I arrived in Irbid yesterday after a long day of travel. My itinerary took me from Minneapolis to Chicago to Vienna and finally on to Amman. Luckily I met up with a fellow Macalester student, Irene, who is also on my program in Chicago and we were able to navigate the rest of our journey together. Our flight in Vienna was delayed three hours for technical difficulties and on our quest to find a phone to call and CET (the program we are studying with) we had the privilege of going through airport security at least five times. Upon arriving in Amman, we received the lovely news that our carry-on bags (which we were told had to be checked back in Chicago) had decided to take up residence in Vienna. Luckily we've been assured that they should arrive either today or tomorrow. Also, we were thankfully aided by a local Jordanian man who had also traveled from Chicago and who talked to baggage services on our behalf. Even more thankfully, our ride had waited the extra four hours it took to get through the delayed flight and the missing baggage fiasco so we didn't have to pay for the two hour cab ride from Amman to Irbid.
After arriving in Irbid I got keys to my little apartment, currently I am the only inhabitant but soon enough I will be joined by a Jordanian roommate.Here are some pictures of my living space, fairly cozy, but definitely liveable.
Sadly my side of the building doesn't get the beautiful, cool evening breeze like the other side does, but it at least has ceiling fans to correct for this.
Well, I'm off to find ice cream with a fellow exchange student and speak all the 'Murican I can before our Arabic-only language pledge kicks in on Sunday!
