Night 44: In Which I (sort of) Accidentally Become a Resident of Jordan.

That title makes it sound so much more interesting than it actually was.

So I'll explain. Since Jordan doesn't have a student visa for foreigners studying abroad, CIEE students get a multiple entry visa upon arrival. The multiple entry visa works such that ~30 days after we entered the country, all CIEE students had to renew their visas and get our fingerprints taken with weird ink that was hard to get off, blah blah blah. About a week after that, we were done. Or so I thought. Most semester-long students (like myself) didn't have to do anything further with their visas; our visas are good for 90 days unless we leave the country. If we leave the country, then when we come back into Jordan, we have 30 days to renew the visa again, or pay a fine. But year-long students have to get residency in Jordan, or renew their visas two or three more times, which would be a major hassle. I decided to skip residency because there was a possibility that CIEE wouldn't be able to get our passports back to us in time for the Eid break. I'm going to Istanbul for break, so I wanted to be sure I'd have my passport.
Ha. It turns out that I was supposed to sign a form and stuff in order to skip the residency process, which I did not do because I did not properly read the email. So I got an email yesterday reminding me I had to go take a blood test for residency. I was confused at first, but me being me I just went along with it. Got my blood drawn and they have to do something more with my passport, but in about a week I should be a resident of Jordan (until my residency expires, one year from now).

Yeah, that was a lot duller than the title made it sound, huh? But that's kinda been my week. My Arabic class got moved forward an hour (it's at 9:00 now, instead of 8:00. And on Mondays and Wednesdays, it's at 9:30), which was basically the highlight of my week. I also tried shawarma for the first time today, it was tasty.

One more thing (although this will only make sense to a few of you): I figured out the perfect way to describe Amman traffic: Imagine my Dad driving in Amman. Multiply it by approximately one million drivers. There's Amman traffic for you. ... Love you, Dad!