Annyeonghaseyo?

AThis past weekend I went to Aqaba to celebrate my friend Ashley's 20th birthday. On the bus ride down (the 5.5 hour bus ride down might i add...) I heard some guys speaking in Korean behind me. When we had to get off the bus to have our bags searched before entering the Aqaba Special Economic Zone I started talking with them and got to pracice my Korean. It felt super weird to be an American in Jordan speaking Korean but it was really fun!! Turns out the guy actually lives right near Yonsei University, where I will (inshallah) be attending next semester. I went home early one afternoon when nooooo one was in the house (a rarity with my family) and did all of the paperwork for Korea. It was such a relief. I feel much more on top of my game for going abroad next semester than when I was preparing for Jordan but I think it is just the pressure of not havign internet constantly and not being able to call the office easily or just being out of touch that I am actually sending my paperwork in on time.

Anyway I had a great weekend in Aqaba. There were marines there that hadnt seen females (or anyone else for that matter) in several months so they were more than willing to by us dinner, argilla, drinks (thats the only way to go, so expensive otherwise!) so we had a great night. The Red Sea was, as always, amazing. The water was so clear that I had no trouble seeing the sand colored fish more than 30 feet below me on the sandy bottom. Its remarkable. This coming weekend we are heading to Jerash for the day and maybe, inshallah, i will get some sleep in!

I have been practicing spanish with my friend Ali since his spanish is better than his english so hasta luego!

Party in the USA

Last night I went to a Marine party at the US embassy! I had no idea that embassies could be so bumpin. We have a Marine on our program that invited some of the crowd to the party. Apparently they have parties at least twice a month. There was a dj, a dance floor, argilla, a bar, and tons of people from all over the world. It was a little weird, especially since I wasn’t drinking (can’t come home drunk or smelling of alcohol in a homestay). I had a good time though; it was so great to hear American music!

Before the party we went out to a Chinese restaurant that was delicious! Believe it or not the most expensive thing we got was all of the water they kept filling our glasses with; 16 JD worth of water! That is $22.50!! Even with that cost though it was still a relatively cheap meal, especially for the outstanding, fancy atmosphere of the restaurant. Our taxi had a lot of tassels hanging from a blue light in the back. One fell off and stuck to me as I got out and it now is a charm on my phone to help distinguish from the other 134 phones we all have on the program. That is my memory of the night because pictures are not allowed anywhere near the embassy.

The party seemed to have more Jordanians than Americans but the Marines will be having a ball to celebrate their birthday on November 10th. The guy from the program said a lot of them will be looking for dates so fingers crossed!