New Friends & Week Two Reflections

My free-roaming, independent Friday gave way to the scheduled CIEE Peer Tutor event bright and early Saturday morning.  What is a Peer Tutor?  The full title is Peer Language Tutor, and it is what it sounds like.  A peer, aka, fellow Jordanian student from the University, is paired up with a CIEE student and they are supposed to meet with us three hours a week to help us with our Arabic.  It is not a language exchange, but it is supposed to be time for CIEE students to practice Arabic with a native speaker.  To break the ice, so to speak, between tutors and students, CIEE set up a picture scavenger hunt around Amman.  I’ll be honest, I’ve had some bad experiences with these sort of enforced get-to-know-each-other events in the past, (I still have nightmares about my orientation at American freshmen year…) so though I was trying to be hopeful, I wasn’t exactly excited at the prospect of the daylong event. 

All of those fears were assuaged when I walked up to the woman who had the matching number 3 on her jacket.  I found my peer tutor, Mais, to be friendly, talkative, and more than willing to speak in Arabic to me.  Admittedly most of our introductions were in English, but that was my doing, not hers.  We chatted about our families, about school, places we had lived – she had spent time in America in Ohio, New Jersey, and (sadly) Pittsburgh (though I won’t hold it against her).  The scavenger hunt itself ended up being a success!  It was an absolutely gorgeous day out, which definitely helped, and the items we had to scavenge for were fun!  Over the course of the day, Mais and I:

-          Had Sahlab at Jafra’s

Sahlab is a hot, sweet vanilla drink with cinnamon and hints of coconut (but not enough to really taste it)

-          Visited the Gold and Fish Markets

Why yes, that is a live lobster and yes, I am holding it

-          Took pictures of the view from the café “Wild Amman”

You will notice the Citadel to the right and the Byzantine Mosque to the left

-          Bought a newspaper and a keychain with the Jordanian flag on it

I didn't take a picture of the newspaper so...more views!

-          Visited a theater

Al Balad Theater!

-          Ate Kunafe

-          Asked about Arabic slogans on T-Shirts, and deciphered their meanings

All of these t-shirts are custom Jordanian designs and they are all limited run, so there's like 50 or 60 of the design and that's it.

-          Used public transportation and traveled on a bus and a shared taxi (for me, these were both first time events)

At the end of the hunt we all ended up at a restaurant called “Usra’s” أسرة  or, “Family” for a nice lunch of Falafel, Huumous and all of the fixings. (Fuul, pita bread, this red sauce with chicken and veggies in it, tea, etc).  Then we parted ways.  Mais actually took the taxi back with me to my apartment, because I guess it wasn’t too far out of her way.  We exchanged numbers, and I look forward with to meeting with her soon! 

Om nom nom

On Sunday the new academic semester for the University of Jordan started, and though we had been told the student body was over 38,000 I hadn’t realized it until that first morning.  As I walked to class on Sunday the walkways, benches, and restaurants of UJ were packed with students.  I’m definitely not used to seeing that many people when I walk around Campus; AU’s undergraduate body is less than 1/6^th of the UJ student body. 

Also on Sunday, CIEE’s clubs started.  All of our schedules have a block from 11:30am – 12:30pm free so that we can attend the clubs they offer.  On Sunday the Ten Forms MSA club meets.  The “Ten Forms” refers to the ten patterns that a verb can take in the Arabic language.  Theoretically, every word in Arabic boils down to a three letter root, and this root can be placed in each of the ten forms to create a different meaning.  In practice, not all verbs can take all ten forms (for example, one of the forms creates reflexive verbs, but obviously not every verb can be reflexive.  “To go to yourself” wouldn’t make very much sense, nor would “to live yourself”).  This element of the Arabic language is one of the reasons I find it so intriguing and beautiful, because you can take literally any word in the language and deconstruct it to find out where it came from.

Back at American University, it would have been very unlikely that I would give up my free time to go to a club that is essentially about grammar. Then I met Dr. Najeh. He could be teaching Advanced Calculus and I’d try to learn it – that’s how awesome (mumtaztic) he is.  He is also the director of the Peer tutor program at CIEE, and responsible for arranging all of the Language classes.  He also happens to be a black belt in Shotokan Karate, which is the same style my Sensei from AU trained in before he started Kyokushin Karate (my style). 

Today, I finally had both of my elective classes.  I love my International Relations & Diplomacy class; our professor is fantastic. I’m still on the fence about my Archaeology class; the professor was nice, but I might see if I can switch into another class that is a little more stimulating.  This attitude: testing out classes and being ready to add/drop them, is a new one for me.  Generally at AU I know exactly what I’m signing up for and, provided I get into the classes I wanted, there isn’t any doubt once the semester starts.  And now... let me reflect for a little bit.

I’ve been in Jordan for sixteen days now.  Two weeks already.  It feels like I’ve been here for much longer.  There are aspects of life here that I have to deal with that I never even thought about thinking about in the States.  There are also profoundly nice and helpful people.  Most days I go to sleep exhausted; it is also the first time since the first semester of my freshman year of college that I have class every day, and the first time since high school that I have to wake up before 9am every day.

 There are new perceptions and attitudes to understand and contend with, new expectations to uphold, and most of all an entire language (two really, because studies show that learning a dialect is the same as learning a whole new language to the brain) to attempt to communicate in.  Some days are more successful that others and I have yet to have a wholly “bad” day.  Hopefully that trend continues, though in general it is hard to mark any day as “bad” because there has to be at least some spark of light in any situation. There certainly have already been emotional highs and lows; there certainly are times where I feel like I’m a little bit insane for living here for four months.  There are also times when I feel like I’ll never want to leave.

 If anything I am starting to feel the effects of the 5,000 miles between myself and home; it is and I think always will be difficult to put myself in a position that takes me away from the people who know be best.  There is certainly a difference between writing a blog post or hearing a voice over a phone and sitting down at the kitchen table and sharing the day’s events.

The difficulties I’ve mentioned go hand in hand with the amazing experiences I’ve had so far.  Speaking of, the overnight trip to Petra is coming up this weekend, which is sure to be a thrilling and surreal experience. I will take as many pictures as my 1GB camera (and three batteries) can withstand. 

Until then,

!مع السلامة