final jordan post

[shadowsong26]

1/19/12

113pm

i didn't post last night because i figured i'd do the summation of the flight home along with my last actual day in amman.

so, yesterday, we had the written exam in MSA that was scheduled for 9-12, but pretty much everyone was done by 1020 or so. there was a reading comprehension section, an "arrange these sentences into a paragraph that makes sense" section, some grammar questions, and a listening comprehension section. i think i did pretty well--probably around a 90, maybe a few points under or over.

then, since we had almost two hours before the oral dialect exam, me, d, ke, ka, ja, and s wandered off to find someplace to have lunch/breakfast/coffee/whatever. i had shuwarma with cheese, which was good--except it wasn't really cheese, it was american -_-;; but i could barely taste it around the delicious shuwarma, so.

then we had a brief little reception thing where we got certificates for completing the course and then cookies and tea and a couple group photos taken, then the oral part. i think i did okay, except he was asking me what i eat usually and how i eat it, and the only silverware word i coud remember was sikeena, meaning knife. but, again, i think i did well otherwise--i remembered the colors and i understood all of his questions, though i had to ask him to repeat himself twice because he was talking too fast.

after that, we went back to the hotel to wait for everyone else to finish their interviews and just chill for a bit, then we went downtown one last time to wander around, and je and ka and ke wanted to get tins of sweets to take home, and i needed to replace a present for one person because a part of it had broken :< but i can keep the broken one because it's still pretty, just not a good idea to give a broken thing as a gift, if at all avoidable.

then we went back to the hotel again and watched some movies together, then we all met up for dinner at 8, then je, ka, a, and s left at 1030 and i went back upstairs to pack and get stuff together.

this morning, i left the hotel at 530, and so far (i'm camped out in heathrow now between flights) everything's been incident free. going through security in amman was a little different--they only made the men take off their shoes, and didn't ask me to take my computer or dvd player out of my carryon. but all went well, and i'm safe in heathrow. probably going to see if one of the little stores/cafes here takes visa so i can grab something to munch on while i'm killing time here. <3

1112pm

back safe at home now--flght from london to dc took extra long because of uberstrong headwinds, but was otherwise uneventful. then mom picked me up and we went to chili's for dinner. ^^ but, yeah, not much to say about this plane ride. (also, has anyone read hg wells' the time machine? because i watched the 2002 movie version on the plane ride home, and...well, as dumb as the 1890s parts were, the future stuff was pretty neat, and the time-travel sequences themselves, especially the long one, were cool. also, jeremy irons. anyway, is the novella worth looking up?)