Around Town

We are driving into town on this street lined with palm trees. It looked slightly different on the Internet -- Do you agree Brooke????
Here is the fancy mall in Aqaba. If you went inside you wouldn't even believe you were in Jordan. But, it is nothing compared to the shopping in Amman.
Here is Daniel's school -- Aqaba International School. His teacher is Ms. Fattin and he has Ms. Nadia for an hour of Arabic each day. He goes from 7:30-12:30 Sunday through Thursday and is really enjoying it. We arrived on a Saturday, enrolled him on a Sunday and he hasn't missed a day since the Monday after we arrived. He had almost no jet lag and adjusted great. The most exciting part of the day is buying juice with his quarter and riding the bus. It took a few weeks for room to become available on the bus, but that is all he talks about now. Who he sat by and what they talked about. He is one of 5 internationals in his class and 11 Jordanians.
This is the Safeway I was telling everyone that Aqaba had. When Roberto said it was a little different than the ones back home, he should have just taken a picture and I would have gotten the idea. The ground floor is groceries and the first floor is other stuff similar to Target items. The rest is either offices or storage -- who knows??
This is the main circle heading up to our apartment in the 5th district. It is a very nice area and probably more than half of the children attending the international school live in this district.
This is our building. We are on the bottom right. I was begging Roberto to find a ground floor place and I am so glad that he did. Every room has a sliding glass door that opens to the play area that is gated shut. Daniel can go out and I don't have to worry about him falling off the balcony. The top floor apartments have GREAT views, but I would give that up in a heart beat. He can play about 3 quarters of the way around the building and there is a little courtyard in the back. The neighborhood kids play street football about every night around 6pm. They play right in front of our place because it is a dead end street. Daniel watched the first few times (big shocker to all those who really know him) and now he loves to join in. He gets a little nervous because of the language thing, but he is getting use to it. This place couldn't be more perfect!!!

Aqaba Arrival!!

This is the city span from the roof of our building. We are pretty much at one end of the city and this covers the whole town. There are about 80,000 people, 3 larger grocery stores (small for what most of you are use to), 2 gas stations, a hand full of traffic lights, and a mosque on every corner (kind of like the Mormon churches in Utah).

Jordan Countryside

We saw some wild camels on the side of the road and stopped to take a photo. We see them so often now that we don't stop for pictures anymore. The rock formations are absolutely stunning. They pop up everywhere all along the country. It makes the drive very enjoyable.

Dead Sea

We stopped by the Dead Sea on our way from Amman to Aqaba. It was very pretty and we enjoyed watching everyone put mud all over themselves. The water was very salty. We plan to go back and actually swim -- or should I say float.

Traveling to Aqaba Jordan

Daniel enjoying his flight. He has been on several flights in his life, but never quite this comfy. We are moving up in the world, but don't worry it is all down hill once we arrive!!