First days in Amman

I've arrived safely in Amman! The first few days here were a bit hectic: looking for an apartment, visiting the Institute for orientation days and placement exams (To my surprise, I'm in Level 4!), buying food at the local market and exploring the city. Everyone is really friendly here, from the people in the fruit and vegetable markets to the teachers at our Institute as well as our co-students (almost all Americans btw). We also found an apartment to live in for the next 9 months, yay! It's in a very quiet neighbourhood but close to a street full of shops and markets, and there's a falafel place very close, what more do you want, huh?

Tomorrow (Sunday, I know! Our weekend is on Friday & Saturday though) is our second day of class, we have 3 hours of class a day, but we already have assignments and new vocabulary to learn! I'm much more motivated to learn and study Arabic here than in Belgium though, as you really have to speak Arabic all day and you see it everywhere in the streets etc. It sounds cheesy, but living in the Middle East really makes me want to immerse into the culture and language, compared to Belgium where I was just wondering when & where I would ever use my Arabic skills. 

Above is a picture of our apartment! We got really lucky, as it was the first place we visited and we immediately liked it. It has 4 (four!) bedrooms, a large kitchen, a balcony and a rooftop overlooking the city. It's in a very quiet neighbourhood, but we're very close to a big market and loads of falafel places. Score!

I'm signing off now because I have some schoolwork to do, but I'll leave you with some more pictures of the Amman Citadel, where we visited some ancient Roman and Ummayad ruins, and from where we had an amazing view over Amman. Talk to you very soon!