You're Not Lost If You Don't Know Where You're Going

Traveling. Well, it was interesting. I spent two and a half days traveling from Boston to Frankfurt to Amman. My trusty companion, Catie, was with me the whole time. We met a massive group of BYU students when we arrived in Germany.

Since we had over ten hours of an airport layover, David, Jessica, and I decided to go exploring. It's not every day you are in Germany. We went without a plan, knowledge of anything German, and directions. Story of my life.

We almost got arrested.
You think I'm joking, but I'm not.

It went a little like this. We purchased train tickets in the airport and boarded the next train. Apparently, there is a first class train and a second class. Our tickets were for the latter, but we found ourselves on the wrong one. We were approached right before our stop and told to hand over our passports. My companions stood there with their mouths open. This is when the rage of Jadyn begun. I don't know why, but this has been a long month of sass. I have found myself arguing with many authority figures. Long story short, I got the policeman to give us back our passports, avoided the station, and paid half of the fine. I credit my bargaining skills to experiences with Egyptian salesmen. He should of been lenient because we could not speak or read German, but ya3ny some people are not so cooperative.

Stupid Americans.

So ten minutes in Frankfurt and I wanted to head back to the airport. I hated Germany. David talked me into staying. For that, I am grateful. We went to a couple cathedrals, walked along the Rhine river and had some pastries. We had a great time.

Pictures will come later. I am without internet except for spare moments at the institute. Uploading is too tedious.

I finally arrived in Jordan after two years of preparation and it has exceeded my expectations.

We have already gone to the Dead Sea, Mount Nebo, and the Byzantine site that marked Christ's baptism. Again, pictures will come.

In case you're wondering, dormancy for four months and an Arabic placement test don't mesh well.
I was sent to a room where a panel of Arab men sat with mungo pot bellies. That description is important. I had to read a paragraph chosen for me. It talked about the saying, "The way to man's heart is through his stomach." I was asked what it meant and my opinion about it. I started giggling because of the situation. One of the men told me it must be true or they would all be skinny. Yeah, it was a good time.

Jet lag went away fast.

Some have gotten sick, I haven't. Al7umdillallah. Jory, you can thank me for passing off my super-human germs to you when I used your toothbrush that one time.

Food is so gooood. We ate at a Yemenese restaurant our first night topped with some of the best ice cream I have ever had. I would describe it, but I don't want you to feel bad about your next meal.

It is actually quite cold here (especially at night). Good thing I brought all those cardigans, mom. :)

Jordan is in the top five countries that is in danger of having no water. We have a water tank on the top of the apartment building. It is filled up once a week. When that runs out, 5alas.
Showering... Well, it's interesting. It takes me about an hour to get up the courage to take one. We haven't figured out how to heat up the water yet. It goes a little like this:
 Water on. Shriek. Water off. Scrub scrub scrub. Water on. Shriek. Rinse. The end.
I try to keep it to five minutes max.

I thought I had it bad until our whole apartment actually ran out of water for a couple of days. That was a blast.

My apartment is great. We have an awesome view of Amman. You'll be jealous when the pictures come.

Classes have been busy. We talk about Arab issues in my first class. The second is a performance class where we prepare a speaking report every day. After, our professors loose us to the university where we are supposed to make friends and speak for two hours. I hated it at first, but now it's enjoyable. We meet back for individual speaking or writing appointments with Arab professors. Dil's class is last, newspaper reading. We get done about six and we normally have a full night's worth of homework.
I actually like the schedule and we still find time to relax.

Jordan and I met a group of girls. It's easy to make friends here. One of them invited us to an all women's party. Her younger sister just graduated from Jordan's version of high school. I got there and was whisked off for the makeup/ dress room. I have never worn that much makeup in my vida.
Arab women are so beautiful and sexy. They took off all of their hijabs and curled their hair. I tried not to stare...too much. We went downstairs and had a belly dancing party. I don't know why we don't do this in the US, but I plan on incorporating it in my near future.