Flashback to 2011

Exactly 365 days ago...this was our life. Wowza. Our 12th move in 14 years of marriage.

{It is a good exercise to try to get all your worldly possessions into 17 boxes!}

Syria Update

Roman ruins in Damascus {photo from our trip in 2004}

Some recent news from our Syrian friends... 

Today started as a terrifying day.

We woke up at 5.45 A.m. because of shooting very close to where we live, then it turned into a real battle, with heavy guns and explosions, and a very loud shouting of Allah wa Akbar – God is big! It remained like this till 9.15, then stopped till 11.00, when they resumed the fight for half an hour.

And it remained calm till now 3.30P.m without knowing the result of the fight. Few minutes ago, I went out to walk around and see what happened, nearly all streets are empty and many thieves stealing furniture of military center close to us! I wrote in the morning on Facebook: It is very unusual to have your morning tea, with the music of “normal” guns and heavy machine guns and the shouting “allah akbar”!!

Then there were many, many days before we heard from them again. We were quite worried, but relieved to hear they are okay!

After 30 days of loosing the internet connection and also the mobile coverage we are able to open the internet suddenly. Today Sunday 9 September 2012. This email is to tell you that we are safe.

And today, we received some more news from him...

During the last month, I kept writing you hoping to have chance to send my mails. Here I’ll summarize what we had in the last month.

Fighting is still strong and heavy and getting closer to our areas. More mortars fell on buildings and churches.

Daily life is getting difficult more and more: more closed streets, more dangerous streets, Bread is in better situation than before, especially if you are willing to pay more. Gasoline and Diesel and cooking gas, is the same. As well if you are willing to pay for example 5$ to 1 litter of gasoline instead of 1$, and as I told you before it is 70-100$ for cooking gas instead of 10$!

Kidnapping: it’s getting so dangerous to go out of the city are more and more, and kidnapping is a great business now, and in general, no use of paying to release the kidnapped ones, because they will return them, dead, in more than one piece, raped or they inject him by Diesel injection!

Way to the airport: two weeks ago, I went through the city to the airport, it was my first time to pass by the areas that are under the rebels, it was very sad to see the city divided, buildings destroyed, streets in big damage. On my way, there were three check points: Syrian Army, Muslim forces and Kurdish militants!

I always find the anniversary of Sept 11th very hard, as most do. It is the day my homeland was attacked 'from the outside'. I can't imagine how it must feel to be living through an attack 'from the inside' like our dear friends. 

To read the other Syria updates, go here and here. 

Prayers for Syria

In 2004, our family spent three weeks touring Syria with a Syrian family who are dear friends of ours. It was such a fascinating trip {and quite the adventure}!

We crossed in to Syria from the Jordan border, traveled up to Damascus, further north to Sednaya, Maalula, and as far north as Aleppo. Syria is a beautiful country, has wonderful food, some amazing historical sights, and a very slow and simple way of life. We were the first Americans to visit the tiny village where our friends were from. As we entered the village, we were taken from house to house, introduced, and invited in for tea and sweets. It was an amazing show of hospitality, took all night long and became the night that I drank the most tea in my life!

Here are some other trip highlights:

Hamidiya Souk in the Old City, Damascus. This market lays on the old Roman street that would have lead to the Roman Temple of Jupiter. A market has been on this land since Roman times!

Beautiful rug seller in the Old City markets.

Amazing tile and gold inside the Umayyad Mosque.

Inside the Convent of Our Lady in the tiny village of Sednaya, one of the last few places that still speaks Aramaic.

Toward the end of our trip, we spent time in Aleppo, a northern city and is Syria's 2nd largest city. We visited Aleppo because our friends had lived in this city before they moved to Jordan and much of their family was still in Aleppo. We had a great week meeting and visiting their family, whom became very dear to us. We have stayed in touch with them since the trip!

The city of Aleppo looking from the hills of the medieval Citadel at the city center.

The street our friends family home was on.

As has been reported this week, Aleppo has been under heavy fire. We have been in touch with our dear friends and it has brought this sad situation so close to home for us. Here are excerpts from the emails we have been receiving from them this past week...

July 24th - For the first time we cancelled our ladies meeting because of the very bad night we had, and uncertain expectations for today.Would you please keep praying for people in our city, and especially Christians, who have no place to run away from the city if the situation will go worse: the way to Turkey is closed and no Christian villages around the city!

July 27th - Thank you for your encouraging words and prayers. Monday and Tuesday nights were very very bad in Aleppo, hearing the sounds of heavy weapons were horrifying.
Wednesday and Thursday (yesterday) the fighting continued, but not like in the beginning.
Now it is Friday morning, the day started as a hot day, in temperature and sound of battle. The last two days, the city was nearly closed, and this is the second day without bread! (nearly all bakeries were closed). This is our 5th day with out gasoline, and gas for cooking now around 70$ instead of 10$!! Of course if you can find it. We still have water and electricity. We start to see dozens of families in public gardens and some schools. Hope this Friday will go easily and peacefully.

July 29th - It was encouraging to read your emails and know about the huge number of people are praying for us and for my country. Till now there are no changes in the center of fights. Yesterday and today I went downtown walking through the streets, the city is still closed and hills of rubbish are spread everywhere except in some streets where they started cleaning up the rubbish. As for bakeries, few are opened but hundreds of people are waiting their turn and fighting for bread, where you need between 5 to 10 hours to buy 2 kgs of bread ! And as a gift a guy from my church brought me today 2 kgs of bread since we are out of bread at home ! So u can imagine the gifts we are giving each other’s these days. Today, Sunday Morning, it was nice to hear some church bells ringing announcing the beginning of prayers. We still have electricity and water which is a great blessing. One of the very tragic situations is seeing people with some of their stuff on the sidewalks of the streets and in public gardens wondering what to do or where to go because they lost their houses or ran away because of the fights. Please keep praying for us, we are really in need.

London...Here We Come!

No, we don't have a trip to London planned in our future {boo}, but we are going to London in our minds for the next month during the Olympics!

We spent three weeks in London in 2010 and fell in love with the city and unique British culture. You can read all about our highlights here.

In the mean time, I am planning a proper British meal and celebration for our family during the opening night of the Olympics that will transport us to London without all the hassle of international flights!

What are you doing to enjoy the Olympics this year?

{If I only had my Mary Lou Retton American flag leotard from the 1980's, my celebration would truly be complete.}

And...We're Back...Again

Well Apricots Today followers...
I have some news.

I just love packing. Sometimes on boring days I just fill suitcases with clothes. {NOT!}

We are back in the boring ole USA for a while. We transferred back to the States just a few weeks ago and since then I have been mulling many options over in my head about what to do with this very fun blog. At this point, I have decided to end it on a high note. I will do a few more posts that will wrap up my thoughts on our recent life in Jordan...but stay tuned. We may have many adventures ahead that will spark another blog.

We have enjoyed settling back in the States and seeing family and friends. Culture re-adjustment has not been too bad this time around {so far!}, however...

1. I am continually shocked at how much food is available EVERYWHERE and have had to ramp up my yoga efforts a bit because I won't fit into any of my clothes if I don't do something drastic! {because I, of course, can't NOT partake in the food available EVERYWHERE!}
2. We have done a ton of driving and I find the driving very mundane and non-exhausting. I always know where we are. I always know where we are going. I always know what side of the road to be on. I can always count on everyone around me to know what side of the road to be on. I stop at stop signs. I use blinkers. And people around me do the same. It really is a nice system {but boring}!
3. I was forced to taste test all the new flavors of M&M's {see point one}. So far I have tried coconut, peanut butter, dark chocolate and pretzel. I also found that if you consume a large amount of the different flavors {all at the same time}...you will get a stomach ache. You should try it.

We're Ba-ack

These were my observations traveling back to Jordan this week:

Walking through the Detroit airport, my roll-y suitcase and I stopped in our tracks when I saw some bright lights flickering down a small hallway. This is what I saw:

iPod vending machine? Yes. It is.

14 hours later, I was enjoying the cool desert air in our early morning drive from the airport to the city. And this is what I saw:

Making adjustments on the satellite to get the Disney Channel?

{So, I had to borrow this photo from the internet because my camera was packed away}

But, along the airport road next to some of the wealthiest houses in Jordan are Bedouin tents interspersed through the desert. And outside most the tents were propped up satellite dishes.

Conclusion: Each society has its own way of dealing with technology addictions!

Diary of a Jet Lagged Family

Sorry. I was too jet lagged to get this photo in focus.

There is nothing funnier than the strange things that happen while one experiences jet lag. I documented our experience the last time we traveled from the States to the Middle East.

This is a story about a family who traveled ahead of time and lost almost a day and most of our sanity too.

• We ate dinner at 4:30 pm
• Boarded plane at 9 pm
• Ate dinner (again) at 10:30 pm
• Slept on and off and watched movies until 6 am
• Ate breakfast at 7 am
• Had a cup of coffee with my breakfast, which I realized was about 3 pm at our destinations local time {that could cause trouble}.
• Arrived at first destination at 10 am body time {BT}, 6 pm local time {LT}.
• Drove to guest house, showered, watched a bit of TV, ate candy bars.
• Kids requested food, I fed them oatmeal at 8 pm LT, 12 pm BT .
• I went to bed and 8:30 pm LT, 12:30 pm BT and slept until 1 am LT, 5 pm BT.
• Hubby went to bed at 9 pm LT, 1 pm BT and slept until 1 am LT, 5 pm BT.
• Son went to bed at 8:30 pm LT, 12:30 pm BT and slept until mid-night LT, 4 pm BT. Played.
• Daughter colored until 10 pm LT 2 pm BT and then slept until 2 am LT, 6 pm BT.
• 2 am LT, 8 pm BT we all ate Cocoa Pops.
• I read. Hubby read. Kids watched another movie.
• I went back to sleep at 3 am and slept until 5 am.
• Hubby and kids went back to sleep at 4 am and slept until 5 am.
• We all got in a taxi and headed back to the airport at 6 am.
• Had coffee and breakfast.
• Flew home.
• Cleaned house {loads of desert dust!} and unpacked.
• By 10:30 am, I was starving, so I started making lunch. My hubby told me I was crazy and sent me to bed.
• Kids watched another movie {that was probably #10 in the last 24 hours!} and both fell asleep.
• I woke up at 1 pm and we all ate lunch. The kids cried multiple times they were so tired.
• We perked up a bit and went swimming to help us stay awake.
• We all headed to bed at 8 pm and slept 15 hours straight!

Culture Through the Eyes of A Child

My 4 year old niece visited {she brought her family along with her as well} last spring. I recently found a scratch piece of paper in which I had recorded some very funny things that she said during their visit. She was experiencing a different culture and it just delighted my heart to hear her process it all out loud.

My little twin.

While we were walking around downtown, she noticed the different clothes and said:

"Dad, I just love those curtain hats those boys wear."

We left our restaurant one night and it had gotten dark. All the city buildings were lit up, including the mosque close to the restaurant. With such delight, she looked up at the mosque minaret and declared:

"Auntie, we just ate right next to Cinderella's Castle!"

I guess the image in her mind of the desert was pretty close to the real thing. As we were driving down the main highway through the country, she yelled out:

"Wow, this looks just like the desert!"

And her common answer when any new food item was placed before her:

"Is it tortellini?"

I think that was the most exotic food item name she could come up with.

Each time she sampled a new food item, she always had something positive to say. Pretty remarkable for a little girl! My favorite:

"Everything is so delicious. Especially when they put honey all over everything!"

A lesson we all can learn from a little girl:

Different things, different people, different food can be delicious!

The next time you see a covered lady at the grocery store or a man with a curtain hat on television, think of the 'honey' that differences bring to our world.

Lovely London

We had a great time in London over Christmas. What a fun city! We saw all the great sites and museums and spent time with family...we couldn't have asked for more.

Of course, because I love traveling and life and culture and humor, I have to share some highlights...

1. I don't understand British humor {or humour, I should say}. Nevertheless, I laughed at all the commercials on TV and Mr. Bean, but didn't always understand why.

See what I mean? Is this a joke or are they serious? I guess I will never know because I didn't want to try and see what would have happened if I, err, "urinated in this area".

2. The weather forecast is done by the color of the clouds: white, gray, black. I guess if it is cloudy everyday, you have to make it exciting some how. But, that didn't really help me make any decisions about what to wear. So we just wore the same thing everyday. See?

This is the Tower Bridge on a gray day.

Here is Big Ben on a white day.

Look! Kensington Palace on a gray day.

And with black clouds. Just kidding...this is the sky line at midnight on 1-1-11!! Happy New Year!

3. The London Underground is AMAZING. When it works. For example: when the London Underground workers go on strike, NO ONE goes anywhere in London. Another example: when the line that goes out to the airport is closed on the day you need it, you spend $100 getting to the airport in a taxi instead of $10 on the Underground. It really is great... When it works.

Mind the Gap!

4. I don't think I have ever had to do a public apology on my blog. But, the time has come. I found that I have been influenced by the East more than I realized.

• I apologize to any person that I stood too close to while engaged in a conversation. I'm just used to a different definition of personal space.
• I apologize to ALL the people that I stepped in front of in line. I'm just not used to those.
• I apologize for staring at everyone who stepped on escalators coming out of the subway and automatically stepped to the right so people in a hurry could pass on the left. It was just all so organized. I'm just not used to that. (On this note... why do they drive on the left, but go 'American' on the escalators and stay right?)
• I'm sorry to all the great restaurants that I passed on by looking for a good falafel stand. I just get these cravings.
• I apologize to that taxi man who was so bothered we were crossing the road one meter away from the actual painted crosswalk that he rolled his window down and pointed to the crosswalk for us, yelling. We are just not used to paying attention to such sophisticated infrastructure.
• And specifically, I am sorry to this nice lady in the red coat who got really angry when I took a picture in St. Paul's Cathedral. I just forget to follow rules sometimes.

Pretty church though, eh?

5. My daughter can produce the perfect British accent. It made me laugh the entire trip. The Brits have such great English. Americans sound so boring compared to them. I was shopping for Wellingtons {those cute rubber boots} for my son and asked the clerk if there were more sizes available. He kindly said:

"I'm quite sorry, there has been a rush on Wellies according to the inclimate weather."

I found myself stepping in front of the elevator doors just so I could hear the voice on the elevator say:

"Please refrain from obstructing the doors."

And of course, no trip to London is complete without repeating at any chance possible:

"Mind the gap between the train and the platform."

But my favorite came on a cold night when my dear hubby and I were out on a date. He went to order me a hot drink to warm me up. So sweet. It was a special Christmas-y drink that was on the menu. My hubby came back with his head down and no drink. Apparently when he ordered the drink, the man told him they no longer have that drink because:

"VINTER IS VINNALLY VINISHED"

He was German...  not really British-speak, but funny.

6. The biggest highlight for me was this. Family. A picture says 1,000 words.

Aww, cousins.

I Think I Have Nine Lives...Now I'm on my Third

I wrote about my first death a few months ago.

On January 3rd, 2011, I lost another life {on account of being scared to death, of course}.

I won't bore you with too many details: the story unfolded like this while we were at Heathrow waiting to board our return flight from our fabulous London vacation.

• We were sitting right next to the gate door where you walk down that accordion hallway thingy {I'm sure there is a technical name for that thingy} to get to the plane.

• There happened to be windows in the gate door where you could see the crew and all passing along the accordion hallway thingy.

• My husband glanced up at the windows and said, "Wow, did you just see that?"

• I glanced up at the windows and saw five large men in security vests ushering one man in handcuffs down the accordion hallway thingy toward our plane. 

• When they were out of sight the handcuffed man started yelling at the top of his lungs the phrase that most suicide bombers yell right before they pull the trigger. "God is Great! Mohammad is his prophet!" AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS.

That was my exact moment of death. I knew I was a goner along with the other 300 or so passangers in the gate area with me. 

BUT

Nothing happened.

• We heard the man continuing to yell as he was put on the airplane.

• Some pilot-ish/official looking guys arrived and looked around at the still passengers {who should have all been boarded on the plane by then}. They rapped on the gate door.

• My husband leaned toward them and quietly explained what had been going on. He suggested that if the screaming man stayed on the plane, they were going to have a lot of anxious passengers to deal with...including us.

• The pilot-ish guys were let in. About five minutes later, the five men with the handcuffed, screaming man {who was still screaming} {AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS} was lead off the plane.

•  The gate attendant showed up all smiles and started boarding the plane.

That was an uneventful way to end life #2.

By the 9th, I am predicting I'm going to look like this:

What I find the most amusing is that although I live in the very volatile Middle East, both my near death experiences in the last 8 years have happened in Europe.

Cheers!

Merry Christmas...not from the Middle East!

Our Christmas Surprise...

It started with a thick cloud cover...

and a snowy runway...

and low lying fog over the river...

and putting on our wellies...

and riding double decker buses...

and 'minding the gap' when getting off the tube...

Merry Christmas from the Apricot Lady...IN LONDON!

The Christmas Story: In Real Life

I will be the first to admit. I don't like the holidays overseas! I know, it is a negative thing to say on my otherwise positive blog, but it is true. I'd much rather be home with family, friends and all things familiar.

But, we live overseas. SO! I tried to reflect on what actually makes Christmas living overseas good. I couldn't come up with a lot until I was reading my kids one of their favorite holiday books. It is actually an advent book where you open a door each day to reveal a little more of the Christmas story with wonderful artwork. I was reading along admiring all those beautiful pictures and my little girl pipes up and says "I think it is cool that all these places this book is talking about...we've been to them and have seen them with our own eyes!"

She was right!

I only had beautiful pictures to admire and give me a picture of the sights and scenery of the Christmas story when I was a kid. But, my kids have BEEN THERE. That is so cool! And this otherwise would not be true had we not embarked on this big overseas living adventure.

So, a little gift from my family to yours.
These are the sights of the Christmas story...in real life.

{The narration is taken from the book mentioned above.}

God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary in the village of Nazareth. The angel said, "Greetings! The Lord has blessed you and is with you. You will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be called the Son of the Most High and will reign forever; his kingdom will never end. The holy one to be born to you will be God's Son. Even your cousin Elizabeth is going to have a child in her old age. Nothing is  impossible with God."

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May everything you have said come true." Then the angel left her.

Mary's house in Nazareth which is now the altar in the largest Christian church in the Middle East.

Mary was engaged to a man names Joseph. But before they were married, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel told him that Mary was to have a baby from God. Joseph was to name the baby Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. He would also be called Immanuel, which means "God with us."

Joseph working in his carpentry shop in the re-enactment at Nazareth Village.

At that time, a decree said everyone had to go to his family's town to register. Joseph was from the family of David, so he and Mary went to Bethlehem, which was David's home.

About a 100 mile trip with hills, mountains, and rough terrain.

While Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born, and Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The place of Jesus' birth, under the altar in the Church of the Nativity.

Shepherds living out in the fields nearby were keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

Sheep with their shepherd in Shepherd's Field just outside Bethlehem.

Sometime later Wise Men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Camels traveling across the eastern desert.

Soon after his birth, Joseph and Mary presented Jesus to the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem, in keeping with the law.

The temple mount in Jerusalem, about 20 miles from Bethlehem.

That day a godly man named Simeon was in the temple. The Holy Spirit had told him he would see the Messiah before he died. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God for keeping his promise. Simeon said, "I have seen the Savior you have given to the world. He is the Light that will show God to the nations. And he will be the glory of your people."

Painting in chapel on Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem.

Barfing in Ramallah

Last week we took a whirl wind tour of the Holy Land. We visited Masada, Old City of Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Ramallah, Nazareth, Cana, Tiberius, Sea of Galilee, Capurnum, Garden Tomb, Tower of David Museum, Hezekiah's Tunnels, City of David, Bethlehem, Shepherds Field, Church of the Last Supper, Davids Tomb, Qumran (where Dead Sea scrolls were found), and a hike up to a waterfall in Ein Gedi. It was Amazing!

I have debated as to how to 'cover' our trip.
Serious. Funny. Photo Journey. Just the facts. I could take it from so many angles.
Alas, because of the theme of this blog, I must go funny. {Because any trip with our family seems to have its 'moments'.} So, without further ramblings...

Our Top 10 {mis} Adventures in the Holy Land

10. This is a scientific break-down of how we spent our time:
          20% sleeping/listening to the neighbors dog barking
          20% getting lost
          10% at border crossings/checkpoints
          5% arguing about directions while getting lost
          25% at amazing sites of Christendom
          5% eating
          5% in our tiny apartment we rented (we pretended we were living in a box car)
          10% driving around while getting lost
{*none of these calculations are scientific. i just made them up. do they even add up to 100%?}

9. The Temple Mount - a holy site for three religions. Closed again. The last time we visited, tourists were not allowed up on the Temple Mount because there were riots/rock throwing over some excavating being done by one group that the other group was not happy with. This time, closed again because of the eid holiday. Bummer. We'll just have to plan another trip!

8. Apparently there is a brand new, beautiful, fast North/South highway running through the West side of the country. Apparently the Lonely Planet guide we were using was published before that brand new, beautiful, fast highway went through. We saw a lot of back roads. The countryside really was beautiful!

7. If we had not been standing directly on one of the Christian worlds most revered places, I would have had serious words with the rude Spaniard tourist that pushed my dear daughter out of the way at the manger scene. My girl just wanted to see where baby Jesus was born. Mean lady.

6. Because of #8 above, we saw the sunset in Galilee. We didn't get to see the Church of the Loaves and Fishes or the Mountain of the Beatitudes or the Church of St. Peter. Nope. They were closed. But, we saw the sunset. That was nice. Another reason to go back.

5. While approaching the Garden Tomb, my daughter told me she was really glad that Jesus rose again...otherwise we would have to see his bones in the tomb. I agreed with her.

4. We took our own car across the border and covered about 1,000 miles. We love our Hybrid...42 mpg! The border guards however, were not so keen on the hybrid. They kept asking why the only sound our car made was clicking noises. Our battery did its little hum/recharge thing while one of the guards was scanning under our car for bombs. It made for some exciting moments. They repeatedly asked us to start our car...when it was already running. Having out of country plates was also a plus so many times when we were lost and people flagged us down to help us. They all would start the conversation by telling us what relative of theirs lived where we're from and how they just felt compelled to help us. Hospitality is amazing in the Middle East!

3. Signs in English in foreign countries just make me laugh. Here are some of my favs from this trip.

I like people that don't take themselves TOO seriously.

Run out of money? Come get some free change.

What a creative name. What a creative logo. I've never seen anything like it before!

2. The culture-lover in me enjoyed our time in the Old City because you get to watch the three people groups/religions all co-exist together in that small area. Fascinating. Here is my hubby buying falafel sandwiches from an Arab guy whose family had lived in the old city for centuries. Behind them are two Orthodox Jews deep in conversation. Muslim. Christian. Jew. This does not happen many other places in the world.

1. Since we were so close, we wanted to drive through Ramallah just to get a feel for what a West Bank town that is always in the news is like. We enjoyed our little spin around town. When we started seeing soldiers posted on the road every 150 yards, we decided our spin should be over. We wound our way back to the check point at which time I realized I had not given my car sick prone child her daily Dramamine dose. Sure enough, just as we made our way to the soldiers, she barfed. In Ramallah. It was a good way to get the soldiers to hurry us through the check point!

West Bank wall artwork is fascinating!