From the Rooftop

  A couple days ago, I wanted to work out but didn't want to think I was some crazy random American working out in the backyard garden or be the annoying neighbor upstairs making the chandeliers shake…So I decided to be that weird student that runs up and down the stairs for excersize. :P

 I ran all the way to the top to find…There is no door to the roof! The stairway goes right to the outside. I decided to come back at sunset the next day and brought my roomy with me. So beautiful! What a surprising little adventure. ^_^

I have new adventures everyday.

Just yesterday I went with Baba (our host dad, Abu Jameel) to his work to study there and see a different part of Amman later after sunset. It was so beautiful! Hopefully put up a video soon…Or just find it on my instagram: cocomats313 

But why is it always the Bathroom that gets me!!! Yesterday was the first time I ever had "to go" in a whole in the floor. I told Baba I had to go to the bathroom and he showed me the bathroom. Mind you, his shop is a small little shop that is part of a big Souq building (its kind of like an outdoor mall, but you find everything there: Groceries, Nuts, Candy, Chocolate, Scarfs, kids toys, sports shoes, officer attire…Lots of random stuff). Not like an old school Souq where you imagine dirt floors and straw roofed booths…Amman is more modern than that.

But the Bathroom was not helping me with my Bathroom culture shock. It was a public bathroom, with stalls, but the problem was that there were no toilets!! I kept looking at each one, and when I gave up there where absolutely no sit-down toilets there, a women came in and said "Sho? Ma Bidik?" (What? you don't want to go?) I explained that I didn't know how and that it was very new for me. So she just kindly looked at me as I left.

Three hours later, I still needed to use the bathroom, but was too scared to use the bathroom. One of Baba's colleagues was talking to me then he asked me what was on my mind. "bidi ustakhdim alHamam, bes…uhhh I'm scared to!"

He was kind enough to illustrate to me how I should use the bathroom and then took me there and guarded the door for me.

I did what he said… and left. All is well and I took a shower right when I got home. X(

This is why it was so….new.

You walk in and its dim and pretty dirty. Look in the stall, and there is Porcelain whole in the ground and next to it is a faucet with a small plastic bucket (thats your toilet paper). Go to wash your hands….and there's no soap.

PRAISE THE LORD THAT MY HOST PARENTS HAVE A TOILET AND TOILET PAPER!

But hey! Now I know how to do it if I ever need to do it again!

Miss you guys….and being able to flush my toilet paper!!

<3 Cori