Finally...

Ok, so my bags are all packed.  Goodbyes have been mostly said. Classes are done, thanks goodness...
I'm so ready to fly home.

I'm sitting here, with almost nothing to do all day.  I have a few gifts that I still want to buy. And barely anough money to get around... lol.  I don't want to have to pull out more money before leaving. 

Its very strange, I'm wondering if all the things that annoy me...If I will miss them. 

Today is election day on campus.   Its a huge deal.  Campus is postered like you cannot imagine.  Seriously, you cannot imagine.  I almost garentee you have never seen anything so extravangent.  Posters the size of cars strung between trees and off buildings.  Posters layering on tops of each other, covering every surface available. Students wearing name tags with the faces of their candidate.  Voter turnout is close to 100% I've heard... And if you get the position, you get paid....Tribalism is a huge issue. And I imagine,  that could explain the police flocking the area. I can even pick out the undercover guys.  Without trying.  That is how extravagent this is.   But after a while, its kinda homey.  This crazy people are (almost) endearing.

Likewise, I'm pretty good at catching taxis by now. I can get where I need to with little incident.  Its an accomplishment.  They sometimes are far more hassle than I could ever want, but I never have to dig my own car out of the snow!

Buying fruit will be a new experince too.  Instead of my cute little man and his small fruit stand, with old fruit seasonal only, for really cheap.. I get Meijer.  It is what it is. 

It will be strange.  I am excited to shower more often, and be able to do laundry more... not that I neccessarily will... lol.  But there are just the little things that make daily life an accompliment and a cultural expeirence that I think I will miss.

But, I get back watching TV and listening to music.  Which seems really dumb, but go without it as a comfort or destresser long enough and even watching reruns of "Friends" was amazing once or twice...(I've never watched it in America...)

Or getting to dress up again. I am so excited to dress up and go out. 

I've concluded life here and at home have different kinds ups and downs.  Here, my daily ups and downs are about getting around.  Buying lunch. Finding the right store. Communication. But at home, its about people relying on me.  About work and school and family and friends. Balancing going out and class. Its just that the challenges seem easiler because they're more familar.

100 and a half hours.

Yes I did the math.  I will be on American soil in 100 and a half hours from right now. A few days, a presentation, an exam, packing my bags, buying some christmas presents (yes, just like home with last minute shopping), saying goodbyes, creepy picture taking of random strangers...(so I remember what it looks like here!) and IF there is still room in my bag, I am stuffing it with sweets!

So then head to the airport at 3 am.  And travel for 16 hours. Which isn't bad, I only have one layover for 2.5 hours.  So barring any craziness, I will be home so soon!

So get the Christmas stuff ready, here I come!

I'm leaving...

On a jet plane...


This time next week, I will be on a plane, somewhere between Detroit and Amman.


Going home for Christmas.  It will be cold there. But I can't wait.


See y'all soon :)

central heating anyone?

OK... so you have this central heat source.  Then you run something like pipes from that central source, to places farther away. Then they get warm too. 

This concept has yet catch on in the Middle East. 

Its 50* out and I'm freezing.  Why?

There is no heat inside so its not like you go from a warm car to a short walk outside to a warm building. You just live in a 50* world. Gets to you after a while. They have no central heating. Like there is a space heater in the living room, and the doors all get shut and the living room is the only place you can sit.  And then you jump into bed under literally pounds of blankets.  Like you’re under the x-ray blanket at the dentist. Enough you don’t move in your sleep.  I wake up stiff daily. Bc I literally can't move.

Just sayin'.

FYI...

There are 3 new posts today, including when I went to Jerusalem.

P.S. I went to Jerusalem...

So, Please, read away folks.

Love thy neighbor, even the stranger

I love the people here.


For instance, just now, I went to the bathroom.  I washed my hands.  There was soap! I should have known, this meant something else would go wrong... yep, soap, but the hand dryer didn't work. So I sighed, and wiped my hands on my jeans, like most every time. ( Bathrooms here have very different... (low) standards...) But the girl who was standing there fixing her hijab, stops me, gets in her purse and hands me a tissue to dry my hands. How sweet!


Stuff like this happens all the time.  Random acts of kindness.  The force feeding is really just them loving you.


Or yesterday, driving back from Israel.  Our taxi driver stopped for gas, and came back from paying with a juice for all 4 of us girls in the car.  For free.  Just bc it was a long drive and dusty and he was nice.


There are things that really annoy me.  Like shabab (guys) yelling harassments of "I love you or I miss you or pretty girls" consistently. But so much more, you get the good stuff. And its great.


Like our whole time in Israel/Palestine. We made friends like every 10 minutes.  Seriously. And its got many reasons, sure.  And there are people who are not my friend as well.  But there is just something you have to experience and appreciate about the people.


And I love it.

SNOW DAY

I am having a snow day. Are you having a snow day? Do you even have snow? I'm in the Middle East!


Yesterday the forecast literally was for sandstorms.  (Violent, windy, no visability sandstorms...) But today... Slushy, rainy, nasty snow.  And before you think, snow? Please, what like, a centimeter of dust?  Let me say, this is just like home. And that makes me quite upset because I was quite thrilled not having any winter weather.  It can stay in Michigan.  I loved that it was still in the high 60s.  LOVED IT.  Now... well, I have no clothes for this.  Grrrr.

This is the view from our taxi this morning.  He was very clear that we were crazy to go to school and that it was closed  and that the road might be too.  He was right. 

So the streets are flooded. And its crazy.  And you can't get anywhere. And my shoes are completely soaked. Bc we had to cross a lake to get to a cafe. A LAKE. Its like a high of 40* today, so we'll see how the day turns out. But it started really cold and wet.  Maybe you can tell I have a huge pet peve about having wet feet...But I get out of an exam i'm not gonna study for, and I lose a class I really wanted to go to, so I didn't have to study as much... So I'm actually really disappointed in the snow day. 

But who else gets to say they had a snowday in Amman?

:)