During our last few days in Amman, I was discussing with my classmates about whether or not our program was the right length of time for what we wanted to do and learn. Seven weeks were spent in this country. Seven weeks for orientation, homestays, classes, trips, and nights out in the city. Was it enough? I realized that no matter how long our program was, I would spend my last week here regretting not having done more. A few days ago, I had the most amazing adventure with a [...]

Today is the first day of RAMADAN!!! Such a huge holiday to be a part of here, in a Muslim country. Before I came to Jordan, this is what I knew about Ramadan: It’s celebrated by Muslims. They can’t eat as much. It’s at least a couple weeks long. Its date changes every year. Obviously, I was lacking quite a bit of information about the whole process. Now that I’ve lived in Amman and spoken with my friends, family, and teachers about Ramadan, it’s much more clear to me what [...]

We finally went on our 5 day trip to southern Jordan! Internet has been nearly impossible for the past week, and in any case I’ve kept myself so busy that I’ve had nearly no time on the computer at all. Hopefully I get some blog posts in before I start forgetting anything about our adventures! I’ve said it before – one amazing thing about Jordan is how few physical restrictions the country has for its ruins and landmarks. In the Roman Theater in Amman, we were able to climb directly [...]

Today is a very big day. Not because of what I’m doing, though tonight’s event is also going to be pretty darn spectacular. Today is big because my host family has INTERNET!!! Over the past couple weeks, my host family has gone from wireless, to only using the Ethernet cord, to having a million and one cousins in the house vying for Youtube access, to no web connection at all. I’ve been adding these posts onto my blog only at school, and let me tell you, I do not get anything done [...]

It’s a little awkward to be a tourist in a place like this. Everybody who lives here already can tell that I’m new to this city, but taking pictures just screams foreign. During our orientation week, I spent more time photographing all of my new adventures. But now that we’ve all settled down into our host homes and started classes, it’s starting to seem less appropriate to run around everywhere with a camera. I really wish I could record some of these TV shows in more than just memory for [...]

I’ve found somewhat of a solution to the problem of not speaking enough Arabic. Today, after a late breakfast, I went to Mecca Mall with some of the SIT students. It’s a very expensive place, not where I’d want to go for all of my clothes. Dillon’s host brother went with us – he definitely made the day the experience that it was! Once we finished our shopping, he drove us all around Amman. We saw the grandeur of the American Embassy, where the brother was nervous about me taking [...]

On Wednesday we finally got to learn who our host family is, and yesterday we met them and spent our first day in their homes! My host family has a mother and a father, Reem and Ali, two sons, Aymad and Bashar, with a third son working in the US, and a daughter who will be in town soon, Tamara. My host family speaks English well. That has made the transition to their home so much easier. Nonetheless, it also means I have to be very assertive about speaking only [...]

June 14, 2012 10:30pm (outdated post again) It’s really hard to remember the day of the week while I’m here. I keep thinking it’s at least one day earlier. I definitely consider that a good thing, though. Better to have time fly than to have it drag on from boredom, or unhappiness. It has been way too easy in Amman so far. I was expecting culture shock, a great disparity in understanding between myself and Jordanians. I’m (almost) disappointed that I haven’t been made uncomfortable so far. This trip is [...]

Ahlan bikum! I have done so much in the past 5 days, but internet access has been so slow or nonexistent that I haven’t been able to share them with you! Now that I’m finally settled, I can catch up with all of my posts.  I am writing this post at 10 at night – waaaay too late. I should have been in bed a long time ago. SIT keeps us going all day long, so I need every minute of sleep I can get! But I figured I couldn’t [...]

I wanted to make a post yesterday, during my layover in Amsterdam. But I had no time! My trip over here went amazingly fast. I’ve never had a better flight than the two I just experienced, if you’ll believe it. I rode for 9 hours overnight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, and slept just the right amount. Then I booked it to my next flight at 11am in the Amsterdam airport (4am Mpls) for a 5 hour flight. After getting bamboozled by the randomness of Jordanian streets, my taxi driver finally [...]