My roommate and I found a bakery on the outskirts of the neighborhood we live in. I have no idea what the name is or what we have been buying from them, but they have the most delicious sweets in the world. We found this gem while taking a walk the other night. Our run to the ATM turned into a junk food haul.
When you first enter the bakery you will see plates of cookies wrapped in plastic wrap, a soda machine, and then on your right a wide array of Jordanian baked goods. Almost everything is covered in honey or pistachios and the smell is incredible. The man that works there is very nice and tries to show us whats really really good out of all the treats they offer. On our first trip we bought Kanafeh ( which I spoke about in a previous post) and these desserts that taste like pancakes drenched in real maple syrup. We bought a total of 6 and I spent 1 JD ( $1.44 USD)! We have been there two more times since this initial experience and each time we try new things. Finding this bakery meant a lot to me. I really wanted to come to Jordan and experience different aspects of the culture and life here. I found out later that night that this bakery is the same place my host family goes to, which started a whole conversations. Food always bring people together and it helps create memories. They'll be plenty more posts about this particular bakery and eventually I will remember the name.
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School in Jordan runs from Sunday - Thursday. Which to some in America may seem crazy but it doesn't feel any different. For the next 8 months we are attending Al Mashrek International School - a Private school in West Amman. We visited the school on Thursday and learned about the program and took a tour of the grounds. Mashrek is beautiful, outside it looks like a college (minus the playground). The classes here are very diverse and the teachers are beyond qualified.
On the first day I woke up at five in the morning ( 10:00 pm American time) and got ready for school. we were told to be outside ten minutes before seven because the "yellow school bus would be there exactly at seven". After having breakfast and packing a lunch we headed outside at 6:50 am - not before taking some first day of school pictures. Ten minutes went buy and the bus was not here exactly at seven... shocking I know. So we continued to wait. Forty minutes later the bus arrived - and school starts at 8:00 am sharp. Low and behold we were late to our first day of school. Mashrek has a lot of stairs- Imagine the Providence Place Mall only had stairs and you needed to get to the third floor. That's what getting to the senior school floor is like. After arriving at our school half an hour late and hiking up to the senior school floor we were directed to a big air conditioned room filled with other eleventh graders. we walked in and were asked o introduce ourselves. We then joined the group to learn about schedules and pick classes. At Mashrek there is block scheduling and in between every class is a 20 minute break. You usually have between 1- 4 classes per day depending on your schedule. On the first day we met the history and economics teacher, attended a math class, and a computer science lesson. I am beyond excited to take History and Global Politics. Our first day was great. Everyone was incredibly kind and helped us find our way. I am excited to learn within the walls of this school \not only about academics but about a part of Jordan not everyone gets to see. For the first time we got to sleep in! We had no Amideast classes or meetings and were given the chance to explore our neighborhood. I ate breakfast with my host Mom as she explained that the house was now our house and to feel comfortable being there. After breakfast we met up with the two other YES students and their host sister to go to the Bird Gardens. Because we are all 16 years old the guard was not supposed to charge us, but we ended up paying 1 JD for the visit. The Bird Gardens were pretty, but also a little bit scary. In the middle there is a playground filled with young children and their parents. Around the playground are small enclosures with different "birds". One has ducks, the other has peacocks, There is a whole section dedicated to pigeons and then there is the monkey. Now if you have ever been to a zoo in America it's very sad to see animals in cages not living a life remotely close to what they would of had in the wild. The Bird Gardens monkey was the most disturbing, sad situation - the monkey was alone in a very small enclosure that has thick layer of trash on the bottom. He has a wooden swing, but you can clearly see how distressed it is. None of the Jordanians seemed to have an issue with it and the whole thing was just scary to look at.
After we abandoned the bird gardens we went to a store and grabbed some water. We then sat over on some steps and spent a good hour trying to flip water bottles to some song ( I still don't understand why flipping water bottles is now the coolest thing ever, but it is frustrating when you don't get it). We then walked around for a while and finally went home. We were supposed to start school so my roommate and I wanted to go out to get school supplies. We took a cab to Taj Mall. Taj Mall is giant compared to the Providence Place mall and is filled with stores around the worlds. We bought a ton of notebooks and I finally was able to buy milk. I have been searching for milk the last 4 days because I brought hot chocolate from pastiche to Amman and I really, really wanted to make it. I spent 1 JD on milk which is equivalent to $1.40 USD. We then decided to go and get something sweet- my roommate got Pinkberry but my choice was so much better. I found a Tollhouse cookie cafe that not only served Tollhouse cookies but also served frozen drinks inspired by different cookies. We then got a cab, were dropped off on the other side of our neighborhood, and walked for half an hour to get to our house. In Amman you do a lot of walking. We had breakfast at the hotel on our second day. I woke up at 7am and went down to the dinning area, where I met a waiter. The waiter showed me every item of food that was laid out and even had a conversation with me in Arabic. After talking to him, I grabbed a plate and made the tough decision of what to pick! I settled on hummus and bread, labneh ( a yogurt spread), Jordanian spring rolls, and some fruit. While sitting in the dinning area it was very quite - partly because I was the only person in the room for a good hour but the TV they had was also off. I took this time to look through the folder that Amideast gave us. The folder was jam-packed with valuable information, including an Arabic and Amiyah survival guide! After an hour my roommate and the others came down and at 9am we had our first meeting of the day. Throughout our meetings we talked about safety, host families, school, stipends, etc. We ate lunch at the hotel, which was relatively the same.
At 5:30pm we all piled into a van a went to meet our host families! My roommate and I were the first to get dropped off. We live in a building with multiple apartments. The elevator is possibly the scariest thing I have ever been on in my life, but it's part of the experience. My host family is made up of a single mother and her three adult children. The house is beautiful and although it is hot outside inside is a lot cooler. When we first arrived we met the sisters and our host mom. We talked about what we were interested in, our ages, our favorite music/tv shows, etc. Then the brother came home and we all kind of sat in an awkward silence with occasional conversation in Arabic. After a few hours we came into our new room. The bedroom is very nice with a lot of storage space our own bathroom area and a desk. We also have a porch where I have been spending a lot of time which has a beautiful view of the neighborhood. Jordan does not have a lot of water, actually the are the second poorest in terms of water resources - so that night my roommate and I had to figure out when we would take showers. On our third day in Amman, we left our host family in the morning to go and get our Visas at a police station. It was kind of a scary experience - the police station was old and it just seemed like a place you would hope to stay away from. We all had to have our finger prints taken and were told to wash our hands in a coed bathroom- that was a strange experience. We then headed back to the Amideast center and had another meeting before having an Arabic lesson, which was a lot of fun! We learned how to conjugate words. Soon after this an officer from the US Embassy came to welcome us to the country and tell us about her experience. The real highlight of the day though was going on our tour of the city. When we finished meeting with officer from the embassy we piled into a van with one of the coordinators and a tour guide and learned all about Amman. We visited the Citadel and the multiple other sites, as well as the Roman Amphitheatre. Both locations were breath taking. It's crazy to believe that you are standing on top of thousands of years of history. After visiting the sites we went to Rainbow st to get Falafel Sandwiches. Although the original restaurant we were supposed to go to was closed, we found another one called "Falafel and Potato" . The sandwich was delicious! While we were eating the call to prayer cam flooding the streets. That is one thing I have kind of fallen in love, getting to hear the call of prayer no matter where you are. Once we were done we went back to our host families house. We sat on the sofa for a while with the family then went to bed. On August 22 I arrived in Amman, Jordan along with 3 other YES Abroad students. We were all excited, tired, hungry, basically we all felt every emotion possible once our plane landed on the ground. Our venture in the airport was brief although - quick warning - the floors are very, very sticky there! After getting our initial visas and getting our bags, we met two Amideast staff members that were going to drive us to the hotel we were staying at. They were very helpful - and funny! Viewing Amman in person for the first time was such a surreal moment. The country is filled with white buildings that match in design, and there is a lot of traffic ( I was told by one of the staff members that the traffic was caused by all of the Jordanians who work abroad that come home for the summer which causes the population driving to increase). Our ride from the airport to JAD Hotel was between 20/30 minutes. Throughout that time our driver pointed out different restaurants and landmarks and made a big effort to show us all of the American things Amman had - such as Popeye's and KFC. We also had a huge debate about which country had more Starbucks cafes, lets just say the U.S. won. The JAD Hotel is nothing but beautiful. Our rooms were open with beautiful views, and lets not forget the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. After a 14 hour plane ride, this was more than any of us could have hoped for. That night we had dinner at Syrian/Jordanian Restaurant- which included what are liaison described as " Syrian BBQ". The hummus and fresh bread was delicious! One of the girls on our trip was celebrating her birthday so we also got to try knafeh - a Jordanian desert with cheese and fried noodles. The waiters carried out the knafeh on a silver tray with a giant sparkler sticking out of the top - it was insane! Our first night abroad was amazing and really showcase some of the many things we heard about before arriving. One night down 237 more to go! |
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