We have officially arrived in Jordan!!!! We all cheered (in our inside plane voices, of course) upon flying over Amman and were able to see beautiful aerial views of the city that will be our home for the next 6 weeks. We then arrived at Queen Allia International Airport and were warmly welcomed by our driver, Saeed. We packed into our bright orange van and headed back to Amman, which is about an hour away. We listened to Arabic pop music and enjoyed getting our first glimpse of Amman and Jordan. We excitedly sounded out words we saw on signs and rejoiced at being able to understand the cognates (هارديز=Hardee's). While there were not that many people out and about because it is Ramadan and everyone is fasting, it was exciting to see different landmarks and buildings and start to get to know more about Jordan. For example, did you know that Jordan is a hub for medical tourism (travel to another place because of their medical care) and Amman's King Hussein Cancer Center is considered the best in the Middle East. As for the weather, thankfully, while it is hot, the aridity keeps it from feeling to muggy and though I live in a place where it rarely is hotter than 85˚, it hasn't at any point felt uncomfortably hot. However, the aridity definitely makes dehydration a very real problem and since it is illegal to eat or drink in public (fines reach up to 40 JD (Jordanian Dinars)) from sunrise to sundown during Ramadan, it has been hard to stay properly hydrated. We arrived at the apartments where we will be staying for the next 3 weeks about an hour after we left for the airport. We got our keys and headed up to get settled in our rooms. I'm sharing our 2 bedroom apartment with Olivia and Chloe and will be sharing a room with Chloe. Here are some pictures of our apartment: As for amenities, we have everything we could have wanted. We have really good internet (you can even stream things), hot water, AC and fans and filtered water cooler. The apartments are all slightly different but all have the same components. But what we can all agree on is that the roof is the best part. They have set up a super nice sitting area with rugs and mats to sit on on the roof and it has a really nice view. It is the perfect hangout area at sunset when all the neighbors turn on their colorful Ramadan lights and we can hear the call to prayer from the neighboring mosques. We finished out the night with shawarma. Here's what a typical shawarma in Jordan looks like: More updates on life in Jordan soon!
Sophia
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. !أهلا و ساهلاHi! I'm Sophia, a high schooler from the San Francisco Bay Area. I received a scholarship through the State Dept. to study Arabic in Jordan in the summer of 2016. Categories
All
Archives
April 2017
|