Before I start my rant, this is a list of the things a university student spends on daily

1. Transportation; either shuttle bus or cab.
2. Caffeine; coffee to fix up the mood, sometimes breakfast tea.
3. Lunch; most of students in this country are either expats or Jordanians who live alone (i.e. parents are in the gulf) and know nothing about cooking.
4. Prints; sheets/doce of subjects is a must (notes written by instructors), while interior design, graphic design, civil engineering & architecture students are always asked to deliver hard copies of their projects/homeworks.
5. Cigarettes (optional); smokers need that.

Now, I’ve been calculating the money I spend this week, let’s see:

• I woke up late 2 days out of 4 in which I had to pay 3.5 JD to reach university and came back by shuttle bus for 35 piastres, while the rest of the days I paid 35 piastres for going and another 35 piastres to come back.
• Lunch options varied this week from Felafel (cheapest for around 1.25 JD lunch cost) and Fast Food (most expensive for around 7 JD/meal cost) and that’s considering I only eat 1 meal/day.
• I had coffee 3 days out of 4, total of 6 JD and I had to print 7 colored A3 papers, 10 A4 colored papers, 1 A2 colored poster and also had to buy some markers. Printing and markers cost around 25 JD.

Total cost of a regular week = 57.5 JD (and that doesn’t include transportation to the bookshops, stationary, restaurants…)

Now, when someone’s allowance is around 270 JD, and 240 of them were spent on university, what kind of life is that!

That doesn’t include weekly laundry which is probably 10 JD/week, internet, electricity and water bills. Insane!

Now some of you will start bashing me saying you didn’t to spend that much on food and coffee, and you could have tried to wake up earlier to prevent that from happening, well… the days I woke up late were because of the unlimited amount of assignments I had, and quizzes/homeworks. Regarding food, I can’t cook for good, I have another meal at home usually and it’s probably canned food sent from family, so whatever I do, spending less than 50 JD/week for university is a joke, a lame one as well.

Notes to parents sending their children to study in Jordan:

• Send them somewhere else, It is too expensive in here even for gulfies (everyone assumes they collect money from the top of the sea surface *Arabian quote).
• Never make your children feel bad about being broke, it’s not their fault (thanks to the increasing of everything’s prices on monthly basis).
• Whenever you feel like they need money, try to send it because they will need it.
• Give them options to move elsewhere if they can’t stand living in Amman (like Egypt, Lebanon or even Syria).

Anyways, I achieved a huge progress this weekend, I went out, had a lovely dinner including steak and salad, had argeeleh and went back home by cab as well… all of that for 20 JD.

Progress, eh? Yallah mahu ed-dollar wage3 wage3, mesh farga!