Monday, June 2, 2008

Arriving to Amman, Jordan

Ok, so finally I put my feet on the field of Jordan I just landed a day ago in Amman, Queen Alia International Airport...but the way to here is a kind of funny (not that weird) story.

Well, then let it come from the beginning, so first thanks to those people who came to the airport in Budapest, or sent an SMS, called or stuff. Well after I boarded the plane (that also took a while) the fun part was coming. I was going by Royal Jordanian, so I could not understand anything. That's really true that you feel that they say much more things on their native language (this time arabic) than on English. Well this can sound like 'ok, and what's the deal?'. The deal is when an upset passanger started to make a debate around something which I did not understand at the beginning...but I could get that even though we are in delay we won't leave until the guy won't sit down. Later I could get what they are mostly talking about, and trust me it was something like a ridiculous detail, but made a whole plane waiting for half an hour. But then we could finally go:)

At the end of the flight there were not much clouds up in the air, so I really had a lovely view of the Middle East from 35.000 feets. Unfortunately my camera was not strong enough to get a good view, and later I had to switch it off because of the landing, but trust me that desert might seems uninhabited, but definitely it is something makes your brain move...I don't really know how it does, but because I was looking out of the window like 5 thoughts at a time were coming to me.

Ok, and then landing...fine keeping the half an hour delay...then going to the row for the visa (which took me another half an hour, but I must mention that they were done with about 100 people in this half an hour, so hats off). I started to feel bad, that Oksana and who knows who else is waiting for me for an hour know, but such as life. Then finally after two more luggage checks I could exit....and finding noone there. Ok, I said, go one more round, and one more...still noone. Then, though it is expensive, let's call Saba or Oksana....and then...a nice ladies sound in the phone started to speak arabic. The only word I could understand was 'shukran' meaning thank you. Very good, but what do you thank for. Luckily the voice continued in English, saying that I'm in the Orange Jo network, and because of new regulations I can not make calls....well this was the state of entering panic. But then immediatelly I started to say myself: will panic help you? No...so let's find out something else. I went a round to get a public phone. Of course I did not even find any, not to talk about the fact that I would have needed a phone card for that, which I had no idea where I wil get, but anyway that intended to be the next step, but as I could not find any public phones I desperatly needed C option. So I though of changing roles. Usually coming out from an airport you find people showing nice sheets of paper stating names...so I thought of 'let's have a sheet saying: AIESEC' anyone recognizes this name for sure will be able to help me, at least to give a call to Oksana, that I'm lost :) But suddenly Oksana and Abeer (my team mate) appeared before me starting to write the paper, explaining that they thought I will arrive to the other terminal and they were searching for me like for one hour. So it was fun to find each other, but after a bit of stress we managed. Based on this just one advice to anyone going abroad: don't panic, you have more alternatives then you have ever thought of and your creativity can reach levels you never knew existing :)

After the funny meeting everything went smoothly, getting into the car, having a small night sightseeing (and seeing not much) when driving to Oksana's and Saba's place where I will stay for 1 month. Arriving there, chatting, sending e-mails that I'm alive, etc. and then getting to bed about 1 am. Another fun thing was to realize that electronic plug points are similar to the Hungarian ones...but not fully the same. Why is it interesting? Because I could plug my shaver, battery charger, phone charger, but not my laptop...cool, but the problem is already fixed, I got an adapter for it for 500 filsz (about 120 HUF), so it's all right now:)

The next day, as it is a working day, we just entered about heavy transition with Saba (meanwhile getting adapter :P). We went to a caffe, where we could get wifi. Or at least she could, becuase mine just resisted to connect. I got a bit pissed off, as we have no office I got scared that then where I'm going to get internet, even a slow and bad one, but still connection to the world. Well, after 2 hours my wifi suddenly decided to work without any problems. I guess it also need time to adapt to the reality :P

Oh, and one more thing...I finally have stuff to do, which I'm happy about, though I still really feel disconnected from the flow of information, but it will change by time (hopefully).

Tomorrow I'm going to Irbid with Oksana and try to also make some pictures, so tha I can publish the first few photos :P

I guess this is it for today, have fun!

4 comments:

Karma Priest said...

WELCOME TO JORDAN :))
I wish you the very best of luck :)

Tamer-LC Amman

Anonymous said...

Hi mate,

I'm happy you've arrived!
Enjoy your stay and keep us updated!

Cheers

Jaq - Jakab Zoltán said...

Szakiiii

Take Care of yourelf! An ejnoy every freaking moment (and the non freaking ones too)

greetings from Sri Lanka

Jaq

Unknown said...

Hi!

Ha-ha-ha, your airport story is really similar to mine. :-) At least you knew who to look for. I even didn't know the Korean girls who waited for me...:-)

Good luck to your MC year and keep us updated!
Greetings from Sardinia, Italy:

YOur AIESEC grandma ;-)