Update on how I am living

Hello~

I'm jumping all over the place with this blog thing- sharing some serious things, from just straight up ranting about my life. Conclusion- I don't know how to work this blog. Anyways, if you happen to be curious about what my living situation right now is, I will soon post pictures of my new home with my host family. 

I am living in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Amman. (yupp! I lucked out big time), and I live right in front of a mall that freaking looks like a spaceship. My neighborhood looks somewhat like the rich Chicago suburbia, but I've gotta say... it's much MUCH better. It's got this Middle Eastern feel to it, with all the buildings being limestone and whatnot. 

My host family is wonderful- My family consist of host mom, host sister, and a house maid who lives with us. So it's an all girls house. 

I have the master bedroom, which is bigger than any of the rooms in the house. I also sleep in one of the biggest beds I've ever seen, fully accommodating my unique rolling sleeping habits. 

This is absolutely a huge shift from what I have been seeing for the first couple of weeks that I've been in Jordan. As much as I love my host family, I really do miss the closeness of families that I have met. 

What else can I rant about today...

So I officially started school this week! Yay! 

Anyways, since I don't want to pay the 2.5 JD that costs one way to get from home to my school, my housemate and I take the bus. I know that 2.5 JD may not seem much at first, but if you live here in Jordan, and understand that you get shwarma for .65 cents, as well as anything else for less than a JD, you will find that taxi cost to be obnoxious in the long term. We wake up at 6:00am, and get out of the house by 7:00am. We miraculously make our way to the bus stop, professionally dodging the crazy taxi drivers who have nothing better to do than to run you over. I have this native hitch-hiking pose that stops almost any bus that go past my way. We go to Mujama Swelieh, where we get on another bus that takes us to Jammea Urdonia (University of Jordan). Then, we walk up this hill to get to Princess Sumaya University, facing all kinds of internal tests and trials of whether or not we should get a cab up this hill or not. By this time (around 7:40 am) we have burned off all of our breakfast calories.  

That is my morning, and the rest of the day, I just live it.

On the weekends, I go see the Syrian kids who are absolutely ADORABLE and uncontrollably crazy. 

Seriously, these kids are wild. Even the moms who I've met.... they're pretty uncontrollable. 

Anyways, I've realized that you have just got to show them how genuine you are about loving them, and everything else comes naturally. 

Here's another thing that I deal with on a daily basis- racist remarks.

Call me "Chinese" or say "Nihao" to me in the states, and I should be ready to hurt you because of your ignorant racism (not to that extent). Or so the American ways have taught me. However, why are we, as Asians, so defensive about this in the first place? Because it's racist? But we are clearly Asian. What is the line between racism and plain observation? We clearly have small eyes, and put me right next to any other Asian girl, and anyone who have not been exposed to Asians won't be able to distinguish us apart, no matter how numerous our distinct features may be. 

It is true that it gets super annoying living in Jordan, having to hear "Nihao" everywhere you go, but if I place myself in their shoes, some of these people who say "Nihao" to me, genuinely want to say hello to me in what they perceive to be my native tongue. and how the heck would they know if I'm Japanese, Korean or Chinese? When I was a little kid back in Korea, I thought that getting in a "hello" to a white foreigner would be so cool. so how are these people any different?