Well the croissant stint of my year is over

Well the croissant stint of my year is over and I have begun the camel portion. Quite fittingly I saw a caravan on the way from the airport to my new home.

The packing process and everything was incredibly stressful and the last minute paying for my accommodation was just the cherry on the cake. However, getting to the airport really early and having an incredibly bad headache for the majority of the flight has not dampened my spirits.

The family who I am living with is made up of Mama Zein (ماما زين) and her son Elias (الياس) who works at the Serveton Hotel. I am glad that I had the airport pick up; it made the whole thing less stressful at this end. The family are Christian and very kind and welcoming. I was told several times by Elias that this is my house too and that they are my family. He just kept saying welcome home like I was some long lost brother. So I feel really comfortable here.

Elias has told me all about his past lodgers, a pair of Americans who sound great fun! He showed me pictures of all the parties they had in the house, where they played ring of fire and got horrendously drunk ending in Elias having his tenth car accident, nothing serious I may add.

After dinner we went cruising around Amman in Elias’ pimped out car. When I say pimped out I mean that it has a massive amp in the boot of the car from which he blares out tunes as we drove around Amman. This city is none like any I have seen. It is buzzing with energy and people, but also seems incredibly residential and almost half built. After all it is a very new city.

We drove past the enormous hotels looming over the eight circles (دوار) which are used to navigate the city. We drove past the lines and lines of parked, pimped up cars that wait for the streets to be empty to drag race up and down the main road. When I say pimped up, I mean pimped up. The engines of average cars are exchanged for massive ones, new hubcaps and spoilers are added and all the drivers are sitting at the side of the roads smoking shisha.

We stopped off at a famous coffee place which was just a van in a car park. Finally we went to Rainbow Street were we had a couple of beers.

I thought the night was drawing to close as we got back in the car, but no. We then went to Elias' aunt's house where I met more of the family who were preparing for a birthday tomorrow so were making some puddings. I tried some Arabic sweets and I was corrected on my accent.

My knowledge of Arabic is slowly returning, but I can feel that I am going to learn so much so quickly by being immersed like this and I can’t wait to go to school on Monday.