Arrival in Jordan

After a non-eventful several hour layover in the Frankfurt airport (a fine European hot chocolate, a massage, and a snooze), we hopped on a 20 ½-row Royal Jordanian A319 aircraft for the final (4-hour-long) leg of our trek. Our flight arrived a half hour early in Amman, and after changing US cash for Jordanian Dinars (referred to as JOD or just JD by folks here), we purchased our visa and walked through customs, only to discover our lone checked bag was not on the carousel.

Checking bags is always distressing for me. I always expect them to get at least delayed, but sometimes lost. And then there’s the ability that without checking a bag you can scoot out of the airport more quickly. So after giving our baggage claim ticket to an attendant, he went in the back and found it. I had to go in the back room and let the Customs guys search the bag…similar to what happens every time I leave Grenada with a bag full of chocolate and spices. We joked a bit, they asked if I spoke Arabic. La, I said (Arabic for “no”). Then I unzipped the bag and there in plain view is Kaelin’s Arabic book. “My wife speaks Arabic”, I said in my best Arabic, and they laughed. That’s a main goal of mine when learning another language: be able to make people laugh. All clear, we wandered out of the airport and found our #Fulbright taxi driver straight away and walked to his car.

For the 20-minute or so ride into Amman, we (mostly Kaelin, and all in Arabic) talked with our taxi driver. He let us know when we were driving through different areas of Amman, sites along the road, and when Salat is (the call to prayer, five times a day). I listened and tried to catch the gist of the conversation, working on training my ear. The driver dropped us off at our hotel, we checked into our room, showered, and crashed. On the nice, firm bed (which felt nice. Really. We like firm mattresses). We’re staying at a hotel until we find an apartment. That’s what we did today: apartment hunting—after checking in with the Fulbright house, of course.

Finding a place to live in a foreign country is like an episode of HGTV’s House Hunters International: “Which place do you like the best?” “Well, the first one had a roof top terrace…” and so forth. I went through a similar situation in Grenada, but had the help of the wonderful Fiona McIntyre (http://www.fasrealtors.gd). Here, we have a few tried-and-true-by-previous-Fulbrighters places, as well as a few Kaelin found online. Amman is pretty spread out and quite hilly. Still, we saw a couple really great places. Good locations, good prices, good amenities. But we’re still looking. With the weekend coming (Friday and Saturday here) and New Years a few hours from now, we won’t be able to see any more until Sunday, and we’ll probably make a decision then. So, with any luck, we’ll have a place by next week. And I will post pictures.

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