Green Space

Lately I have started to get stir crazy in the house and realized that I have really been missing the outdoors. Coming from Minneapolis, I would run or walk to the four parks with lakes within 15 blocks of our house at least four times a week. BUT here in Amman such outings in nature are just impossible. There are "parks" but they usually exist in the middle of an intersection and that to me does not count as a park.

So I have tried to start walking every night BUT that seriously is risky for various reasons. First, the obvious is the cultural issue. There aren't tons of people that exercise here on the streets, let alone women. Matt has gone walking with me a few times and I usually don't have many problems when he is around but without him it is a different story. It is crazy what grown men will yell out of their cars to you! The second issue is traffic. Amman is an ever growing city - currently it is estimated that between 3.5 and 5 million people live in Amman. This is a city that just 20 years ago was only a million! So, the increase in people and cars has seriously impacted where one can walk and not feel like they are on a highway. So I have come to realize that living in the desert is something that is hard to get used to when you are used to surroundings like these: