ma'andish bab

Its only been a few days since I've last written, but it feels like 3 weeks. It is goodbye to the wonderfulness of vacation to the hard reality of living here and trying to study a language that the girl working at Claires said was "too difficult and that i was better off studying physics". great.

3 Days ago I boarded what could be called a boat...if you use that definition very liberally. The day we were supposed to leave Egypt and sail to Jordan was very windy and stormy and so somebody (whom i will refrain from calling names) decided that we needed to be on a bigger ship and bought us tickets for this cargo ship. It is also the ship that really really poor Egyptians use to cross into Jordan looking for working opportunities. Now i have nothing against poor people...i have found that poor people are so much nicer and friendlier than rich people. But these people were destitute and they could afford this boat and so that can give you some idea of what the living conditions were like. There was not enough seats for people and so people were sleeping on the floor in the halls and there was no food. Well I take that back you could buy chips and Mars bars at this snack counter that everytime we would go up they would raise the price 2 pounds. This ship was a Dutch ship and we decided that this is where Dutch ships go to Die. So the ride was supposed to be 4ish hours and so we all got on the boat and found some benches and after 3 hours of playing cards we are informed that the boat hasn't even left the dock! The whole "adventure" took about 12 hours and when we arrived at Aqaba we saw the luxury cruise ship, we were supposed to be on, already safely docked and it was very depressing. Oh and they were really scared that we were bringing in Swine flu and so we all had to get "checked"...they held something up to our foreheads for about 6 seconds...maybe taking our temperature...and that was the test. I'm so glad that i had the same thing held up to my forehead as the hundred unbathed people before me.

So I've been in Jordan for the past 3 days and this is my second full day in Amman. My apartment is extremely nice and close to the university. They just redid all the apartments and so our applicances and everything have never been used. We are getting internet today and so hopefully i'll be able to post some pictures. Oh and me and my roommate finally got a door! (thats what my title says..."I don't have a door". They had to move me and Lauren to the apartment facing the street...only had this sliding glass window thing...and promised us that in the next couple of days they would bring us a door. It was kinda funny. We had one of those metal sheets that you pull down in front of store fronts haha. And the owner said that the security guard would "watch our apartment"...which is kinda creepy. But alas we have a door. We don't have water though...last night our water ran out... its really annoying....I don't know when we are getting more water. but we can't use the toliet, shower, sinks...anything! Everytime you turn on your facete think of me and my unwashed hair.

I think I have culture shock...or at least i have all the symptoms that my teacher told us about. but i have found a really good remedy for it...buying things. It doesn't matter what...just the act of spending money makes me feel so much better. yesterday i bought a phone, skirt, purse, keychain, headband, 3 different kinds of deserts from a Bakery and a blanket and I felt so much better. Oh and some Fruity Pebbles and milk (which turned out to be yogurt...very water yogurt). But this is not a long lasting remedy unfortunately. Hopefully this culture shock crap does not last long or my goal of living simply and being a miminalist is not going to work.