1 Week in Amman
Tuesday September 2, 2014 11:18am at my dining room table
A selfie a day keeps the Amman blues away! (this is from the rooftop of my apartment!).
I literally can’t believe how short my time has been and I have already dealt with so much! A lot of what I have been doing has honestly been uninteresting - we went through CIEE orientation and learned how to get to our places of study, had to take the longest Arabic placement exam of my life, etc. but major things have been going down as well! This will be very visual for me so sorry if you are more reading based!
Monday August 25th: Orientation Day and my 22nd birthday
Left the Landmark Hotel
Hotel room window
Ate bomb breakfast…
We moved into our apartments :) Roomie K. and S. who lives across from us. Love these guys <3 
View from the top of our apartment building!
Also I was super confused when we went to a cafe for wifi and found the Friends @ Cafe based on the show Friends! I have since seen “The Doors” Cafe as well LOL!
Tuesday August 26th: This day was a bit miserable! I got major heat poisoning/food poisoning following our city tour and I am honestly still recovering…. This involved heat chills, puking, diarrhea, fever. I thought I was going crazy and I was going to pass out on the sidewalk following our trips to the Roman Ampitheatre and the Citadel (by the time we had gotten here, I was feeling so weak that I didn’t even go inside! I need to go back and check it out on my own!).
Me at the top of the theatre!
The lovely Alana posing for me because she looked so pretty! She will also be spending 2 semesters here! (:
Wednesday August 27th: We had to take a miserably long Arabic placement exam - 3 hours and I left the last few pages blank! Thankfully I scored into the class I wanted(:
Thursday August 28th:
I worked out at Sports City for the first time by going on the running trails. I feel very weak because I was not able to run more than 2 miles! I think it was the heat poisoning and my very light diet since I have moved here, but I am not sure how I will build up to 8 miles like before if I continue feeling this way… Anyway, the trails are super pretty if anything!(:
The gorgeous pool at Sport City… but it costs 15JD per use!!! Literally the prettiest place I have seen in Amman though LOL!
Also, I went out on Thursday night and I was attacked on my way to a cafe! I was on a dark street alone but it was right next to the super popular Rainbow Street and I had just left my friends to meet another set of friends so I thought I would be safe either way. But there was only one guy on this dark street and he immediately moved in and grabbed by the shoulders and tried to push me up against a car!! I started pushing back right away and screamed - which prompted him to let go. I am still more shocked than scared that this even happened in Jordan!! I think the guy was just a loser trying to take his opportunities where he could.
Friday August 29th: Friday is the actual start to the weekends here - Sunday is the first official day of the week (يوم الاحد is Sunday and it actually translates to “the first day”). I went to Souq Jara on Rainbow Street. Arts and crafts are sold here.
With N. and E. who are doing the Arabic Language program! We had great conversation at Green Turtle Cafe after(:
Sand art in jars. Too bad taking it home would be a serious struggle!!
Pretty colors at the Souq
Saturday August 30th: Checked out Mecca Mall - which is overwhelmingly humongous!!! I also discovered that Zalatimo Bros. for Sweets chain is right down the street if I ever need a baklava fix!
At Zalatimo Bros. for Sweets
Sunday August 31st: First day of school!!! And after my first Arabic class, I went to the awesome cafe Nabteh o Fatteh on Rainbow Street with some awesome people from my program(: I really have enjoyed meeting so many great people on this trip even though most of them have been American!! I’ll meet more Jordanians when my Arabic gets better!
*Fatteh is this awesome dish of fried bread layered with yogurt and fried nuts. I did not try it because it is not vegan but my friends definitely recommend it!(: I still don’t know what Nabteh is…
Monday September 1st: More class but I was super excited to meet the new students in the CIEE Language and Culture program moving in.
Me, S. and D. went to get tea and hookah to get to know each other(:
D. is an avid climber and Crossfit trainer in the States! So glad I got to meet him
…and now it is Tuesday and I am just at home updating my FB and this blog because I got a little sick this morning and had to miss Arabic class!!! wahhh. At least I could take a break(: I’ll hopefully be updating more often. Let me know if you have any questions!!
With love,
Shimmy