Jordan!

Since it's now been about a month since I got here (!!!!!) I figured I might as well finally post about some everyday life things.

I was lucky enough to be here at the same time as my friend Pat! It was great seeing her, hanging out with the teachers she works with and going to church together. The new church building is AMAZING. It is SUPER nice even if the building is still technically under construction. 

One of my favorite things about being back in Jordan is re-experiencing lots of my old favorite foods. Drew and I only discovered Ma'mool near the end of our trip last time and so to make sure I enjoyed it to the fullest, I bought a whole kilo of the stuff and brought it home to share with my roommates. I may have gone a bit overboard on that one. 

Nom. I did share most of them and still have some in the freezer. 

I also remembered the various types of boxed milk. I remembered that my favorite kind was Baladna (especially the chocolate part) and one of those with a vanilla pudding makes for a great breakfast or snack. I know, I'm six years old again. But it tastes so good!!!

I also had the great opportunity to partake of Mizo. It's the Middle Eastern version of Maaza which I LOVED in India. They sell it in cans now which is actually quite a bit cheaper than in the bottles. So yay Maaza!

I've definitely been really good about drinking liquids here. Even though my Georgetown water bottle shattered my second week here (*sob* It was my FAVORITE-but you can't win against stone floors :( ), I was able to make it to Safeway and get another one. Luckily, our landlord got us one of those electric water coolers so we don't have to pump our water out of the massive jug. It's fancy! (And much easier) Bonus, it already comes out cool. Hey, it's the little things in life right?

It's also been nice to remember just how much I LOVE Middle Eastern foods and the lifestyle. We really do have our portions messed up in the United States. Drew and I semi-regularly polish off at least 2 large pizza slices and sometimes even 4 in one sitting. Here, I was craving pizza so I went to pizza hut, and I was completely full with 2 medium slices which in all honesty are still smaller than a US small's slices. I got 3 full meals off of that one medium pizza. 

Anywho, one day I took my roommates to the Al Sufara Bakery near seventh circle. It's nice to visit at least once. Before we went, we stopped at a little restaurant down the street. It was SUPER tasty and the whole meal cost 3 JD ($5) for all 3 of us. And we got all of this:

It was seriously tasty

Up until about last week, I've been mostly hanging out with my roommates. They're both doing internships through the University of Utah. My internship fell through (hence why I was here so early...not doing anything). I don't mind for the most part, as it's given me a chance to learn where I live, relearn the bus system, and get used to speaking and hearing Arabic every day. 

One of the best things I've learned is that I can get down to Wasd al Balad for only 1/2 a dinar if I take one of the larger buses with the numbers on it. Since I'm rather north of the city right now, that would easily be a 3-4 JD ride. So that alone saves me quite a bit of money. 

Downtown (i.e. Wasd al Balad)

So of course, my roommates and I had to go to the traditional downtown place: Hashem's Restaurant. It's the exact same type of food as the place we had near Al Sufara. But tastier. Then we walked around and I showed them where to buy soccer jerseys and we found a nice souvenir shop that wasn't expensive. 

The Nymphaeum 

Another rather fun thing going on right now is the world cup. This is now my THIRD world cup in a row where I haven't seen it in English. The one in 2006, I watched it in Spanish since Cam had (semi)recently returned from his mission and had telemundo on the entire cup. The second world cup, the one in 2010, I was in Jerusalem at the time. We all pitched in to get a special box to watch the games. Of course though, because we were getting it from an Israeli broadcaster, the telecast was in Hebrew. Some of my favorite memories from that summer are of the group watching the games and even having the security guards watching and cheering with us. And now THIS year, I'm watching it while here in Jordan...in Arabic!

This was the opening game. I went with my roomies to Rainbow Street to watch the game. 

L-R Allison, Me, Ashley

While I'm really grateful that I live near Sweileh (and therefore know where I am within the city), Amman is the city of hills. I finally stopped to document the hill that I have to walk up and down to get to and from my apartment. Of course we live almost at the very top. 

View from the bottom of the street

But at least I'm going to have great legs after this summer huh?

View from outside my apartment building looking down the street. 

At least right now when I get to my apartment, this is greeting me. 

I miss Drew, Kirby and Sir Richard terribly, but I am learning LOADS and really enjoying my arabic classes. (A first for a while...) I'm doing well, I'm safe and having as much fun as I can without my favorite boys. Besides, Kirby has been a busy little stinker while I've been gone. :P He's an emotional eater.