Business trip to Amman

In April this year I changed employer from SAS to Swiss. My job is about the same. I travel and met people as some think. It is and sounds pretty relaxed and easy right? But it includes more duties than that. Shortly after I started at Swiss I got assigned two projects in Amman. A place a visited last year in October and did all important sights like Wadi rum, Petra, the Dead Sea and so on. Now it was time to see the the real Jordan life. The work life.

Life in Amman

What I mostly remembered from Amman was that it was hills everywhere and I also liked the vibe of the vibrant city. A completely different world compared to Sweden and Europe with its cleanness, structure and streets without garbage and holes in. Charming but at the same time not so charming if you take the wellbeing of our planet into consideration. Anyway people go to work and go home also in Amman and now I was being part of that Sunday to Thursday life (yes, it is a Muslim country so weeks are different).

When I came to Amman I had not met any of my colleagues before that I was going to spend the coming month with. At work and most of the time outside of work. That is part of the package. I was lucky and my group of Swiss colleagues were brilliant. But trust me I have been on long business trips where you wish you had separate cars or when you ears are almost bleeding after listening to someone you don’t get along with from 7:30 until bedtime.

Working in Jordan

I could write a full blog post about impressions of work life in Jordan but I won’t like to bore you to death so not this time. Different cultures has always been an interest to me and it is really a huge fortune to travel around in the world and work at different places. You really learn more than any university course in just a week. About life, work, people, cultures and to understand the non verbal signals.

For me this was my first time working in Middle East. Malta felt like Africa and that is my closest experience but this was different. you could tell people was trying to lie in your face. And a yes to that something would be solved means yes within three or four reminders. Interesting and valuable life lesions.

Training

This point worried me the most. Since I am a loyal runner since forever not being able to run and not even have an injury as an excuse would be a challenge. I am a training addict and one training a day is almost a must for me. Amman is one of the worst cities of running I been to I would say. Hilly, loads of traffic and hot. If I went out at 6 am I worked but at 1000m above seaside and with an elevation gain of 140 meters each run in the 25 plus degree heath my 10K morning runs were not effortless. After a week I started to like the parkour inspired runs and went at least four times a week. Now I am even looking forward to my next Amman trip and the morning runs where you see the sun rising over the buildings and the city coming to life again.

Time off

My weeks in Amman was extremely hot. Hottest days had 44 degrees and walking over the tarmac was burning hot. I didn’t see or do a lot of special things this trip. It was basically to hot and the day off I had each week I preferred spending by the pool. Next time I hope to do more sightseeing to yet undiscovered places. My inner Dora the explorer won’t allow me something else. I saw a lot of restaurants though since we was out eating almost every day and during the weekends we went to visit a fair amount of rooftop bars.

One of the last evenings I took a long walk by myself around the whole city center. It’s a must see if you ever go to Amman.

Another day we went to a sports bar with the worlds largest screen and it was huge. To bad Sweden didn’t made it to the final at the world soccer championship. Would have been a dream to watch it from there.

I traveled to Amman with zero expectations and probably that was good because I liked it. The organized chaos, Middle East mixed up with Western influence and the weather. Rather 44 degrees than minus -24. Next time I will though have to level up my sightseeing runs since I have quite a few races coming up and among them Taipei marathon which has been on my list for many years.

/ Pernilla recapping the Amman experience