its hard to believe how fast time flies, and how soon we will be home. i want to stay forever, but also want to be at home. i heard from our house sitter brad today, and all is well at home, apparently our cat doesnt miss us as much as we imagined, Hannah and Debbie are making sure she is well loved. Stu and I are going to expand this adventure a little bit, put on some backpacks and venture into Israel. We spent the last few days exploring around here. The girls and I went to a princess party one night while the boys hung on their own. Went to a Childrens Museum that was amazingly awesome! Really hands on, and I think Levi and Stu might have had more fun than the kids! We than went to the King's car museum and saw billions of dollars worth of old cars, trucks and motorcycles, again I think the boys enjoyed that quite a lot. Tomorrow we head to the dead sea to float in some salt. Due to the number of us, Stu rented a car, and has gotten really good at honking and driving in the Middle East!

it was hot today. not hot for people who reside here, but hot for us "foreigners". we went to a bird zoo, than soaked in the sun outside while my brother planted lemon trees in his yard. stu and my brother went and got a rental vehicle so we can all drive further together. tomorrow we are heading toward palestine. we went out for a traditional arab meal and the bread is made right in front of you, lots of hummus and bread. that is a pretty major staple around here. there is still lots of north america here, as you can see in the photo of the beautiful sun setting behind a KFC sign :) we went downtown to all the local shops for gifts for us and friends, I guess since Brad is living at our house, we should bring him back something :)

and to purchase our traditional palestinian scarves, maybe we will look a little less like foreigners now......

top 10 hard things to get used too

These are the top 10 hardest things to get used to in the Middle East:

1. being stared at (we are the strange looking ones here, everyone stares, no matter where we go)

2. the difference with men and women (men do not talk to women, women do not talk to men, men do not even look me in the eye)

3. the driving (its insane, no lights, no lines on the road, no stop signs, just a horn)

4. the food (stu ate fried lambs brain)

5. the smells (smoking is allowed anywhere and everywhere, even in stores in the mall, people are smoking)

6. the noises (call to prayer broadcast over the entire city 5 times a day)

7. the houses (no houses just insanely huge apartments built one on top of the other all the way up the mountain)

8. the laundry (no dryers exist in Jordan, everything is hung out to dry)

9. the police (they are all carrying machine guns)

10. the temperature (its warm, and plants are growing beautifully in February!!)

Hello Friends

It was a warm sunny day here, visited old historic areas, ate at an Arab restaurant and explored the city. We will post some pics hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Got to call home today, talk to our friend Brad who is staying at our house while we are gone, and make sure my cat August doesnt miss us too much :) All is well. We will be home very soon!

"you give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will chose to say, Lord blessed be your name"

For those of you who have been wondering how long I could make it in a foreign country before getting into trouble, the answer was 9 1/2 hours. I was yelled at by a police officer today, he thought I was taking pictures of the embassy, and apparently that is a no-no. My wonderful sister-in-law explained to him that I was a Canadian tourist and just taking pictures of tourist places, and that I did not take any photos of the embassy. He only believed us, once we showed him all the photos on my camera, than he smiled and let us go on our way. But let me tell you, being yelled at by someone with a huge machine gun across their chest is a little concerning. If Rob Johnson is reading this, you are lucky I didn't just tell them to call you :)

Surviving so far,

Well, here we are. we have finally arrived at the destination, of Amman, Jordan. It is cool weather here, I mean, warmer than Canada :) but still nice and cool. We slept good, nothing woke us up, and Stu was dissapointed because he wanted to be woken up by the call to prayer. All the luggage made it, and we feel not bad at all. We feel a little gross, kinda just like we have just spent the last 3 days on a plane :) . Levi and Theresa's house is amazingly huge, its gorgeous and so are my nieces! We have already played princess and are now watching some Winnie the Pooh movies, going to go explore in a little bit. I will include some photos of the view from their deck, its definately something we will have to get used too, but its amazing! miss you all, thanks for reading, the adventure is just beginning......