Middle Eastern Digs
"Where thou art, that is home"
I often get asked what it's like where we live and this year I'll give you a much more positive answer than last year. Last year I feel like I was still struggling to feel comfortable in our home and to be able to shrug off the annoying and often infuriating things that come with living somewhere that's basically still under construction...read: drilling going on at 8:30 pm directly underneath your bedroom floor.
It's definitely been a practice in finding the positive, claiming your space and making it feel like it's yours. Justin and I, technically, don't have a home other than this one which is the reason we work so hard to make it comfortable and to make it something we look forward to coming back to after traveling or after a long night of eating mix grill and drinking karak.
So here's a small glimpse into what it's like:
click the video below.
You'll notice the giant mess of art supplies on the dining room table....that's what an in process children's book illustration looks like.
You'll notice that we have a washing machine in the kitchen and NO dryer. I've found out that having a dryer is not really a thing in most countries so we've (I mean Justin who has it down to a science at this point..not me at all) been air drying the laundry. The bad thing is that you have to plan and time what you need to wear and when. Oh, you want your favorite jeans? Try again. They'll be wet for the next 4-5 hours.
Also, you'll notice that we have NO dishwasher. This is a luxury in this country that we just don't have and we've learned to live with it. Instead we put a trash can where the dishwasher would go. No one notices, right?
You couldn't see much of the view since it was dark out but here's a daytime shot:
We're still not quite sure what all this is..
So obviously we don't have too much of a view but at night it's not too bad. You can see the Torch lit up and if you hang out the window and look to your right you can see a lot of the downtown area which I can never seem to capture in a photo. We do, however, have the occasional desert fox that comes out of that big area of...stuff. There were also small kittens living in the dumpsters but I don't hear from them anymore and I think the fox had something to do with that. :|
This is also what our block of apartments looks like currently.
And this is what it's meant to look like...uh..one day.
Sometimes the swath of dirt will change from big areas of dirt to a big area of holes and then filled back in again. I like to think that one day it'll be full of green grass and trees and signs that say "entrance" and "exit". Dreams.
But for real though, it's not that bad. I know that other people have pools and gyms and whatnot and we have construction going on under our feet but it's okay. I've traveled around the world and this country and seen where other people live and what they consider themselves lucky to have so we can certainly feel lucky as well. I guess Justin and I are easy to please. Although I WILL go downstairs and tell them to knock off the drilling from time to time.
Also, sometimes people ask me how I get to work and what that's like. Well, I used to ride in the bus provided by the school last year but this year I've been riding with my good buddy, Kassem, who has kindly let me and others take over his car and morning routine and the radio. ;P
Kassem is an extremely conscientious driver but we have taught him some American road rage phrases. I'm sure you can guess what words we've taught him. Hah. We also stop off once a week for our morning ritual of falafel and karak at Petra and Hot Chicken (which is hands down the best karak in the entire country). I have to say that next year when I'm driving myself to work, it'll be a much difference experience than now and I'll for sure miss this craziness everyday.
Speaking of being back in America, we land at 6am on Saturday morning in Hotlanta and we couldn't be more excited to be back in the A! We look forward to seeing friends and family and doing a little neighborhood shopping as we try to find where we'd like to plant roots for our new home and new upcoming chapter of our life.
-Tiffany
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