Dedicated To You Kind People

So, since my last blog, the overall atmosphere became slightly more unfortunate than usual. The night before last, I acquired some kind of a stomach bug/potentially dehydration which managed to put a bit of a damper on my mood. It was an evening of a series of misfortunes. Apartment A7 being who we are, we of course laughed hysterically, but it was in the midst of our broken toilet acquiring a noticeable odor, our corn being burnt to small corn crisps and the rice coming out as a large ball (which we will be eating for the next two weeks because it made much more than anticipated), ants inhabiting Kaitlyn's lunch box and a significant portion of our living room (one of which just now crawled across my leg so I suppose we didn't permanently solve that particular problem), breaking one of our four bowls and then of course I got very sick and achieved zero winks of sleep. So, it was a great night! Eating was no longer a fun task and some intense pain was experienced, but we're back in the now and my body is feeling much more like a human should. Inshallah, I'm in the clear! 

Even as these things were happening, I promise that our levels of positivity stayed afloat and we laughed through every passing second. Because it was hilarious. Anywho. The following morning, I opted to go to class despite my not feeling well...it was a rough day. However, I learned a lot and do not regret this! Alas, as I said, it was a very rough day and I shall now take this moment to virtually express my gratitude to everyone here who was more than kind and took wonderful care of me, even though I was an absolute mess. It's the simple gestures of caring and compassion that never fail to touch me. And I sincerely love everyone here. Waed even brought us extra bread, cheese, oranges, a fan and hugs. It really does not get any better. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being such angels! Shukran ya asahibtii (And ignore my horrible transliterating).

Aside from disease and the like, we were also able to meet our language partners yesterday! After class, we headed to a meeting with all of the American students here as well as the JUST students participating in our program. We listened to all of the professors speak and were reminded of our overall goals of cultural intertwining and being ourselves in this foreign land. They basically encouraged us to establish relationships with our partners and truly attempt to learn everything we can of the people in this country. I'm psyched. Personally, I have two language partners named Rania and Manar. They are both extremely kind, just the right level of giggly for my own purposes and intensely intelligent. I'm honestly a bit jealous of pretty much everyone here just due to the fact that they have been able to grow up surrounded by this culture. Meeting new people always enhances this feeling a bit. Everyone at JUST is brilliant. And they all seem to have wonderful morals and families. Muhammed always said in class that we are (partially) inherently defined by who we are born as; our names, our birthplaces, our families...they all work to make up an outline of who we become and these things cannot ever be erased or replaced. I am also a strong believer in this. And I'm proud to be where I am in life. But, I'm moving to the Middle East and becoming Jordanian. It's fine. ;) 

After all of this excitement, I took a lengthy nap and drank lots of water. When I woke from my hibernation, it was time for dinner (I attempted some mac and cheese and all was well). And then we had a bit of a hafla! There was card playing and a bit of craziness. I mostly just sat and watched, water and cheerios in hand, but it was great fun and extremely entertaining. All in all, the getting sick included, it has been nothing but more adventure. Much of my learning was outside of the classroom these past couple of days, as it so happens, and I am just as incredibly appreciative of these lessons. Tonight, we are traveling to Waed's family home where we get to meet many of her relatives as well as be treated to the Jordanian dish of mansif!! Inshallah, I will post more tonight or tomorrow morning as there are sure to be more tales to tell! :) <3 Ma'salama!          

Guys, We Dabke'd in the Middle East.

So, it is 2:15am and I am wide awake because we drank the tea and we talked about the life and now my brain won't stop firing the neurons and stimulating the action potentials and this is unhealthy. I really need sleep. Alas. Here we are. In my head. With the neurons. It's 2:16 now.

I wrote that last night and figured I'd let you experience my insanity first hand. I fell asleep soon (ish) after though so do not be concerned! I apologize for my lack of blogging. As our wajib really piles up, it's becoming more difficult to scribe for both you readers and myself the details of each day as they happen. We are extremely exhausted all of the time, just to toss out that overhanging detail. However, it is exhaustion in its greatest of forms. Because we could not be happier. Classes are challenging in all of the right ways and every day is pure adventure. Even when we are just sitting in our common room doing homework with the lovely sounds of the family of pigeons outside our screen door (that was sarcasm for those of who have never heard what a pigeon sounds like), we are honestly so incredibly content. It might very well have something to do with the fact that, no matter how long we are here for, it is never not true that we have each made it here to the Middle East. For one reason or another, we were all vying for this for a long time and it still makes me smile just as widely to realize that I'm sitting with Middle Eastern pigeons. Also, I'm not sure if people actually enjoy reading these things, but I must say that I love being able to write down and share these thoughts. So, shukran audience.

Anywho! Yesterday, we had our 4th day of classes, which were of course wonderful and then quite literally came back to our apartment and did wajibna for three hours without blinking. I'm just kidding, we blinked. Our eyes are well moisturized. However, this intense homework dedication led to us being free to dress up in our finest of clothes and attend a dinner put on by the president of JUST entirely for the American students studying here. Before departing, we headed up to the roof with Michael and experienced the perfection of the Middle East. Pictures to follow. I cannot even describe in words how fantastic it felt to look out and be able to see before our own eyes the expanse of this country. The roof is a good place.

The JUST dinner was incredibly fun and absolutely beautiful, with tables set up in an arc surrounding one of the many fountains scattered around campus. With the stars overhead, it was only a little perfect. We were able to mingle with the other American groups studying here as well as meet many of the Jordanian students that also go here. Everyone was genuinely kind and welcoming and this was only the beginning. All were asked to be seated and we were treated to a small show of students of JUST dancing the dabke! Adorned in traditional attire, both the dances and the music were absolutely spectacular. And after the professionals were finished, they led a dance line which everyone joined in on and we all danced around the area encircling the fountain. Incredible fun. After all of this happy time consisting of endless laughter as well, we were served a dinner of everything from vegetable mixes to grape-leaves to several things I could not tell you the name of. Everything was delicious as was the dessert of watermelon, other fruits and some Jordanian delicacies. Sachtein! There was more dancing after dessert and once the festivities finally came to a close, we were all sad to have to leave. We rode the bus back to our dorms because there are apparently wild dogs which roam the area after dark (should've walked...sounded like an intriguing experience) and made it back in time to finish the large amount of previously mentioned homework we were assigned. However, out of the pure love and kindness in their hearts, Waed and Muhammad proposed that we all work on it together back in their apartment. They are the absolute greatest, w'Allah. This was yet another great time as we worked and laughed, tea in hand, and just enjoyed a happy night of our lives together. :) But of course, when we finally returned to our rooms, we could not sleep and stayed up without a care in the world until the call of prayer (this morning was rough). ((But oh so worth it.))

Despite being zombie-level tired, we woke up to the shining sun and hopped out of bed with a flooring gusto. No. We hit the snooze button a lot though and somehow managed to eat bananas and make it to the bus. It was still yet another great day of classes with lots of learning and lots of homework to follow. Kaitlyn, Christine and I ate our adorable peanut butter and pita sandwiches out in the shining sun (tan lines are being acquired) and then we (very much) enjoyed a long nap once we returned. Other exciting news? Our toilet is officially broken. It's been pretty temperamental this entire time, but it finally kicked it. The handle of the flushing device popped off and the connecting tube just kind of...disappeared. Needless to say...more laughs were had. Now, we are cooking dinner and lounging as we do homework and snack on fresh pineapple, which I must get back to.

Love to you all from Irbid! Assalamu Alaykum!

Not Your Average Jordan's

So I almost started this blog off with "Today was just an average day of..." and then had to stop myself and go through the checkpoint of "Oh my goodness, have we reached a place in which being and studying in a foreign country and spending time on the streets of Irbid has become normal?!" Wow, man. Majnoon. I'm still reeling. I apologize to those of you who read these blogs and assume that I'm insane. You're correct, but I'm still sorry. Anyway. I am definitely becoming more used to things here (I was never uncomfortable, but things feel differently when you start to notice a developing ease). We are still getting settled into our classes and working to understand the dynamic and the level of standards we are expected to exceed...but life here is certainly morphing into our own. We had an amazing spoken class today. All of us are intensely excited about continuing it and bettering our skills (spoken is the most fun because it teaches you how to talk with the people on the streets and in the souq without sounding like a very sad and confused American). While we're on the vague topic of countries, (which we always are because this is a blog about Jordan) I happened to notice today that some of the people who have read this page are from Russia! Hi Russia! That is all. A lunch routine is also being acquired and we have a spot that we've been going to on campus for the past couple of days which is ideal for not only eating, but forearm tanning. Which is always a good time. And if lunch isn't exciting enough on its own, a cat apparently jumped out of a trash can at Tim when he attempted to throw his lunch away. Just to fill your quotas of humor and horror.

After classes, we started our homework and took power naps before going into the city. We were also given a fantastic self-defense lesson by Chris, who is a talented fighter in some genre of...fighting... which I know nothing about. After significant missing, tripping and laughing, we all now know how to punch a fellow person! (To clarify, this aforementioned person would most likely be a foe and not a friend. We don't punch friends.) Pumped up from becoming expert martial artists, we ate some food at B-12 and frantically worked on our wajib until we felt less intimidated by it. We then proceeded to make a list of how much money we've spent so far on this trip and work ourselves up about that instead. So we joyously voiced all of the many things we could refuse to buy in the next six weeks so that we do not have to take up begging. Mostly, we were just reaching a point of delusion and making fun of ourselves in every way possible. Although we did manage to worry Waed and Muhammad, who I am now quite sure think we are starving ourselves in order to save dinars. We aren't, I promise! Not yet, anyway. ;) Ps there was yet another perfect sunset tonight from B-12. I am unaware of the amount of intelligence in the following observation but I'm always just amazed by how flawless and close the sun can seem when you're watching it set behind the endless square buildings of Irbid. It makes me feel small. And big. Khalas, I'm done.

I am once again drifting into dreams, but tomorrow officially marks our one week anniversary with Jordan, which I personally see as a huge landmark of progress. From here, it only gets even better, inshallah!! :) Tesbaheen ala kheer, friends.

Marhaban!

Oh so sorry about the delay! Extreme technical difficulties were encountered last night. And you know when you see that spinning rainbow wheel of death on your Mac, it's best to just allow it a hiatus. Anyway, this is Sunday's recap and Monday's will follow. "Today" (time warp) we returned to classes. I think it's safe to say that we're all still fighting through the effects of jet lag. Despite an adequately full night's sleep, we were yielding our "don't come near us unless you possess coffee" faces. Or at least I was, for that matter. And as a foreigner, I can tell you that while speaking Arabic is normally a pretty hefty challenge, speaking Arabic when you're tired is just borderline comical. Everything just kind of starts to seem unsure and you can't trust yourself anymore. It can be an extreme emotional journey trying to learn another language. The amount of internal conflicts are just unreal. Actually, there was a point in class today where we were coming up with sentences and due to my severe lack of ideas at that point, I said something along the lines of "the seas in Jordan are wondrous"………..because we're not in the desert or anything, Vanessa. Alas, then there was coffee, the world was a brighter place and things made sense again. After we got out of classes, we stopped by the on-campus store. This is relevant because we found peanut butter!! And it was massively exciting because 1) peanut butter is delicious 2) I was in desperate need of easily accessible protein and 3) I thought I wasn't going to see it for the entirety of six weeks, but it was there and we reunited and there was a moment. To all of my family who is reading this, I miss you guys too. It's just that peanut butter is yummy. 

We then proceeded to do homework and go on a walk to the beautiful library and take pictures of everything we passed while no one was there to find us strange for doing so. It was also an absolutely perfect day outside. By the time we got back, it was time to make dinner. Our apartment attempted a spaghetti with green-beans kind of a meal...it came out a bit strange but we quite enjoyed it. Everyone else successfully cooked slightly fancier meals and we all ate together in the guys' apartment with Waed and Muhammad. It was wonderfully fun as always and then we were presented with stalks of the plant that produces chickpeas! It is a unique treat to be able to eat the baby chickpeas which grow inside of a kind of pod and they were very good. As Kaitlyn so accurately described, it was like "nature was right in our mouths". Thank you Kaitlyn. And thank you nature.  

After dinner, we finished up the homework for the night. However, that statement did not give the level of difficulty of our homework enough justice. I shall try again. We went back to our common room and laughed our way through the translations we were coming up with which made negative amounts of sense for about an hour and a half. At one point, Christine had translated something to "August watched over his daughter with the grandfather descended from above"...this particular passage was about women in Jordan working in the judiciary system. Anyway, no worries at all! Eventually, we righted our tired brains and made sense of the reading. By the end of that, it was very much time to go to bed. And that we did. Al hamdulillah. And to those in America, sabah el khair  because I realize it is only morning for you lads. A beautiful day/evening to all! :)

Because You Should All See Every Sunset Too :)

Happy Independence Day Jordan!!

Marhaban! It is the end of another day! Jordan's Independence Day actually. So mabrouk to Jordan! This morning, we woke up and went straight to the gym. After having a banana, of course. For those of who are not aware, bananas are super foods and you should really eat one right now. However, this is irrelevant. (No it's not. Proceed to your fridge.) The gym was wonderful. We went as a group and all worked out together, which was nice. After running and lifting weights, I jumped into the pool with everyone else. It was absolutely refreshing and a perfect relief for my tired self. Also, there are several families of birds that live in the ceiling of the pool area and for some unexplainable reason it made me really happy. Once we were all finished producing lactic acid and building up our muscles, (I'm having a moment of missing my sciences...K, it's over. Moving on.) we headed back to our apartments and finished our homework. Then we excitedly got dressed and left to go to the souq (market)! That is, after cuddling with a very kind cat who everyone had a nice conversation with because apparently we're all also fluent in meow. 

I don't really know what I was expecting of the souq, but it was pure fun. It basically consists of several interconnected streets all surrounding a center with a beautiful clock tower. Each side street is lined with shops, selling pretty much everything you can imagine...at a lower price. It was also a magnificent sight to behold if you're into food (which we all are). Endless lines of every fruit, vegetable, bread and spice. Items were arranged on carts and on cars. And people were everywhere. It was just very cool to be able to feel a bit more like a part of the crowd. We're beginning to learn how to aggressively cross streets and we're getting exponentially better at ordering things and working through situations on our own. I can't even explain how fun it is to make it through a conversation...maybe you're understood, maybe not...but it's the bonding experience of trying that gets you the free chocolate from kind cashiers. ;D Nothing better. And I must honestly say that I love feeling as though I am earning my spot for respect. Being Americans walking through the streets of Jordan, we get a lot of stares. It's apparently not the most common thing and I really can't know with absolute certainty what it is that is crossing their minds. However, I am positive that they are in no way required to have an immediate respect for us. Without a doubt, some people may dislike us for whatever reasons and I like that. I don't want anything to be easy. I want the people we are able to talk with to genuinely understand that we are here because we want to be and because we love their home. I'm rambling a bit again, but in the market today, we met a lot of people who were extremely generous and receptive of us. We had small conversations with them and were embraced with smiles and a lot of free fruits. And it felt amazing. An elderly woman gave us free grape-leaves (have I mentioned how much I LOVE the elderly?!) and we also got countless "Welcome to Jordan" shout outs. It was fun for us, to say the least. And so, after a good two hours at the souq and spending some money on the first of many souvenirs, we headed back to the dorms for dinner. Also, there's just something about driving that makes me feel at peace. Even in Jordan, when we're often moving at insane speeds through complicated labyrinths of vehicles...when the wind is in my face and Arabic music is in my ears, I'm just happy. Once we reached our apartments, we all cooked and managed to come up with another fantastic meal of curry, sautéed vegetables and falafel. 

T'was another beautiful day in Irbid. Tomorrow, we begin our first full week of classes which will be extremely exciting, inshallah! At the moment, I am falling into the land of unconsciousness as I type and so! I must sleep. Good night and sweet dreams :) <3

Living Each Day

Happy Friday! Here, the weekends are on Fridays and Saturdays, so we had the day off from classes and it was blissfully blissful. We slept in until a whopping 10:30am (although apparently everyone else slept until 3pm and we really missed out) and travelled down to the gym, extremely excited to swim in the pool... Only to get there to find locked doors. Thus, we dragged our sweating selves (it was VERY hot out so no worries, the calories you were all concerned about were well lost within our 10 minute walk) back to our dorms and ate fruit, finished our homework for the weekend and napped. Oh! And we fixed our toilet (which hasn't been flushing properly) after an extremely interesting endeavor to unclog it using water bottles and spoons as chopstick tools. We are nothing but resourceful up here on the top floor. Around five, we all met back up to go into the city for dinner. Again, we stopped at B-12 just for drinks and some chill-out/happy, fun time. I had Guava juice. It was wonderfully amazing. After enjoying our fruity deliciousness, we followed Zach (who was a part of last year's trip and is our expert guide) to a Yemeni restaurant where we bumped into about the 1,000th person in Jordan who remembers Zach and loves him dearly. He was our waiter and was as kind as they come. We got to sit barefooted on a beautiful rugged floor lined with pillows. Cultural in many countries, I really loved experiencing this tradition. If you don't know me...I have this weird love for floors. Oftentimes at home, I sleep better on the floor than in my own bed. Also, being barefoot is probably one of my favorite things. Feels so right. Anyway! The food was absolutely perfect. We had soup, salad and rice with lamb. It was magnificent. I'm going to run out of proper descriptive words for the food here much too soon. I can honestly say that as I counted down to Jordan in these past few months, being able to live on a Middle Eastern diet was pretty high up there on the list of things I was vividly dreaming about. Nothing has disappointed, let me tell you. It was also an incredible amount of fun to talk and laugh and take pictures of us all talking...and laughing. My vocabulary dwindles with lack of sleep, it's fine. 

After filling our stomachs with food that defines perfection, we did some exploring on the streets of Irbid, all of us denying our hearts and saying no to the occasional child and elderly beggars that grace the sidewalks. Personally, I just don't look at them. Waed and Muhammad have told us that most of them are attempting to scam us in order to get money. Americans are particularly vulnerable. However, I have such a love for children AND the elderly that I should really just leave or something. Most of me doesn't care if I'm being scammed...I just want to give them my money and all of my possessions...and a hug. If they'll smile. The sarcastic part of me (approximately 75% of what Vanessa is made of) wants to turn to them and beg back...because that sarcastic portion of my being finds it quite ironic that they think I have money to give. Guys, asif from the bottom of my qalb, but I don't. *Giggles at own joke* (Don't judge me, I'm exhausted) Eventually, we ended up going to the Donuts Factory, an imitation of Dunkin Donuts, only with better options. I had a scoop of expresso ice cream and it was just wondrous. We then returned to B-12 and half of us left from there to catch our bus...the other half stayed and got a taxi; we didn't just abandon the rest of our group after voting them off the island or anything, promise. The bus drive took almost an hour because of traffic, but we had some stimulating conversation and made waving friends with the small child in the car next to us. It was great, actually. To wrap up the night and what feels like an insanely long/rambly blog (my apologies) we went over to Waed and Muhammad's apartment (mostly for our own happy benefit, but partly to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Muhammed!) Hooray, mini celebration! It was of course moomtaztic and now we are here. :)

A word (paragraph) about life: In general, these days in Jordan have been absolutely the most gratifying experience I have ever been graced with. In the beginning, I felt that this opportunity was critical to my knowledge and well-being. From the first mentioning of a potential trip to Jordan in September of 2012, I wanted this chance to see the world I was and am so in love with. I did not care at all about the challenges, academic and monetary. I did not listen to the people who said I was foolish for envisioning such a privileged experience for myself. And somehow, I have ended up here with the most intelligent and influential people you could dare to find. While I knew how incredible this time would be, I didn't expect it to be the little things...or the little moments of complete happiness that happen so often in a single day, that would make me feel so well-fitted. It's being a part of a life that wasn't once mine and now simply is. I so often say that I like to be a part of other's stories...However, I never really consider my own. And Jordan has certainly been etched into mine in a way that will be a part of all future words and chapters. Life is cruel, but damn. The good times are good. I just thought I'd attempt to express how real every moment here is and how happy it makes me feel that I get to have this time spent in absolute fulfillment. Perhaps I will be able to eventually accomplish my ultimate desire to work in the medical field in the Middle East. Perhaps not. I have no idea what is going to happen, but I am absolutely, purely...living each day. :) Assalamu Alaykum.   

First Day of Classes!

Al hamdulillah, thank God for blogs. Every day is SO packed with exciting moments!! With the ridiculously sketchy memory I am able to proudly call mine, I would absolutely never remember. Ode to blogs done. So, today was our first official day of classes! However, we must first make it known that Vanessa has been awake since the 3am prayer call. It reached me within the depths of my dreamland this time. As (beautiful, I'm sure) prayers to the mighty Allah were sung to the campus, I read my book from 3:30-5 and could not fall back asleep for the life of me. And somewhere around 6am I decided that it was much more worth my time to surrender, eat a banana and hit the gym. And so after ridiculously adorning myself in a long skirt over my running attire and sneakers to complete the (truly breathtaking) look...that's exactly what Reshma and I did! It was great by the way. Nothing like an 8am gym sesh to prepare you for 3 hours of speaking straight Arabic. Our first class is entirely in spoken Arabic (while we've been spending the last year learning purely formal..large difference) and is taught by a wonderfully adorable professor named Mahmoud. Our second is all on reading texts and discussing them in spoken (taught by an equally adorable professor named Isma...she's potentially the sweetest woman in the world). Our last is a conversational class centered on media and film. They're all perfect. I can honestly say I've never been so happy in a class while simultaneously being more challenged than the cumulation of my lifetime...which pretty much sums up Arabic for ya. All in all, the first day of classes were an absolute success! After finishing around 2:30, we began to walk back to our dorms, completely ignorant of the fact that we were supposed to be waiting for our bus to do this job (we're impatient Americans). P.s. in all of my graceful glory, I of course managed to be completely blind to the substantially sized pipe thing jutting about a foot out of the ground and now have a nice Jordan scar to add to the collection I have on my legs (It's adjacent to Puerto Rico and just a stretch away from Shaving Hazards of showers past). Once we made it back to the dorms, Christine and I collapsed onto our beds while Kaitlyn productively made us all a fruit salad. She's alright that one. We're devouring the wonderful pineapple as I type these very words. <- Blame this evening's dramatics on my lack of sleep. 

Around 5pm, our kind bus returned to take us into the city of Irbid for dinner. We were also reunited with Waed and Muhammad, who had been visiting their families. It was a long 24 hours of heartache without them. We love our professors. For dinner, we went to a cafe/hookah bar called B-12 (it's a bingo thang) and ate extremely delicious hummus, pita and kibbeh. I hope I dream about that tonight. It was amazing. The cafe was also beautiful and looked out over the city. Later on, we were moved into a separate part of the cafe, (pictures to follow!) some of us smoking hookah and all of us just talking until we were to meet up with Waed and Muhammad again. After some waiting outside of the cafe and attempting to avoid the men who all wanted to marry us or something, we were treated to a dessert of Jordan called Kanafe, which we were promised would turn over our lives as we knew them. It was indeed delicious but alas I was too full and incoherent to finish it or appreciate it to its full Godliness. 

Finally, at around 10:30 we were back on the bus to school. We dropped off our bags and got to go over to Waed and Muhammad's apartment next door to our own building and have (amazing) tea like the big, happy family that we are. We talked and laughed and it was wonderful. For my own Jordan memory bank, I shall write the following funny thing: Muhammad was telling us about the "ozone-filtered water" that he had found for us to be delivered to our dorms next week and when asked what the significance of this ozone cleaning was, he responded "no, not the ozone..isn't there not enough of that or something?! That's not what they're using!" Hehe. It's okay if you, my general reader, did not openly chortle at that because it was for my own benefit and I would like to remember that I laughed very heartily. Anyway! Thank you for your time. 

Ma' salama from another beautiful day in Irbid :) Tesbaheen ala kheer! "Good night/May you wake up with good news" 

And the view of tonight's sunset from our kitchen window :)

The JUST lib

Orientation Day

After sleeping through the 5am prayer call and the apparent family of pigeons who have been loudly disturbing the sleep of our fellow camels downstairs, our trio rolled out of bed at 9:30 am and made it outside by 10 for our day of exploration. We were able to walk and ride around JUST, an incredibly beautiful campus filled with landscaping that pretty much blows away the majority of schools in America. There are also hedges trimmed as dolphins around every corner. Pure art. Most astounding was the library, which is being built to be the largest in the Middle East (Courtesy of Kaitlyn Facts). It is absolutely beautiful, with towering pillars marking its entrance, a courtyard to house its hard-working students and floors and floors and floors of books. It kind of made my soul sing. It also heightened my expectations of Conn, who is also renovating their library...time to shine. (Nothing will ever be as beautiful as the JUST library, it's fine.) We were then given a tour of the gym, which was also impressive and wonderful for me, who has been dreaming of dumbbells. Following our official orientation, we went into the city of Irbid where we exchanged our money, had our photo ID's taken, bought mini cell phones (all of the functions are in Arabic...it's quite interesting) and went grocery shopping (All we bought was fruit, it was wonderful). Since then, we have returned to campus, where we did our first night of homework and all had a nice family dinner together, cooked by the extremely talented Michael and Reshma. Now, I am more exhausted than ever and cannot wait to fall into yet another deep sleep. Inshallah, tomorrow will be an exciting first day of classes!

P.s. we also just killed our first Jordanian bug. It was large and had frightening looking pincers. It's possible it was a mini scorpion.

Ma'salama from the desert ;D 

Arriving

Ahlan! 

I am now formally sitting down to write words! We are nearing the end of our first full day in Jordan and it has been nothing short of INCREDIBLE. 

Starting with the flight...The three hour flight from JFK to Chicago went completely smoothly. There was sleeping and reading involved, which means Vanessa was happy (For any who care, I'm reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult and it's quite good). After landing in Chicago, we headed to the international terminals of O' Hare. Passports were flashed, tickets were exchanged (...several times) and then we patiently awaited the boarding of our Royal Jordanian flight directly to Amman!! We sat surrounded by Arabic speaking FRIENDS and then heartily discussed how we were going to be able to say just about nothing to anyone we encountered in the Middle East (We have since then proved this incorrect). There was also an extremely kind Jordanian woman sitting behind me with her grandmother who assured us that we would be welcomed into her country and that we would love Jordanian university. After waiting (and snacking) for only about an hour, we began to board our flight and were greeted by the, for lack of a better word, coolest plane in the world, fully embellished with blankets, pillows, newspapers (all in Arabic of course), and a touch screen entertainment "center"! I have successfully crossed The Life of Pi and Oz off of movies I must see. 

Once we actually touched down in Jordan after over 20 hours of traveling, we were graced with the sight of the absolutely beautiful airport in Jordan, freshly renovated and absolutely fit for Royal Jordanians. ;) No one lost any luggage and with smiles on our faces, we were finally able to step outside into this new world. The bus to Irbid consisted of hanging our heads out of fully opened windows and embracing the uniquely breathtaking imagery before us. The skyline sparkled with lights of all colors and the vast desert stretched out before us, absolutely beautiful in entirely different ways from anywhere else I have ever personally been. We spotted camels casually on the side of the highway, buildings and houses with amazing detail and a charming kind of quality that Jordan calls purely its own. Families also littered different areas off of the highway, some of them smoking hookah and others playing music and singing to one another. Quite honestly, it's hard not to feel the click of a connection in your heart when rolling through this culture. Eventually, we stopped somewhere to grab a bite to eat and were all treated to Middle Eastern Shawarma! (After ordering and paying for the first time in Arabic and with Jordanian dinars which I must say makes you feel like an absolute boss) It was amazing and we ate outside, with the stars twinkling above us as we attempted to translate various street signs like the nerds that we all are. After filling our stomachs, we dragged our jet lagged selves back to the bus and eventually made it to JUST, the Jordan University of Science and Technology. Our apartments are a bit enormous and now all nicely settled in. Added note...our shower consists of about a 2 ft. x 2 ft. square indent in the floor with no shower curtain in sight...basically our bathroom becomes a pool when we all desire cleanliness. But other than that, it is totally manageable! And then we all slept like logs. Even through the 5am prayer call. 

      

Update

We are officially (and safely) in Amman!! Flights were delayed and airports were stressful, but I am currently in our three person apartment (which is super cool, despite being in need of some feng shui and love lol) on the beautiful campus of JUST. So far everyone has been incredibly kind and camels have already been spotted lounging by the highway. :D As mentioned, I am beyond the point of exhaustion, but I will attempt to scribe details tomorrow! 

Ahlan Wa Sahlan!

So, not that I've ever blogged before and not that other humans will likely read this, but here will be a compilation of accounts of all of my Jordanian adventures! I have never been out of the country, but I am leaving for Irbid in the morning for six weeks of studying Arabic in an intensive program at the Jordan University of Science and Technology! Could not be more excited, but I also could not be more tired from weeks worth of planning/packing paranoia and so. Goodnight. :) More in the morn'!