Vanessa Radelmiller
Hey! I'm Vanessa and I'm originally from Seattle, although I claim Savannah and Washington, DC as my cities as well. I'm a third-year Arabic major at Georgetown University and am currently starting a year of study abroad in Amman, Jordan! :)crumblybum21
Travel Blog Posts
April 5th 2010
Fred definitely didn't come out of the hospital unscathed though. He caught some sort of bug and was pretty sick with a fever and nausea for the next three days after I was discharged. I wasn't quite a hundred percent either. We were quite the sickly couple when I met up with him the first Sunday of our spring break! It was a special day though, because we were going to meet up with Fred parents who had flown in from the States the night before. It was a bit of a fiasco when they flew in (they overlooked him in the terminal, he couldn't find them, etc.), but they eventually made it safely to their hotel. We were meeting up with them because Nancy, Fred's host mother, had invited all of us to lunch with ... read more
My first and hopefully only experience with the Jordanian healthcare system
Published: May 8th 2010Middle East » Jordan » North » AmmanMarch 25th 2010
Well, I guess I had it coming, since I ran out of my allergy medicine about two weeks ago, but a few days ago I had an asthma attack. I was feeling a little lightheaded before Fred and I got some lunch, but I definitely felt like taking my inhaler before going into my history class. It only took about ten minutes or so for me to start really wheezing. Well, the insuing events were pretty much a nightmare. My history professor kept asking me questions in Arabic that Fred kept answering for me in English. He walked me out to the building steps where I heard them make a call for an ambulance. At that point still I was pretty bent on NOT going to the hospital! But of course, you really don't have much ... read more
March 13th 2010
Well, it wasn't a three-day weekend, but Fred and I still rolled out of Amman after classes this past Thursday to get a break. We've both been to Madaba numerous times, but we've never been to the hot springs of Hammamat Ma'in before in all of our Jordanian adventures. It took us quite a while to get out of Amman though! We went to the northern bus station, one of the easiest, or supposed to be, hubs to get out of Amman. I've never seen so many people waiting for a bus though. There was a policeman who would occasionally grab people and shove them around if they tried to jump onto the bus through the windows. It was like watching a pack of monkeys. As soon as a bus would arrive, about ten people at ... read more
February 27th 2010
We were lucky enough to get a three-day weekend this past week and pretty much all of us took the opportunity to get the heck out of Jordan. Fred and I woke up early to get a taxi out to the border -- the border between the East and West Banks. It would be my first time going to Israel and I had specifically prepared well in advance. Last semester I applied for a second passport and was told to get it stamped by the border guards and just show my first passport as proof of legal entrance into Jordan. Well, the Jordanian side was pretty compliant. They asked for my first passport and assured me there would be no stamp. Instead they stamped a little piece of paper and took it back as we got ... read more
My host mother -- a series of vignettes
Published: April 5th 2010Middle East » Jordan » North » AmmanFebruary 23rd 2010
As the title suggests, this entry is dedicated solely to experiences I've had with my host mother. Well, as I've written before, my host mother is too close in age for me to ever realistically be her child. I see her as the epitome of what my life would be like if I were born into a family in this part of the world. The day before Valentine's day, my host father, in accordance to Arab views of love, laughed at my host mother when she told him he needed to bring her flowers. Although I know they were joking, I remembered how my dad was always so sweet to both me and my mother at Valentine's day, no matter how small a gesture or a gift it was. So I found some fake plastic roses ... read more
Scottish music, relationship crises and Petra, Take Two
Published: March 5th 2010Middle East » Jordan » South
February 13th 2010
Please bear with me while I catch up on my blogs! loool. The first week in February, Maya and Nina, two of my British friends from choir last semester, had heard of a concert of Scottish music. Well, it sounded strange enough, especially when we actually got in and they introduced all the musicians. It was more of a collaboration between Scots and Jordanians and a blending of their two types of music. It was amazing! The Scots played their own jigs on their own and the Jordanians their separate songs as well, but when they played together, man, it was crazy! I didn't want to think that there were probaby darker reasons for this similarity. Imperialism, anyone? But it was hard to think of that when a smiling Jordanian twiddling his oud looked over at ... read more
More of a marathon than I bargained for
Published: March 5th 2010Middle East » Jordan » West » Madaba
January 30th 2010
I'm uber-behind with my blogs, as is indicated by the date of this entry. I'm required to take an Intercultural Communications class in which I have journal entries due each month. As annoying as it is, at least I have some impetus for keeping track of what I'm doing here this semester despite the common lack of internet! Anyways, this semester is rather strange compared to the last. I'm trying to shake the big-kid-on-the-block feeling, even with my classmates who are new here this semester. I do feel like I've been taken in with the group though, especially since my program has only fourteen students, versus eighty kids in the Language and Culture program that I was in last semester. This semester the LC is even bigger! I worry about the experience they're having this semester, ... read more
January 29th 2010
So I'm back in the Kingdom and it hasn't even been two weeks yet, but I feel like it's been forever! Up until the last few days it's been go, go, go. Orientation, placement exams, moving out of the hotel, being back out in the city and the university. I finally have a chance to escape the house and have some quality internet time, which I don't get at school either since I have certain friends that like to rush me away from campus. Grr, loool! Anyways, I've been trying to keep tract of the highlights of these past two weeks or so without internet. Here goes! I was lucky enough to have my 21st birthday here in Amman, which I was strangely happy about, even though I wouldn't be around to go through the customary ... read more
Jerash - a little more eventful than it needed to be
Published: January 18th 2010Middle East » Jordan » North » Jerash
December 4th 2009
So I really realize that this post is over a month late and that I've already gone home, spent some time there and now returned to Jordan, but I'm going to do my best to keep this blog in chronological order! I might give up at some point and start recording my second semester, but we'll see how long I last. And it'll be a test of my long-term memory! Haha! So sometime after my program-mate Caleb and I decided to go to Jerash together, we met up at the northern bus station and hung out on the bus to Jerash for about an hour or so before we set off. It wasn't that big of a deal though, as we pulled out around 11:00 in the morning and there was plenty of daylight left. The ... read more
Eid #2 - Vanessa falls in love with Lebanon
Published: December 23rd 2009Middle East » Lebanon » Beirut
November 30th 2009
This entry is taking forever to write, although I really would like to do it justice! But anyways, I think the title says it all. Van's fallen in love for the second time! Thanksgiving -- thank goodness! -- I had the day off from class. Its really nice that Eid al-Adha coincided with everyone's break back home. Two nights before my roommates had thrown together a lovely turkey dinner and invited friends over. I have to say it was almost better than Thanksgiving at home, no offence, family! Well, no break here would be complete without some traveling. I was due to fly out of Amman Thanksgiving day at 4:40 PM but after a frustrating email from Royal Jordanian, my flight was pushed back to 7:00 PM. I used the day instead to clean my room ... read more
crumblybum21
| Joined | September 3rd 2009 | Trips | 3 |
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August 31st 2009 -» December 20th 2009
Jordan: The Double Take
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Jordan: The Double Take
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