Well this week went fairly fast... We didn’t have classes because it was the Eid holiday so we spent our time exploring downtown amman, shopping, reading (in my case and half the other girls here- who I’ve managed to convert into Twilight fans!) Going to the movies to see Twilight (me and the now slightly obsessed girls who I converted...).
On Monday night Anisa cooked this incredible Eid feast with this yummy rice and kaftas (mince meat balls with spices and herbs). Some of the other apartments brought more food and drinks and we had a lovely little dinner party in our apartment.
Thursday was so much fun. We headed into downtown Amman because Kristy bought some boots for 5JD and Molly decided she really wanted a pair. But unfortunately the place where Kristy got them wasn’t there anymore, so we went hunting to find some boots for Molly. The locals told us that we would find a place that sells boots behind the king hussein mosque, and low and behold we found a dingy little shop and Molly found her boots! This street then turned into an open air opp-shop! It was so cool. We found this one rack of all these american high school bomber jackets! And then we found another table selling all these grandpa jumers for 1JD, so we all bought one... Alyson bought two and one of them smelt like B.O, so that was pretty gross.
Anyways, so then cae Friday and we left at 9am for Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum was incredible! Dad you would have loved it! It took us 3 hours to get there... I read my book the whole way... And then it took another 2 hour Jeep Ride to get to our desert camp. Omgoodness I’ve never had so much fun in my life! We climbed this massive sand dune and ran down it and rode camels and yeah... It was just so cool.
Then Friday night we got to our camp and had dinner. Lots of arabic food, it was great. All these amazing vegie dishes and kebabs and chicken...and bread of course... Afterwards they had a DJ dance party...haha and Arabic music DJ... It was pretty fun. We were all dancing and even got involved in some local bedouin dances. That was really funny and I think that Anisa got some of it on camera... It involved Kristy and I mumbling nonsense (the dance went with a song) and then every five seconds shouting “Abdullah!” and trying to move our feet with everyone else... We looked like idiots but we were having fun..and I’m sure we were the night’s entertainment or everyone else.
We slept in mud brick huts and almost froze even with the super thick blankets... I wouldn’t have frozen if one of the blankets hadn’t of fallen off during the night :(.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast, nicked some honey (it was really good honey and it came in these little tubs like butter) and were on our way to the coastal city of Aqaba. That place was incredible! You should have seen all the resorts! We went to one resort and spent the day in the pool/and or red sea (Nada and I put our feet in, and cut ourselves on rocks, so we lost interest after that and went back to the pool). So yeah... We hug out all day like we were rich and famous. Unfortunately the day got marred by one of the guys from our group who went up to some Israelis and asked them if they were Jews and when they said yes, proceeded to abuse them, telling them to get out of his country...even though he’s Australian Egyptian. So that got they hotel management pissed off at us and we almost got kicked out. So that was fun.
Then after a day in the beautiful warm sun, we got on the bus for a 4 hour bus ride back home. It’s actually meant to be a 5 hour bus trip but according to our tour guide a bus driver was “making good time” needless to day we got pulled over twice by the cops for speeding. He got a 20 JD fine the first time and got off the second time about an hour later...go figure!
Much love
Carly
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
um qais, ajlun and jerash
Hello!
So yesterday was our first cultural trip to Um Qais, Ajloun and Jerash. It was absolutely amazing!
So Um Qais (pronounced am kayis) is the town on the other side of the sea of Galilee where Jesus went and cast the demons out of the pigs and then the pigs drowned themselves in the sea. Some of the ruins date back to 2 BC and there are also ruins of a Byzantine village which was made out of the ruins of the 2BC stuff. Oh yeah I’m totally up with archeology terminology! Anways half of it is made out of this basalt rock which is black and really cool. This best thing is that you can see Tiberius from the other side of the sea of Galilee and also The Golan Heights in Syria... Well occupied Syria.
Next we went to this amazing fortress on top of this crazy big hill which was the fortress that Saladin used. (the Muslim army leader in the crusades) So I got lots of cool photos from there.
Last we went to Jerash...and omgoodness!!! AMAZING!! The ruin are the best preserved outside of Rome, and they were just incredible. The photos tell it all...
So this week is the Eid holiday and today we stocked up on shopping coz there will be no shops open for the rest of the week. Alyson’s cooking as pasta tonight...spag bol! Haha we thought that this carton we bought was milk! And I’m craving milk right now... A cup of Milo! Anything!so we bought nesquick and milk and I took my first sip....and it was the most revolting thing EVER!!!!! Turns out that its milk AND SALTWATER!!!!!! Like who the hell thought of that combination and what could it possibly be used for!!! I don’t know! But the taste is still in my mouth and thinking about it makes me gag!
So not sure what we’re doing for the next couple of days. Probably some Arabic study! And some reading.
Love you all lots
Carly
So yesterday was our first cultural trip to Um Qais, Ajloun and Jerash. It was absolutely amazing!
So Um Qais (pronounced am kayis) is the town on the other side of the sea of Galilee where Jesus went and cast the demons out of the pigs and then the pigs drowned themselves in the sea. Some of the ruins date back to 2 BC and there are also ruins of a Byzantine village which was made out of the ruins of the 2BC stuff. Oh yeah I’m totally up with archeology terminology! Anways half of it is made out of this basalt rock which is black and really cool. This best thing is that you can see Tiberius from the other side of the sea of Galilee and also The Golan Heights in Syria... Well occupied Syria.
Next we went to this amazing fortress on top of this crazy big hill which was the fortress that Saladin used. (the Muslim army leader in the crusades) So I got lots of cool photos from there.
Last we went to Jerash...and omgoodness!!! AMAZING!! The ruin are the best preserved outside of Rome, and they were just incredible. The photos tell it all...
So this week is the Eid holiday and today we stocked up on shopping coz there will be no shops open for the rest of the week. Alyson’s cooking as pasta tonight...spag bol! Haha we thought that this carton we bought was milk! And I’m craving milk right now... A cup of Milo! Anything!so we bought nesquick and milk and I took my first sip....and it was the most revolting thing EVER!!!!! Turns out that its milk AND SALTWATER!!!!!! Like who the hell thought of that combination and what could it possibly be used for!!! I don’t know! But the taste is still in my mouth and thinking about it makes me gag!
So not sure what we’re doing for the next couple of days. Probably some Arabic study! And some reading.
Love you all lots
Carly
Friday, December 5, 2008
first class and australian beef
Today we all had our first Arabic class. It was a little bit overwhelming. Almost everything was in Arabic...but we were warned that that was the first and only class that they would use English. Our classes run from 9:00-10:40 then we have a coffee break, then a second class from 11:00 til 12:40. The teacher of our first class is Dr. Mathan and the teacher of our second class is Nizaar. They are both really good teachers. Very, very enthusiastic! We have homework already, but we have a week to do it because it is the Eid ul azha holiday all next week. So we had one class today and our next class won’t be til Sunday next week. Which sucks a little because we all just want to get stuck into the holiday. But we have a few cultural excursions planned for the Eid holiday.
I met my Jordanian facebook friend today! Jomana came and found me after class today at the language centre, but unfortunately we couldn’t talk long because Hakeem needed to talk to us about something. But I’m hoping to catch up with her again soon. Oh and we found out today that we get Language buddies. They are university students who volunteer to help us with Arabic and showing us around Amman and the university. In return we help them practice English. So it will be good to meet my buddy next week.
At the moment I’m having trouble getting logged onto the university internet, so I’m relying on picking up wireless connections in my apartment or going to the internet cafe.
Anyway here are some photos of our tour of the university...
Today Elle and I went to a butcher to get some red meat. And guess what???? It was all australian beef and australian lamb! How ironic would it be if some of the lamb just happened to be Grandpa’s??? Un-likely, but you never know! So we bought just over a kilo of PREMIUM quality beef!!! Dad and Dale, you would be very jealous! So it cost us around 8JD, which is around $20 Australian. I don’t know what you would pay for it at home, but we got 5 thick pieces of amazing beef!
So I just cooked dinner! Yep, Australian Beef marinated in soy sauce, mixed spices and olive oil, potatoes and vegies! (and only a pinch of salt James! Haha) I was pretty proud of myself. We would have liked to have eaten the steak medium rare, but I wasn’t gonna risk getting sick, so it had to be close to well done, but it still tasted great. It wasn’t as good as Anisa’s cooking last night, but she told me it was very delicious and she wanted the recipe!
Love carly
I met my Jordanian facebook friend today! Jomana came and found me after class today at the language centre, but unfortunately we couldn’t talk long because Hakeem needed to talk to us about something. But I’m hoping to catch up with her again soon. Oh and we found out today that we get Language buddies. They are university students who volunteer to help us with Arabic and showing us around Amman and the university. In return we help them practice English. So it will be good to meet my buddy next week.
At the moment I’m having trouble getting logged onto the university internet, so I’m relying on picking up wireless connections in my apartment or going to the internet cafe.
Anyway here are some photos of our tour of the university...
Today Elle and I went to a butcher to get some red meat. And guess what???? It was all australian beef and australian lamb! How ironic would it be if some of the lamb just happened to be Grandpa’s??? Un-likely, but you never know! So we bought just over a kilo of PREMIUM quality beef!!! Dad and Dale, you would be very jealous! So it cost us around 8JD, which is around $20 Australian. I don’t know what you would pay for it at home, but we got 5 thick pieces of amazing beef!
So I just cooked dinner! Yep, Australian Beef marinated in soy sauce, mixed spices and olive oil, potatoes and vegies! (and only a pinch of salt James! Haha) I was pretty proud of myself. We would have liked to have eaten the steak medium rare, but I wasn’t gonna risk getting sick, so it had to be close to well done, but it still tasted great. It wasn’t as good as Anisa’s cooking last night, but she told me it was very delicious and she wanted the recipe!
Love carly
Thursday, December 4, 2008
first day at uni
Ok so today was our first day at university. We all got up around 7am, had breakfast and headed off in a big group that would attract many stares on they way to uni. It is a good half and hour walk to uni up and down hills (Amman is very hilly by the way). A few of us were thinking about trying to find a gym, but we do so much walking every day that I don’t think we’re gonna need the gym at all!
I have some great photos of the construction work we see on the way to uni everyday. No such thing as OH&S here! There are metal poles, massive holes and equipment on the side of the roads. Across from our apartment there is a new apartment block being built. The workers live in shelters on the site and we can see them from our balcony sitting around the fire at night, and washing and hanging there clothes during the day. They’re very hard workers. In the last 2 days they have built 2 floors!!! It will probably be around 5, maybe 6 floors altogether. And they work from 7am until late at night.

The part of Amman we are in is neither west nor east, but kinda in the middle and north of the city. It’s a very new part, there is a LOT of construction work going on around us. We were told by our tour guide on our first day that it is like the Beverley Hills of Amman. So we are very lucky.
Evidently the average Jordanian wage is around 100 JD per week, which is only $250 australian. So we find everything so cheap here, but for them it is not the case at all.
Today we all took an Arabic test at the language centre so the teachers could determine which groups we wil be in. Needless to say that all us first years probably understood about 2% of the whole test. But that’s ok, it wasn’t for marks, it was just for us to be put in the right groups.
We also got a tour of the university today. It is HUGE!!! There are sooooooo many students too! 38 000 all up! And like usual we got stared at the whole time. I don’t know if I’m ever gonna get used to the staring. There are so many restaurants, and kiosks and banks and post offices. It’s like a little village. It has a stadium and a gym and a huge library. I think it must be what one of the Ivy league universities must be like in the states. Nothing like Unisa.
After uni I spent 2 hours in the internet cafe talking to my family and James. I also got to upload many of my photos. I apologise to anyone if I haven’t got back to comments yet, I’m not very good at multitasking, and I only have a limited time in the cafe. Once I get onto the uni’s wireless network I’ll be abe to reply to everyone.
After that, Anisa and I went to the phone store and I bought a Jordanian sim card because my travelsim is driving me nuts and half my texts don’t get to anyone. It only cost 5JD and the rates are awesome. I get to choose 3 numbers which are always 40 cents per minute (australian) and the rest are like 60 cents international calls and 40 cents for local calls. The best thing is, the sms’ work!!!
Then I had to buy new purse because unfortunately the one Nick and Abbey got me from their trip has fallen to pieces. Sorry guys! But it did come in very handy for the first few days! We also bought notebooks for class tomorrow and found a fruit and veg store.
Tonight Anisa made dinner which was amazing! Best of all mum, she taught me!! It’s a pakistani type dish made with all different spices and vegies and okra! And rice! I need to return the favour, but I can’t cook as amazing as her, so anyone feel free to send me recipes!!!! I need all the help I can get. Red meat looks like it’s hard to find here too... So I think I’ll need to eat extra spinach and greens to keep my iron levels up. Maybe I can have a beef shawarma once a week to keep me going.
At the moment we are writing our journals. We finished dinner and sat down and thought that it must be 9 o’clock by now and instead it was 6:50!!! So we are forcing ourselves to stay up until 10ish so we don’t wake up at 3 again!
Tomorrow we start class which is exciting! I really want to get better at my Arabic. Being here for a few days has shown me how little I actually know!
Maa salaama! (Goodbye!)
Carly
I have some great photos of the construction work we see on the way to uni everyday. No such thing as OH&S here! There are metal poles, massive holes and equipment on the side of the roads. Across from our apartment there is a new apartment block being built. The workers live in shelters on the site and we can see them from our balcony sitting around the fire at night, and washing and hanging there clothes during the day. They’re very hard workers. In the last 2 days they have built 2 floors!!! It will probably be around 5, maybe 6 floors altogether. And they work from 7am until late at night.


The part of Amman we are in is neither west nor east, but kinda in the middle and north of the city. It’s a very new part, there is a LOT of construction work going on around us. We were told by our tour guide on our first day that it is like the Beverley Hills of Amman. So we are very lucky.
Evidently the average Jordanian wage is around 100 JD per week, which is only $250 australian. So we find everything so cheap here, but for them it is not the case at all.
Today we all took an Arabic test at the language centre so the teachers could determine which groups we wil be in. Needless to say that all us first years probably understood about 2% of the whole test. But that’s ok, it wasn’t for marks, it was just for us to be put in the right groups.
We also got a tour of the university today. It is HUGE!!! There are sooooooo many students too! 38 000 all up! And like usual we got stared at the whole time. I don’t know if I’m ever gonna get used to the staring. There are so many restaurants, and kiosks and banks and post offices. It’s like a little village. It has a stadium and a gym and a huge library. I think it must be what one of the Ivy league universities must be like in the states. Nothing like Unisa.
After uni I spent 2 hours in the internet cafe talking to my family and James. I also got to upload many of my photos. I apologise to anyone if I haven’t got back to comments yet, I’m not very good at multitasking, and I only have a limited time in the cafe. Once I get onto the uni’s wireless network I’ll be abe to reply to everyone.
After that, Anisa and I went to the phone store and I bought a Jordanian sim card because my travelsim is driving me nuts and half my texts don’t get to anyone. It only cost 5JD and the rates are awesome. I get to choose 3 numbers which are always 40 cents per minute (australian) and the rest are like 60 cents international calls and 40 cents for local calls. The best thing is, the sms’ work!!!
Then I had to buy new purse because unfortunately the one Nick and Abbey got me from their trip has fallen to pieces. Sorry guys! But it did come in very handy for the first few days! We also bought notebooks for class tomorrow and found a fruit and veg store.
Tonight Anisa made dinner which was amazing! Best of all mum, she taught me!! It’s a pakistani type dish made with all different spices and vegies and okra! And rice! I need to return the favour, but I can’t cook as amazing as her, so anyone feel free to send me recipes!!!! I need all the help I can get. Red meat looks like it’s hard to find here too... So I think I’ll need to eat extra spinach and greens to keep my iron levels up. Maybe I can have a beef shawarma once a week to keep me going.
At the moment we are writing our journals. We finished dinner and sat down and thought that it must be 9 o’clock by now and instead it was 6:50!!! So we are forcing ourselves to stay up until 10ish so we don’t wake up at 3 again!
Tomorrow we start class which is exciting! I really want to get better at my Arabic. Being here for a few days has shown me how little I actually know!
Maa salaama! (Goodbye!)
Carly
downtown amman
So yesterday we went to downtown amman. I have been waking up at about 3am each morning and have had to force myself to go back to sleep. We’re all going to bed at like 8:30-9pm ‘coz we’re so tired! It gets dark at about 4:30pm here, which has been hard to adjust to when I’ve come from daylight savings.
So at around 11:00 am 14 of us headed off to downtown. We got told by our landlord that a bus comes every 15 mins at the end of our road. After waiting for 45 mins, a bus finally came! It took us an hour to get to downtown! Which is really long, it only took us 15 mins the day before yesterday, but the traffic was pretty bad. But for a 60 cent bus ride, we weren’t complaining.
 
Downtown amman is crazy! People everywhere! And they are all wanting you to buy their stuff! We looked in so many stores, but I didn’t really want to buy anything straight away because I’m here for 2 months and I want to be wise with my money. Nonetheless we walked past a clothing store that sells traditional Jordanian clothes and dresses and Hosam, (our conveniently fluent arabic speaking fellow student) was literally pulled into the store by the shop owner!!! Once inside he refused to talk to him, and turned his attention to us.
 Some of the clothing stores
“I can help you , I want to help you, I am here to help you, which one do you like? This one? This one? I have special price for you! Just for you, only for you, 45JD ($90A)”
“No way!”
“Ok, ok, let me help you, 30 JD”
“No no, I want to look around”
“20JD”
“no no I want to look around”
“ok 15 JD”
“hmmm...ok”
That was the short version. Then when I gave him a 20 dinar note, he goes “20 dinar” and I’m like “No way! You said 15!” and he’s like “ok ok” and hands the note to his assistant who rans off somewhere to get change! None of them have change here! They all have to go a couple of shops down to find change.
I bought some perfume for mum! They had a copy of Paris by YSL and it was super cheap! For lunch we got these herb pizzas (like the one from the lebanese bakery mum! But even better!) Molly bought a tiny shisha to take home! I’m gonna get one too, but we’ve got so many other countries to go to, so I’ll wait until the end. I also bought a headscarf and the white headband under my headscarf for around $6A.
When we were downtown, I think we got more stares than usual because we were all wearing headscarves. Oh yeah downtown is headscarf heaven!!! Omgoodness so many beautiful scarves like what Granny Flo gets me, but they’re only around $10A!! I think by the end I’m going to have to send a box back.
We got home in the afternoon around 4:30, got some more groceries and headed home. Molly cooked a stirfry for our apartment and hers. We all went to bed so early ‘coz we were so tired.
So at around 11:00 am 14 of us headed off to downtown. We got told by our landlord that a bus comes every 15 mins at the end of our road. After waiting for 45 mins, a bus finally came! It took us an hour to get to downtown! Which is really long, it only took us 15 mins the day before yesterday, but the traffic was pretty bad. But for a 60 cent bus ride, we weren’t complaining.
 
Downtown amman is crazy! People everywhere! And they are all wanting you to buy their stuff! We looked in so many stores, but I didn’t really want to buy anything straight away because I’m here for 2 months and I want to be wise with my money. Nonetheless we walked past a clothing store that sells traditional Jordanian clothes and dresses and Hosam, (our conveniently fluent arabic speaking fellow student) was literally pulled into the store by the shop owner!!! Once inside he refused to talk to him, and turned his attention to us.
 Some of the clothing stores
“I can help you , I want to help you, I am here to help you, which one do you like? This one? This one? I have special price for you! Just for you, only for you, 45JD ($90A)”
“No way!”
“Ok, ok, let me help you, 30 JD”
“No no, I want to look around”
“20JD”
“no no I want to look around”
“ok 15 JD”
“hmmm...ok”
That was the short version. Then when I gave him a 20 dinar note, he goes “20 dinar” and I’m like “No way! You said 15!” and he’s like “ok ok” and hands the note to his assistant who rans off somewhere to get change! None of them have change here! They all have to go a couple of shops down to find change.
I bought some perfume for mum! They had a copy of Paris by YSL and it was super cheap! For lunch we got these herb pizzas (like the one from the lebanese bakery mum! But even better!) Molly bought a tiny shisha to take home! I’m gonna get one too, but we’ve got so many other countries to go to, so I’ll wait until the end. I also bought a headscarf and the white headband under my headscarf for around $6A.
When we were downtown, I think we got more stares than usual because we were all wearing headscarves. Oh yeah downtown is headscarf heaven!!! Omgoodness so many beautiful scarves like what Granny Flo gets me, but they’re only around $10A!! I think by the end I’m going to have to send a box back.
We got home in the afternoon around 4:30, got some more groceries and headed home. Molly cooked a stirfry for our apartment and hers. We all went to bed so early ‘coz we were so tired.
2nd day in amman
Ok so day 2 in Amman. Today we were given a tour of the city and saw a few of the sights like the citadel and downtown Amman, and we even visited this huge mall. The mall wasn’t really exciting, it was just huge and western and the prices were the same as what we have back home. We had lunch at some place. I had some boiled wheat dish which was flavoured with all these spices and some spinach bread thing. I can’t remember the name of the wheat dish but it was really yummy! Manal, another SA girl helped us order, (she’s one of the fluent speakers) and managed to accidentally catch the attention of one of the servers. He came over with three pieces of baklawa for us! And then asked Manal if she would like to visit him in Egypt! Haha
Then we did some more touring on the bus and headed back to uni and had a quick meeting with Hakeem to sort accommodation out and stuff. Then myself and two of my flatmates Anisa and Pip found an internet cafe and I got to talk to James on skype which was so good, and sooooooo cheap. 500 fils!!! (1 dollar AUS) for 1/2 hr. Compared to $1 per minute that it would cost on the phone!! And I got to upload some photos. I managed to leave my USB in the computer and didn’t realise til I was half way down the street, but luckily it was still there when I raced back to get it!
On the way back to our apartment we went shopping or dome basics like rice, milk, bread, jam, water, salt, sugar, tea, oil etc. Then after we got home we all went back out with the rest of our group and looked for a place to eat. We all really wanted falafels, and you would think being in Jordan and all that you wouldn’t have to look very far to find a falafel and kebab place! Think again! We searched for ages, and found this place which looked really cool and we went in and turns out it wasn’t somewhere where you eat, but it was a shisha bar. (Shishas are a flavoured tabacco water pipe). Before we could leave the waiters started shifting tables and chairs for all of us, so we felt bad if we left, so we all sat down and smoked shishas and drank tea for an hour. But we were sooooo hungry!!! And then we finally found a falafel place!!! The waiters there were great and helped us speak arabic, and didn’t laugh at us....too much. Everyone here thinks we are hilarious! And they all want to speak English to us! And we want to speak arabic to them! But our efforts paid off because as we were eating our dinner, they kept bringing us more free falafels!
Unfortunately last night we had two not so nice incidents. The first was when a group girls from another apartment went shopping and got called whores by some local girls. And then on the way home from dinner, two girls from our group were a little bit ahead of us. They got followed by some creep who grabbed one of the girl’s behind. So that was pretty awful. Today we ALL wore headscarves and made sure we had a male with us at ALL times! All the Deakin guys have been really great and protective of us girls.
Then we did some more touring on the bus and headed back to uni and had a quick meeting with Hakeem to sort accommodation out and stuff. Then myself and two of my flatmates Anisa and Pip found an internet cafe and I got to talk to James on skype which was so good, and sooooooo cheap. 500 fils!!! (1 dollar AUS) for 1/2 hr. Compared to $1 per minute that it would cost on the phone!! And I got to upload some photos. I managed to leave my USB in the computer and didn’t realise til I was half way down the street, but luckily it was still there when I raced back to get it!
On the way back to our apartment we went shopping or dome basics like rice, milk, bread, jam, water, salt, sugar, tea, oil etc. Then after we got home we all went back out with the rest of our group and looked for a place to eat. We all really wanted falafels, and you would think being in Jordan and all that you wouldn’t have to look very far to find a falafel and kebab place! Think again! We searched for ages, and found this place which looked really cool and we went in and turns out it wasn’t somewhere where you eat, but it was a shisha bar. (Shishas are a flavoured tabacco water pipe). Before we could leave the waiters started shifting tables and chairs for all of us, so we felt bad if we left, so we all sat down and smoked shishas and drank tea for an hour. But we were sooooo hungry!!! And then we finally found a falafel place!!! The waiters there were great and helped us speak arabic, and didn’t laugh at us....too much. Everyone here thinks we are hilarious! And they all want to speak English to us! And we want to speak arabic to them! But our efforts paid off because as we were eating our dinner, they kept bringing us more free falafels!
Unfortunately last night we had two not so nice incidents. The first was when a group girls from another apartment went shopping and got called whores by some local girls. And then on the way home from dinner, two girls from our group were a little bit ahead of us. They got followed by some creep who grabbed one of the girl’s behind. So that was pretty awful. Today we ALL wore headscarves and made sure we had a male with us at ALL times! All the Deakin guys have been really great and protective of us girls.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
first day
Well it is 8:25 pm Sunday night here in Amman. Itʼs about 5:00am in the morning back inaustralia. I canʼt believe Iʼm on the other side of the world!!!!! Anyways, I donʼt think Iʼll get Internet access til Wednesday, so Iʼm writing this tonight to post then. So Saturday, after bawling my eyes out at the adelaide airport, Molly and I began our 31 hour journey to Amman, Jordan. Once we got to melbourne we had to entertain ourselves for a few hours til we boarded our flight to singapore. On the flight I watched sisterhood of the travelling pants no. 2. It was crap, donʼt bother with it. Did not stay true to the books at all!!! I got about 6 hours sleep all up from melbourne to amman. We experienced pretty rough turbulence over Mumbai( ironic hey) and one kid hadnʼt been strapped in so he hit the roof!!!! Pretty scary.
Got to Dubai at 5 in the morning dubai time, which was 12pm Aussie time. That airport
was pretty cool. Itʼs MASSIVE though! And so many cool things to buy on the way home...Turns out our dollar works to our advantage for once. After dubai we boarded again for a3 hr flight to Amman.
The Queen Alia International Airport isnʼt anywhere near as glamorous as Dubai or
Singapore... Bits and pieces everywhere. The funniest thing happened to a deakin girl
called Annie...she was standing next to a mum whose toddler pulled her headscarf off, the mum, without asking, hands the baby over to annie to hold whilst she fixed her headscarf. It was pretty funny. We got greeted by a Professor from UoJ whose name I canʼt remember and we hauled all our luggage into the bus waiting for us smack bang in the middle of the pick up zone at the airport. So as were getting our luggage in we have jordanian drivers honking and driving crazily around us.
The apartment is amazing. Very clean. Although we arrived at around 130ish- 2ish, and
everyone else got into their apartments, but we were told that we had to wait half and hour becoz our apartment was being cleaned. So we waited in another apartment with some other deakin girlʼs and we waited, and we waited, and about 4 hours later our apartment was FINALLY ready. Arab time. :) but it wasnʼt too bad, I got to know a few of the Deakin girlʼs really well, and we had cold showers (the hot water hadnʼt been turned on and we didnʼt know how to turn it on until we ALL had freezing cold showers. :) So each apartment has a massive kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and we get a balcony.
So things about Amman so far. We stick out like sore thumbs! EVERYONE knows we are
foreign. But itʼs funny coz we were walking down the street tonight and a car drove past yelling ʻWelcome to Jordanʼ. We also had local Jordanians stopping and asking us how to get directions to the Jordan University??? Go figure. They just wanted to talk to us. Once we finally got settled in our apartments, we met up at 6pm to go and find some dinner together. I was STARVING coz the last time I had eaten was breakfast on the plane. So we went to some Middle eastern fast food place and I got a chicken schawarma, pepsi and fries for $4 AUS. It was alright, not exactly nutritious but I was starving.
Crossing the road in Amman is INSANE!!!! Driving in Jordan is insane. Everyone uses
their horn!! Any person, foreigner or local, gets beeped at. Slow people get beeped at. If they are impatient, even when the light is red, they beep!!!!
Haha just remembered when we arrived at the Jordanian airport, a security guard was
bewildered at mollyʼs mouth piercing and pulls us aside and ponts at her face going
“whatʼs that???” and molly goes “ummm a piercing” and he just looked so confused.
Yeah so I have a few photos already. Iʼll upload them soon too!
Love you all
Carly
Got to Dubai at 5 in the morning dubai time, which was 12pm Aussie time. That airport
was pretty cool. Itʼs MASSIVE though! And so many cool things to buy on the way home...Turns out our dollar works to our advantage for once. After dubai we boarded again for a3 hr flight to Amman.
The Queen Alia International Airport isnʼt anywhere near as glamorous as Dubai or
Singapore... Bits and pieces everywhere. The funniest thing happened to a deakin girl
called Annie...she was standing next to a mum whose toddler pulled her headscarf off, the mum, without asking, hands the baby over to annie to hold whilst she fixed her headscarf. It was pretty funny. We got greeted by a Professor from UoJ whose name I canʼt remember and we hauled all our luggage into the bus waiting for us smack bang in the middle of the pick up zone at the airport. So as were getting our luggage in we have jordanian drivers honking and driving crazily around us.
The apartment is amazing. Very clean. Although we arrived at around 130ish- 2ish, and
everyone else got into their apartments, but we were told that we had to wait half and hour becoz our apartment was being cleaned. So we waited in another apartment with some other deakin girlʼs and we waited, and we waited, and about 4 hours later our apartment was FINALLY ready. Arab time. :) but it wasnʼt too bad, I got to know a few of the Deakin girlʼs really well, and we had cold showers (the hot water hadnʼt been turned on and we didnʼt know how to turn it on until we ALL had freezing cold showers. :) So each apartment has a massive kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and we get a balcony.
So things about Amman so far. We stick out like sore thumbs! EVERYONE knows we are
foreign. But itʼs funny coz we were walking down the street tonight and a car drove past yelling ʻWelcome to Jordanʼ. We also had local Jordanians stopping and asking us how to get directions to the Jordan University??? Go figure. They just wanted to talk to us. Once we finally got settled in our apartments, we met up at 6pm to go and find some dinner together. I was STARVING coz the last time I had eaten was breakfast on the plane. So we went to some Middle eastern fast food place and I got a chicken schawarma, pepsi and fries for $4 AUS. It was alright, not exactly nutritious but I was starving.
Crossing the road in Amman is INSANE!!!! Driving in Jordan is insane. Everyone uses
their horn!! Any person, foreigner or local, gets beeped at. Slow people get beeped at. If they are impatient, even when the light is red, they beep!!!!
Haha just remembered when we arrived at the Jordanian airport, a security guard was
bewildered at mollyʼs mouth piercing and pulls us aside and ponts at her face going
“whatʼs that???” and molly goes “ummm a piercing” and he just looked so confused.
Yeah so I have a few photos already. Iʼll upload them soon too!
Love you all
Carly
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
5 days til I leave!!!
I had my going away party on Friday night and am starting to say my goodbyes to people!!! The picture above is me with the majority of my siblings, minus three. I am very exited, however I am starting to get a little bit emotional and have to keep telling myself that it's only gonna be for 3 months! Had a lovely lunch with mark, bek and abby today! oh and james too. :) I have my french exam tomorrow which I'm not enthusiastic about at all, but it shouldn't be too hard.
But it was so great to catch up with everyone before I leave and it was a lot of fun having all the people i love around me eating and drinking and talking and playing the nintendo wii. Here are a few more photos
So now all I have to do is pack. Mum and I did some last minute shopping on thursday and I got things like quick dry travel pants etc, some decent shoes, powerpoint plugs etc...
And i leave saturday. so if you wanna coem to the airport, let me know and i'll give you the time.
lots of love
carly
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
16 days to go....
so 16 days to go and getting VERY VERY excited...but sad too coz I'm going to miss my family and James a lot! James and my Grandma are plotting together to steal and burn my passport so that I can't go (jokingly of course)...
I just found out last night that I won a scholarship from the Arab Chamber of Commerce Council for $1000 towards my trip, so I'm very very blessed!
I had two injections today too. Hep A, typhoid and some meningococcal one... i still have to get TB and polio. I have also stocked up on medication that I'm going to need over there, so I practically had to rob a bank before I went to the chemist this morning.
Mum found two things that i desperately needed before I went away... a snow jacket, and a backpack. And beig the awesome mother that she is, she manged to get both things significantly marked down in price.
I have also been shopping for some aussie souvenirs to give to the people I'll meet over in Jordan.
so other than finishing off an essay, doing my french oral, taking my french exam, packing and organising my friend Molly, :), I have not much else to do other than hop on the plane and go.
Keep you posted
carly
I just found out last night that I won a scholarship from the Arab Chamber of Commerce Council for $1000 towards my trip, so I'm very very blessed!
I had two injections today too. Hep A, typhoid and some meningococcal one... i still have to get TB and polio. I have also stocked up on medication that I'm going to need over there, so I practically had to rob a bank before I went to the chemist this morning.
Mum found two things that i desperately needed before I went away... a snow jacket, and a backpack. And beig the awesome mother that she is, she manged to get both things significantly marked down in price.
I have also been shopping for some aussie souvenirs to give to the people I'll meet over in Jordan.
so other than finishing off an essay, doing my french oral, taking my french exam, packing and organising my friend Molly, :), I have not much else to do other than hop on the plane and go.
Keep you posted
carly
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
all set to go
so all our flights are now booked. managed to get cheap flights from cairo to istanbul, so that's exciting. only $417 and we were originally looking at $550. all our accomodation is now booked too, so all we have to do is try and stick to the intinery we have made for ourselves. we have to live with the fact that we may not be able to see everything, just because we are trying to go to sooo many places!.
i'm a little bit nervous about the Arabic course now... I'm sure it will be fine, but everything is taught ONLY in Arabic... guess we'll learn really fast that way. I'm really looking foward to being totally immersed in another culture. my aim for this trip is to not just come away fluent (hopefully) in Arabic, but to soak up as much as i can about the history and culture and religion as I can.
so for the next 4 weeks, i have to somehow focus on my studies, which is nearly impossible becoz i'm so excited about this trip!
thats all for now
maa salama
carly
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
a little eager
well I'm going to try and keep a blog while I am away to keep everyone updated on my adventures. i am a little keen- starting blogging two months before I go,-but I am a little excited about the whole thing.
so today Molly and I confirmed our itinerary and booked accomodation in Egypt, and I booked accomodation in Israel. very exciting.
That is all for now
much love
carly
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