Saturday 5/6

Hey loyal blog followers!

I'm baack with some awesome stuff to post. I'll separate my posts by day to make things easier

So I'll start off with our first trip to Aj Jami'at Al Ourdunia (University of Jordan).

Before I got here, I had my initial thoughts about the university: small, lines of buildings, pretty bland. When we got there, on Saturday (the last day of the weekend in the ME) it turns out we I was so wrong. The campus was huge and lined with tall green trees (an odd sight for a Doha-ian [I guess?]). As you enter the main security gates (dubbed "Guantanamo Gates" by the student body ), straight a head of you a few hundred meters down the main street you have the burj al sa'a (clock tower). Modern style buildings litter the campus, each with its own "faculty" (architecture, art and design, foreign languages, learning sciences). It amazed me how many things that they studied in university here. I had a hard time comparing this to what was in Doha (Education City, Qatar University); the buildings weren't nearly as modern or expensive, but this campus had such a more homey feel. You could see students sitting in benches by the street, some people playing tennis in a closed off area, Jordanian flags literally everywhere: definitely a larger sense of community here.

That said, the campus is beautiful. It's nice to see so much green again!









We didn't start school yet, however, just a small tour of the campus and where our classes would be. After, all of us went back to our apartments.

The frat stars (as my roommates and I were later dubbed) decided to take a bit of a stroll and see what the surroundings are like. We pretty much took a step out of our apartment and boom, taxi blaring its horn looking for a fare strolling down the street behind us (there are pretty much two taxis for every person in Jordan, or so it seems. They're also dirt cheap at around a dinar and a half for a ten minute ride coming to about two dollars).

So we hop in the cab and take a ride to the nearest commercial area called Douwar Waha (Waha Circle). We stop by a local fruit store, pick up some noms for breakfast (juiciest apricots I've had in a while) and keep strolling down the street. We see pretty much everything we need: a bakery, book store, phone store for credit, electronics store, nuts store (yay pistachios!), and our favorite place... AB's. We don't know the actual name to the shisha bar there, but the owner's name is Abdullah. He speaks pretty great English (used to live in Canada) which helps us a lot when we don't know exactly what to ask (we asked for the check [or so we thought] the other day and the waiter got AB and he asked if we wanted a chocolate cake. Al humdulillah (thanks be to God), AB was there to save the day (or just a few dinars).

That said, AB has become one of our frequents with some awesome sandwiches, cheap arghileh, and a projector screen for the world cup!



After AB's, we went to get some shawerma at the local sandwich store next door. We ordered some shawerma, and were given free felafel while we were waiting. Joey non chalantly asked how to make felafel, and the guy took us on a tour of the felafel making facilities. Sweet beans (chick peas = some sort of bean. PUN WIN).

It's actually a pretty cool process, they mix some kind of green and chick peas and put it in the deep frier. I wish I could be more specific, but I kind of forget haha.



We then went back to our apartment, fully satisfied after our first trip to AB's, and crashed after a late night movie. Nomsasaurus.