Hello friends and family, sorry for the delay in writing this blog post. It's been two months since I posted, which was quite irresponsible. I wish I had a good excuse, but I think I just got lazy. And then had finals. So what I'll do, just to check in, is give a quick run-down of things that I did, then I'll go back and do individual posts about most things. Sound good?
Well, obviously, a lot has happened since the last time we chatted. Let's start with Spring Break - Rome and Barcelona 2012. I had a great time, got wowed by the Sagrada Familia church by Gaudi, among other things. Then I came back, flying from Barcelona through Cairo and on to Amman. Back in Jordan, I've traveled around a little. Seen the Wadi Rum and Petra (yes, Petra is featured in both Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and one of the Transformer movies) which were both extremely cool. Pictures and more on that to come.
I finished my finals last week, which was a relief to say the least. So glad to be done - the Jordanian Independence Day (Yawm al-Istiqlal) was a day or two after my last final, which I thought was quite fitting. Some tests, presentations... pretty standard fare for finals I guess. Most of my friends have gone back to the US now, save a group of about five kids from the Middlebury program.
I'm going to make the final arrangements on an apartment with a few friends today - very excited. That means that yes, I'll be here for at least a portion of the summer. I should be back in the good old U.S. of A. by halfway through July. I'm pretty excited to be staying - I'm going to be volunteering in the UNRWA Gaza Camp in the city of Jerash, about 45 minutes from Amman. It's mostly Palestinian refugees originally from Gaza (hence the name) and there's a summer camp for the kids in the camp. Very exited to be working with them.
In other news, my family is coming to visit! My wonderful sister is finally graduating from high school, and the day after graduation she and my parents are hopping on a plane to Jordan. After a few days in Amman, we're going to tour the country and then cross the border from Aqaba to Eilat and head north to Jerusalem. I'm wicked excited for that trip as well, especially because there were definitely some things I forgot in Lexington and, well, the mail is unreliable. My parents sent me a package on March 10, and it didn't get to me until April 23. Slightly unreliable.
Well, that's all for now, more to come soon I hope!
Until next time, Inshallah.
Well, obviously, a lot has happened since the last time we chatted. Let's start with Spring Break - Rome and Barcelona 2012. I had a great time, got wowed by the Sagrada Familia church by Gaudi, among other things. Then I came back, flying from Barcelona through Cairo and on to Amman. Back in Jordan, I've traveled around a little. Seen the Wadi Rum and Petra (yes, Petra is featured in both Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and one of the Transformer movies) which were both extremely cool. Pictures and more on that to come.
I finished my finals last week, which was a relief to say the least. So glad to be done - the Jordanian Independence Day (Yawm al-Istiqlal) was a day or two after my last final, which I thought was quite fitting. Some tests, presentations... pretty standard fare for finals I guess. Most of my friends have gone back to the US now, save a group of about five kids from the Middlebury program.
I'm going to make the final arrangements on an apartment with a few friends today - very excited. That means that yes, I'll be here for at least a portion of the summer. I should be back in the good old U.S. of A. by halfway through July. I'm pretty excited to be staying - I'm going to be volunteering in the UNRWA Gaza Camp in the city of Jerash, about 45 minutes from Amman. It's mostly Palestinian refugees originally from Gaza (hence the name) and there's a summer camp for the kids in the camp. Very exited to be working with them.
In other news, my family is coming to visit! My wonderful sister is finally graduating from high school, and the day after graduation she and my parents are hopping on a plane to Jordan. After a few days in Amman, we're going to tour the country and then cross the border from Aqaba to Eilat and head north to Jerusalem. I'm wicked excited for that trip as well, especially because there were definitely some things I forgot in Lexington and, well, the mail is unreliable. My parents sent me a package on March 10, and it didn't get to me until April 23. Slightly unreliable.
Well, that's all for now, more to come soon I hope!
Until next time, Inshallah.
