Some pretty exciting news

Hey all! So Yesterday I decided to ask the Academic Director of the program about the classes I will be taking in the fall. Right now, I am only taking fos-ha and amiyya  classes, but come fall I will be taking two other classes as well. I was planning on taking the two classes 'An Archaeological History of Jordan' and 'Arab Theater'. Some of the students from last spring said they thought I would be able to take the more advanced classes that would be taught in Arabic if I wanted, so I decided to talk to Manal, the Academic Director. She agreed with the students, and said I would be taking 'Arab Media' and 'Islamic Civilization' IN ARABIC which I think is pretty exciting! Those two classes are much more related to my major. The history and culture surrounding Islamic Civilizations are more useful to understanding Arabic culture than only studying Arab theater, which only deals with one part of the culture. And I think I want to write my thesis on the differences of portrayal of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict from the point of view of the Israelis and the Arabs. At George Washington University, I have already taken Arab Film and Culture, Israeli Cinema, Israeli Media, and if I take Arab Media in the fall, I think it will fit in nicely with my previous coursework as well as help with my thesis. I emailed my advisor, Professor Esseessy and asked if I could recieve credit towards my major with these changed courses, especially because they will not be in English. I also emailed a college academic advisor and asked her the same thing. Hopefully all will turn out well, but knowing GW I am sure I will stress out a lot first.

Anyways, that is my good news! I am really excited for these two new courses, and am happy Manal thinks I am advanced (or will be advanced) enough to take "real" courses in Arabic. Yay!

Ana Kasula!

So I am getting into the swing of things. We get packets of words we are supposed to memorize every day, and I am trying hard to learn them all. Classes here are weird, because everyone was in a different level, its hard for the teachers to place us in appropriate classes. For example, I was in a class with two students who barely speak any Arabic, and one girl who was here last semester so knows a LOT more. That girl, Lindsay is now in a new class that is like mine but a little quicker. We learn the same vocab and read the same things, they just go a little faster. In my class, (not to toot my own horn) I am now the best because Lindsay left, so I have to push myself as opposed to letting the class push me, but it's okay. If I am tired or having a lazy day, its nice to not have to try too hard. (The title of this post is Ana kasula, meaning 'I am lazy', and it's true) I don't mind being lazy in the summer, though. I will learn as much as I can, but I need a 'break' of sorts. Meaning, come fall I will work my butt off, but right now I am okay with making friends and hanging out and going to Aqaba for the weekend (in two weeks! I am sooooo excited!!!!! More on that later!) stuff like that. I don't want to spend all my time studying. Just by living here, I am learning a ton. But I hate how many different languages Arabic really is. Some of the words in amiyya are similar to Fos-ha but some are really quite different!

As for my language partner, Bra'a, I believe I wrote about a few problems I had with her- that I was worried she didn't have time to spend with me- and I am happy to report that this is not the case and I love her! She is a great teacher, because she knows fos-ha as well as amiyya and a little English too. She is super nice, and has some great friends. One of her friends I met today, Mona, is very nice and very sassy (a word I taught them today). I feel bad, because today I forgot what culture I was in and told Mona I loved her ring (really just making conversation, it's not really my style) and she gave it to me. I tried to give it back, but I couldn't. In the Arab culture, if someone likes something you have, you give it to them. It is rude to refuse a gift, so now I have a new ring

It is a little gaudy, just like all the jewelry here-cheap, plastic, and sparkly, but whatever. I will wear it, and every time I do, I will think of Mona. This is why she gave it to me after all, to remember her.

This weekend will be a study weekend, but next weekend is a party weekend! Me and 8 of the girls are going to AQABA!!!!! It is on the Red Sea, and we are going snorkeling and hanging out on private beaches (meaning we can wear proper bathing suits, not burkinis) which makes me happy. It is a touristy place (the Jordanian version of Eilat for those of you who know Israel at all) so there are bars, and westerners, and all sorts of special things and western culture!!!!!! I don't mind the culture here, but it is nice to recognize my own every once in a while. We can get drunk, we can swim, we can tan on the beach and make our arms and legs the same color (my legs are white, my arms are pretty tan), we can eat something other than veggies and falafel or fuul, so many things could happen!!!!! I have been keeping track of all the money I have spent here, and I am going to spend over two weeks worth in Aqaba (about $200) but I don't care. This week, I only spent about $4 per day just cause I didn't need to buy anything, so I don't mind splurging every once in a while. A girl needs some fun in her life, no?

Its hard to believe I have been here for 3 weeks. I feel like I have been here forever already.

I sent an email to the Middle East study abroad advisor at my school. I gave him some suggestions on things to add to the orientations, some things I wish I had known. I told him I would have liked to have been told just how broken and terrible the living conditions are. He emailed me back, upset at the words 'broken' and 'terrible' and told me to journal about my understanding of the word 'broken'. This bothers me because when I say broken, I mean BROKEN. I mean the city is decaying in front of me. No one cares about the public spaces. The city is dirty and it is unhealthy to live here. Yes, 'terrible' might have been a little harsh and attached to my cultural expectations, but 'broken' is not. When door handles continuously fall off, they are BROKEN. When rooms flood a lot, the pipes are BROKEN (or at least clogged). when your pots have holes in them, they are BROKEN. When sidewalk tiles are broken in half, or when steps in the sidewalks are cracked, missing, or crumbling under your feet, the sidewalk is BROKEN. This is what I mean by 'broken'. I would have liked to know the true conditions of the city (especially from an American point of view because I am used to American standards of living) before I go to a place, just to prepare myself! That is my little rant of the day.

PS, after the program, I am traveling with my friend Jessie, and maybe some other people. We are going going for two weeks, before I have to fly to Amsterdam to vacation with my family. We are going to Israel for a bit, but are tossing around ideas of other places we could visit, maybe for a week. Any ideas? We were thinking maybe Berlin, or Rome. Any other great places to visit for cheap?

A list of things I will never again take for granted

I am not a spoiled little brat by nature, and I thought I knew just how lucky I was in my life to have all the things I do. But here is a list of things I never knew I took for granted, but never will again. Oh I miss you, my old way of life! I had it so easy, but it is amazing how quickly you get used to living in a (pardon my french) shit hole (all you PC people who get upset when I say bad things about other places, I am talking about Irbid,  not Jordan in general, and nobody, not even Jordanians like Irbid- they are just here cause they can't afford Amman or because of the University- the ONLY two reasons!).

MY LIST OF THINGS I WILL NEVER AGAIN TAKE FOR GRANTED


1) FLUSHING TOILET PAPER DOWN THE TOILET

In Jordan (and apparently a lot of other countries according to the handy website http://www.wheredoiputthepaper.com/gtom.html) you cannot flush TP down the toilet. Unfortunately, you put it in a trash can, which I find nasty but the plumbing system can't handle the paper!

2) THE PLUMBING

In general, the plumbing here sucks. You can't flush TP down the toilet, as I said already. Also, things just get clogged all the time. Every time I shower, the bathroom floods and I have to squeegee the water into a hole in the floor created specifically for this purpose! why not make a normal drain and keep all the water IN the shower?! There is also a hole in the kitchen floor which used to overflow all the time before we got that fixed. And the sink in the bathroom is clogged too. And hot water? Thats not really done here.

3) TOILET PAPER

There isn't TP in every public bathroom. Everywhere I go here, I carry around TP with me!

4) SAFETY

Here, just like in The States, there are safety regulations for public buildings. For example, there must be a fire extinguisher in every building. However, this really only applies to large stores and government funded buildings. Also, the fire extinguishers are saran wrapped to the max, and if there was a fire it would take so long to tear them free from the saran wrap, you would burn first.

The streets are littered with broken glass, animal feces, and broken sidewalks. The sidewalks themselves are a constant mess of broken tile and concrete, lots of stairs, lots of sudden endings and a lot of ups and downs- lots of slipping and tripping and stubbing opportunities!

Sitting on a bus is just a suggestion here, along with seat-belts for children (and adults too but its the 5 children chillin' in the back seat of a car without seat-belts that worries me most).

5) HEALTH

I've never had to worry about getting worms from the food I eat and the water I drink or the streets I walk on. But two people here have gotten them! I hope I don't!!!

I've never worried this much about whether or not the food/water was clean (I have a Jordanian friend from GW University who told me under no circumstances was I to eat parsley in Jordan because people don't clean it properly).

6) BEING CLEAN

I know I should have expected this, but I feel so gross every day because all I do is drink water and then sweat it out! I didn't sweat this much in Israel, I guess cause I didn't have to wear as much and there was proper AC.

Also, due to the fact that Jordan is extremely dirty, my body constantly has a layer of dirt on in, that sticks to the sweat. It really is quite gross.

7) AIR CONDITIONING

Very few places have descent AC. The gym has 2 on the ceilings but its a big room and so is always SOOOO HOT! My classroom only has a fan, my apartment only has 2 fans- one in my room and one in my roommate's room (if I ever get a Jordanian roommate, she won't get a fan :( poor her, but as of yet she doesn't exist).

8) PROPERLY WORKING APPLIANCES AND KITCHEN STUFFS

All my appliances technically work, I have to light my stove with a lighter ever time I use it. I have to fill up my washing machine with sink water into a pot dumped into the machine and then the water drains into the hole in the kitchen. The lid to the machine is from another machine so it isn't really attached. Same with the toilet seat, its from a different toilet and is not attached, but hey, at least I have one! The toilet at school doesn't. My shower is more of a trickle of cold water but still manages to flood the bathroom every time because there is no shower curtain. I hang my clean laundry from hangers hung from my curtain rod and draped over doors and chairs, because we don't have a dryer or drying rack (I might buy one since I will be here so long).

One of my pots has a hole in it about half way up and ever time I boil water, it slowly leaks out from there. luckily, my stove is tilted so if I place it correctly, the pot can tilt away from the hole and not leak as much. As for silverware and dishes, we have 2 forks, 2 spoons, 1 knife, and 2 plates but a million esspresso sized cups! Not really useful.

9) PERSONAL FREEDOMS

I am not allowed to go out by myself before 8am and after 6pm. Whenever I am with my language partner, she makes sure we are never more that 5 inches apart, even if we are shopping in a big store. Personal space doesn't really exist here, which is too bad because everyone smells a bit due to the fact that everyone sweats so much and there is so much dirt and garbage around that everyone is dirty.

I can't wear just anything I want, or say whatever I want. If I want to go to a restaurant, I have to sit in the back of the restaurant or upstairs, separated from the men's section. Male friends can sit with me in the 'family/woman' section, but I can't sit in the 'men's' section.

10) NOT BEING VERBALLY ACCOSTED EVERY DAY

Every day, while walking on the street all the shebab shout at women, especially foreign women. Usually its harmless and best to just ignore, but every day we hear "Welcome to Jordan!", "oh my g-d" kissing noises, and other stupid things they picked up from watching western movies and tv. The older women, on the other hand love to ask if I am married, and when I say no, suggest their sons. When I say no thanks, they ask why I hate Jordanians. It is exhausting explaining western ways to people!

11) TALKING TO WHOMEVER I WANT

AKA boys. Most of my friends at home are boys, so it is hard for me to adjust to not talking to them. The shebab (youth aka boys between the ages of 15-25) on the street are awful and easy to just ignore, but there are some polite boys who it is nice to talk to ever once in a while but whenever I am with my language partner, she always drags me away and tells me never to talk to them because they are bad (I really don't get it).

This city has no movie theater. There is nothing to do here. Still, it builds character, no? And luckily I would never travel for more than a weekend without my own movies, so I am not dying. I still manage to have fun, don't worry!

Parkouring in the North

Yesterday was our first group trip. It was a short trip, only one day. In three weeks we will go on a longer trip and stay over night in places (Petra I hope! But probably in a beduin camp in the desert). This trip we went on yesterday was a ton of fun. All the language partners were invited, and many came but mine stood me up which I was disappointed about. 

Little aside about my language partner: She is really sweet, but she seems like school is too busy for her and doesn't have enough time to meet with me. I have to talk to her next time I see her because I have only met with her twice and we were supposed to meet four times. 

Now back to the trip.

We went to three sights of Roman ruins: Um Qais, Ajloun, and Jerash. The difference between ancient ruins here and anywhere else in the world, we were allowed to climb all over the ruins! I know its wrong, but it was sooo muuuch fuuunnn! I felt like a kid again, parkouring all around the ruins. DEFINITION: Parkour (par core) the act of getting from point a to point b in the most difficult way possible

Basically, we climbed all over everything. 

UM QAIS

Located in sight of the Sea of Galilee, it was too cloudy to see Tiberias, but I think I was able to make out a bit of it. I love ruins, and this was no exception. One thing I particularly enjoyed was the flowers I saw there. There is a lack of color here, but I came across some beautiful flowers and and flowering bushes.

When we first were set lose in the ruined town, most of the students walked up some stairs and found their way into the Amphitheater. However, I was interested in exploring a side tunnel (turned out to be what looked like a sewer line of sorts). A few of the boys followed me into the tunnel and we ended up climbing up a 10 foot wall to get to the amphitheater and everyone else. The boy in this picture is Jeff. He studies at George Washington University as well along with another girl here, Lindsay. I really like most of the people here (There are a few annoying people here, but for the most part everyone is really nice). 

This photo is of me and two of my better friends on the program. The blonde girl in the middle is Jessie from New York (not the city) and the girl on the left is Danielle from Tennessee. They both go to American University in D.C. (Danielle actually graduated this past spring, so I guess technically she doesn't go to American anymore. 

AJLOUN CASTLE

 

Ajloun Castle is about 40 minutes from Irbid, where I live. I think it was used as protection during the crusades from invasion in the north. It is pretty close to the border with Syria as well. Before we went into the castle, there was a man selling fresh authentic Arabic Coffee (Kahuah in Fos-ha and 'ahua in Amiyya). This is where most of the students really got into their parkouring- I personally didn't come into my own until the next site, Jerash, but still mannaged to do some climbing. 

This photo was taken at the top of the castle, and from left to right is Laura (not Lauren my roommate- we still accidentally mix up their names a lot, as well as between Jess and Jessie, and myself and the girl Emma - So many similar names!!!!!) Anyways, the first girl is Laura, then Nicole, myself, and Jessie.

JERASH

Jerash was my favorite place of the three. It was the biggest and most extensive bunch of ruins. This is where I really got to climb and play and parkour with my friens :)

This is a photo of Hamseh (a language partner with a need for attention) climbing up the wall and into a hole in Jerash. We all watched as he almost fell like five times, but he was fine and no one got hurt (here).

Above, I am sitting on stones from the town center. Some Roman emperor with a really long name came here for his winter home. Thus the town was built up and a colonnade was built for him, and everything was really nice. Hundreds of years later, its still pretty cool. The photo to the right is taken from the top of a wall I climbed - about 40 or so feet up. In the distance is the rest of the town and you can see  the famous colonnade and amphitheater and temple. We spent the most time here and I had the most fun (there were also two horses here which was nice to see). It was hard climbing up, but really fun, and it felt pretty awesome to be up on top of a huge ancient building! 

After Jerash, we went out to dinner at this HUGE tented restaurant. It really was more of a banquet hall. It was a lot of family style Middle Eastern food, however they brought all the vegetarians (there are like 5 of us and two girls who only eat chicken!) individual bowls of vegetables and rice....basically it looked and tasted like Aloo Gobi which I thought was really funny. I ate SO much because it was delicious, and they brought us tea and coffee afterward, (the do after every meal) and we also got some Argila (Hookah) and some of us sat in a circle smoking. I don't really get why its so much fun, it doesn't really do anything for me, but I sat with everyone and drank my tea. I did try some, but it really doesn't make me light headed like it is supposed to, so I don't really like it.

After all that, we went home, and I thought I would just pass out because I was exhausted, but nope! It was party time! A lot of the students went over to my friends Jessie and Lindsay's room and we had booze and music and chatted away in Arablish (Arabic English combined, like Spanglish) until very late. Unfortunately, and what goes against everything I have been raised to be, us women folk are forbidden from walking alone outside after 6pm! So one of the boys, Rob- a very nice man who I was able to get to know a lot better today- we had some good bonding- walked me and the other girls from my building home. I really hate having to be walked home, but there have been some issues from the Shebab (the young boys between the ages of 15 and 25 who are horrible annoying boys who think they can harass women as they walk by) so its better to be safe than not.

Today, I have done NOTHING! Literally, it took me until 2pm to get up and make myself some food, a delicious stir fry which I am getting quite skilled at making with my limited ghetto cooking supplies. Mostly, I have been trying to upload these photos onto this blog, which takes forever, and listening to my favorite podcast, 'Stuff You Missed in History Class'. Oddly enough, I took a break from my computer to stare out the window for a while as it suddenly started pouring, and stranger yet, hailing! there were little balls of hail, and I was so shocked because it is almost 90 degrees out! I was also worried because the rain made the street into a river in about 5 seconds, so I hope it doesn't rain too much in the fall!

Ahalan Amman

So this week was really hard. I think I haven't given you a proper picture of Irbid, so I will try now.

First off, it is WAY hot. I was expecting that, but I didn't realize how much it would effect my mood in school. School has a fan but no AC. Yesterday and today were around 106 degrees F! Also, while I can wear T-shirts, I MUST wear either pants or long skirts. HOT!!!!

Secondly, Jordan but especially Irbid is DIRTY. There are very few public trash cans, and culturally, people only care about how clean their own property is. outside their house, in public spaces is not their problem. I sometimes feel like in Middle Ages England because trash can come flying down from apartments and upper levels. There is broken glass all over, and squashed plastic bottles and paper coffee cups all over the sidewalks. The sidewalks themselves are treacherous. They are either WAY run down or never finished. Tiles are broken or missing, there are holes and uneven pathways, and the sidewalks end and start up in very random places. there are lots of stairs involved. If someone were to come in a wheelchair they would have to just wheel up the road, not on the sidewalks.

As for driving, Jordanians seem to have issues with staying in lanes. Not that there are any real dividers on the roads. People just weave in between other cars as they need. There are tons of people honking their horns and getting TOOOO close to the cars in front of them. Much like roads in Israel, the Jordanian streets are NOT smooth! There are bumps that I think must be attempts at speed bumps all over the streets, even the high ways. They don't slow down the cars though, and it is quite easy to get car sick.

School is 4 hours about each day, Sunday through Thursday. Starting next week, I will also be getting private tutoring and a language partner. My language partner's name is Bra'a. She seems very nice, but she talks so fast, it is hard to understand her. I have to meet with her for 4 hours for the next 3 weeks, and 3 hours for the last 3 weeks.

After class on Thursday, my friend Jessie and I went to get juice. This is our favorite past time and after school snack. The juices are delicious, and there is such a variety. There is juice, smoothies, half smoothie/half whole fruit, and they even have ice cream with fruit! I ended up breaking our language pledge. I'm not sorry. I had been having the hardest time living here, feeling all alone, and hating every second. After breaking the pledge, Jessie and I talked a lot and hung out a lot and I felt a lot better. We speak in Arabic so much ANYWAYS, I don't think not talking ALL the time is so bad. We got to the point of deciding if it was better to talk in English or not talk at all. So I decided I love English and won't keep my language pledge all the time, but there are many students here who I still talk to in Arabic, and most of the natives here don't speak English, so I will get lots of practice.

Today, Jessie, Laura, Jess and I went to Amman for the day. It was a lot of fun, but REALLY hot. We walked around the small souk (market) and saw a Roman amphitheater, ate amazing food, and missioned on back home. It was a short trip but it was really nice to get out of Irbid. Before, when I was home in Amherst, a girl from my high school graduating class named Hannah stopped me on the street one day to talk about Jordan. She said she had just come back from a semester in Amman and didn't really like it because it was so dirty and boring.
I can see what she means, but compared to Irbid, Amman was super clean and had so much to do! We didn't go, but they have BARS there! Irbid is so boring even the students at university who are from other parts of Jordan hate it here because there is nothing to do. We don't even have a movie theater!!! Have you ever heard of a CITY without a movie theater?! I haven't. But Amman was a lot of fun, and it was so nice to get out of Irbid. Otherwise I would have just been couped up in my room or Jessie's room (she has AC) watching TV and feeling bored.

To the right is a picture of the Al Husseini Mosque. Its in Amman, and was really pretty. I wanted to go in but it was prayer time and we didn't have anything to cover our heads with.

The most exciting thing to do here is go to the gym. Its also nice because they have descent showers, which I don't.

Anyways, thats about all I have to say now. Oh! If you want to get in touch with me, email is best (ellaw@gwmail.gwu.edu). Commenting for little things, but I don't have a lot of exciting things to write on the blog, so I haven't been checking it every day, but I do check my email. So email is better. Or facebook. that works too.

 Above is a photo, bad as it may be, of the highest flagpole in the world....I think now actually there may be a higher one in Tajikistan (Jess said she thought that actually, I really have no idea) but this one is really quite tall.

LOVE!

Rough Times Ahead

Day 5

I am going through the bad part of culture shock right now. I am realizing I am in a third world country where I don’t speak the language or understand the culture. No one here speaks fos-ha which is pretty much all I know. All we have learned so far in amiyya is ‘I want’ and ‘I want you to…’ and relative pronouns. It makes it kind of hard to talk to people.

Also, while I thought my dorm room at home was shit (pardon my French) it looks like a palace compared to where I live. We have to light the stove with a lighter. The laundry machine terrifies me- I haven’t yet learned how to work it, but it involves holding certain tubes and pieces up to the sink and to a hole in our kitchen while it runs…in layman’s terms, it is WAY GHETTO.

School is not too hard, but our homework today at least was. I had to read 3 pages on military history of Syria. (Most of the teachers in the program are Syrian because the program originated in Syria but had to be moved for obvious reasons). Basically, one page about the Ottoman Empire ruling for 400 years, then a 2 year revolution, then some stuff in the cold war, then problems with Israel and the Golan Heights. 2 pages on the Golan Heights and how Israel was aggressive and attacked and there were peace treaties and all that good stuff. I had to look up every other word because I don’t know political words in Arabic other than politics and United Nations. But Even the UN Security Council has an abbreviated term for United Nations (الاون) and I kept forgetting it and not recognizing the term. It took a while to say the least.

Hopefully in a few days, I will fall into a better pattern and feel better about the whole situation. I think once I am able to better understand and communicate with people, I will be happier here. For now I have to content myself with the fact that I can spend less than $5 per day if I am just buying food and every day things. That’s not bad, now is it? Still, it would be nice to be in a more western country I think. I will have to take ‘breaks’ from Jordan I think. Go to Israel.

Also, I am looking into being an Au Pair in Germany or somewhere in Europe during my months in between my Jordan program and my Israel program. I figured it would be a good way to make some money before I start school again. And I miss Germany. However, it is hard to find Au pair jobs for December now, so I will figure all that out later.

Okay, I have to go to sleep now. My entire body hurts because I took a class at the gym yesterday. My friend Jessie and I went and ended up meeting the teacher and she said she taught Yoga. We went, but it wasn’t yoga. It was more like strength training, but the strangest muscles. We didn’t do a lot with our abs and barely any arms. It was a lot of legs and hip flexors (I think) and some of the moves we did I remember being yelled at in Kindergarten because they were bad for your skeletal structure…. I don’t think I will do that class again, but it was interesting to do once. 

I wrote this last part last night after I had taken out my internet stick from my computer. Today was better than yesterday I think. Not that yesterday was so bad, it was just exhausting. But regardless, today was better. Here is a photo of the machine that makes falafel, if any of you are interested in how that works. A falafel sandwich costs about .30 JD. The man is pressing a button that spins the silver cylinder and there are two holes where the falafel is pushed through and dropped into a vat of oil to fry.

Ma Salama!

So today is my last day of English!!!!!! I am terrified- not really, but sorta. Don't worry, I can keep this blog in English, and skype in English, but I can't speak in English at all other than to home after tonight. Yikes!

The hard part is that I don't speak ammiya which is dialect, I only speak fus-ha which is Modern Standard Arabic. A lot of people here don't really speak fus-ha very well. Some of the differences are small, but some words are quite different. It's not so much that they are completely different languages, but more so that they use different words for the same thing. For example, in ammiya, to say 'yes' one would say 'aiwa' but that is more like 'yeah' and in fus-ha one would say 'nam' which is actually 'yes'. Also to say 'thank you' in ammiya one would say ' yeslamu yidak (or yidik to a woman) or يسلمو يدك' which means 'bless your hands' but in fos-ha one would say 'shukran or شكرا'. so as you see, there are many differences, but it is more different words than different languages.

oops! I'm late for meeting my friend to go to the gym!

I'll write more later.

First days of insanity

Day 1

Hey everyone! I am alive and well in Jordan!!! I made it finally, phew! I didn’t sleep much on my first flight, to London, because we had movies to watch!!!! I saw The Best Most Exotic Marigold Hotel which was excellent, and another one I forget the name of….What’s Your Number? Maybe? Anyways, it was a stupid chick flick and I loved it too. I ended up having 3 white wines because they flight attendant poured me one, and then the couple across the isle, but they wanted red wine, so she gave theirs to me. I don’t really like to be tipsy on a plane…its boring, and I didn’t have anyone to talk to- the seat next to me was empty. And I couldn’t even sleep for some reason, I tried!

 I met a very nice guy from Arizona while waiting to board the plane to Jordan. I forget his name, but it started with an N…. anyways, he was leading the CLS Program in Jordan- the one I wanted to do originally that was completely funded by the government, but I didn’t get accepted. Anyways, I have heard great things about this program so far, so I am okay. The second flight, I sat next to a mother with a 1 year old. And we sat across the isle from her sister who also had a 1 year old. I’m not sure who was whose, because they kept changing babies and the babies kept running around and crying and going to visit Grandma (Jidda or جدة ) . The kids, Michael and Jacob (Jordanian American babies) were super cute and sweet, but they had been traveling from San Fran, needed diaper changing, and were unhappy a lot. They also didn’t understand the concept of ‘I don’t know you, I shouldn’t bother you’. I’m pretty good with kids, but I couldn’t sleep at all. They used my legs as something to hold on to while they ran around, and when they took naps, their little legs ended up on my lap and stuff like that.

By the time we landed, I was extremely tired. So tired in fact, that I left my carry-on on the plane! I took my purse and went through customs and went to the bathroom before I noticed I didn’t have it. I rushed over to baggage claim sure that they had destroyed it or something, and they made phone calls and told me to go get my other bag and come back. Luckily, I saw my carry-on bag on the line, and snatched it up first.

It was a two hour drive (my program picked me and 4 other girls up from the airport) to Irbid, and they gave us a water bottle, which was good, but I really had to pee by the time we got there, but of course, it was just my luck, that my roommate wasn’t home. The door was locked. Mazen, the resident advisor didn’t have a key for me. The woman who owns the apartment building didn’t have a spare key. I really had to pee. After about 20 minutes, my roommate came home and I was able to get in. We have been sharing one set of keys which kind of sucks. They say they will make us each a set, so here’s hoping.

After I got in and met my roommate, Lauren- a very nice girl, I was starving and wanted to go email home to let everyone know I was still alive, so me and two other girls headed out to find food and an internet cafe.

After a bit of wandering, we decided to ask three women- the only women we had seen in a while- but they didn't speak any english, so with broken arabic we asked for a restaurant with internet. They motioned us to follow, and everyone was laughing because of the misunderstandings. We ended up in their home and they tried to serve us coffee, but we were hungry so we begged leave and one of the women sent her son with us to take us to a falafel restaurant. 

At the restaurant, a woman came up to us and said 'Are you American?' Turns out she was from Kentucky, and had married a man from Irbid. The man, Fares, knew everyone in Irbid, it seemed. They were very nice and we got free falafel from the chef because he knew Fares. Then they took us to get Khunafa, an Arabic desert. I couldn't tell you what it was. I think it was cheese and filio dough with some sweet sauce. it was delicious.

Day 2

So the problem thus far was my roommate and I were sharing one set of keys, and were doing different things. This morning, she had her placement interview at 10:45. Mine was scheduled for 1pm but it ended up being closer to 2pm. I got into Intermediate Mid and I am very proud of myself.

After my interview, I was hungary so me and a girl Nicole went to town to get lunch and phones. Surprisingly enough, we ran into Fares again! He was very helpful in getting us phones and sim cards and everything. Fun fact: my new phone has prayer time reminders on it that I can set up if I want. I won't, but I thought it was funny. 

Then we went to get falafel again. Afterwords, I found Lauren my roommate, and she had been given another set of keys so I got a set of my own. I got some breakfast veggies for tomorrow, signed up for a gym, and got to know some of my fellow students.  

TT4N!

(TATA FOR NOW)