My First Apartment!

Hard to believe that my first apartment out of college is in Jordan of all places! No one could have told me two years ago this would be the case.

So I finally moved out of the hotel yesterday afternoon after my morning class. Fortunately my lowly Arabic skills sufficed so I could navigate for the cab driver. Unfortunately, in less than 24 hours at the new place, John and I are already dealing with several issues:

1) The place is freezing! We have one space heater, but will probably have to buy a couple more.

2) Despite buying a modem, and 3 month cable subscription Tuesday afternoon, our internet connection is all jacked up. Dealing with customer service at Orange has been a nightmare.

3) The power went out last night, and has not come back on since. Hopefully it will come back soon, otherwise we'll have to make a call tomorrow (can't today because of national holiday).


New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful, appartently a number of the bigger parties in Amman were cancelled due to the situation in Gaza. John ended up going to some Jordanian family friend's party, while I opted to stay in. Once the power went out around 9:30pm, I decided to venture over to Abdoun Circle. Most of the clubs and lounges had expensive cover charges, ranging from 50 JD (~$75), to around 200 JD (~$300). Instead, I decided to head over to the Sheraton near my apartment. There I met a guy from Louisiana who works as a helicopter mechanic in Iraq. Closer to midnight, we walked to the nearby Bristol Hotel which was hosting a couple parties. I opted to not pay the expensive cover charge and instead headed home around 11:30pm. Pretty lame New Year, I know, but I have no regrets.

I'm currently hanging out at the swanky Blue Fig Cafe in Abdoun, quite a different scene than what I've experienced at cafes elsewhere in the city. The place is packed with very well-dressed young people. Notably, there are a number of mixed sex groups hanging out and socializing.

The idea of addresses, and street names for that matter, are completely new to Jordanians. Most streets in middle class parts of Amman were given names only about 4-5 years ago. Instead, most people have things delivered to P.O. Boxes. I've opted to distribute my school address for incoming mail/packages (address below).

Qasid Institute for Classical & Modern Standard Arabic
22 Queen Rania St., Suite 300
Amman 11196, Jordan

My e-mail: geoffrey.dietz@gmail.com

That is all for now. More to come in the next couple days.