- 15:50 going to jerash on friday. woot! #
- 22:37 it's such a beautiful night. i miss seeing the stars though. morocco was good for something. #
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Daily trivia
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Daily trivia
- 09:05 these classes make me so happy i dont have anything at 8 am this fall. #
- 14:28 mmm, tutoring appointment. ask me how -not- excited i am. why did i sign up for this? #
- 16:19 49 days til i'm home. who's excited? #
- 19:44 spiders in my buildingggg. no me gusta. #
- 21:19 my american phone is falling apart. woooooot. #
Monday, June 28, 2010
Daily trivia
- 16:19 had mandatory blood tests today in order to extend our visas. that was a fun experience. #
- 16:20 in other news, i hate wearing skirts. #
- 18:47 "okay who leaves the empty toilet paper rolls in the bathroom?" "this is how wars are started!" #
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Daily trivia
- 07:19 creepy spider on the stairs. eek. #
- 16:00 i really wish i hadnt left my arabic book at home. i had most of the exercises already done. :( #
- 20:09 multi-tasking like a pro. meaning i'm updating my blog while i upload photos. lolz. #
Jordanian things
It rained yesterday. And by rained I mean it barely sprinkled. But water fell from the sky and I felt it. Ergo it rained in Jordan and I am inexplicably excited by this.
We had a scavenger hunt around Amman yesterday. They split us into 4 groups and we had to go to different places according to clues they gave us. It was fun, but we spent a lot of money on taxis which was kind of lame. I'm sure they factored it in when they gave us our stipends, but oh well. We went to a cafe in downtown, the national art museum, the citadel (ROMAN RUINS FTW), and finally to a cool-looking mosque. It rained while we were at the mosque. After that we all regrouped at a restaurant off Rainbow Street called The Bakehouse. It was an American-style pancake house. It was awesome. Except they lacked bacon and it made me sad. But I ate an omelette for the first time in years. It was stuffed with veggies so I probably couldn't taste the egg so much. I hate eggs, but all three of the meals we could choose from (they'd already arranged it since 40+ people would be there) came with either an omelette or stuffed scrambled eggs, so I chanced it. I won't jump at the chance to get an omelette again, but it wasn't awful. The citadel was pretty epic. We didn't spend a lot of time there because we wanted to win the scavenger hunt (come to find out there were no winners) but now I know how to get there and it only costs 2 JD to get in, so it can easily be done later. I definitely need to go back though because there's all kinds of fun stuff. I am a nerd. Although I really think that nothing can beat Olympos at this point. Except maybe if I go see a show of some kind in the amphitheatre. That would be epic.
So as far as Amman itself goes, I really like it. It's definitely not walking-friendly and you pretty much need to take taxis to get anywhere (or probably buses if we could figure out the system, but they start to fail after sundown anyway so it's sometimes not worth it). But it's a huge city with a lot of history and a lot of people. And crazy drivers. Somehow I can see myself living here in the future. Not that I particularly want to, but I could do it. (As opposed to Ifrane or Chambéry, for example.) It would be a lot easier in the future too because I could dress better too. The problem right now is that Qasid, where we have class, is a very conservative environment, so we have to be pretty covered (eg sleeves past the elbows and skirts/pants past the knees). Elsewhere in the city it's acceptable to wear less. I've seen some Jordanian women wearing less than some of us. And of course I feel like a tool wearing long skirts that I hate wearing anyway and in huge airy tunic tops. Oh well, whatever. Needless to say most of the girls are a little annoyed that we can wear pretty much what they told us is not acceptable and that some of us all left at home. Meh.
I'm also annoyed with myself for having left my metal water bottle at home. I didn't bring it because you can't drink the tap water here. Except you can buy two liter bottles of water really cheaply AND there's boiled/filtered water here in our building. So a ton of people brought their water bottles with them and are refilling from there. I bought one right before I came but left it at home and thinking I couldn't use it. :( Except I went to a supermarket here last week and got a water bottle that was attached to a 6-pack of flavored milk in a box. Don't ask. So I have a water bottle now. Doesn't hurt to have two, I guess. But hey, only 7 weeks til I go home so I can be reunited with my other one soon enough. =P
(So I was in the middle of typing this and then got distracted. I forgot where else I was going, so now you just get this and I will maybe continue later.)
Photos! Finally!
We had a scavenger hunt around Amman yesterday. They split us into 4 groups and we had to go to different places according to clues they gave us. It was fun, but we spent a lot of money on taxis which was kind of lame. I'm sure they factored it in when they gave us our stipends, but oh well. We went to a cafe in downtown, the national art museum, the citadel (ROMAN RUINS FTW), and finally to a cool-looking mosque. It rained while we were at the mosque. After that we all regrouped at a restaurant off Rainbow Street called The Bakehouse. It was an American-style pancake house. It was awesome. Except they lacked bacon and it made me sad. But I ate an omelette for the first time in years. It was stuffed with veggies so I probably couldn't taste the egg so much. I hate eggs, but all three of the meals we could choose from (they'd already arranged it since 40+ people would be there) came with either an omelette or stuffed scrambled eggs, so I chanced it. I won't jump at the chance to get an omelette again, but it wasn't awful. The citadel was pretty epic. We didn't spend a lot of time there because we wanted to win the scavenger hunt (come to find out there were no winners) but now I know how to get there and it only costs 2 JD to get in, so it can easily be done later. I definitely need to go back though because there's all kinds of fun stuff. I am a nerd. Although I really think that nothing can beat Olympos at this point. Except maybe if I go see a show of some kind in the amphitheatre. That would be epic.
So as far as Amman itself goes, I really like it. It's definitely not walking-friendly and you pretty much need to take taxis to get anywhere (or probably buses if we could figure out the system, but they start to fail after sundown anyway so it's sometimes not worth it). But it's a huge city with a lot of history and a lot of people. And crazy drivers. Somehow I can see myself living here in the future. Not that I particularly want to, but I could do it. (As opposed to Ifrane or Chambéry, for example.) It would be a lot easier in the future too because I could dress better too. The problem right now is that Qasid, where we have class, is a very conservative environment, so we have to be pretty covered (eg sleeves past the elbows and skirts/pants past the knees). Elsewhere in the city it's acceptable to wear less. I've seen some Jordanian women wearing less than some of us. And of course I feel like a tool wearing long skirts that I hate wearing anyway and in huge airy tunic tops. Oh well, whatever. Needless to say most of the girls are a little annoyed that we can wear pretty much what they told us is not acceptable and that some of us all left at home. Meh.
I'm also annoyed with myself for having left my metal water bottle at home. I didn't bring it because you can't drink the tap water here. Except you can buy two liter bottles of water really cheaply AND there's boiled/filtered water here in our building. So a ton of people brought their water bottles with them and are refilling from there. I bought one right before I came but left it at home and thinking I couldn't use it. :( Except I went to a supermarket here last week and got a water bottle that was attached to a 6-pack of flavored milk in a box. Don't ask. So I have a water bottle now. Doesn't hurt to have two, I guess. But hey, only 7 weeks til I go home so I can be reunited with my other one soon enough. =P
(So I was in the middle of typing this and then got distracted. I forgot where else I was going, so now you just get this and I will maybe continue later.)
Photos! Finally!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Daily trivia
- 16:56 i ate an omelette today for the first time since i was a little kid. not so bad. still not a fan of eggs though. #
- 17:25 not a fan of the way my new computer organizes my photos. :( old computer was much better at it. #
- 18:05 awww, i think my face got sunburned today. sad face. #
- 21:46 definitely got sunburned. not a happy kitty. my nose is definitely bright red. #
Friday, June 25, 2010
Daily trivia
- 22:22 mmm, mcdonald's. that was fun. #
- 22:26 oh hay. the reason i couldn't get in touch with vcu yesterday? i was calling their fax number. hurr durr. #
Week 1 Recap. Ish.
So we've been here a little over a week now and it feels like we've been here forever. Quick recap:
Friday we went to lunch at a Yemeni restaurant and spoke Arabic. Fun stuff. I had no idea what I actually ordered, but it was tasty. And authentic, because there were definitely no utensils. You had to use bread and/or your hands. Nom nom nom. (It's hard when you're eating rice.) More orientating. Friday night we went to Souk Jara, a flea market-type-thing run by the residents' association. Not a lot of traditional stuff, but fun to look at. And they have tasty food. Watermelon juice, cookies, pancakes covered in chocolate and strawberries... mmm. After that I went with Morgan and Emily to a restaurant on Rainbow Street where we got hummus (yum!) and some other stuff I don't know the names of. And while we were there a wedding party came in. It was pretty cool. They were playing instruments and singing loudly and the women were making this yodelly noise that women do here. Fun to watch.
Saturday was orientation at Qasid, the place where we're taking our classes. After Qasid I went and joined a gym. Woo. Super expensive and pretty small, but all of this is by American standards of course, and I think it's actually one of the cheaper ones around? Sounds like it anyway. But they gave us money for the summer so I don't feel too bad about it. If nothing else the price is assurance that I will go, if only to justify it. Went to a cheap, tasty restaurant across the street from Qasid. Large falafel sandwich and 1.5 liter bottle of water for 1 JD? Yes please!
Classes started on Sunday. Our Sunday-Thursday schedule looks like this:
8am - 12:30 pm = class. 5-7pm = Various required activities. 7-8(ish)pm = dinner. From 8am-3pm we can only speak Arabic, as well as during activities and dinner. And when we go on weekend trips those are all-Arabic too. From 3:20-3:40 I have an appointment with my speaking partner as well. Sunday and Monday we work on amiyya (Jordanian dialect) and Tuesday and Wednesday we work on MSA. This time is horribly in convenient in terms of my getting to the gym, but we didn't get to pick so yeah. Thursday from 4-5 we have weekly quizzes. Yesterday's didn't go as well as I'd expected. Not horribly, but I wasn't expecting it to be in the format it was in and we had an essay question that came out of left field that we all struggled with. Stuff happens.
Last night I went with a few people to get ice cream downtown. It was a little expensive, but tasty. Nutella ice cream ftw. Then we joined just about everyone at a movie that was part of the week-long Franco-Arab Film Festival. It was pretty good. After that a group of us wound up walking like 45 minutes from downtown to Rainbow Street. Up and down hills, up epic staircases of death, through a random restaurant... it was so special. And kind of awesome. Amman is really pretty at night. And in the distance we could see some of the Roman ruins. I have to get there eventually. Our group ran into some other CLS people who'd wisely taken taxis to Rainbow Street and we all splintered. My group wound up on the roof of a restaurant where we got pizza and shisha/hookah/argileh/whatever you want to call it. It was cold, but fun. On the taxi ride back, a car jumped the median and we saw it driving in the left lane, going the wrong way on our side of the street, only on its two left wheels. It was ridiculous. Luckily there were no cars driving in that lane or there would have been a horrific accident. As we drove by there was a cloud of dust/smoke and small debris. But the driver got control of the car not long after and I'm pretty sure he got out of the car and walked around. (Our taxi driver had pulled over and was watching to see what happened. As crazy as they drive around here, if there's an accident pretty much everyone just stops their cars in the middle of the street and runs over to help.)
Today Morgan and Rebecca got their hair done at a salon and Morgen and I went along for the ride. Afterward I went with Morgan and Morgen to a souk, then to lunch, then downtown where we were looking for another souk in Morgen's guidebook (which she'd forgotten to bring. Which is usually what happens with guidebooks). Wandered around a lot in the same area we walked through last night. It was pretty uncomfortable because we were surrounded by men. The streets were super super crowded. And it was different from being in crowded areas like Moroccan medinas because at least there there are lots of tourists and there are other women. Here we were obviously out of our element. Sexual harassment is so much fun. So much. Anyway, Morgen eventually called Emily (our sort-of RA who is our go-to for questions about where to go and what to see) to find out where this thing was, and it turns out it's on Rainbow Street right next to Souk Jara. Whoops. We wandered in there for a little bit and came home. I took a nap unintentionally; I'd gone into my room to get my phone and somehow wound up sleeping for three hours even though my bed was covered in stuff. I am awesome. Woke up, went downstairs, went to McDonald's with people. It wasn't bad. It wasn't stellar, but not bad. The fries were good. And now I don't have to worry about getting there again to fulfill my... tradition? I don't know. But I've been to a McDonald's in every country I've been to since Spring 09. It wasn't intentional when it started, but now I'm continuing it, I guess. I'm weird, I know.
I'd planned on writing a lot more about what Amman is actually like and whatever, but it's midnight now and I have to go to bed. We're all operating on a chronic lack of sleep right now, I think. Between jet lag and crazy schedules and now 8am classes with lots of homework, it's really hard to catch up. You have to go to bed between 9 and 10 at night to get a full night's sleep, and there's just no time for that. And during the week there's not time to do much of anything. But we have a scavenger hunt in the morning, so it's bedtime for kitty so she isn't super grumpy. If I have time tomorrow I'll try to write more. And post photos. I've not taken many yet but I'll try to get them up soon.
Friday we went to lunch at a Yemeni restaurant and spoke Arabic. Fun stuff. I had no idea what I actually ordered, but it was tasty. And authentic, because there were definitely no utensils. You had to use bread and/or your hands. Nom nom nom. (It's hard when you're eating rice.) More orientating. Friday night we went to Souk Jara, a flea market-type-thing run by the residents' association. Not a lot of traditional stuff, but fun to look at. And they have tasty food. Watermelon juice, cookies, pancakes covered in chocolate and strawberries... mmm. After that I went with Morgan and Emily to a restaurant on Rainbow Street where we got hummus (yum!) and some other stuff I don't know the names of. And while we were there a wedding party came in. It was pretty cool. They were playing instruments and singing loudly and the women were making this yodelly noise that women do here. Fun to watch.
Saturday was orientation at Qasid, the place where we're taking our classes. After Qasid I went and joined a gym. Woo. Super expensive and pretty small, but all of this is by American standards of course, and I think it's actually one of the cheaper ones around? Sounds like it anyway. But they gave us money for the summer so I don't feel too bad about it. If nothing else the price is assurance that I will go, if only to justify it. Went to a cheap, tasty restaurant across the street from Qasid. Large falafel sandwich and 1.5 liter bottle of water for 1 JD? Yes please!
Classes started on Sunday. Our Sunday-Thursday schedule looks like this:
8am - 12:30 pm = class. 5-7pm = Various required activities. 7-8(ish)pm = dinner. From 8am-3pm we can only speak Arabic, as well as during activities and dinner. And when we go on weekend trips those are all-Arabic too. From 3:20-3:40 I have an appointment with my speaking partner as well. Sunday and Monday we work on amiyya (Jordanian dialect) and Tuesday and Wednesday we work on MSA. This time is horribly in convenient in terms of my getting to the gym, but we didn't get to pick so yeah. Thursday from 4-5 we have weekly quizzes. Yesterday's didn't go as well as I'd expected. Not horribly, but I wasn't expecting it to be in the format it was in and we had an essay question that came out of left field that we all struggled with. Stuff happens.
Last night I went with a few people to get ice cream downtown. It was a little expensive, but tasty. Nutella ice cream ftw. Then we joined just about everyone at a movie that was part of the week-long Franco-Arab Film Festival. It was pretty good. After that a group of us wound up walking like 45 minutes from downtown to Rainbow Street. Up and down hills, up epic staircases of death, through a random restaurant... it was so special. And kind of awesome. Amman is really pretty at night. And in the distance we could see some of the Roman ruins. I have to get there eventually. Our group ran into some other CLS people who'd wisely taken taxis to Rainbow Street and we all splintered. My group wound up on the roof of a restaurant where we got pizza and shisha/hookah/argileh/whatever you want to call it. It was cold, but fun. On the taxi ride back, a car jumped the median and we saw it driving in the left lane, going the wrong way on our side of the street, only on its two left wheels. It was ridiculous. Luckily there were no cars driving in that lane or there would have been a horrific accident. As we drove by there was a cloud of dust/smoke and small debris. But the driver got control of the car not long after and I'm pretty sure he got out of the car and walked around. (Our taxi driver had pulled over and was watching to see what happened. As crazy as they drive around here, if there's an accident pretty much everyone just stops their cars in the middle of the street and runs over to help.)
Today Morgan and Rebecca got their hair done at a salon and Morgen and I went along for the ride. Afterward I went with Morgan and Morgen to a souk, then to lunch, then downtown where we were looking for another souk in Morgen's guidebook (which she'd forgotten to bring. Which is usually what happens with guidebooks). Wandered around a lot in the same area we walked through last night. It was pretty uncomfortable because we were surrounded by men. The streets were super super crowded. And it was different from being in crowded areas like Moroccan medinas because at least there there are lots of tourists and there are other women. Here we were obviously out of our element. Sexual harassment is so much fun. So much. Anyway, Morgen eventually called Emily (our sort-of RA who is our go-to for questions about where to go and what to see) to find out where this thing was, and it turns out it's on Rainbow Street right next to Souk Jara. Whoops. We wandered in there for a little bit and came home. I took a nap unintentionally; I'd gone into my room to get my phone and somehow wound up sleeping for three hours even though my bed was covered in stuff. I am awesome. Woke up, went downstairs, went to McDonald's with people. It wasn't bad. It wasn't stellar, but not bad. The fries were good. And now I don't have to worry about getting there again to fulfill my... tradition? I don't know. But I've been to a McDonald's in every country I've been to since Spring 09. It wasn't intentional when it started, but now I'm continuing it, I guess. I'm weird, I know.
I'd planned on writing a lot more about what Amman is actually like and whatever, but it's midnight now and I have to go to bed. We're all operating on a chronic lack of sleep right now, I think. Between jet lag and crazy schedules and now 8am classes with lots of homework, it's really hard to catch up. You have to go to bed between 9 and 10 at night to get a full night's sleep, and there's just no time for that. And during the week there's not time to do much of anything. But we have a scavenger hunt in the morning, so it's bedtime for kitty so she isn't super grumpy. If I have time tomorrow I'll try to write more. And post photos. I've not taken many yet but I'll try to get them up soon.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Daily trivia
- 07:29 blogging fail. oh well. one of these days maybe. #
- 10:11 sleeeeepy. but it actually feels chilly today. and not unbearably hot. now if only i weren't in class. #
- 20:00 mmmm food. food is tasty. i am eloquent. #
- 22:57 quiz tomorrow! oh dear. i should probably study. but who does that? #
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Daily trivia
- 14:11 tasty tasty tasty falafel sammich. sammich + mountain dew = less than a dollar? WIN. #
- 14:39 it is REALLY. WINDY. right now. helps with the heat, not so much with the dust everywhere. #
- 15:46 going to try to get a legit blog post up tonight. not making any promises though. #
- 18:40 tore the sleeve on my favorite (new!) shirt today. the first time i wore it. i am so awesome. :( #
- 20:17 DUDE. there is an ancient ruin OUTSIDE MY WINDOW. NEXT TO MY BUILDING. from the hellenistic period. omg this is unreal. #
Monday, June 21, 2010
Daily trivia
- 07:01 oh boo. i forgot true blood was on last night. not that i would be able ro watch it. i know what im doing when i get home then. #
- 10:17 speaking arabic all day is not as hard as i thought but limited vocabulary makes it a little iffy #
- 22:52 went to the gym today. it was pretty awesome, even if it is a pain to get to. #
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Daily trivia
- 07:30 classes start in half an hour. we have ten minutes left to speak english. eeeek! #
- 14:55 made it through the first day of classes. didn't go to the gym like i'd planned. whoops. #
- 15:45 oh wow. just had my first session with my jordanian speaking partner and bombed fantastically. not that i've been exposed to 'amiyya before. #
- 21:50 arabic overload. whaaaaaaaaaa. #
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Daily trivia
- 16:25 mmm, falafel and hummus. i love this place. #
Friday, June 18, 2010
Ahlan wa Sahlan!
I'm in Jordan!
I left home on Sunday morning. It took us forever to find the right check-in counter for my flight; my itinerary said United, but it was actually a codeshare flight they run with US Airways, so we had to go to an entirely different terminal. Then to the second or third US Airways counter because apparently they have them in different places for different destinations? Awesome. And then something happened that's never happened to me before. My bag still had room in it for a bunch of stuff! But it was still overweight. Wut? Luckily I'd brought a duffel bag in case my bag was overweight (it felt like it when I dragged it down the stairs in the morning, but I was hoping I was just weak). My plan was to have Mom and Dad just bring random things home with them in that bag, but my suitcase was overeight by six pounds and I really couldn't take that much out. It's likely because of the extra sunscreen and aloe and everything else I brought. So since I only had one carry-on at that point I tossed random clothes and shoes and things into the duffel bag and took that as a carry-on as well. Huzzah.
It was in the 60s (maybe) and raining/yucky outside when I left Boston. When I got to DC it was 90 and humid beyond belief. I'd forgotten what humidity was like. Went to the hotel where orientation was. My taxi driver was Lebanese. We talked in Arabic. Very little. Hung out in my room for a while. Went down and talked to people in our meeting room thing before orientation actually started. Orientated. Then just about everyone in the group wound up going to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was pretty good. No idea what we ate. (Yeah we ordered it, but that doesn't mean we knew what it meant!) Came back, watched the premiere of True Blood on HBO, and passed out at like 1030. It was good.
The next day was entirely orientation. As a group we went out to Maggiano's for dinner. That was amazing. The food was SO. GOOD. And then it decided to pour when we left. Fun times.
Tuesday we had all to ourselves until 5:15 pm. I went with Brittney, Jennifer, and Kelly on a hop-on hop-off bus tour of DC. Or parts of it. We saw the White House, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, and drove into Arlington. Got lunch at a cool place with delicious salads and bread. Nom nom nom. Kelly had watermelon habanero lemondae, which was really interesting. Tasty, but bizarre. We made it back to the hotel just in time, basically, because the bus that was supposed to run like every ten or twenty minutes didn't come around for at least half an hour when we were waiting. But we made it, which it what counts.
We took buses to Dulles from DC. It's not as close as I thought it was. When we were on the highway I kept seeing signs for Richmond and it made me homesick for VCU. Aww. I suppose this is to be expected when I've not been there in a year and a half? (Two days last summer to pick up my junk from storage and to get paperwork signed does not count.) Sat in the airport for hours. I slept most of the flight to London, but when I woke up I didn't feel like I'd slept at all. And of course we were all tired having gotten up early for orientation and whatnot, and then wandering around DC for the day. Spent 3-4 hours in Heathrow waiting. Got the flight to Amman. Can I just say I hate United? And all American flag-carriers? They're awful compared to all the European airlines I've flown. And EgyptAir. And even Royal Air Maroc. Their counter service leaves a lot to be desired, but the flight we took to Cairo was actually pretty good. But anyway.
Our flight from London was delayed over an hour, I think, so we finally got to Amman at like 10-something at night? Then there was a long drive to ACOR. Then a meeting. Then we came up to our rooms and I wound up unpacking most of my stuff. Before I gave up and just tossed all the little things that didn't have a home into a pile on my floor. Classy. I'm in an apartment with three other people (Morgan, Morgen, and Rebecca). We have a kitchen but no cooking utensils and really it's almost not worth it to cook here. Two meals a day are provided for us and we got a stipend of 708 JD ($1000) when we got here to cover like travel expenses and the odd meal of the day and whatnot. A lot of people are trying not to eat out often and to save the money but I'm not going to. Not that I plan on going out and blowing all my money, and yes it is a lot of money, but I'm not going to live like a pauper either. Aaaand whatever we bring home is probably going to be lost in translation/conversion at the airport. Oh well. We'll see what happens at the end of the summer.
So far we've spent all our time being orientated again. And having super intensive dialect classes. It's crazy. And exhausting. And fun. Last night I went out with Morgan and Michael to a a street called Shari'a Rainbow. It's a cool place and stuff happens there. We got shwarma at a place called Shwarmama and it was highly amusing. Then we went next door to it to a small ice cream place called Lucky Licious. Apparently it's Brangelina's favorite ice cream place in either Amman or all of Jordan, I can't remember. I doubt it, but this is what we heard. Whatever.
And that is what we've done so far. Wahoo.
I left home on Sunday morning. It took us forever to find the right check-in counter for my flight; my itinerary said United, but it was actually a codeshare flight they run with US Airways, so we had to go to an entirely different terminal. Then to the second or third US Airways counter because apparently they have them in different places for different destinations? Awesome. And then something happened that's never happened to me before. My bag still had room in it for a bunch of stuff! But it was still overweight. Wut? Luckily I'd brought a duffel bag in case my bag was overweight (it felt like it when I dragged it down the stairs in the morning, but I was hoping I was just weak). My plan was to have Mom and Dad just bring random things home with them in that bag, but my suitcase was overeight by six pounds and I really couldn't take that much out. It's likely because of the extra sunscreen and aloe and everything else I brought. So since I only had one carry-on at that point I tossed random clothes and shoes and things into the duffel bag and took that as a carry-on as well. Huzzah.
It was in the 60s (maybe) and raining/yucky outside when I left Boston. When I got to DC it was 90 and humid beyond belief. I'd forgotten what humidity was like. Went to the hotel where orientation was. My taxi driver was Lebanese. We talked in Arabic. Very little. Hung out in my room for a while. Went down and talked to people in our meeting room thing before orientation actually started. Orientated. Then just about everyone in the group wound up going to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was pretty good. No idea what we ate. (Yeah we ordered it, but that doesn't mean we knew what it meant!) Came back, watched the premiere of True Blood on HBO, and passed out at like 1030. It was good.
The next day was entirely orientation. As a group we went out to Maggiano's for dinner. That was amazing. The food was SO. GOOD. And then it decided to pour when we left. Fun times.
Tuesday we had all to ourselves until 5:15 pm. I went with Brittney, Jennifer, and Kelly on a hop-on hop-off bus tour of DC. Or parts of it. We saw the White House, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, and drove into Arlington. Got lunch at a cool place with delicious salads and bread. Nom nom nom. Kelly had watermelon habanero lemondae, which was really interesting. Tasty, but bizarre. We made it back to the hotel just in time, basically, because the bus that was supposed to run like every ten or twenty minutes didn't come around for at least half an hour when we were waiting. But we made it, which it what counts.
We took buses to Dulles from DC. It's not as close as I thought it was. When we were on the highway I kept seeing signs for Richmond and it made me homesick for VCU. Aww. I suppose this is to be expected when I've not been there in a year and a half? (Two days last summer to pick up my junk from storage and to get paperwork signed does not count.) Sat in the airport for hours. I slept most of the flight to London, but when I woke up I didn't feel like I'd slept at all. And of course we were all tired having gotten up early for orientation and whatnot, and then wandering around DC for the day. Spent 3-4 hours in Heathrow waiting. Got the flight to Amman. Can I just say I hate United? And all American flag-carriers? They're awful compared to all the European airlines I've flown. And EgyptAir. And even Royal Air Maroc. Their counter service leaves a lot to be desired, but the flight we took to Cairo was actually pretty good. But anyway.
Our flight from London was delayed over an hour, I think, so we finally got to Amman at like 10-something at night? Then there was a long drive to ACOR. Then a meeting. Then we came up to our rooms and I wound up unpacking most of my stuff. Before I gave up and just tossed all the little things that didn't have a home into a pile on my floor. Classy. I'm in an apartment with three other people (Morgan, Morgen, and Rebecca). We have a kitchen but no cooking utensils and really it's almost not worth it to cook here. Two meals a day are provided for us and we got a stipend of 708 JD ($1000) when we got here to cover like travel expenses and the odd meal of the day and whatnot. A lot of people are trying not to eat out often and to save the money but I'm not going to. Not that I plan on going out and blowing all my money, and yes it is a lot of money, but I'm not going to live like a pauper either. Aaaand whatever we bring home is probably going to be lost in translation/conversion at the airport. Oh well. We'll see what happens at the end of the summer.
So far we've spent all our time being orientated again. And having super intensive dialect classes. It's crazy. And exhausting. And fun. Last night I went out with Morgan and Michael to a a street called Shari'a Rainbow. It's a cool place and stuff happens there. We got shwarma at a place called Shwarmama and it was highly amusing. Then we went next door to it to a small ice cream place called Lucky Licious. Apparently it's Brangelina's favorite ice cream place in either Amman or all of Jordan, I can't remember. I doubt it, but this is what we heard. Whatever.
And that is what we've done so far. Wahoo.
Recap: Morocco
So as the past few posts have demonstrated, I was really not a fan of being in Morocco by the end of the semester. The problem wasn't with Morocco itself so much as the stupid school. If it were in a city somewhere it would have been much more bearable, because there would have been things to do. Ifrane was really quiet, really small, and really far away from everything, to the point that you had to take a 1-hour taxi ride just to get to a train station. And AUI was also so small and closed in and nothing happened. Having been at VCU and Savoie, where everything is wide open, I found AUI really suffocating at the end.
The food in Morocco was pretty good, the sights I saw were great. I could/should have done more travelling but that's a moot point right now I guess. I would like to go back some day, if only to take a week or two and see everything I didn't see. It's harder when you only have a weekend and everything is so far apart and you have to get back to your home in the middle of nowhere. At best you have maybe a day to see things, and you have to spend most of the weekend travelling and you wind up spending a lot of money on food and hotels and whatever. If I could just go back and plan on seeing it all and spending that money I've be perfectly happy. And I could speak French, fusha, and darija and get lower prices. =P And know where to look for the cheaper stores, restaurants, etc.
I know I complained a lot about it but I think it was more out of pent up frustration than anything. Even getting out of Ifrane for a few hours to go to Fes or something was a good time, which leads me to think that really it was just Ifrane and being stuck at AUI. I don't think I'd want to live in Morocco for an extended period of time. I could do it, but nowhere did I ever look around and think "Yeah, I could live here." I've felt that way about France and right now I kinda think that about Amman. Morocco just never hit me that way and I couldn't tell you why.
It's strange. When I left France I wished I'd decided to spend a year there instead (not at Chambéry, of course, but had I spent a year there I'd likely have spent it at a different school); when I left Morocco I wished I'd only done a semester. But then again, some of the people who left AUI at Christmas said they wished they were staying. First semester was a lot of fun so who could've known I'd get so tired of it? Ah well.
I know I could have travelled more. A lot more. But I also don't like doing tourist things, so that cuts out a lot of what there was to do. I'd rather find things off the beaten path, so to speak. Like hiking in Chefchaouen. That was infinitely more fun than just going to Chaouen and hanging out for a day/weekend. I actually didn't even like the town for the few hours we were there. So yeah, if I had the time to spend there on my own I'd probably like it more.
Okay at this point I'm just rambling it seems. Cutting this off here before I start repeating myself even more. Yalla bye bye!
The food in Morocco was pretty good, the sights I saw were great. I could/should have done more travelling but that's a moot point right now I guess. I would like to go back some day, if only to take a week or two and see everything I didn't see. It's harder when you only have a weekend and everything is so far apart and you have to get back to your home in the middle of nowhere. At best you have maybe a day to see things, and you have to spend most of the weekend travelling and you wind up spending a lot of money on food and hotels and whatever. If I could just go back and plan on seeing it all and spending that money I've be perfectly happy. And I could speak French, fusha, and darija and get lower prices. =P And know where to look for the cheaper stores, restaurants, etc.
I know I complained a lot about it but I think it was more out of pent up frustration than anything. Even getting out of Ifrane for a few hours to go to Fes or something was a good time, which leads me to think that really it was just Ifrane and being stuck at AUI. I don't think I'd want to live in Morocco for an extended period of time. I could do it, but nowhere did I ever look around and think "Yeah, I could live here." I've felt that way about France and right now I kinda think that about Amman. Morocco just never hit me that way and I couldn't tell you why.
It's strange. When I left France I wished I'd decided to spend a year there instead (not at Chambéry, of course, but had I spent a year there I'd likely have spent it at a different school); when I left Morocco I wished I'd only done a semester. But then again, some of the people who left AUI at Christmas said they wished they were staying. First semester was a lot of fun so who could've known I'd get so tired of it? Ah well.
I know I could have travelled more. A lot more. But I also don't like doing tourist things, so that cuts out a lot of what there was to do. I'd rather find things off the beaten path, so to speak. Like hiking in Chefchaouen. That was infinitely more fun than just going to Chaouen and hanging out for a day/weekend. I actually didn't even like the town for the few hours we were there. So yeah, if I had the time to spend there on my own I'd probably like it more.
Okay at this point I'm just rambling it seems. Cutting this off here before I start repeating myself even more. Yalla bye bye!
Ancient Ruins! Moroccan Edition
So this post is a long time coming, especially considering how short it's going to be. But sometime in April (?) Patti and I went to Volubilis, an ancient Roman city outside of Meknes. It was a pretty cool place. Getting there was kind of anti-climactic though. I'd been wanting to go since the beginning of the semester, so there was a huge buildup of excitement and anticipation. Once I finally got there it wasn't as awesome as I'd expected. :( It was still cool, but I think I build it up in my head. Having gone to the ruins in Turkey didn't help very much, because they were so much more epic.
That said, Volubilis is pretty much just the foundations of a bunch of houses, plus two big gates and some random walls. Not very well preserved. Some of the buildings had mosaics as floors and those were roped off but were still easily accessible so they're a little worn down. I'm glad I went, but it's not something I'd jump at the chance to go back to. Ah, well.
Photos
That said, Volubilis is pretty much just the foundations of a bunch of houses, plus two big gates and some random walls. Not very well preserved. Some of the buildings had mosaics as floors and those were roped off but were still easily accessible so they're a little worn down. I'm glad I went, but it's not something I'd jump at the chance to go back to. Ah, well.
Photos
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