Disappointed and angry about not getting into Israel, we woke up Friday morning looking forward to coffee at our favorite, (American), coffee shop. Yes, it is way overpriced, but it's also the only thing that tastes anything like coffee or has any amount of caffeine. We were overly excited for our espresso and muffins, so when Port City Java was closed, we broke down. Brianna took out her iPhone in determination to find real coffee. I slumped against the wall in severe caffeine withdrawal. It was Cassidy who mentioned she hadn't seen a movie in forever, and next Brianna was looking up show times in Amman. Within an hour we were on the bus, after waking up Mike and telling him he was accompanying us shopping and to a girly movie. And no, he did not have a choice. We can't go anywhere without him, partly because we're scared of the creepy guys here, and partly because he's scared for us and won't let us. Amman is only an hour from Irbid, but is such a different city. Things work, for example, and while all of Jordan is dirty, it's a bit cleaner. There are also really nice and modern areas. We went to Mecca Mall and ended up shopping for a few hours. They have a lot of European clothing stores, so we all spent more money than we were planning, (but we also got really cute clothes! And we justified it with, well we missed out on summer shopping at home). The only American movie showing was Karate Kid, so we decided against that. Instead, because we felt a little bad that Mike was following us to girly store after girly store, we found an Irish Pub and watched the Brazil/Portugal game. Pubs, or places that serve alcohol in general, are very rare in Jordan. It's legal to sell alcohol in hotels though, and this pub was underneath onel. It was a cute building, and half of it was outdoors in a tent. Mike met some girls who were Jordanian, but Christian, (aka able to drink and wear tank tops), and we talked with them for awhile. Next thing we knew we were making plans to stay in Amman for the night. Luckily, their grandpa owned the hotel we were watching the game at, and they had a spare room. Jordan hotels are nothing like American hotels, but this one was nice and clean and had much Jordanian charm. We rushed out to buy toothbrushes and clothes to go out in. When we met up with them again, they were with more of their friends-coincidentally, one of them was a guy we had met at the Dead Sea the weekend before. We were all surprised. The girls we met were so much fun and we saw a completely different side of Jordan than we were used to. Irbid is extremely conservative, even more so than we realized. Everyone we met in Amman was like, "We feel so bad for you! Irbid? We've never even been there! Transfer to Amman!" Yarmouk is one of the best schools in the country, but if we would have known earlier we probably would have sacrificed a bit of learning for Amman's nightlife and more liberal atmosphere. We were wearing dresses. In Jordan! It seemed unbelievable. They took us out for late night falafel sandwiches with our favorite spicy sauce, and we made plans to come back next weekend. Our program ends Thursday, and we leave for Egypt Saturday, (Cassidy and Mike leave for Syria Saturday–we'll miss traveling with them!). We were planning on staying in Irbid or finding a hostel in Amman for the two nights before we leave, but this will be much more fun. One of the women we met is a pilot, and she's taking us flying on Friday! Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel...never in the US could you stay in an adorable hotel, and eat omelets, bread, cheese, vegetables and coffee in the morning all for JD14/$19.60. I'm going to miss spontaneous weekends like this in Jordan, not worrying about taking off work, or breaking plans..and I'm definitely going to miss meeting so many new people!
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