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!