Wednesday, April 25, 2007

My pro list for living in Amman




My kids will learn Arabic.

My Arabic will improve

My kids will learn more hands on Arabic 3adat

I will have Arabic neighbours, who I will say hi and hello, come over for coffee. A lot better than my neighbours here, not even one damned hello.

I might go to UAE and meet my cousins whom I have not seen since I left Lebanon in 1986.

I will travel to Lebanon and see my extended family that I have not seen since 1993.

I’ll go to Egypt and visit with my favourite hubby’s aunt. She should be in Canada next month, but I probably will not see herL

My kids will get to spend time with their father’s family.

My mother in law will get to see her baby’s kids whenever she wants to in that time. Hubby left Kuwait when he was 17, and since then he has not lived close to his family. He was in Germany for 14years and has been in Canada for the past 10years.

My kids will have Arab friends for sure.

I will be able to eat fast Arabic foods whenever I want. We will not have to go to MacDonald’s when we need to eat something quick. MacDonald’s in Amman does not have grilled cheese sandwich with the kids’ meal, and their MCchicken sandwich sucks! So not worth the 400calories! So my kids will not want to go and I will not want to either.

If I stay in Amman for the whole winter, I will not see snow for a whole year! But knowing my luck, Amman will have a record snow fall for this coming winter.

Winter will be cold, but it will not be –30 feels like –45 degrees Celsius cold. So I will not shatter my teeth whenever I step out.

I will be able to wear any pair of shoes I want in the winter, not only the ones that have gaps and designs at the bottom to so I will not slip on ice and snow.

I will get to meet some of the bloggers in Amman.

Ok I guess that is it; does anyone have anything else to add to my pro Amman list? I have a cons list as well; I will post it when I am ready to type it out.

Update


Summer had some good pros to add that are important to me too especially the maid one and the food delivery since we all know by now, I am not the best cook and I do not like cooking:

You can get a live in maid in Amman that will cost you about $200 a month and will do all the housework for you and maybe baby sit occasionally!

You can get food delivery to your home anytime you want other than pizza!

You can cater all you want if you have unplanned visitors, it does happen in Amman!! and you do not have to slave in the kitchen cooking for hours in case you plan to invite anyone for lunch or dinner! And remember, even if you cook, you will have the live in maid to clean after all the mess you make!

You can get kusa and small eggplants that is already cored and ready for stuffing! But you will have the maid to core it for you!

You can get mulukhyya that is already prepared for cooking; you might have to cut it if you like it na3meh instead of wara2! (althoug I get the frozen na3meh one here and it not bad)

You can get fresh Araby bread daily...anytime of the day! ( a big plus, since we all know how I had to drive all the way to Edmonton to buy some Araby bread!)

9 comments:

Unknown said...

These pros should beat the cons!!! This is really good, I mean making a list of pros & cons, I'm sure you'll never regret going there no matter what:) good luck Sam:DD

Me said...

You can get a live in maid in Amman that will cost you about $200 a month and will do all the housework for you and maybe baby sit occasionally!
You can get food delivery to your home anytime you want other than pizza!
You can cater all you want if you have unplanned visitors, it does happen in Amman!! and you do not have to slave in the kitchen cooking for hours in case you plan to invite anyone for lunch or dinner! And remember, even if you cook, you will have the live in maid to clean after all the mess you make!
You can get kusa and small eggplants that is already cored and ready for stuffing! But you will have the maid to core it for you!
You can get mulukhyya that is already prepared for cooking; you might have to cut it if you like it na3meh instead of wara2!
You can get fresh Araby bread daily...anytime of the day!
I can go on forever about the pros, and let’s not count the cons!
Good luck!

Anonymous said...

If someone would invent the damn teleportation machine already so I can work here and live there!

Go home, ONLY if you can afford it!

7aki Fadi said...

wow summer great additions, Maybe Sam you should add them to the post :).

You can go to Aqaba in a 4 hours drive and enjoy the red sea.

You can go to the dead sea in a 45 minute drive.

You mother in law can baby sit so you can go shopping all the time

Rambling Hal said...

You can go to the hairdresser and get your hair done as often as you like (twice a week!!!) and it will always cost you less than just about anything you can imagine in Canada. Which means you can also get things like manicure and pedicures and wax treatments and threading and all that for SO CHEAP - compared to Canada.

:) We all have our priorities!!!

(It's funny that you wrote this post just when I finished writing a post about all the things I miss about Canada!!)

Moey said...

I love amman for some reason

Sam said...

nido unfortunatly my cons list is a lot longer:( i love canada..bas i have to give amman a chance and i will do it khalas!inshallah:o)

Summer thanks...i do not know how i did not think about the shagalah....:)

Qwaider wouldnt that machine be so cool...but i guess will have the equivelant to that...me living in amman, while hubby working in canada:)

7aki yeh if forgot about the deadsea...aqaba is 4hr? 3an jad..i was sure it felt a lot less when i went there..i guess we were having too much fun on the bus..unfortunatly my mother in law will not be able to babysit..she is 73years old and gets very grumpy with the kids after a while

rambling hal i know hair dressers are cheap..but they do whatever they want and not listen to what i want:( i just got over my very short haircut in amman this summer..but once i find the perfect hairdresser that will listen to me it will be great:)

moey yeh amman can be fun..and i love how busy it is no matter what time it is...unless u r in downtown toronto or vancouver the streets are empty by 11pm here..

and life goes on... said...

I believe this would be a major change for you and the kids, i don't say it's going to be easy, but I believe one day you'll see that the kids are happy and you're enjoying it here more.. It's getting better here with each year! really!

Unknown said...

I'm not sure if I'll ever use the term ARAB , or Arabic....it's Jordanian friends,customs,food,etc...not Arabic.