So, Thursday afternoon started my weekend (as always - Embassy closes at 1:30pm), after a pretty cool morning. I had a meeting with a UNAMI officer who had spent a few years in Iraq, to discuss the human rights situation there. The situation in that country is really interesting (to put it nicely). The best part of my morning though, was coming back just in time for cake (pardon, pas n'importe quel gâteau - un mille-feuille géant à 18 morceaux!!!) for June birthdays (thank you Embassy social committee!), where I received best wishes from the Ambassador herself. That's right, you read me. She was looking me straight in the eyes too. :)
Thursday night, after an afternoon of work - hop in a cab direction downtown for the best Shawarma in Amman, to fuel my evening of more work. I think I spent three times as much on transport as I did on dinner that night - the whole thing still just ended up costing about $4,50. Next morning, breakfast downtown with my roommate (Nana), at an ex-pat filled restaurant that serves, on Fridays, two eggs, french toast, a calzone filled with cheese and zataar, a latte, orange juice, fruit salad - all on a beautiful terrace overlooking one of the many Amman hills. Tried to work there after eating, but it really was too hot, so I came back home for more productivity. That night, went to my colleague's for dinner (sur le bbq - poulet, côtelette d'agneau, steak de boeuf, patates grillées), before heading out to watch the Algeria-England game with some friends in a huge tent they put up for the World Cup. Complete with giant screen and leather couches. That's right, that's what I said, leather couches. And because it cools down nicely in the evenings, it wasn't even hot leather, it was just comfy leathery greatness.
Alright, and now we're Saturday - work all day again (managed to get through quite a bit), except for a break for delicious lunch on our apartment balcony, and until early evening, when my roommate (Kristina) and I went to watch a movie. It's the Franco-Arab Film Festival this week, with a country focus on Algeria (what are the odds?), and the first movie was playing last night. We inadvertently crashed the opening ceremony - well, not really crashed, we just got there early for the movie, and happened upon it (the opening ceremony). Not expecting this, we showed up in our jeans and t-shirts, while all the beautiful French women were in beautiful dresses.. We snagged delicious appetizers and deserts whenever trays came near us (even though we had just had just as delicious falafel sandwiches - new place I found near our apartment, dangerous!), people-watched and got photographed for the magazine sponsoring the event. Take that all you beautiful French women - the photographer wants to see US in his pictures! Hahaha, we had a good laugh about it. To top off a great weekend, great day and great evening, the movie was really good, and in Algerian Arabic - didn't mean I understood any more (though I did pick up a lot of words), but it was comforting.. :)
And after all that, was in bed early, got up no problem this morning for a productive day at the Embassy. I loooove great weekends, especially the ones that allow for great starts to the week.
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