"Snow" Day

or, Even Maryland's Not This Squeamish!

Amman, Jordan

I had hoped to get more than one day off to spend with Philip on his visit, but the timing was poor, and I knew I couldn't get out of any part of what is our first week of the second session of classes. John couldn't get today off to entertain his friend Ann, either. So Philip and Ann made arrangements to meet around the corner at Baraka Mall, and John and I shared a taxi to work.

We had just come through the front doors and signed in at the palm scanner when my phone started to ring. It took us quite some time to find it (it had fallen out of my jacket pocket into the jacket lining), and when we did, it was our co-worker Martha. "Good news, Maryah! Snow day! You don't have to go to work today! John still has to go in for placement testing, but you and I don't have to work today." Only half an hour too late!

Anyway, the driver took me to Baraka Mall, where I met up with Philip and Ann, and we had a wonderful day at Jafra Restaurant and shopping for pashminas and kaffiya in the city center. It was a beautiful day, actually. Sunny, not too cold....

It took me a long time to figure out why in the world we had a "snow day" today. There was no snow in sight. Not in Amman. But eventually I remembered that, because there is no heating in the public schools, sometimes the Ministry of Education calls "snow days" that are really "cold days."