Photos from Amman.

Queen Alia Airport

Our living room!

 

Our kitchen :)

 

Pictures of the Citadel

 Overlooking Old Amman

 

Me and my AMAZING roommates! So blessed.

Four days already!?

It's already been four days since my arrival! ISA has been so absolutely amazing in EVERYTHING! Every problem mentioned previously was taken care of in less than 24 hours. They're so awesome and my roommates have been so absolutely amazing!

Since the first night, we have been on two walking tours of different parts of Old Amman. It was so cool to see so much history!! We saw downtown Amman and saw the Royal Film Commission's film library. It was so cool! The commission has so many films and periodicals and this really modern viewing station. Me + movies + super cool setting = Oh My Goodness. YES PLEASE. Yesterday we were able to visit old parts of Amman that have been transformed into art houses that show contemporary local artists. It was a really great experience.

Today we toured our university! Oh, HEAVENS there are a lot of hills in this city!! It is so hard to get up some of the hills but the facilities at the bottom are awesome! We got to see the pool, sauna, athletic equipment and bowling alley!! I love that there is a bowling alley! We also took our 201 entrance exam today. I don't think I did very well so we'll see what happens. Other than that, I also received my schedule today. I have Arabic at 8 in the mornings, Sunday through Thursday, and then an American foreign policy class at 10:30 until 12:20.

We went to an orientation meeting tonight then out to dinner to a local restaurant, Jabri. Now we're at the apartment, bonding over a movie and blogging :)

I wish I would have been more detailed but it's been a long couple of days. I promise to try to update more frequently!

Love from Amman.

mini post

Family and friends, I'd like to take this opportunity to write a little summary of some of the unusual circumstances we are now aware of in our apartment. One of the toilets is broken in the bedroom with its own bathroom, our water pressure SUCKS and my hair is crunchy and feels like stuff is still in it [probably because it is because i can't wash anything out], we have a water ration (tanks get filled up once a week by the city; if we use all of it before the replacement, then we don't have water), and it gets freaking hot in the bedrooms with no AC (which we solve by opening the windows even though the screen doesn't exactly cover the whole opening).

Just thought you should know.

Love from Amman.

FINALLY IN OUR APARTMENT!!

After two days, I have finally arrived in Amman and to my apartment! The flights were good and I even managed to know someone on my flight from Heathrow. After I arrived in Jordan, I descended onto the tarmac from the plane. That was REALLY cool. I felt like I was a foreign dignitary (expecting a crowd and all... needless to say, there was no crowd). Then after the bus ride to the airport itself, I walked to the visa line and had to purchase a 30-day visa. The official asked me what I was doing in Jordan. When I responded in Arabic, he was (pleasantly) surprised and said something back which I didn't catch but he didn't say anything else so I'm assuming it wasn't a question... After the visa line, Immigration stopped you and asked you what you were doing and checked that you got the visa stamp. Once past immigration, my bags had to be scanned again and once approved, I was FINALLY allowed out of the airport.

ISA mentioned that there would be signs to greet us. Well, an entire TRIBE was at the airport, singing, dancing, and playing music, to celebrate the homecoming of a family member who just received a bachelor's in medicine. The reception area was PACKED!! I walked around for about ten minutes with two duffel bags, a carry on and a purse, while hopelessly searching for someone I might recognize or the sign that was somewhere in the crowd. Luckily, Ghadeer, a lovely woman who works for ISA, recognized ME and came up to me and pointed me to a meeting location where I waited for the other three people in my arrival group. 

Once there, I met Ryan, Brett, and Anndrea. Ryan is an amazing photographer (ryankolter.com) and is SO excited to be here. Brett is getting his masters at TAMU so that's pretty cool; at least I can have someone I know back home that will KNOW what all will happen this summer... Ha. Anndrea is from Oklahoma but goes to school in Iowa. She has such an exuberant personality that is infectious! Once we were all together, we were directed to a driver who took us to meet Mohammad, our other ISA contact, at the Safeway in central Amman. 

This Safeway will be our grocery store [and whatever else store since it has two stories] during our stay. We were told to get snacks for the night and then we would be escorted home. Obviously, as four Americans in a Jordanian supermarket, we had WAY too much fun.. Everyone purchased a 6 pack of water and various American snacks. [Zac, they had flaming hot FUNYUNS... I KNOW you're jealous.]

As we shopped, we ran in to another ISA group and greeted and introduced each other. Post shopping, we walked outside and got into our vans and then were deposited at various apartments throughout the city. Of course, I was the last person in my van to get dropped off, at the last apartment ISA had. I was alone in our van and my new friend Rosalynd was the last one in her van so we decided to conglomerate our belongings and use one van so the other driver wouldn't have to stay there for us.

Rosalynd and I got to our apartment to meet Janna and Magean, two other Americans who had arrived days before and had stayed in other accommodations in Amman. After dropping off our things, the four of us explored near our apartment and ended up getting fresh Jordanian pizza. On the way back to the apartment, Janna and I ran into some of the boys from earlier, who are living in separate housing arrangements, and we agreed to have some sort of group exploration later this evening.

As we were all getting to know each other, with the arrival of our fifth roommate, Brenda from Denton - love her already, the power went out. Apparently, you can't have more than one AC unit on. Oops. No one told us that.... So that's when we opened all the windows and decided it was time for bed. The mattresses feel like a foam pad on top of wood instead of on top of a mattress. It's not the most comfortable but it's not unbearable. I need to put my sheets onto the bed as the bed had an undersheet (I'd say a fitted sheet but I'm not sure if it IS a fitted sheet) and a comforter but with a variable AC, I'll need a flat sheet on there for sure.

We awoke at various times this morning. Of course, my body, being dumb, woke up (the first time) at around 6 AM. I then dozed on and off until 11 when the stifling heat became intolerable. We ALL woke up sweaty.

Mohammad came by just a bit ago and managed to coax the electricity back on and told us that we should only have one AC unit on at a time but that we could get multiple fans for each room and that the fans wouldn't cause an electricity problem. Needless to say, fans are on our Safeway list. Speaking of which, I've decided to compose a list of things we need and surprisingly, things we don't.

THINGS TO PURCHASE FROM SAFEWAY: 

-Toilet paper. There was one roll for 5 girls....We need TP.

-FANS. This whole 1 AC unit demands fans.

-Soap... There is no soap in our house or paper towels for that matter

-CANDLES in case the power goes out again...

THINGS WE SURPRISINGLY DON'T NEED FROM SAFEWAY:

-Bug spray... there are no bugs.

-Red Bull... because every child under 12 has so much energy, that MUST be their source...These kids are ALL HYPER ALL THE TIME.

-Makeup... no surprise here. No makeup.

-Milk... none of it is pasteurized so I'm just gonna stay away from it for now...

-Sweets. There is an entire candy aisle that I just didn't even walk down. It's ALL American candy, too. It looked SO good but I'd rather get some traditional Jordanian sweets instead.

We're all enjoying the AC in the living room which we've designated as the specific AC which will be kept on at most times. We need to go shopping at some point for household items and we all need to shower as well for the most part. We'll take care of all of it later today I bet. We have to meet up with ISA staff at 4 [which is in 3 hours from now] at a local circle and then will go on a tour of Amman. Walking shoes will be at the ready here pretty soon. I'm not sure what else today holds but as long as the power stays on this time, you'll know later tonight!! 

And I promise I'll put up pictures soon. Ryan Kolter (www.ryankolter.com) said I could use some of his photos so you'll probably see mine and the significantly better ones which will be Ryan's photos. 

Shukran wa Gig 'Em. 

Love from Amman.

Uhhhh... How is it already JUNE?

I can't believe I'm leaving for Jordan on Saturday.. Wasn't it just August and I was the overachiever getting everything situated? It's finally here and I can't wait to finally just get to Amman and be there. انشالله everything will go as planned and smoothly. My friends Nina, Erin, Tonya, and Brawnlyn are already in Amman and LOVE IT already! Saturday, get here faster!!!

ELEVEN.

ELEVEN DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE.... It's getting so incredibly close! I can't believe it! Hopefully the days slow down... every minute I have is precious but they're FLEETING!!

One last shot to get before departure and maybe an errand or two - like actually getting my MEDS ahead of time... I'll take care of that tomorrow. SO MUCH EXCITEMENT!!!

NINETEEN DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE

I leave in 19 days. I'm not sure I'm ready for this!!!! I've purchased a lot of the things I think I'll need (like long dresses and converters and various things like that) but I still feel like I'm missing something. I just started reading another ISA student's blog and now I'm getting really nervous. She has posted pictures of excursion but nothing really of her accommodations inside Amman or of the classes or of any every day location. I have NO idea what to expect.... At least I fly through London on my way to Amman so I'll be able to get most anything I need [that I managed to forget] right before I get to Jordan. I'll keep you updated if anything new happens. Looking forward to getting my documentation with my roommates names and other people going!!!