No Longer Homeless, Done with Orientation, Water on Sundays

Things work differently in Jordan's academic institutions than they do in the United States. For example, during today's orientation, they read everyone's placement test score results out-loud to the entire group of incoming students. I'm very proud of my advanced-beginner placement thank you very much!

Later I'll post some pictures that show what the University of Jordan campus looks like. But today I would just like to share the details concerning my new apartment.

My new landlord, Abu Anas, is a Palestinian who grew up in Tulkarm. His wife's family currently resides in East Jerusalem. He is a dual US/Jordanian citizen and he lived in the U.S. for 15 years as the head of Saudi Arabian Airlines' business office in Manhattan. He is now retired and he splits his time between Amman and New York. He owns the building that he lives in, and rents out the other eight apartments predominantly to students who attend the university.

The apartment is located just off the north west corner of the university campus near the university mosque. It is a two-bedroom with a kitchen, bathroom, living room and patio. Our water is delivered by the city on Sundays, so that is when we can do our laundry. Sometimes the water runs out during the week. But when that happens, Abu Anas can pump water into our tank from his auxiliary tank that feeds his personal apartment. The other tenets said that it wasn't a problem. For now I trust them. We also have internet! This consists of a ethernet cable that runs from Abu Anas' apartment, out of his window, and into our apartment through another window. He said that whenever the internet isn't working we should call him, and he will reset the router in his office. The other tenets said that this too wasn't a problem. I hope they are not all on his payroll.

Let's go on a tour:

The building. To the left of the pole in the center of the photo.

The building.
The front gate.
Living room view #1.
Living room view #2. (I get all the Arabic satellite channels for free!)

Bedroom #1
Bathroom
Bedroom #2
Kitchen (roaches not pictured)

Porch
View down the hill.
University mosque.
The blogger - red like his camera. (I found out the hard way that you must wear sunscreen all day.)