Good Morning Jordan!

For this first week or so, my updates will probably be as frequent as my wi-fi; that is, I’ll post whenever I can.

View from my window this morning

 

My flight from Heathrow was delayed an hour, but I successfully made it onto the flight and arrived at Queen Alia International airport at Midnight Jordan time.  By the time I got through customs it was about 12:17am, though I have to say, going through Jordan security was a lot easier than BWI and Heathrow.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but after 19 hours of traveling, I certainly wasn’t complaining. 

A driver for my hotel picked me up at the airport, and once I told him I was here in Jordan to study Arabic, he started talking to me in Arabic.  He was using Modern Standard (MSA) which he seemed to call “alphabetical Arabic” and talked slow enough that I actually found I understood most of what he said, and after encouragement attempted to reply in kind.  The learning starts from day 1!

By the time I was settled in my room it was 1:30am here in Jordan.  I made it to sleep just before 3am because of problem with my Sony Clock Radio.  All of my other electronics (Ipod, Cell phone, laptop…) charged fine once I used the converter plugs I brought.  Except for my Clock Radio.  I plugged it in and….nothing.  I e-mailed Sony’s customer support about it, and hopefully something comes up.  Otherwise I lugged my Clock Radio some 5,000 miles for nothing. If anyone knows any specifics about using Sony products outside the US, please comment!

After a restive but brief sleep, I checked out of my hotel room, and now I’m waiting to check back in to my CIEE room – it isn’t ready yet. After waiting for about a half hour, the resident director of CIEE walked in handed me my CIEE packet of information.  We’re all still waiting to get into our rooms, because apparently a pipe burst in the hotel! Luckily they managed to switch some rooms around so we all still have them.  There isn’t anything specific planned today, so it’s a very go-with-the-flow sort of day.   CIEE is feeding us dinner tonight ((الحمدلله and tomorrow the adventures truly begin!

And now, as an extra treat, I snapped some pictures of things in Heathrow just because. (I did have 7 hours to kill)

Harry Potter books in their natural habitat! (London)

For Mum, the British cover of Stephen King's new book 11.22.63

London has good taste!

GRRM in Heathrow

Obligatory photo of JRR Tolkien books

Another one for Mum... Giant Teddy bear outside of this store called Harrod's

For Chris: Assassin's in Heathrow :-P

Waiting for my flight! I'm the 16:05 Amman.  The Gate didn't actually open until 16:00...


And.... GO RAVENS!