so many sides to Amman

Well, today was yet another example of why cities are cool, because they are so varied in what you can do/see/experience. Nothing spectacular happened but throughout the day, I was in a variety of different settings. I could not fall asleep last night because the apartment window is facing a hallway - aka, a lady was talking on her cell phone at 12:30 am! Oh well, it tested my patience and ability to fall asleep during anything, haha. Needless to say, I slept in a bit this morning, got up around 9:30 am, had breakfast, checked the news, read e-mails, and got ready for work. Lisa and I had a meeting at the Conservatory at noon to check in about schedules, insurance, etc. and that went very well. The best part about being at the conservatory is being able to sit down at the grand piano and play. Lisa's main instrument was piano and I love to play so we came up with a couple duets today :o) Well I was there, I also received the music I need to practice to audition for the Amman Symphony Orchestra. Queen Noor attended the last concert they had so that is pretty awesome! I need to practice a lot so we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!!

From the conservatory, I rode with Omar (guy that works with us) to the clinic to have some of my individual sessions. The ride is always interesting because driving in Amman is just scary to begin with, then Omar likes to listen to techno and loud music :o) quite funny actually. I had GREAT sessions with all my kids today, they are really opening up to me and working with the music in a positive way. I just need to make sure I stay creative and open-minded about everything as times goes on.

In yummy news, Grace cooked dinner for Lisa and I tonight which was wonderful. She did a honey mustard type sauce over chicken wings with rice and carrots on the side, such an awesome hostess! We were stuffed at the end of the meal but we still had to go out with Dana, the assistant director at the conservatory, for dessert/coffee. This is where it's funny about Amman. The place we went to was a restaurant in the Inter-continental Hotel of Jordan and it was a really really nice, fancy place. People from all over appeared to be eating there and we enjoyed dessert and coffee with two other people from the States. Tim works for the conservatory teaching percussion and Christina is teaching at Kings Academy, teaching strings and orchestra. Both were great people to meet and excited to be in Amman. I keep experiencing all the different sides of Amman from the flea markets, to fruit stands, to the bank and police station, to nice hotels, to people's homes......in fact, it's pretty awesome!

Going to attempt to get a better night's sleep tonight but I will keep you posted. Talk to you soon, miss you. xoxo