Jordan: Day 10

We have been in Jordan for 10 days now, and we are getting more used to our surroundings. 

Here are a few pictures of our apartment. 

Our kitchen

Our living room

The view from our building

We went to the YMWA School for the first time on Sunday.  We received a short tour of the facilities and cell phone for local use.  However, school is not in session and we don't have anyone to call here anyway.  Seriously, though, the staff members we have met all seem very nice.  Luckily for us, some of them speak English; one of them has even promised to teach us some Arabic, which we could greatly use.  On Monday, they took us to a clinic to have our blood drawn as part of the work visa approval process.  Our bus driver had us cut to the front of every line, and we turned a 2 hour visit into 30 minutes.  It really wasn't that bad, but Amber has one gnarly bruise on her arm from where they drew blood.

Ouch!

Tuesday night, we attended our first iftar with the students and faculty of the school at Ramadan park.  The experience was an ordeal from the beginning.  Our bus driver (not the one that took us to the clinic) overslept and was consequently running late picking everyone up.  The ride to the school was extremely nauseating as he tried to make up for lost time, which, thanks to a tight alley he tried to squeeze down, only made us later.  After meeting up at the school with the rest of the group, we set off to the park only to realize our driver didn't know how to get there.  Then, 2 hours after leaving our apartment, we finally arrived at the park.  The meal was very good, and they even sent us home with plenty of left-overs.  We were offered our first Arabic coffee, which we accepted.  After drinking, however, we were scolded twice: first because we cheered with it, and second because we drank it during our meal.  So keep that in mind if you ever come to Jordan: only cheer with alcohol and wait til after the meal to drink your coffee.  The bus ride home was just as interesting!  We got lost again and there were a few more close calls.  That said, it was better than the ride there.  For all of our complaining, the experience was very positive, and we are both looking forward to the start of school.

We just hung out around the apartment the rest of the week.  We did meet some of the neighbors, but that can be the subject of another post...