The Alphamia hotel, our home for the next six weeks, is also nicer than expected. The one review Brianna found said it was a one-star hotel, so we were a little worried, but it's pretty much your standard hotel, but with a cafe downstairs for tea instead of a bar, a slightly cold shower with bad water pressure, cute little seating areas, gold accents everywhere, old fashioned steps, decorative rugs and a much friendlier staff than most hotels in the U.S.
Backing up: Our first flight took off Friday evening from Chicago, and we arrived in London at 8:30 am their time. We had five hours until the flight to Amman, so we took the underground downtown, (about 45 minutes), and spent the next hour and a half on a whirlwind tour of the city. We saw Big Ben/Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace, then ran back to the subway to catch our flight, (we were so proud of ourselves for figuring it out!). I loved all of the houses we sped by, little brick things with gardens, and I'm even more in love with English accents. We debated whether they find our accents as charming as we find theirs, but decided definitely not. An airport security guy tricked us and said our flight to Jordan was cancelled, and too bad we would have to stay with him. We momentarily panicked, and he was scolded for flirting with Americans and neglecting his work.
When we finally made it to Amman around 11 pm we were exhausted, but customs and currency exchange and everything went quickly. Sunday was orientation, which consisted of a bus tour of Irbid, (the city we're studying in), and the University. We stopped at two museums, neither one too impressive. They reminded me of the rock shows I used to put on with Emily Schreiber in my bedroom, where we would set things on paper, write the scientific name, and force our parents to pay to see it. There were Persian squirrels, (the only difference I could find was they were skinnier than Wisconsin squirrels), some shells, insects, and a jungle cat with an expression like it was about to get shot–which maybe it was. It was hilarious though, and someone has a picture so expect to see it soon.
Irbid is known for their desserts, (my favorite thing!), especially Cannafa, a cheesy, sugary, syrupy concoction, so we stopped for some of that as well. We had a welcome lunch at the University of Yarmouk, and took a placement test. Or, for half of us, wrote our names down, didn't know anything else, and left to go to a cafe with students at Yarmouk. We ended up going to a really good restaurant for mensaf, the national dish of Jordan. It's served on a giant platter for the whole table, and is rice with fried almonds, lamb, and a yogurt oil sauce with some other flavor I can't describe. It was delicious–and so filling. All of the food here so far is amazing, and that paired with the famous baked goods is trouble for us. Brianna and I were planning on working out a few times a week, but so far that's not going well, and we were told most of the gyms are for men only. We're almost to the point of doing workout videos in our hotel room, (she might kill me for putting that online), but at least we walk around the city a lot. After dinner last night we went to another cafe, (that's the main entertainment here), and then ANOTHER one, then finally got calling cards and phones and went to sleep.
Today, Monday, was our first day of class. Very easy, but I'm sure next week will get much harder. We learned the alphabet, sounds, and a little bit of reading. I already know all of it from Persian class, so it was a little boring, but after the first week we're supposed to finish learning to read and write, and start speaking, then I'll know nothing. We have class Sunday through Thursday from 8:30 to 2:30, so we have time to go through a lot. Tomorrow is Jordan's Independence Day, so we have off, and Wednesday through the weekend we're going to Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba. Exciting!
This is a really funny story: Right now, Brianna and I are at a cafe using the internet, (it's nice you just sit on couches and they bring you water–bottled–and wait on you), and we didn't really know how to ask for the password so there was a lot of pointing. Then we asked for tea, we thought, and when the guy working asked what kind we told him to surprise us. So someone came back with a Hookah–not what we asked for at all. We tried explaining, but it turned into a lot of confusion on both sides. Eventually, we kept the Hookah, but also got our tea and coffee. Next, about 30 seconds ago, he came back to see how things were going, and tried to ask if we speak Arabic. We told him it was our first day of class, but it wasn't coming across right at all. He asked if we liked America, but that was the only successful question/answer. Everything else either side tried to say was met with blank stares. Brianna kept trying to tell him we would come back when we knew more and would talk to him, and he was trying so hard to understand and turning so red, and I think also thought we were crazy, so I went on google translate and typed everything we were trying say and he read the arabic version. He burst out laughing...so did we, and then said Ohhh ok he is excited for our return. It was awkward, but really funny, and as Brianna said, would of course only happen to us. Thank god for technology I guess. Also, they really like American slogans and music here–a lot of shirts with weird American pictures and sayings, A LOT of Enrique Iglesias, (we've literally heard Hero four times in the last 20 minutes), pictures of Shakira, and even a McDonuts.
What else.... The call to prayer is really loud...There's a very strange kid in our group who just graduated high school, (actually missed his graduation to come), who I have many funny stories about, two other students from UW-Madison, one who happens to live in the same apartment building as me and only one floor up....The boys remind me of Jimmy with their tight v-neck shirts, gelled hair, cocky walk and winks, (I'm sure he'll love that haha). I think that's it for now. Hopefully the next posts won't be so long!
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