I have completed my third week in Amman. I am definitely getting the hang of things here, especially how to grocery shop and cook for myself 24/7. I am also getting used to certain aspects of the culture, like taxis. In taxis, women always sit in the back but a man is expected to sit in the front. For example, a mother and 4 kids in a cab would sit with the eldest boy in front and the mother and other kids in the back of the cab. Rarely, even if there is 4 women, will you see one ride in the front of the taxi with the driver. I am also getting better at speaking to taxi drivers in Arabic, so I think my Arabic is improving.

I love Qasid! It is very hard but I think it will be very rewarding in terms of Arabic progress. Our teachers are amazing! First we have Ali, who is a hilarious teacher and loves making us perform funny skits in Arabic in front of the class. Then we have our class with Hadeel, an adorable (very pregnant) woman. They are so involved with our learning and truly want us to succeed.

The homework load is a lot each night. We are supposed to do one our of homework for every our in class, meaning we would have 4 hours of homework a night. There are a lot of assignments and vocabulary to learn and I quickly found out that this class was nothing to mess around with. I managed to get to the end of the school/work week, Thursday, and planned fun things for the weekend!

On Friday, I went downtown Amman with one of my roommates and we walked around, took pictures of the amphitheater, and got some hummus and bread. On Saturday, we went to Wadi Mujib which is this amazing nature reserve! It is right next to the Dead Sea so we could look out and see the West Bank. At Wadi Mujib, we grabbed life jackets and began to walk, climb, and swim our way to the top. When we got to the top, there was this amazing waterfall! I wish I had pictures, but I did not have a waterproof case or bag. It was great to exercise and swim! Overall, it was another great week in Amman.