Advertisement
Today marks my first full day in Jordan, 14 months to go. Getting here however was not entirely uneventful. My plane from Philadelphia to New York was suppose to Leave at 6:30 which meant I would arrive at 7:45, plenty of time to catch my 10:00 pm flight to Amman. Well not when you board at 7:30, are told that you are just going to wait on the plane for another hour, take off at 8:30 to arrive at 9:45 in a different terminal than the one my flight to Amman was in. Fortunately through a series of sprinting, then jogging, then speed walking, stopping heaving, then speed walking again I made it just in the nick of time to board my flight to Amman. This is where I met David, a program participant who I signaled out when he mentioned United Nations being a vocabulary word. They took away his pepsi he had purchased at the airport at security and he is still not happy about it. Then Alisha, another program member was switched into the seat next to me by chance. This gave me some buddies to hang with while we all tried to navigate the visa process, find
our bags and get to the hotel. The guys at the visa counter was not happy that I had a stamp from Israel and told me to go to immigration, which I wound up not doing and just going to the stamp counter where another man gave pause at my Israeli stamp. However rest assured that my innocent face and conservative clothing won them over and eventually it was concluded that I was not a spy and was allowed to enter the country. Baggage claim was also somewhat disconcerting my bags taking quite a while to come through, even longer until davids and Alisha's bags finally presented themselves 2 hours after we had landed. However we all made it to the hotel ok because our faithful student activities coordinator Ahmed was there to meet us at the airport. I share a room with Stephanie who is from Virginia and wants to go into the airforce. The pictures with the post are kindly provided by her since my battery was DOA. Last night after dinner I went out with David, Logan, a rising sophomore who has never been out to the country before (it shows a bit), Mora, another airforce bound
participant who I think is defiantly going to find the parties, and Bethany who has a fiance here that she met last summer who guided us around with his friends. We went to a cafe and drank POUNDS of tea which I think had to not with my not sleeping AT ALL last night, smoked hooka (which are in almost every coffee shot so about ever 100 m on the street), and then went bowling at the Mecca mall. I thought all this activity would wear me out but alas I just laid in bed for hours until the call to prayer drifted into the window filling the room. It was beautiful and moving, I can really get use to hearing that every morning. However at 6 I gave up on sleeping and took a quick military shower and read in the lobby until breakfast. After breakfast orientation began which was all about understanding actions in a cultural context. There was a really good quote that summed it all up that went something like we see only a faction of the human experience which is influenced by dark continent of unknown context or something like that. I think that is
going to be important to keep in mind. However I learned that one of the coordinators of my program knows Rana Husseini!!!!!! My human rights journalism hero in Jordan. I might actually get to meet her. After that we took a tour of the city where we saw ancient roman ruins as well as experienced local restaurants and coffee shops and historical museums! Well dinner is upon us but I will be in touch soon! I move into my apartment tomorrow!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.432s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0882s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bep
non-member comment
Good to hear from you
Hey, I am glad you made your flight to Amman. Nice to already read about your adventurous experiences. I hope you'll have a nice roommate and a good time. Looking forward to your next blog story ..... love, Bep