And it goes on, and on, and on

I’ve decided all internet access points hate me. I can’t connect to the internet at the airport for god forbidden reason. It won’t log on to the free public network. This is just getting ridiculous. So with over an hour left, I’m writing this stupid blog update now. Yes, I’ve been gone for a week. It isn’t my fault when I don’t have internet!

Okay. Starting over.

You know what I’ve learned about Germany? One thing. The castles are never finished here. Apparently the kings don’t have a good money management or something. No one will ever know. But beside the point, the castles I did go to were beautiful and covered in gold rooms and chandeliers and amazing art. Until you reach the unfinished rooms that is just plain old boring brick. Aww, lovely, just magnificent!

The other thing I’ve learned is the difference between Jordan and Germany, and then the US. We all know what the US is like, so I’ll just do you a favor and explain the difference between Germany and Jordan. I’m so kind, you should be thanking me.

So. Jordan. Germany. Both have a very nice ring to it. I’ll start out with something simple. Like traffic. In Germany, there is barely any unless in a major city. There is no pounding on the horn like in Jordan. But I cannot get anywhere in Germany unless I have a car. From where I was at I couldn’t get to the train station and the bus system really wasn’t that great. In Jordan I could anywhere I pleased. Just walked out of my apartment, down a block, and BOOM! Taxis, busses, cars, everything, along with the blazing heat and honking of horns and people yelling.

I think next is thing is culture. This splits into a million categories. Obviously there are churches vs mosques. Wow. Big difference. But it goes to people. In Jordan everyone knows I’m a tourist. I went from a country with dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin to one with blonde, brown, black, red, rainbow hair everywhere with brown, blue, green, and hazel eyes. Woah. Okay big difference. It went from all the guys in Jordan about the same physique to a hundred different looking guys in Germany. All the guys in Germany have legs that go on for miles. It’s ridiculous. And then don’t get started about women. Dangg.

Women in Germany have short skirts, low tops. Welcome to Europe! Helloooo ladies! And then I was sad to say goodbye to the friendly people of Jordan, with their women dressed conservatively and covered up all cute like. The good life was gone.

Also I had a nice welcome to Europe when I was abruptly brought back to the lovel\y life of couples. Ahh, sweet European love! Ha! Not. It’s like everyone is sexually frustrated here or something. I mean come on, do you really have to be grabbing, stroking, and macking on each other in public? Like hello, you have a house. Go get that stuff there! I WANT JORDAN BACK! Couples didn’t even hold hands and I loved it. Thanks Europe. It’s even worse than in the states.

But sadly, as I sit in the airport, I know I’m going to miss Germany, because it is such a beautiful green place. I’ll miss Lisa and her family who were so good to me while I stayed there. I got to see so many wonderful and beautiful places as I trooped around the nice Deutschland before heading off to the airport.

And I took a train here. I would have died if it weren’t for nice German people who can see a confused foreigner. Unlike in Jordan where my blonde hair and blue eyes easily read doesn’t-speak-arabic in Germany it did not read as doesn’t-speak-deutsch. I asked one person on the train if I was in the right spot and thankfully he said yes and even got off at that stop too. Then he came back and found me lost at the stairs and pointed me to the right train. Thank you kind sir, you seriously saved my life there!

And then as I changed for the last time, I was even more confused. I was helped by somebody who did not speak as good of English as the last guy. He told me some things I thought I had understood. When I tried to get on the wrong tram thing he came running over, telling me not this one, to wait for number 8. It made no sense to me, but I finally figured out that the trams had numbers on the outside. And again, thank you sir for not just letting me get onto the wrong train, because I totally would have.

And here I am! I survived. At least for now. I still have to catch my flight. But since I’m at the airport, I think that is pretty hard to mess up. Especially with like two hours left. I got my snacks, ate my lunch, and now I’m writing this. I’ll have to make a potty stop before heading to my gate and then I’ll be golden, peachy keen lima bean.

So my adventure slowly comes to an end as I prepare myself for my eleven hour flight. Boo. I’m not excited at all. But I know this blog thing hasn’t gone exactly the way I planned and there really isn’t much more to tell about Germany. I’m glad I came here after Jordan, and as much as I’ll miss it in both Germany and Jordan, there is no place like home. And Washington, baby, here I come!

Oh and hey thanks for everyone who stuck with my blog and read it. I feel pretty honored that you guys don’t have an exciting life like I do so that you are forced to read something like this poorly made blog that I didn’t have enough time to but wrote anyway.

Kidding of course, I really do care that you guys read this until the end. I feel so loved!

I also feel happy to be typing on a normal keyboard.

And that is all. Goodbye blog world, until we meet again.

Ma’salam, Chuse, and Goodbye.

With lots of love; yours truly,

Melea

(PS. When you read this I’ll probably be home. Or in [Ohhhhh] Canada[aaaa], if I can get internet there. Just so you know. Like just pretend it was like twenty hours ago or something that I posted this.)

Guten Tag Germany!

First warning, the keyboard is really different and letters are switched around. So there will be a ton of errors.
But I was sad to leave Jordanbut my flight to Germany was very easy and I was here before I even knew it. Lisa was here to pick me up and we headed to her house, which is absolutely beautiful. I was exhausted from the time of my flight but made it awake for the day. And my today I'm feeling a lot better and not super tired. We went to a town a little less than an hour away yesterday and saw what they do in the old days for a wedding. Then we climbed up to a castle and looked around. The view was amazing! But oh course, knowing me, my camera decided it was going to die and run out of batterys half way through the whole thing.  So did I get tons of beautiful pictures? Ha! No.
Of course not.
And I'm having a hard time typing at all and this is taking forever. I'm calling it quits.
OH! And I canät connect to wifi here so I won't be logging on as much as I did in Jorda. Just whenever I have time.
Chuse!

Ma'Salam Jordan

Well. This is it. I leave tonight. 

It is time to say Ma'Salam to Jordan and Guten Tag to Germany! 

This is seriously the most bitter sweet moment I've ever had. I love it here in Jordan and I do not want to leave. I have packed nothing which is very bad and i need to start. We are also going to one of the street fair things which is going to be close to the last time they do it. So I really won't have time to pack after that. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a hot mess at the end of this tonight. I might cry even. I cannot believe it has been five weeks. Honestly, my mind is blown at how quickly this trip went. It feels like just yesterday i was just getting here, unpacking, and having issues with water. Alas, it will be nice to not have issues with water and plumbing. Fingers crossed at least. 

It will also be nice to go to Germany and enjoy my time there. It shouldn't be as hectic as it is in Jordan and i can probably relax more. 

But i'll leave it at that, and say that Jordan was a wonderful experience and I'm glad I came here. And since i have to pack, yuck, I've got to get started on that.

Halaas.

It's over. I took my Arabic final and I'm forever done with Arabic 201. 

After realizing that I have indeed, learned a lot, even though the others are ahead of me, I still feel pretty accomplished. I mean, that is if I end up passing the class. Happy thoughts guys! 

I think I'll be fine. 

My teacher is absolutely adorable. She got us all these necklaces that have our names written on a grain of rice that floats in this blue stuff. It is so cute. I love her, she is precious. I took my oral test today too and did a lot better at that than I did at the written test. She told all of us after our tests she would miss us and we took pictures with her as a class. 

Man, I'm really sad guys. Like I might cry. I absolutely love here, which I'm so thankful for because otherwise this trip would suck. And everyone here has been supportive and such great friends. I can't believe I'm leaving this beautiful, kind country in just three days. Wow. Time has really flown by. 

So tomorrow I've got my last final and we are all going out to dinner Thursday as one group. The ten of us troopers throughout this trip. 

I couldn't have imagined this to go any better than it has. I'm so grateful I've been able to have this experience. There is no way I could have done this without the support of my family. So thank you guys for helping me get where I am today. This has been one of the most eye opening things that has ever happened to me. 

On another note, as sad as I am to be leaving, I'm going to Germany for a week after this to see my exchange student and her family. I'm excited to see Lisa after over a year! Plus, Germany, come on, it's beautiful. So it'll be not as bad to leave Jordan to go on another adventure to another gorgeous country. Look me go guys, explorer Melea. Has a nice ring to it. 

It'll be so crazy to be home after that. I'm a little surprised by it all. What am I going to do to have my boring, old normal life back? 

I guess I'll see when I get home! 

Ancient Wonders of the World

I am thoroughly amazed. 

After about three hours to Petra and not feeling good about walking a few miles to see one of the ancient wonders of the world in extremely hot weather I was definitely caught by surprise. After going to Greece and seeing such amazing things I didn't think it would be possible to see anything better than what I saw in my favorite place in the world. 

We walked forever, in hot weather, through rocks that could get pretty narrow we rounded a corner and what I saw was so indescribable. My pictures will do no good for this beautiful sight of Petra. The first thing i ran across was the Treasury. The top half is actually Roman style, but the top is not. A slier showed through the rocks and then you could see the whole thing. It was huge and beautiful. As I said, it'll be hard for me to even describe. But it was so amazing. 

We continued further and then we were at a tomb and a Colosseum. Obviously those weren't as exciting. And since we added the Wadi Rum trip in we didn't have as much time in Petra as we normally would. That meant I wasn't going to try to do a 40 minute hike up stairs and get back down in an hour. That would take you to the Monastery, which I would have done, but with it being hot and after already wandering around for a few hours I wasn't up for it. Half the group went and I hung out with one other guy and our ISA director and we walked back to the Treasury and sat there and watched it. I was so exhausted by the time we left and was too hot to be happy. But I made it another hour and a half to Wadi Rum. Thank God. Inshalla. 

Although because we left late because people climbed up to the Monastery we didn't get to ride camels into the sunset. My romantic dream of bonding with a camel as the sun set low in the sky was shattered. Alas, Ill hamdi lila the camels were awaiting for me in the morning, thanks to our lovely ISA director who has his connections. 

Sadly, I had a grumpy camel and didn't bond too much with it, since it kept trying to bite the guys leg on the camel in front of me. I mean, yeah, that was hilarious because he was afraid of my camel. Also, I wanted a picture with my camel just us after I got off, but he (or she, no idea) wasn't having it. But I did bond with the camel behind me that someone else was on. He kept putting his head up by my camel and I pet him. It was great. There was also a baby camel there. Did you hear that!? A BABY! 2. months. old. WhhhaaattT??? It was awesome! It was even tied to the other camels, it just wandered around by its mom and stuff making the cutest noises ever. It was for sure the best weekend here. 

Because the night before we hung out at the camp at a fire and looked at stars and just talked with the group. We all laughed and it was just a really chill, casual time. I wouldn't have wanted it to go any other way. 

Plus, dinner was delicious! They cooked it in this thing under the sand and covered it up with sand. So we watched them take it out and it was super cool. And out of all the food, I could eat everything there except one thing. It was heaven, especially for a vegetarian who has only been living off two foods. 

And after the camel ride we had breakfast and then we got in the back of trucks and drove around the desert. We stopped and all but three people climbed up this HUGE sand hill. I refused, it looked too treacherous for the hot weather. (Just a reminder, for people who forget, I hate hot weather and don't feel good in it. That's why I missed out on some of the stuff, but I'm honestly okay with it). So while they did that we drank some tea at this little place and looked around at the shop. I got an incredible deal on this one item there. I bought two of them because they're SO cool! I can' tell you, because I bought one for my roommate because it totally looked her style. So yeah, you're welcome Marina. You are seriously going to love it, and we'll be continuous matching roommates. And like, I'm sad now because I haven't seen you in what feels like years. Waaa.

And then we went to a few other places where there were tribal things for hunting on some rocks. And the last stop was somewhere that Lawrence of Arabia had been. That was kind of cool, but we didn't stay long. And then we went back to the camp and packed up. But yeah, it was really the best weekend here ever. Hot and busy, but so cool. I was in love. And I'm so sad that I only have like five days left. I hate it, I do not want to leave. Like at all. Not joking. I'd live here. 

And sorry for late posts, I have finals in a day. So yeah, I should probably be doing that instead. Great huh? 

So I'm checking out. 

Ma'salam

First sight of the Treasury

The tomb 

Sunset on the rock we climbed up onto

 Dinner

Cute little camel(:

I'M ON A CAMEL!

Hipping it up in Amman

I know, cheesy title. 

But we headed to the artsy part of Amman where the kind of hipsters hangout and there is are everywhere. We walked around and I finally bought something for myself! Two shirts. So exciting, I know, you guys will have to contain yourselves over that. 

There also was a looking delicious crepe place and chocolate place, but we didn't have time to stop. We went to this coffee shop called Graffiti very briefly and we get a discount for being students and then we get to write on the wall before we leave. I thought that was pretty exciting so I'll definitely have to go back. I thought it was a really cool idea. 

We eventually ended up in an art gallery area and there were some pretty sweet paintings. While we walked  to the location there were painting on the ground or the walls of building saying "We Claim the Sea" which apparently was an art place that was showing you the way to other art places along with their own. It was really exciting to see that kind of promotion. And while we walked around we ended up seeing all these houses who were portraying art and things like that. It was just a really exciting part of Amman. We stopped at this house that was turned into this huge art place. It was huge and there were ruins in the backyard with a church (cave like thing) and we wandered around for a while. There was a cafe there and everything. It was really fancy and cool. It was a shame we couldn't stay long since we had a time crunch and had to leave. 

But I am definitely looking to head back. We'll just have to find out because I have no time. And everyone wish my luck on Wednesday (or mid/late Tuesday for you guys) because my Arabic midterm is that day. Which is why this is so short since I have to go study. 

This is the outfits from the Salt since I just got around to it

Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to say a shout out of  Happy Father's day to all the wonderful dads out there. I hope you all are having a fantastic day, including my own dad. I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful day wherever you are with family and friends, or whatever is going on. 

So here is to a celebration of fathers. 

So happy father's day Dad and my Opa!