البحر الميت -Dead Sea

So this post is long overdue, but I've been busy catching up...On our first day of orientation we went to the dead sea and listened to some really long lectures about Jordan...typical orientation stuff...long and boring. it was really overwhelming because no one knew anyone. it was basically exactly like the first day of college orientation except instead of just what's your name/where are you from...we asked what's your name?/where are you from?/where do you go to school?/and what do you study?....Too many questions...I never remember anything about anyone...Anywya. I ended up having a lot of fun. I met some really cool people.. we got to swim in the dead sea and hang out at a really fancy hotel all day.
Enjoy these pics!


here's the dead sea. i'm on the jordan side...across the sea is the West Bank. It was beautiful at night!


Here is a picture of the chilling that took place after we swam in the dead sea.


This is a picture of a part of the dead sea spa hotel.

And, here is a picture of Anneka, Mara at the hotel. i can't remember that guys name... i have a feeling it's either gary or dave.

ahh worst day

okay so it's only 10:28 and i already think it's like the worst day ever. i hope it gets better.
i woke up at 7:30 this morning because i had class at nine...
i took a cab to class and when i got there i found myself wondering around this giganto campus trying to find my class. it wasn't in the room it was supposed to be in so i wondered around to every other room on my schedule. it was really hot and i was like walking back and forth among buildings trying to get anywhere...to top it off, i left my phone at my apartment so i couldn't call anyone, and i don't know anyone in my class anyway. after 2 hours of tryiing to find my class, i took a cab back home...my taxi driver wouldn't listen to me and decided he knew where i lived better than i did so we drove around forever and i ended up having to pay way more than i should have for my taxi ride...i finally just got out and decided to walk the rest of the way...then everyone stared at me because i couldn't help, but cry. i can't believe i missed my first class. i'm so pissed. attendance in Jordan is really really important. it is at Macalester too, but seriously....i missed the first day of class.
ughhhhhhh

Here are some bad pics of my new school.
there are 38,000 students at the University of Jordan....Macalester has under 2,000.

the colgate guy

sooo,
the other weekend i went out with my roommates and some of our friends... we ended up going to this club called La Calle on rainbow street. we met some pretty cool Jordanian guys that we hung out with. we realized that they are super wealthy after they took us to some VIP club in their really fancy cars. one of them, the colgate guy, won some sort of contest....apparently he has the best smile in jordan....he is on billboards for colgate. hahaha. my roomate hooked up with him...

my apartment

here are some pictures of my new apartment. it's super nice! we also have like a garden around our house with a lime tree, a fig tree, and a whole bunch of other plants. it's beautiful. we also have a pet turtle in our backyard.


this is our kitchen.


this is our patio that goes all the way around our house. it's so nice. sometimes i eat breakfast out here...i also skype out here often. it's beautiful.


this is our guest living room....


this is our non guest living room?


anddd this is my room.


this is the dining room and you can kind of see our office/study area in the background.

we also have another cute little sitting area, but the internet decided i've gone over my uploading photo capacity for now sooo you will have to wait. also, the garden is beautiful!

Sharouk

here is a picture of my cousin sharouk. she's 15 i think...which means last time i saw her she was 9. she's a total sweetheart. she calls me all the time and askes when i'm going to be able to visit her. she's the bomb, and she loves to hang.
i keep telling her that she's not allowed to get married before i do...i bet she will though. people marry really young here.

overwhelmed

okay. so i'm super overwhelmed. i think i'm really bad at making friends, and i'm kind of sad....i really miss my friends from home, and i miss macalester...and the kbl

at the University of Jordan everyone just stares at me because i look like an idiot becasue i never know what i'm doing....i also can't communicate with anyone here...it's terrible. i can talk to people but they can immediately tell i'm a foreigner...it makes doing anything way more intense than it needs to be.

we've started classes, and i don't really know how they work yet. we had 300 pages of reading for one day and we only had one day to do it all. i'm pretty sure i'm the only one who did it, and i'm stressed out because i feel like i was doing all that reading and i had no time to study for my arabic classes or sleep. ahhh

after class today, i hung out with this girl Mara who is pretty cool. she could basically tell i was like really overwhelmed so we got coffee and chatted for a while. she's doing a home stay though, so i don't know how often I'll get to hang out with her.

I think things will get better as i adjust to things, but the first few days of class have been really stressful. i hope people here like me. i try to be nice.

Also, the internet has decided not to let me upload any pictures today...:(

So my Dad has 4 siblings that live in Jordan.
3 bros: Muhammad, Eiad, and Rashad
1 sis: Maha
So far I’ve seen Maha’s family and Muhammad’s Family.
Here are some updates/intros on my aunts/uncles/cousins/etc….that I haven’t seen in 6 plus years.

So my dad’s brother Muhammad is married to Merriam…they have 8 kids, but since I’ve seen them their kids are all grown up, andMerriam and Muhammad are grandparents,.

Aight. Here’s the break down.

Layla ((27), the oldest is married to Allah, a photographer who she met at work. They live somewhere in Irbid with their two kids: Zayna (2) and Nadia (1 month) everyone seems to call the newborn Nadoush….people love nicknames here.


Here is a picture of Leila drinking some juice at Maha’s house. You can see a little bit of Nadia in the corner. Leila speaks English pretty well, and sometimes sends me text messages. Like this one.



Here are some pics of her fam!

This is her daughter Zayna. She's two years old.


This is Nadia. she is one month old. everyone calls her Nadoush. i don't know why. but i'll roll with it.


And here is a picture of Leila, Allah, Zayna, and a monkey. Zayna was really afraid of this stuffed monkey for some reason.