So many balconies!

I’ve officially made it through my first week and a half of being abroad! Hooray!

The first half of last week was a week of luxury. When I arrived at the hotel, it was sort of late and I was pretty tired, but when I got upstairs, I was totally taken by surprise. We were staying in probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever been in AND we were staying in the “Royal Apartments”. And they weren’t kidding when they said that they were royal.

This is the living room space. On the right, the sliding door lead out to a big balcony that overlooked part of the city.

There was a dining room space as well. Through the window, you can also see the kitchen we had. We didn’t do any cooking at the hotel though.

The view from the balcony!

For most of the week we had orientation, which was not too exciting, but definitely informative.  We did have some more fun events though. On Monday, we took a tour of the city and visited the Citadel and the Roman Theater. Both sites were absolutely gorgeous. It was really strange pulling up to the Roman Theater because in the middle of a hustling and bustling city, there’s a giant Roman ruin built into the side of the hill.

A photo of one side of the theater

From the entrance looking up at the theater

From the top looking down. It was terrifying walking up because all the steps were uneven, but I made it!

After exploring the Theater, we went from the bottom of the hill to the top. Amman is a city that’s built on several hills (I want to say seven, but I could be mistaken) and on top of one of the hills is the Citadel. Historically, Amman has been an important place and has seen lots of different civilizations. The cool thing about the Citadel is that when new civilizations arrived in Amman, instead of tearing down old structures, the new people just built around the already existing structures. Citadel Hill is a place where you can see thousands of years of history in just one place.

This is Hercules Temple. It was built by the Romans and this is what’s left. There was a huge statue of Hercules, but now all that’s left is an elbow and  a finger.

On Wednesday, though, I finally got to stop living out of a suitcase and I moved into my apartment. All week the staff here in Amman had been telling us that we’d be living in a neighborhood called Shmeisani, which they said was a residential area that was full of families. I wasn’t sure what to expect, though, because in the US, student apartments are generally pretty basic and not much to get excited about. I was definitely surprised when I got to the apartment because the apartment is huge!

This is sort of like the TV room. There’s a TV on the right that you can’t see. Behind the couch, the sliding door leads to a balcony that looks out on the street. And yes, that is a Japanese lantern. And no, we did not put it there.

This is the sitting area that’s next to the TV area. We have so many couches!

The dining room area which is behind white couches.

One half of the kitchen. The door next to the counter leads to another balcony.

The other half of the kitchen.

My room! Behind the closets, there’s a door to ANOTHER balcony. I get the feeling that balconies are a big deal here.

You also might notice that my bed’s a little lumpy which isn’t because I can’t make a bed, it’s because there’s a sleeping bag under my blankets. It’s cold here! Side note: the other day it even snowed a little bit! But anyway, Jordan is a developing country, which means that basic things I take for granted at home (like being able to turn on the heat whenever I want or  taking long, hot showers) aren’t possible here. We only get a few hours of heat a day, which means that we don’t sleep with the heat on. Despite all that, I’ve had a great time since I’ve been here. The adjustments have been relatively easy to make and it’s eye-opening to live in another part of the world where they don’t have the same luxuries that I have back home.

-Emily