The Far Side of the World

    I have arrived in Amman, Jordan! I begin classes tomorrow, so I want to do a quick introductory entry now before academia sets in. The picture is my roommate of course, but I took the picture. It is actually the first photo I have taken--we walked so quickly yesterday, and I was so overwhelmed, that I forgot until this evening. This street is right by my apartment, and it shows a lovely series of shops. There, we bought:

• Fruit (we had to keep going over to the clerk to ask for the names in Arabic so that we could weigh our produce properly)
• Vegetables (wonderfully cheap potatoes)
• Power adapters
• Armenella, a Turkish version of Nutella that is slightly sweeter, cheaper, and comes in larger sizes
• Tiba (a Jordanian yoghurt which makes you feel as though you're eating straight sour cream, but our professor says eating it will make us both healthy and truly Jordanian)
• Water, since we can't drink from the tap

        Yesterday, we took a bit of a walking tour of Amman with the whole class, under the guidance of my professor and his wife. We bought crescent rolls (but huge, full of chocolate and an unidentifiable spice), ice cream (a creamy, gelatinous piece of heaven on a very hot day--and remember, I was wearing long pants and and long sleeves to avoid offending the natives), and chicken schwarma, which was every bit as good as Iron Man makes it sound. I even, with the help of two classmates and about 6 Jordanian store clerks, found vanilla at a Safeway. The quest took about 30 minutes and exhausted my Arabic-speaking abilities (my pronunciation of the word was rather lambasted--"Speak Jordanian," he told me, "Not Iraqi!") but the head store clerk welcomed us to Jordan and said he was happy to help us because we were all so nice.
      Today was a bit frustrating, because my roommate and I both woke up sick and spent most of the day in bed, but I am on the mend and ready for more adventures tomorrow!