Truly Jordanian

It is the last few days of Ramadan here and the excitement is building in the air...like the count down to Christmas.  The grocery stores and malls are packed with people buying their celebration outfits and food for the feasts.  Today Mare, Claire and I decided to venture out into the chaos to go to the mall close to their house.  We walked with Claire in the stroller with bearable heat, dodging traffic and navigating the hills from the house to the mall.  Mary was prepared for the journey and had taken in a decent lunch before our departure as did the Bear.  I on the other hand thought to myself I would pick up a snack somewhere along the way.  WRONG.  During Ramadan from sun up to sun down no one eats or drinks in public (not even water).  SO we went to the grocery store, got some nuts, apples and water and went to the ladies room to have a snack...in the stall.  In typical Mare/Cal style we even made eating a snack a Jordanian adventure.  I'm sure the women in the restroom were not fooled by the crunching coming from my stall as when you are starving you pick up on every thing food related.  It's too bad we didn't capture the moment on film, but it might have made it even more obvious if we were taking pictures of ourselves in the bathroom stall so you can try to picture that one yourself.

The rest of the mall trip was great...we scored some bargains, every person we saw pinched Claire's cheeks, and a nice young Jordanian who wanted to speak English with us hailed us a cab home and carried our groceries to the car.  Tonight we're going to eat some genuine falafel and hummus and see some more of Amman.

AND congrats to my brave friend Amy who delivered Timothy James Harris today with NO EPIDURAL!!!!  AND she already has 2year old twins!  Seriously.  I'm so impressed and proud.

More soon...