First weekend

Thursday work was excellent. Crystel Call allowed me to sit in an important meeting. Being that my first project will be to analyze expenses/profitability per client which is no small task. This will really utilize the skills I learned in my MS. My current motto "enter through the back door".

Thursday night I moved into Samaan's place . My AIESEC buddy Mudar and his friend Fadi helped me to move in. Afterward we chilled on the balcony. I guess I always talk about what I need to do next. So at 3am, he says "khalas" (enough) I am taking grocery shopping right now. So I did my grocery shop at 4am on Friday morning. Which was really good - being that weekends stores are quite busy and it would cost me to take taxi to/from. So about 5am he drops me of with 39JDs(55USD) of food.

Friday morning I got up late and settled in. I have a three bedroom-three baths, full kitchen, living, dining, sitting room and balcony ALL to myself. The only catch he is trying to rent it out, so I must keep it spotless and will look for a place for April 1st. The second thing he doesn't have diesel in the tank for hot water, which is quite expensive and I don't want to impose. My Kenya experience really helps me in this, so I will just boil water for an evening bath for two weeks. The place is big and quiet - thank god I got the speakers for my laptop. I play music around the clock to keep me company. I am not ready to go into the living and room touch all those TV remotes.

Friday the AIESEC conference had a global village event in the Mecca Mall. So everyone was dressed in their traditional clothes and had snacks from their country. They had a DJ and locals watched and joined in. Afterward we went back the conference hotel and just hung out. I stayed till after midnight so folks could sing me Happy Birthday in English and then in Arabic.

One thing about Amman, people have to discuss for about 5 minutes where something is located.(even the locals). I decided to play it safe and take the silver cabs (med price) so they wouldn't get lost my first time going alone to the apt. I got dropped off at 1:30 am and found my building key did not work. I called Mudar and me told me to go to talk the policeman on the street and see if they can help me (the perk of staying in an upscale area). It took 30 minutes, 3 police guards to reach the super and landlord's brother so I could get into the building (of course Mudar stayed on the phone/translated the entire time). I am thinking OMG I am locked out in Amman on my birthday.

Saturday - Mudar & friends granted my wish and we went to the Dead Sea for my 29th Birthday. We went a 4 star hotel and hung out all day/eve. So beautiful. I didn't know that you can't put this water on your face - its so strong you walk like you are blind till you can rinse it off. Three times this happened to me. It was a lot of fun putting the mud all over and playing with the small rocks. Later that evening we heard some bubbles and it could have been a small whir pool, a few people die a year from this. Mudar said don't worry everything is dead here. If a regular fish comes into the dead sea, they are dead in 30 seconds.My skin feels soft and I woke up feeling really tired today. Maybe the rest did me good.