Jordan: December 2009

Not sure which country, though. My countdown for coming home is getting less and less. I'm excited, sad, anxious, patient, and other polar feelings. I look back at the "Al-Manar days" where orientation at the beginning of the program was held and it was so long ago, but this semester has gone by so fast. Riding on camels, dining with Bedouins, exploring the pyramids, trekking the deserts, being offered tea at mosques...to say the least. I can't wait to get on that plane bound for home, but I realize the life I made in Amman, Jordan: the route I walk to get to the bus and back, the same people I pass on that route, the call to prayer I hear everywhere a few times a day, the security guards in front of campus who recognize me so they just let me through, saying fun Arabic phrases that really don't make sense in its literal English translation, and yes...taxi drivers that just say something awkward.

I've been going to bed and waking up in the same room and I'll miss the little humble abode I made. My host mom and sister are tight-knit so I fit right in. I'll miss having movie nights with my sister and I'll miss her doing my hair, linking arms downtown, cheering her on at basketball games, and taking crazy pictures together, etc. Yay, for homestays!

Even though I've had it up to my neck with schoolwork and cultural struggles, especially as my time here is ending, I'll miss the little quirks I've seen and developed. Amman is a pretty big city in a country made mostly of desert, so it's seems small and suffocating at times, but most of the people are very hospitable, which is rare to find in America. There's no such thing as personal space here, so it'll be weird going back home where everyone is kept at an arm's length unless you're real good friends with them, but even that takes a while. Social experiment: stand real close to someone and see how they react.

Well, before I keep rambling, I'll include pictures about some of my highlights while I was in Jordan: