Arrived Safely

Ahlan wa sahlan ila medinat Amman! (Welcome to the city of Amman!)

After boarding the Royal Jordanian airplane at the JFK airport, we departed for Amman around 10:30 pm. For the most part, it was an enjoyable flight - window seat near the front, "airline" food, personal TV with a wide range of movies, and, of course, my new friend - an old man from London, UK. Prior to boarding, I told myself that I would watch a movie or two, and catch up on Arabic (which I haven't looked at since leaving Georgetown in May). Well.... let's just say that I didn't do either. I began watching Fast Five, and proceeded to fall asleep (not that most of my friends are surprised, as I tend to do that more than not). And although my Arabic textbook was sitting under the seat in front of me, I was too lazy to reach down and pick it up. One funny story of my flight was when I woke up at around 7 am (US time) or 2 pm (Amman time) and I saw my TV on. I looked over to my left and sure enough the old man from London was watching my TV with my headphones! Not sure why he was not using his, but I guess he just thought he should help himself to my TV since I was sleeping. Oh well, he didn't wake me up or anything.

I arrived safely to Amman, Jordan at 4:30 pm. After landing and leaving the airplane, we were greeted by staff members of CIEE who took us through Immigration, assisted us in getting our luggage, and then divided us between those staying in apartments and those in homestays. Since the few Georgetown students that I know on the program are in apartments, I said good-bye to them as I boarded a SUV with other homestay students to the Geneva Hotel in Amman.

I have situated myself in my hotel room for the next couple days as we go through an intensive orientation. Purchased a local phone, went in a taxi with some friends to check out Amman last night, got some Nutella ice cream (which is obviously delicious!), and spent time with some of my new classmates.

Also, I have received information about my host family!!!!!! I will be living in Umm Summaq with the Kattan family. David, the father (like my dad!), works as a car dealer at the duty free zone, and my mother, Rania, is a homemaker. They have two children: Laura, who is 7 years old, and Rami who is 4 years old. Both are students at the Maamadanieh School. They are a Catholic family and live relatively close to the University of Jordan. I will be meeting them this weekend - can't wait!

Well that's it for now. Off to explore Amman! Hopefully, I can put up some photos soon.