Marhaba from Amman!

We are here, on the other side of the world.

Amber and I had uneventful flights, except that on the flight from London to Amman I left my special copy of That Hideous Strength in the seat pocket in front of me. Alas alack.

Our apartment is comfortable and spacious. I've spent a lot of the last 24 hours cleaning. It is not a whole lot more dirty than our apartment in San Bernardino last summer, but it's taken quite a lot of time. One of the bathrooms has a puddle that comes out of nowhere. Sadly, the drain is in the high spot on the floor (which seems to be typical), so that's no help. But there are no croaches!!!

Amber's friendliness is making us many friends. Yesterday we met the man who owns most of the grocery stores in our neighborhood (his nephew -- whom Amber somehow befriended by accusing him of overcharging us for bath towels -- introduced us). He took us to buy cell phones and got everybody a good deal.

What I miss the most right now (that's non-human and not Wal-Mart) is brown sugar and bicarbonate of soda. And cookie sheets. It'll be a while before I make cookies . . .