First Night in Jordan
After a wonderful impromptu (and yes, slightly scary) sendoff from Chris down in Chicago, which included dinner, whipping around corners, blaring music and laughiing with abandon, I felt completely different from the days before. I was excited. I was AMPED. Life was as vibrant as it's ever been. Why worry about things you haven't even encountered yet? It only wastes energy.
Leap, and the net will appear.
Many heartfelt texts, conversations, and loving thoughts later, I boarded the plane with Maria. Guitar, purse, fear of speaking Arabic, check.
I couldn't sleep, as always, but that's all the better for my jetlag. Today has been a lot of waiting, miscommunication, and having things handed to me inexplicably. Like drink vouchers. And coffee. And my bags carried. It's delightful but strange.
My driver bought me the coffee and took me to the hotel, and along the way we had a lot of broken-English/broken-Arabic conversation. This gives me confidence that some people, somewhere in Jordan, will have patience with my painful Arabic. Insha'allah.
Caught dinner with Mike, the one other Fulbrighter that is here. As we sat in an open-air part of the restaurant and ate overpriced hotel food (tomorrow is falafel sandwich day!!) and drank wine, the strangest thing was happening. Little droplets would splatter every so often into my skin. We are going tomorrow to look for a fountain or something in the floors above. That, or it rained on me my first night in Amman. Which I will therefore assume was an annointing of sorts by the heavens.
Leap, and the net will appear.
Many heartfelt texts, conversations, and loving thoughts later, I boarded the plane with Maria. Guitar, purse, fear of speaking Arabic, check.
I couldn't sleep, as always, but that's all the better for my jetlag. Today has been a lot of waiting, miscommunication, and having things handed to me inexplicably. Like drink vouchers. And coffee. And my bags carried. It's delightful but strange.
My driver bought me the coffee and took me to the hotel, and along the way we had a lot of broken-English/broken-Arabic conversation. This gives me confidence that some people, somewhere in Jordan, will have patience with my painful Arabic. Insha'allah.
Caught dinner with Mike, the one other Fulbrighter that is here. As we sat in an open-air part of the restaurant and ate overpriced hotel food (tomorrow is falafel sandwich day!!) and drank wine, the strangest thing was happening. Little droplets would splatter every so often into my skin. We are going tomorrow to look for a fountain or something in the floors above. That, or it rained on me my first night in Amman. Which I will therefore assume was an annointing of sorts by the heavens.