene — something that was a help when Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge began decorating their apartment. In relying on local artists and designers, they created a home that combines a wide range of influences.
“In Amman, we are at a crossroads,” Ms. Lodge said. “We are in the Middle East, between the Mediterranean and Indian worlds, the African and Asian. This has been a meeting place of cultures since before the Bible.”
The apartment reflects that idea. In its large entrance hall, Fortuny silk lampshades from Italy cast light on Persian carpets. There are chairs made from wooden wheat threshers by a local Palestinian designer; there are Iraqi fabrics, Western color schemes and modernist furniture, all blending together.
There is a similar mix in the home of Adnan Habboo and Aysar Akrawi, an Iraqi-American couple who live in a 557-square meter (6,000-square-foot) apartment, also near the Fourth Circle, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
In their living room, a finely worked Hand of Fatima, a Muslim symbol, stands next to a statuette inscribed with sacred Jewish texts. In another corner is a Syrian painting of the Virgin and Child with the names of Muslim prophets inscribed in its corners.
“If someone asked me about moving to Amman, I’d say don’t hesitate,” Mr. Habboo said. “Don’t give it a moment’s thought. It’s a place that gives you a beautiful blend of tradition and more liberal cosmopolitanism.”
Mr. Habboo and Ms. Akrawi both grew up in Baghdad, leaving Iraq in 1974 and eventually moving to the United States, where they lived in Chicago and New York. Their daughter is still in New York, working for National Geographic magazine.
Both of them are staunch supporters of monarchy, the Jordanian form of government. “It gives the country an extra degree of political stability,” Mr. Habboo said, referring to King Abdullah, whose government is friendly to the West and to other Arab nations.
Most expatriates in Amman say fears about political stability and security in the Arab world seem very exaggerated when it comes to Jordan. “I actually think it’s very safe here,” said Barbara Porter, director of the American Center of Oriental Research, who has lived in the region for many years.
“As a woman too, I’ve felt totally accepted here from the beginning,” Ms. Porter said. “There are many women in positions of power in Jordan, too. I haven’t encountered any problems for being an American here either.”
Yet life in Amman isn’t without its difficulties. “All of Jordan has a problem with scarce water,” Mr. Habboo said. “Each district of the city has water piped in once a week, which you learn to live with, storing it for use on the other days.”
Sometimes the city can be a shade too tranquil. “The most common complaint about Amman from Westerners is that it’s dull,” Ms. Akrawi said. “They say it’s too quiet. I’d say that while Lebanon might be the Italy of the Middle East, Jordan is the Switzerland. Yet that is changing, too, and there are many more clubs and nightlife spots these days.”
Still, “as an American working with Arabs in the Arab world, it is a wonderful experience living here,” said Ms. Lodge, who is a granddaughter of the war-era United States ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. “Given its history and mix, it is a place with multiple layers of meaning, where people are respectful of different faiths. When you look at it closely, at the crossroads, you can see a common heritage reflected here, rather than a place of differences.”
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Today's Headline
Jordan does not have the hardest-hitting journalism. Today's headline made me laugh:
"Jordan is doing okay - King"
"Jordan is doing okay - King"
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
My Arabic vs. my French
In August, girlfriends and I are meeting in Paris. I have tried unsuccessfully to get them to come to Jordan but Paris was the compromise - and indeed a pretty good compromise. We have all volunteered to research a neighborhood and loosely plan a day of our trip. I am researching the Marais which is the neighborhood where our apartment will be. In the course of my research, I have ended up on French websites - no surprise it is a french-speaking country after all.
It is a source of much frustration to discover that I am better at reading French - a language I have studied with one 10 week course at USDA 18 years ago than I am at reading Arabic. For instance I was just at the Pompidou Center website - and among the headers are "Expositions" and "Cineme" and "Votre Visit" - this is so easy! The equivelent headers in Arabic would be المعارض لزيارتكم سينما
And I do actually know all of these Arabic words - "cinema" is in fact "seeneema"but I read Arabic like someone just learning to read does - some words I know as "sight words" - if I see "company" or "Jordan" on a sign or in a newspaper article I just know the word - but even easy-to-read words like "cinema" require me to read all of the letters and go "oh right cinema"
Now granted, I can't actually speak/understand French beyond "je voudrais vin" but maybe we'll just eat falafel all week at Moroccon and Algerian restaurants and then I will be able to talk.
It is a source of much frustration to discover that I am better at reading French - a language I have studied with one 10 week course at USDA 18 years ago than I am at reading Arabic. For instance I was just at the Pompidou Center website - and among the headers are "Expositions" and "Cineme" and "Votre Visit" - this is so easy! The equivelent headers in Arabic would be المعارض لزيارتكم سينما
And I do actually know all of these Arabic words - "cinema" is in fact "seeneema"but I read Arabic like someone just learning to read does - some words I know as "sight words" - if I see "company" or "Jordan" on a sign or in a newspaper article I just know the word - but even easy-to-read words like "cinema" require me to read all of the letters and go "oh right cinema"
Now granted, I can't actually speak/understand French beyond "je voudrais vin" but maybe we'll just eat falafel all week at Moroccon and Algerian restaurants and then I will be able to talk.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
New Age Tunes in an Old Venue
Dan here. Reinforcements (new officers) have arrived, and my assignment on the visa line is winding down. Finally, I have some time to write.
On Thursday night, we went to a free concert at the Roman Theater in downtown Amman. The concert was filmed, and will air on satellite TV as a concert for peace. The star was Zade Dirani, a young Jordanian John Tesh-style piano player / composer who enjoys the patronage of the royal family, and dedicates songs and concerts to them in return. He was backed by the London Royal Philharmonic.
The huge Roman Theater is both a dream and a nightmare for concert organizers: the venue is stunning, the stuff of PBS pledge specials: the stage backdrop is a row of crumbling marble columns, while the seating area is dug into a hillside that yields no evidence this is the 21st century. See for yourself. Also, the seats are pitched forward so steep that those in the nosebleed sections are still quite near the stage. But there is no parking, there are only two entrances, and access to the steeply pitched seats involves ascending uneven steps worn down over more than a dozen centuries.
I was dreading these steps before we even arrived. Needless to say, there is no seating area set aside for the disabled.
The concert organizers were clever. The (free) tickets showed a start time of 7:30. We knew that Jordanians would never arrive on time, so we aimed to arrive at 7:30 to minimize the time spent sitting on hard, warm stone. There was plenty of available seating in the top section, which was ideal in my reasoning: it's much easier to ascend the scary steps than to descend them. Once seated, I started to scan the area to find the least deadly exit route. Just a few songs into the concert, which got going at 8:30, folks with small children started to slowly make their way out, all heading to the stairs on the theater's "right field" wing. These steps were apparently put in during the 1970s reconstruction, and while still steep, were at least evenly spaced, and unworn by the ages.
On Thursday night, we went to a free concert at the Roman Theater in downtown Amman. The concert was filmed, and will air on satellite TV as a concert for peace. The star was Zade Dirani, a young Jordanian John Tesh-style piano player / composer who enjoys the patronage of the royal family, and dedicates songs and concerts to them in return. He was backed by the London Royal Philharmonic.
The huge Roman Theater is both a dream and a nightmare for concert organizers: the venue is stunning, the stuff of PBS pledge specials: the stage backdrop is a row of crumbling marble columns, while the seating area is dug into a hillside that yields no evidence this is the 21st century. See for yourself. Also, the seats are pitched forward so steep that those in the nosebleed sections are still quite near the stage. But there is no parking, there are only two entrances, and access to the steeply pitched seats involves ascending uneven steps worn down over more than a dozen centuries.
I was dreading these steps before we even arrived. Needless to say, there is no seating area set aside for the disabled.
The concert organizers were clever. The (free) tickets showed a start time of 7:30. We knew that Jordanians would never arrive on time, so we aimed to arrive at 7:30 to minimize the time spent sitting on hard, warm stone. There was plenty of available seating in the top section, which was ideal in my reasoning: it's much easier to ascend the scary steps than to descend them. Once seated, I started to scan the area to find the least deadly exit route. Just a few songs into the concert, which got going at 8:30, folks with small children started to slowly make their way out, all heading to the stairs on the theater's "right field" wing. These steps were apparently put in during the 1970s reconstruction, and while still steep, were at least evenly spaced, and unworn by the ages.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
My crafty afternoon - ribbon lampshade
On Saturday, Dan was invited to a lunch with rich Jordanian business owners and I was not. He opted not to eat the mansaf (national dish of Jordan) but did have kanafe (national dessert of Jordan made out of same dried yoghurt as national dish). Naturally, he spent the meal answering visa questions and his Arabic was good enough to understand his tablemates complaining about the visa policies.
I spent the afternoon making a lampshade – not the least bit disappointed to be missing the lunch. We had very few casualties during our move – 5 wineglasses and one lampshade did not survive. I couldn’t do anything about the wineglasses but I did transform a plain white lampshade with a punctured hole in it into a beautiful striped masterpiece. No, I didn’t come up with this idea on my own – see here.
You need a lampshade, seam binding in a number of colors, bias tape, and glue.
1. Clean lampshade. Iron seam binding and bias tape.
I spent the afternoon making a lampshade – not the least bit disappointed to be missing the lunch. We had very few casualties during our move – 5 wineglasses and one lampshade did not survive. I couldn’t do anything about the wineglasses but I did transform a plain white lampshade with a punctured hole in it into a beautiful striped masterpiece. No, I didn’t come up with this idea on my own – see here.
You need a lampshade, seam binding in a number of colors, bias tape, and glue.
1. Clean lampshade. Iron seam binding and bias tape.
2. Glue seam binding to one end. Glue seam binding to bottom. Trim.
3. Glue the next piece of seam binding – overlapping at the top (but not at the bottom) because lampshades are cone-shaped. Caution – do not use too much glue because it will show if your glue is thicker than the width of the bias tape. The glue seaps through the seam binding and is somewhat visible
4. Finish off the top and bottom by gluing a strip of bias tape. This just covers over the glue and the ugly edges
.
. 5. Voila - doesn't it look nice in our guest room. You should visit!
I bought seam binding from onehundredwishes.com which has such a prettily designed website and when the package arrived it was packed so nicely it was like a Christmas package with tissue paper and pretty labels separating my seven different colors of seam binding. I have a lot of seam binding left over and it will be ribbon on all presents leaving here for the next several months. So if you get a Christmas present with inexplicable mud brown ribbon – it is probably the last of the seam binding.
Cooking Duck
For the first time ever, we made duck for dinner last night. No, I have never seen a duck in Jordan this one was flown in already butchered and frozen from France. We had been told that if you ever seen something interesting in a grocery store you should just buy it because supplies are indeed limited. Similarly, every so often the grocery store has frozen turkeys and one day I bought sesame oil just because I saw it and we had previously made a dish with sesame paste (widely available) that turned out a little weird.
Thankfully, the several duck recipes I read on-line all had basically the same recipe - pan fry on the fatty side and then roast on the non-fatty side. The duck turned out good. It wasn't fabulous. Although it was helped tremendously with some apricot chutney given to me by the director of the local archaeological society.
Last Thursday, we actually went to a party at the archaeological society - which was yet another party attended by members of the royal family whom we don't actually speak to. Unlike celebrities, I actually can't identify members of the royal family (except the king) by face - but party gossip will spread that Prince so and so is here. At the party, I did have a nice conversation with the local head of CARE who said they have a program to introduce ducks into rural Jordanian communities - she said ducks are great because they basically eat trash and in return provide food.
Duck also makes a mess of your kitchen because it is so fatty. Thankfully Tuesdays are the day our cleaning lady Molly comes so we ate dinner and brought the dishes into the kitchen and basically closed the door. Our kitchen smells nice however because the peach tree on our property is producing peaches and our doorman dropped off a bag of them last night.
Thankfully, the several duck recipes I read on-line all had basically the same recipe - pan fry on the fatty side and then roast on the non-fatty side. The duck turned out good. It wasn't fabulous. Although it was helped tremendously with some apricot chutney given to me by the director of the local archaeological society.
Last Thursday, we actually went to a party at the archaeological society - which was yet another party attended by members of the royal family whom we don't actually speak to. Unlike celebrities, I actually can't identify members of the royal family (except the king) by face - but party gossip will spread that Prince so and so is here. At the party, I did have a nice conversation with the local head of CARE who said they have a program to introduce ducks into rural Jordanian communities - she said ducks are great because they basically eat trash and in return provide food.
Duck also makes a mess of your kitchen because it is so fatty. Thankfully Tuesdays are the day our cleaning lady Molly comes so we ate dinner and brought the dishes into the kitchen and basically closed the door. Our kitchen smells nice however because the peach tree on our property is producing peaches and our doorman dropped off a bag of them last night.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Book Club Month 3
Last week, my book club met to discuss Winter in Kandahar. I now fear this is the book club where we discuss why we didn't like the book - oh wait we all liked the Africa travel book. We didn't like the first book by Isabelle Allende and the group universally loathed Winter in Kandahar.
Each month the hostess (we are all women) selects three books and everyone votes on their favorite. Sometimes hostesses have read one or more of the books they offer and sometimes no. Our hostess had NOT read this book but chose it because it was about Afghanistan and it had GREAT reviews on Amazon. Clearly these reviews were written by friends of the author (I know this happens because a friend's mom writes terrific cookbooks but when the first books came out I personally knew several of the people who wrote the glowing praise. That said I highly recommend Fearless Baking - the recipes are all fabulous and all of them are easy enough that I (and hence you) can make them even after work. My favorite is the chocolate chip cake which Laura made me when I finished my dissertation and which I have since made a zillion times since. I especially love the cinnamon with the chocolate.
Any way Winter in Kandahar was awful. It read like a movie but not a good movie a bad movie. That said most of us finished the novel because it was a fast, summer read. The discussion at book group was about which inaccuracy did you find most galling - among them Afghanis speaking Arabic, a Pashtun woman who took a man she didn't know into a storeroom to kiss him, or mine the existance of unbelievably beautiful PhD students - I have never met one - the hours in the library or lab somehow does something to you skin. This is my pet peeve in movies too but I think Sharon Stone and Angelina Jolie have both played PhD scientists - truly people who are this pretty have other life options besides research.
Each month the hostess (we are all women) selects three books and everyone votes on their favorite. Sometimes hostesses have read one or more of the books they offer and sometimes no. Our hostess had NOT read this book but chose it because it was about Afghanistan and it had GREAT reviews on Amazon. Clearly these reviews were written by friends of the author (I know this happens because a friend's mom writes terrific cookbooks but when the first books came out I personally knew several of the people who wrote the glowing praise. That said I highly recommend Fearless Baking - the recipes are all fabulous and all of them are easy enough that I (and hence you) can make them even after work. My favorite is the chocolate chip cake which Laura made me when I finished my dissertation and which I have since made a zillion times since. I especially love the cinnamon with the chocolate.
Any way Winter in Kandahar was awful. It read like a movie but not a good movie a bad movie. That said most of us finished the novel because it was a fast, summer read. The discussion at book group was about which inaccuracy did you find most galling - among them Afghanis speaking Arabic, a Pashtun woman who took a man she didn't know into a storeroom to kiss him, or mine the existance of unbelievably beautiful PhD students - I have never met one - the hours in the library or lab somehow does something to you skin. This is my pet peeve in movies too but I think Sharon Stone and Angelina Jolie have both played PhD scientists - truly people who are this pretty have other life options besides research.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Running out of things to say
We have friends here who have a similar blog to ours (extraordinarily similar because we go to same parties and work in same building) and I was SO relieved to read that they too have started running out of things to write about. For instance, this weekend we are going to the Dead Sea because we like it and it feels like a vacation and it is only 45 minutes away. But we have been to the Dead Sea before and I wonder - do we take pictures? since we already took the requisite pictures of us floating in the Dead Sea and at the bar admiring the infinity swimming pool. Do we write about the Dead Sea? - cuz we already did that.
We hope you will all be patient hearing about anything new that happens to us at the Dead Sea but be warned that we have now visited MOST of Jordan's tourist sites and you will hear about new ones with decreasing frequency - granted all archaeology sites look the same and I imagine we could just keep posting the same picture of us standing next to a roman column with text about how this is 2000 years old, blah blah blah.
Megan's blog seems to never run out of things to say - kids seem full of endless cute things to say. So I will credit her excellent blog to having good source material whereas we only have each other. Happy Birthday (one day late) Isabelle!
We hope you will all be patient hearing about anything new that happens to us at the Dead Sea but be warned that we have now visited MOST of Jordan's tourist sites and you will hear about new ones with decreasing frequency - granted all archaeology sites look the same and I imagine we could just keep posting the same picture of us standing next to a roman column with text about how this is 2000 years old, blah blah blah.This picture is the Temple of Hercules it is indeed over 2000 years old and is on a hill in Amman. The columns haven't actually been standing for 2000 years, especially since there are earthquakes here - so I think some nice Spanish archaeologists reset them up.
Megan's blog seems to never run out of things to say - kids seem full of endless cute things to say. So I will credit her excellent blog to having good source material whereas we only have each other. Happy Birthday (one day late) Isabelle!
Just like winter
Yesterday, I was talking with one of embassy drivers and he was complaining about the weather. It has been in the 90s for the last week (yes, but it is a “dry heat”) and all of a sudden the high yesterday was in the 70s and the driver said “it is like winter today. I don’t like it.”
Clearly, all weather is relative. All Jordanians I know insist "that it is cold in the winter here." Indeed we did have some beautiful snow (and thus evidence that it can be in the 30s) but while I brought my big fuzzy winter coat I NEVER wore it.
Clearly, all weather is relative. All Jordanians I know insist "that it is cold in the winter here." Indeed we did have some beautiful snow (and thus evidence that it can be in the 30s) but while I brought my big fuzzy winter coat I NEVER wore it.
Monday, June 9, 2008
I miss my oven.
I miss my oven. Shortly before leaving DC, we renovated our kitchen and by that I mean we wrote moderately large checks and new appliances and cabinets arrived that were installed by nice people. Among the appliances was a wonderful oven with nifty toys for a baker like a bread proofing temperature, a convection oven option, and gas burners and an electric over for even baking.
Here is Jordan we have a gas oven that I hate. The stove top is fine (although it is difficult to cook with the window open because it tends to blow the burners out.) But one year into life here and I still haven’t learned to cope with this oven. First off, you have to light it every time you use it. Which sometimes goes flawlessly and sometimes seems to create explosions that make you fear for your life (okay this really only happened once when we had a houseguest who couldn’t get the oven started and the gas built up in the closed oven without a flame). But the oven only has one shelf, so this weekend I made cookies for a dinner party and it took hours since I could only do one cookie sheet at a time. The one shelf is also close to the flames and I find I often have to stack cookie sheets to disperse the heat so the bottom of the cookies doesn’t burn before the top and middle cook. The cookies did turn out fine (although a little dark on the bottom relative to the pale top). I was actually tempted to flip them over like pancakes for even browning but this seemed like overkill for a batch of double chocolate chip cookies.
On the plus side, I have been able to find most ingredients for baking here. I did order almond flour online and because the shipping price was high relative to the flour price, there is now several pounds of it in the freezer waiting for me to make frangipane (almond filling used in tarts and croissants). Frangipane tends to go a LONG way (and freezes so I find once I make it, the next five desserts I make all have to be almond. I know if Vicky, who loves my almond tart were here, there would be no complaints. I also recently inherited a lot of ingredients from a baker who left post for Krgystan? Turkmenistan? One of those - so we now have quite literally 20 pounds of nuts in the freezer - so in addition to getting almond tarts for dessert, all dinner guests are also served spiced nuts as an appetizer.
Here is Jordan we have a gas oven that I hate. The stove top is fine (although it is difficult to cook with the window open because it tends to blow the burners out.) But one year into life here and I still haven’t learned to cope with this oven. First off, you have to light it every time you use it. Which sometimes goes flawlessly and sometimes seems to create explosions that make you fear for your life (okay this really only happened once when we had a houseguest who couldn’t get the oven started and the gas built up in the closed oven without a flame). But the oven only has one shelf, so this weekend I made cookies for a dinner party and it took hours since I could only do one cookie sheet at a time. The one shelf is also close to the flames and I find I often have to stack cookie sheets to disperse the heat so the bottom of the cookies doesn’t burn before the top and middle cook. The cookies did turn out fine (although a little dark on the bottom relative to the pale top). I was actually tempted to flip them over like pancakes for even browning but this seemed like overkill for a batch of double chocolate chip cookies.
On the plus side, I have been able to find most ingredients for baking here. I did order almond flour online and because the shipping price was high relative to the flour price, there is now several pounds of it in the freezer waiting for me to make frangipane (almond filling used in tarts and croissants). Frangipane tends to go a LONG way (and freezes so I find once I make it, the next five desserts I make all have to be almond. I know if Vicky, who loves my almond tart were here, there would be no complaints. I also recently inherited a lot of ingredients from a baker who left post for Krgystan? Turkmenistan? One of those - so we now have quite literally 20 pounds of nuts in the freezer - so in addition to getting almond tarts for dessert, all dinner guests are also served spiced nuts as an appetizer.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Ready to go home
It is after 5pm on Thursday (our Friday) and I am ready to go home and nurse a sore throat and be lazy. But instead I am hanging out at the office waiting until it is 6pm when I am going to a reception at the Ambassador's residence. These events aren't usually fun but I can at least look forward to the outstanding mini springrolls that the Ambassador's cook makes. But with my sore throat even they don't sound good. Dan likes going to these events mostly because the bartender always remembers that he likes gin and tonics and within seconds of Dan's arrival, one is brought to him - sort of like our own version of Cheers.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
National Gallery of Fine Arts - Picasso Exhibit
Dan and I went to Jordan's National Gallery of Art for the first time last night. I had previously been to the restaurant but neither of us had been to the museum. We went for a reception in honor of Delta airline's inaugural flight to Amman and their offer of shipping an Arab women's art exhibit for free. The reception had the usual speeches and canapes but we also had a chance to walk around the museum.
We were in the new building which had three floors with the top two exhibiting modern Arab art which we liked. The first floor had the traveling exhibit - a show of Picasso's ceramics. You are probably thinking - "wow, Picasso did ceramics? I have never seen those." You have never seen them because they are not good. One of the best exhibits I have ever been to was the U.S. National Gallery's exhibit on Picasso's early work. I loved the exhibit because it showed how talented he was as an artist and how he transitioned from a traditional to a modern style. I do not doubt Picasso's talent and I love modern art and am not likely to say "my kid do that." But these ceramics were disappointing. If Dan and I had bought one at Sotheby's (no doubt for a fortune) and then invited people over to see our Picasso and they saw these smiley-face dishes you would laugh at us. I now see from a Google search that we could buy one of these for $9,500 (less than our Saturn). Wanna see our Picasso?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Our New Toy
This past weekend we actually had a lot of plans...
- Thursday night we went to a party at the Australian Ambassador's House which turned into a sing-a-long around the piano and was probably the most fun party we have been to in Jordan.
- Friday night we hosted our monthly dinner club. Each month the host picks a theme and everyone brings a dish. Our theme: use a piece of kitchen equipment that you packed and haven't used yet. We used our mandolin. Not only hadn't we used it since arriving in Jordan, we hadn't used it for years. Not since a Thanksgiving dinner where we tried making these fancy waffle chip potatoes and the potatoes turned blue as we waited out turn to get our prepared dish into the oven.
- Saturday, I went shopping with a girlfriend at the Jordanian equivalent of outlet stores. Jordan has a number of garment factories that were established because the U.S. said "Jordan you are our friend. If you make clothes with both Jordanian and Israeli input, you can bring them into the U.S. at a low tariff rate." So these are clothes that were supposed to go to the U.S. but then I think the U.S. retailers didn't want them so then they are okay to sell in Jordan.
But now, we do not need to have plans ever again because we are now the owners of a Nintendo Wii. This is a video game system that for some games actually simulates the movements - i.e. when you are playing a boxing game you are boxing at the air, ditto pretend-swinging the remote as a baseball bat. We are particularly hooked on Mario Kart a driving game and Tennis.
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