First Days in Amman 8/29/24

Flew from Nashville  to Chicago to Amman on 8/29/24. The flight was about 11/12 hours - not too bad, I slept most of the way. I almost missed my flight in Chicago though because the gates closed 30 min before takeoff and I didn't realize! I was getting something to eat. Before we touched down in Amman, I was struck by how incredibly dry the landscape was! I knew Jordan is one of the most water scarce countries in the world, but I was not prepared to see that level of dry! I'm really impressed with Qasid so far! The level of organization and communication is really great. They arranged apartments and roommates and pick you up at the airport. They realized the room they gave me was smaller and less cost and emailed me to let me know. It took a while waiting for other Qasid students to arrive at the airport and then to load the cars and drop people off at their apartments, so I didn't reach my apartment until 6 or so. I was super hungry and tried several of the food delivery apps here, but they kept getting rejected. So finally I was able to order Papa John's and use cash to pay! By that time it was 9, and I was so hungry! The apartment is really big and nice with two living room areas, a  large kitchen, three bedrooms, two full baths and a half bath. My roommate, Tamara, didn't arrive from Austria until the next day. The neighborhood here is really quiet. Tamara told me the Austrian government allows people to take a sabbatical for learning every so many years and get half their salary, and as she's never taken hers before, she's using it now. Later in the afternoon after she arrived, we walked down to where the school is and there's a shopping center nearby. Many things were closed as it is the weekend - Friday and Saturday are they weekend here. We bought some items for the apartment, and Tamara hadn't eaten yet so we went to a restaurant next to the school. It was really busy with guys running around everywhere to take orders. It sounded like there was a party with a live band upstairs. We had really only wanted something small, but almost immediately when we sat down, they brought out lentil soup and bread. I wasn't really hungry so just ordered fries, and she ordered a salad and kebab. Afterward we trekked up the hill with our purchases. It's not far at all - 10 minutes or less, but Amman is very hilly and the way home was a bit steep. The next day we went out in the afternoon. I wasn't feeling great in the morning, and had started to get a big stye the day before, and today was worse! Tamara made us a lovely, fresh bean, tomato, cucumber salad for lunch with some bread and hummus. We messaged the building janitor guy because we couldn't figure out how to turn on the hot water, which turned out to be a simple switch in the laundry room. We took at Uber for about 3 JOD to the ruins of the Amman Citadel, an ancient Roman and Byzantine fortress. The view was great from the top of the hill, and we could see the Roman Amphitheater down the hill. It was very windy up there, blowing sand and dust everywhere. It was easy to see that one of the reasons for women wearing headscarves nad face coverings was to protect from the sand, dust, and sun. We took a taxi down the hill to a street downtown with lots of shopping. Tamara was craving Kunafa, a Middle Eastern dessert, and I had some ice cream. We were also able to get sim cards there. She wanted to head to Rainbow Street, so we walked there which involved quite a few stairs! We decided to go get a drink and then went ahead and had dinner. The place had a great view overlooking the city. I had a cold coffee with vanilla - I almost added sugar before I stirred the drink. Thankfully I didn't because after stirring, it was extremely sweet, almost like condensed milk. I had chicken tajine, and she had shawarma. After that we took an Uber home. Tomorrow we have orientation.