MERHABA!

SO, after a pretty long trip (friday 5:30pm bus portland to boston, friday flight boston to frankfurt, layover in frankfurt all day, friday night flight frankfurt to amman, arrival in amman 3am sunday PHEW) I am here and settled with the other 33 CIEE students at the al manar hotel in shmisani, amman. Today was the first day of our official orientation, and we had a full day tour of the city. by about 9am, it was pretty hot out. all i can say is that despite sticking out a little more, i am glad i am not in iran, saudi or the gulf, where i would have no choice but to wear hijab or abaya. they are hot, even inside and in the shade.

The journey here was relatively uneventful if not pretty exhausting. yasmeen, the first friend i met on the trip, had arranged through email for some of us who wanted to to meet at terminal one in the frankfurt airport so we could spend the day in the city. (most of us arrived 7am-11am and our flight here did not depart until around 9pm.) SO, myself, yasmeen, del, elizabeth, caitlin from oregon, and a backpacker from australia named lexi who we picked up along the way, all hopped on the metro and hung out in rainy frankfurt. We ate bratwurst, drank some appelwoi, and enjoyed the little street festival going on in honor of the appelwoi drink. it was definitely a great way to start the trip. we visited a cathedral and grabbed some coffee to get us back to the airport safely and awake.

since it's taking so long for photos to load right now, i'm going to take a little break. lesson of the day: traveling in a group of 33 american college students in downtown amman is not the most pleasant or inconspicuous way to go. it makes you feel famous. a little bit more like marilyn manson or circus-freak-famous than royal-family-famous. i'm looking forward to exploring the city in twos.
more photos and updates to come!

WELCOME!

I have been meaning to set one of these up for a good little while now. I think it will be the best way for me to keep in touch with people instead of spotty email correspondance.
BONUS: I can post photos (and not push your email account over its limit).

So right now Sue and Don are on their way back from the University of Vermont, where they dropped little Tommy off this morning. I am here, frantically packing, Arthur is camping with the Ericksons, and Will is sound asleep after our busy evening.

It seems like every year on the day before I leave, we have a small accident that becomes a huge inconvenience to my parents as well as a distraction to all of us. Sometimes it adds (last year, at least) a little bit of humor to lighten the mood, and acts as a reminder of what constitutes a big deal. Last year, I backed the car out of the garage without opening the garage door first. This year, Will and I did one better.

We were at Friendly's last night visiting with friends and having ice cream at the one place in southern Maine that is open until 11 on a weeknight. He had just finished playing with his band, and loaded his gigantic amp into the trunk. After a great evening of laughing with old friends and saying goodbye, an interesting thing happened. We were rounding a corner (slowly) on our way home when we heard a terrible crack in the back of the car. Will and my other passengers looked back to investigate, and sure enough the amp had fallen over. Through the back driver's side window. oops.

And the culpritGood thing Will and I have August birthdays! I know what we'll be using that money for.

So I should probably get back to packing now. Or maybe review some arabic? The next time I write I'll be in Amman. YIKES!