I have arrived!

Royal Jordanian is the best airline I have ever been on. I was given hot towels, dinner, a snack, and tea about five times on a four and one-half hour flight. I also had on my own personal television with On Demand movies. I watched an Egyptian comedy about a father who tries to kill his son a number of times because he doesn't like the woman he married and I'm Not There with censored Arabic subtitles. The phrase "That's fucking Alan Ginsberg" is left untouched in the audio, but translated in the subtitles as "That's a very happy Alan Ginsberg."

Upon arriving at the Queen Alia Airport, I exhausted all of my knowledge about this trip. I did not know where I was staying or who was picking me up. My course of action unplanned, I decided to go to the center of the terminal and look lost, hoping whoever is meeting me at the airport sees me. This failed. No one was meeting me at the gate. After getting some currency exchanged, I go to get my Visa. I saw a sign that said I needed the address of my residence in Jordan, which I, of course, do not know where I am staying because Saleh (my adviser) has not told us anything about anything. So I decide to play it cool, hand the officer my passport, and wait until he stops me. When he asks "address?" I respond "I don't know" (in Arabic). He then askes me many more questions in Arabic which I don't understand. I pretty sure I felt the glaze cover my eyes. He then shrugs, stamps my passport and I am on my way. I am then escorted past all of the lines, given my bags on a cart (I didn't have to pick them up myself) and taken past customs. Apparently security is lax for Americans.




I find Saleh and take a cab to our apartments, which can be described as livable. The bedroom is much better than the kitchen and the bathroom. You see here the propane powered hot plate that is my stove. The water is heated by solar power so I can only get warm water in the middle of the day. Moreover, we get about one toilet flush about every eight minutes because thats how long it takes the tank to refill. On the upside, we do have air conditioning, although the 90 degree weather isn't that bad in the shade. This is what I get for 200 dinars a month ($285 US) across the street from the university.

The next post will hopefully have some prettier pictures and include information about the University.