Sunday, June 1
I have been in Amman for 4 full days now, and I’m still feeling quite overwhelmed. Normally it does not take me this long to acclimatize to a new place, but for some reason Amman makes me apprehensive. I think it’s mostly the language barrier. While I do not speak any Arabic, many Jordanians do speak English. But, the taxi drivers not so much. And that’s the source of my angst, as you must drive everywhere in this city and I have no idea where anything is yet. Prime example: I finally found an apartment, which I’ll be sharing with a woman about my age. Our search yesterday consisted of driving around town and anytime we’d spot a “for rent” sign, we’d stop and call the number. We did this for about 2 hours. In the end, the place we found is awesome, but I have absolutely no idea where it’s located!
Tuesday, June 3
Well, I have settled in to my new home. I went grocery shopping yesterday and spent way too much money (things are pretty expensive here). When I got home and unloaded everything I thought, “Where’s all the food?!” While I did buy some non-food necessities like toilet paper and shaving cream, with all the money I spent, the amount of food I got was a bit disappointing.
Speaking of disappointing…the scenery in Amman. At least in West Amman, which is what the more modern section of the city is called. I haven’t made it downtown yet, where there are more interesting things to see such as the Citadel, a Roman amphitheatre, and other archaeological ruins. But in West Amman, where I work and live, my surroundings are so disappointingly uninspiring that I haven’t even had the urge to take a single photograph. Now that I’m finally settled here, I can’t wait for the weekend so that I can go explore downtown and other interesting areas of my new home, and share all of my experiences and photos with all of you!
Posted By Krystal Sirman
Posted Jun 3rd, 2008
5 Comments
Mike Mangin
June 4, 2008
Hi Krystal,
wanted to say hi and tell you it’s hot here in south Louisana.. Teresa and Jackson just left our house to go home to Memphis, we all had fun this last week of eating, swimming, eating,eating.
When Tbird comes home she enjoys all the seafood she can, because mac is allergic to shell fish so they don’t eat or even have it close to their pantry. So I of course helped her to find lots of seafood and I also ate with her- you know just to make her feel good and have some company….
I’m surprised you haven’t mastered the language yet (ha-ha).
Hang in there and we miss you.
Love ya,
Uncle Indy
Glenn & Ruby
June 4, 2008
You are so brave to take off to another country without knowing you had a place to live. You have already done great to find a room mate and an apartment. We are so impressed.
Jessie left yesterday for Brazil. She got there just fine but her luggage didn’t make it until today. She is loving it. She is staying with a friend for a couple of weeks until she has to join the CIEE program for her college courses. Like you, she doesn’t know where or who she will be living with but at least her housing will be arranged by the CIEE program.
We are not doing much here in Miss. other than gardening. The garden looks great as we are getting plenty of rain. Tory is taking classes this summer and working out every day.
Hang in there in Jordan. We’ll be praying for you.
Mom
June 5, 2008
I have been looking at the pictures of Jordan and WOW! Amman is huge. So I hope you have good directions and good guides. Nothing goin on here except the Baseball super regional playoffs this weekend. GEAUX TIGERS! Swimming and getting in shape to WALK everywhere with you in the HEAT AND DESERT! Tell us what to bring you. LOL!
DAD
June 6, 2008
Do take pictures of everything. Although your part of town may not be the “pretty” part, it still tells a story, and it is the reality of where you are and what it is like there. It’s the average places in the world that make the beautiful places so special! We would like to see it all…”the good, the bad, AND the ugly”.
PS: Food support is on the way!
Luv Ya. DAD
Aunt Debe
June 12, 2008
Hi, Krystal…sounds like you are getting settled in. This will be a precious time for you. Praying for ya! Like your dad said…keep taking pictures. It helps to “see” what’s going on with ya! Love ya, aunt debe 6/12/08