Jackie has graced Jordan with her presence for a month…
She ate at Jafra, Al Quds, Habibeh, and Hashems, visited Petra and Wadi Rum, floated in the Dead Sea, taught a Language Club at the OWA summer camp, experienced long Ramadan days, broke fast with the OWA students, spent a long weekend in Palestine, and ate 5 servings of Maqlubeh at Wael’s house.
Needless to say, she did it all.
Yet.. I STILL WISH SHE STAYED!!!
You all know Nadine in some way or the other. I’ve either rambled about her in stories over skype or posted her videos and quotes on various social media plaforms. Nadine has officially filled many roles in my life: confidante, roommate, best friend. Sometimes I feel like if I think something, and I don’t say it out loud to Nadine, its almost like I didn’t think it.
Most recently, we added a new relationship to the list: colleagues! Yes, that’s right – we now work together too. In fact for the last 2 months, we both shared one desk because office space was tight. Really, the best way to illustrate our relationship would be the following story: Nadine, skyping with a friend from home, introduces me. “This is Julie. She’s…..(my friend? my roommate? my colleague?)…..She’s like my arm.”
Anyway, al muhim is that Nadine has so many wise words – I could start a whole other blog cataloguing all of them. She’s a self proclaimed sap ( “Its ok to feel.” ) and has the biggest heart of anyone I know.
And as mentioned above, girl talk is her small game. I figured I would share one of her best quotes – the one she always tosses out as we deal with the ups and downs of life abroad – relationships – work – decisions – and of course, the future.
You can read more wise words from Nadine here: http://theviewfromamman.wordpress.com/
Two Fulbright best friends – head to head jump rope.
Disclaimer: Biff had a broken foot but still wanted to play.
Note: I won.
Megan came to visit me in Jordan.
Two best friends, reunited, on an adventure.
It was actually the best week, ever.
“May your adventures bring you closer together,
even as they take you far away from home.”
Now I’m left missing Megan and looking towards a new countdown…
Jackie arrives July 31st!
Amman better get ready for a set of Whittaker sisters to hit the town!
I’ve been so bad about blogging lately.. its actually unreal. Have I mentioned yet that I started a student blog for the Orphan Welfare Association in Baqaa? Anyway, check it out (I’ve been decent about blogging on that platform)… http://thebaqaatimes.wordpress.com/
The Baqa’a Times is our OWA student blog. It has students’ writings (English and Arabic) and photos. The idea is to empower the students – giving them a platform to present their work, their Association, and their community. I also occasionally contribute stories about our activities. For example, the most recent post on “Rap and Graffiti” … our latest Friday program :)
If you get a chance, peruse the site. The OWA (and Baqa’a in general) remains to be my favorite place in Jordan.. and a big piece of my heart.
I feel like a proud mom when I think about it (I hate that I even just wrote that, gosh I’m old)… but really I can’t help but think: look, look, see powerfully Selselbeel wrote about her family? Look, look see what insights Hashem captured with his photos? Look, look can you believe little Ban memorized poetry about Palestine? Look, look how big are they smiling?
How am I already back in Amman? That was easily the fastest 10 days of my life.
(Though included in those days was also the slowest day of my life..
amman–>tel aviv–>massive security–>layover–>new york .. a story for another day)
Thank you everyone for an amazing Christmas and New Year :)
Some life updates:
– Our cat, Tigger, is alive.
[Though I still need to send the next “kitty support” payment to our cat sitter]
– We moved into a new house! Its a townhouse on a golf course and its lovely!
– All the cousins are OLD! Maria is taller than me (I knew this day would come) – Brendan is more mature than me – and Nia is walking around like an independent woman .. though still succumbs to tickling ..
There were plenty of more antics and adventures..
never a dull moment during Christmas at Nana’s!
– ALSO! There was snow! and a lot of it. Luckily, it didn’t (really) ruin our plans… the Whittaker/Clausen/Bremser family prevailed and managed to take over a restaurant for brunch :)
– In the biggest update of all, my home friends are famous! Yes, that’s right, our brief 10 minutes of fame [from that time Ted something or other interviewed us about the shark sighting in Chatham] has NOT ended.. now we have muscians in our group!
To remind you all of the holidays… here is an introduction ..
the Anna and Hayley Christmas Spectacular!
Anna and Hayley’s Christmas Spectacular: Part One from Julie Whittaker on Vimeo.
Anna and Hayley’s Christmas Spectacular: Part Two from Julie Whittaker on Vimeo.
Gets me every time .. I can’t wait to show this to my Petra U students and make them sing along .. Hayley and Anna, prestige worldwide ?
Anyway, there are so many more updates and fun memories I want to post.. but yet its making me miss home and its late here before my first “back to work” day tomorrow! So some last things I guess..
– I didn’t forget arabic during my stay! #win
– but I never found an engagement dress for Nisreen… #fail
– I saw Chris Hearne, TWICE!
– Jackie helped me buy nearly 100 books for basic/little kid English classes.. AND i managed to keep my suitcase underweight
– Melissa turned 23 !
– I visited the Fairfield girls’ apartment BEFORE greg, Mr. NYC, did
and..
– I had an AMAZING TIME!!
So binuti —-> So girly..
A quick snapshot of some of my favorite people…
Spooning from left to right –> Bif, Maya, ME, and Nadine
I don’t know if its the cold weather, the lack of physical contact, or just coincidence, but we’ve been doing a lot of binuti sleepovers that end up like this :)
I have an apartment!! And its beautiful :)
More photos to come..!
Julie in Jordan! 