Amman – Page 4 – GW Blogs from Abroad

A Few of My Favorite Things in Amman

AdminJune 4, 2014December 14, 2018

As my trip is winding down I find myself distinguishing between the things I will miss and the things I could live without. But instead of focusing on the things I dislike I will concentrate on things that I can’t get enough of here in my country.

The Food: Shwerma, Hummus, Beans, Mansef…..and the list goes on. I will not be able to go back to the states and eat hummus from the container; rather I will go back and try to create my own hummus—probably cheaper too. My host mom has also taught me so much about Jordanian cooking from stuffed olive leaves, to summer watermelon and cheese, and almond cake.
Desert Visits: I recently just got back from Wadi Mujib and the Dead Sea—my favorite trip so far—and I realized how beautiful the desert of Jordan is with various places to hike, swim, bike, and explore. Each wadi with its own unique beauty, colors, and secrets. This weekend trips have been great for rest and relaxation especially between busy weeks with studying and homework.
Cafés: I know there are great café’s in DC, but as it is in a city they tend to be busy all the time with no space to spread out and get work done. The café’s in Amman have been my sanctuary for work and--of course—my coffee fix. Each café has comfy music, couches, and atmosphere to get work done without it being stressful and time consuming. In DC, I don’t get the same atmosphere for studying with hundreds of people around and students sweating over their books to cram for the next exam.
MBC on TV: Middle East Broadcasting has been a great source for me to simply turn on the TV and listen to Arabic. In the states I have to dig through the internet to listen to Arabic channels and it is not as enjoyable as sitting in front of the TV with my host mom as we talk about our days and the celebrities on TV. I especially have come to enjoy the Turkish soap operas and I can understand the storyline better now.
Friends: I have had the opportunity and the honor to meet some of the most amazing Jordanians here and my time here would not have been as enjoyable if it wasn’t for them. I am truly grateful for their friendship and the time I have spent with them, and I hope they come and visit me in the states and/or I have time to go back to Jordan to see them.

Top 3 Favorite Cafes and Study Lounges!

AdminApril 30, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

Amman may not be a New York or a DC with plenty of areas to spread out and study in the sun or walk around, but there the one thing they do have are awesome cafes for studying.

Every weekend I have made it my job to find the best of these cafes by word of mouth, the internet, or just walking around popular areas in Amman. Here are my top three favorite study places in Amman:

Turtle Green Café: Rainbow Street near 1^st Circle. If you’re missing home and need a place that offers reasonably priced beverages and food Turtle Green is the perfect vibe for you. This tiny two floor coffee shop is just the surface of the hipster culture in Amman. The beverages range from Jordanian classics like lemon-mint juice to lattes to green tea shakes. The salads are also made with fresh ingredients and zesty dressings. For a study space the café has everything, couches and desks for comfort, free wifi, and the perfect calming tunes of study music. And if that wasn’t enough there are also really turtles swimming in a tank next to the window.
Beanoz: Across the street from the North Gate of the University of Jordan. This café has become a hang out spot for my friends and I in between class periods. The study and relaxation mood changes on any given day along with the music varying with everything from rap to old school Beatles music. There are very few food options but their omelets, sandwiches, and ice teas are the perfect lunch that is a little more expensive than a regular lunch option, but good for once a week. The barista is also very friendly with everyone and always asks if we need anything. Finally there is always wifi and chess to play for our entertainment.
Café Paris: Paris Circle Downtown. This isn’t as much of a study place as it is good for a study break. Tuesday nights are a popular night around 9pm to 12am for drinks, good dance music, and a fun time with friends. If you couldn’t guess from the title the café is very popular for Jordan hipsters and study abroad college students. The music varies from hardcore rap to 80s Michael Jackson music, but always a fun time. The once issue may be the immense about of smoking there is in a given night leaves your clothes smelling nasty, but if you can see past the smoke—no pun intended—you can see this swanky café/lounge offers the best of Jordanian youth culture.

4 Easy Tips to Overcoming Homesickness (or ruts in general)

AdminApril 23, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

So after two weeks back from my spring break, I fell into a rut! Missing my family, my boyfriend, my home, my own bed—wait!!!! I knew this wouldn’t do, I knew I needed to break out of this rut and start living in the present.

Here are some tips I am currently using to get myself out of this homesick rut and reminding myself why I wanted to study abroad in the first place:

Thinking back to your first week, remember how exciting and new everything was. Remind yourself of your goals had while studying abroad, have you accomplished all of them? If not, now is your chance—take it!
Change up your daily routine. Instead of going home or going to the gym right after school, I am trying to find new places and cultural events to attend.
Realize that grades are important, but not everything. While abroad as long as you maintain a C or better in your classes you will be given credit back at GW. I am not saying slack off, but remember you have a responsibility to yourself to enjoy your time as much as possible and if that means spending more time with locals and chatting in a café for hours, so be it.
For those concerned with homework, change up the places you do homework in. I have made it my goal to find a new café every weekend to do homework and I have invited several of my friends in the program to come with me. Not only are you getting homework done, but you are also spending time with people.

By Dominique Bonessi

After two months in Jordan, yesterday, I finally visited Petra, the historical landmark Jordan is best known for. We took a day trip three hours driving down to see the ancient site and three hour drive back to Amman. I didn’t feel like a tourist visiting Petra; I felt like a Jordanian visiting their countries pride and joy.

I also realized yesterday that my time in Jordan is more than half way over and looking back at my first week till now; I have grown in so many ways.

In the beginning of the program, I was shy to speak and talk to anyone for fear my Arabic would be severely judged. But at Petra, I talked to the locals and on a daily basis now I am able to have regular conversations in Arabic with my University of Jordan friends, my host family, and my classmates. This has become especially helpful when getting into taxis and the taxi driver asks where I am from. I often lie to him and tell him I am from Spain that way he can’t speak to me in English and is forced to speak in Arabic to me. No one really knows Spanish, although one driver decided he was going to tell me every word he knew in Spanish.

Another big challenge was to budget my money at the beginning of this program. I have come to realize that since Amman is not a walking city taxis rides are a must, but they can add up and become very expensive. In addition, to this issue I also realized that in the first part of the semester I didn’t venture off during the weeknights to do homework with other people or go to cultural events. So instead of returning to home to my house after school, I have been going to the gym almost every day after classes, from there I have been trying to make an effort to get out with my fellow Jordanians and experience Amman.

Granted Amman definitely isn’t my favorite city to live in like DC or New York, but I was told my host mom’s sister that in order to like Amman—and maybe even love it—is by making friends and seeing Amman in all its splendor and not so splendor. During the weekends, I have also tried to get out of my house when we don’t have planned trips and go to a café to do homework. I have also started a Spanish-Arabic conversational group with a few Jordanian friends and classmates. The Language Center at the University of Jordan offers a wide variety of languages and most of the students concentrate on two to three languages at a time. Many of my Jordanian friends who are learning Spanish for their first time have really good Spanish accents too. At the same time I get to use both my Arabic and Spanish to talk with people, but most of the time I have just been mixing the two while I talk.

With only a month and a half before I leave Jordan, I still have so much I want to do. First, I would love to take a day trip to Muqaba to see the ancient mosaics, I also want to swim in the Dead Sea, and find a new café every Saturday to do homework in. I know my time here is short, and I know that I only get to do this one study aboard in my undergraduate year, so I want to do well in classes, but also have more fun befriending locals and experiencing the culture.

Spring Breaking In Turkey

AdminApril 9, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

Just a three hour flight and we touched down in Istanbul, Turkey for a well-deserved Spring Break.

Not only was this a break from the daily routine in Jordan, but it was also a break from the intense language pledge and homework we have been receiving.

We [my program friends and I] chose Turkey because it was a quick escape for a little money. Istanbul is also a ‘must-see’ city with the best of European and Arab cultures. It has the best of both worlds half of Istanbul on the Asian continent and half on the European continent. Everything about this week has been so different from my time in Jordan.

There are more colors, the water and air are clearer, there is a running body of water nearby, and Istanbul—as a tourist city—is used to foreigners. In a way, I began to compare Amman to Istanbul, not wanting to leave beautiful, historic, clean Istanbul or dusty, dirty, old Amman, but then I realized there is something Amman has that Istanbul doesn’t.

I have been told by many Jordanians and fellow classmates that in order to like Amman and live here you have to experience Amman by night and make friends with locals. After one week in Istanbul I missed all my new Jordanian friends. Sometimes it’s not the place you go to, but the people you meet that makes your time worthwhile.

So as I got back on the plane today with a bittersweet feeling of sadly leaving my relaxing Spring Break destination and only ready and prepared to take on the rest of my semester abroad, I realized my time is half way through and I feel I still have so much to learn.

By Dominique Bonessi

With my first week of classes finished, I can now start my weekly routine. The Middlebury Language Program at the University of Jordan is quite intense. Sunday to Wednesday—because the work week starts on Sunday—I have three classes a day. The best part about this program—if you are a real Arabic nerd—is the language pledge which helps you and your classmates maintain speaking Arabic to each other the entire semester. Therefore, classes are taught entirely in Arabic with several pages of glossaries to be of assistance. This program is not for the faint-of-heart and I suggest if you are serious about learning Arabic or any language that you strongly consider Middlebury Colleges in Vermont or any of their programs around the globe. Their approach is that you will learn more speaking and interacting on a daily basis with the language if you only work in one language instead of switching back and forth.

**As a caveat, I want to say that Middlebury abroad does permit some leeway for emergencies, talking with loved ones (once a week) from home, and writing blogs (like mine!)**

Without further ado I give you my daily routine:

7am: Wake-up and go for a run around my neighborhood

8:30am: Leave for the University of Jordan [UJ] in a taxi a block from my house

9:00am: Fos-ha or Modern Standard Arabic Class

10:40am: Em-iyya or Jordanian Dialect Class

12pm-1pm: Break for Lunch or meeting other UJ students

1:15pm: Sundays and Tuesdays: Gender Issues in the Arab World, taught by the Director of Women’s Studies at UJ

2:00pm: Mondays and Wednesdays: Media Arabic, taught by the director of the Middlebury Jordan Program

3pm: Homework either in Middlebury Office, Library, On-campus, or at home

3:30-5pm: Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: Volunteering at Reclaiming Childhood, a basketball clinic for Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Special Needs girls.

5-11….sometimes 1 am: Homework, studying, eating, spending time talking to my host family.

The best part about the weekends is that there is plenty of time to either relax at home, commit to doing homework, cooking with my host family, and weekend trips with the Middlebury Program to various parts of the city and outskirts.

Getting Around Amman

AdminFebruary 19, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

For a city with few public areas for walking, transportation can also be difficult.

For me, getting to school everyday is a bit of a challenge. The university is about a 15 minute drive from my home. I leave my house and walk to the roundabout about a block away. I then pay about 2 to 3 JD [dinar]--depending on traffic--to a taxi to get to school. Hopping in a taxi here you give the taxi a well-known landmark and most likely he just knows where it is. For example, going to the north gate of the University of Jordan, I have to say baba il-shimel fi il-jami3a il-urdunia [north gate of the University of Jordan].

Unfortunately, there are barely any reliable buses that can get me within walking distance to my home. Buses vary, there are some that are more like big vans that carry many people and go to very specific destination. While others are like more traditional buses in the United States that go to general drop off locations. However--unlike in the US--buses in Amman run on Arab time meaning ma fish mushkila [no worries], whatever time the driver feels like it.

Not only can getting to school be a bit pricey, but after school when we all want to go to a different part of Amman to a cafe or hang out spot, the taxi prices increase later at night on the way home. But, there is a silverlining!

Some advice to those wishing to study abroad in Jordan and worried about transportation costs:

1. Splitting a cab with people going to around the same area as you is more affordable and typically I only have to pay 0.50 JD instead of 2 JD.

2. Don't be afraid to figure your way out by walking to your destination. Although it is not much of a walking city, if you are in an area that isn't as traffic heavy it is fun to walk.

3. For those trying to practice their Arabic, the forced interaction of directing your taxi driver and possibly having a full conversation is always a benefit of taking a taxi. For example, on my way home the other night for an artsy area of Amman, the taxi driver I met was very nice. He asked me where I was from and told me about his family from Palestine and why he likes Amman so much.

Islamic New Year

AdminNovember 16, 2013December 14, 2018

By nlgyon

Happy New Year, everyone! You might be thinking, "Nick, what are you talking about? Don't you know it's only November?" Indeed. But yesterday marked the celebration of the Islamic New Year, or the Hijri New Year. This holiday signifies the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which started in 610 AD, when the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, a journey known as the Hijra, hence the term "Hijri New Year." The first day of the first month of the New Year varies from country to country; some calculate it based on local moon sightings, and others rely on astronomical calculations.

While of little significance to a non-Muslim such as myself, I was happy to hear the Prime Minister announce that Thursday, November 7 was an official holiday. I decided to take the long weekend to chill out at home and work on some long-term projects/job searching. As far as I could tell, there weren't any huge public celebrations like there are for the common new year; it seemed like more of a family-oriented holiday, celebrated by attending mosque and perhaps having guests. There were, of course, fireworks. As often as I hear fireworks, I imagine the complement every holiday or celebration. At least I hope they're fireworks.

I'm sorry I don't have any adventures for you this week; they will resume in a few weeks as I reemerge from a deluge of midterm exams, presentations, response papers, case studies, and scholarship applications...

Home

AdminOctober 31, 2013

I usually only go back home one time before the end of the semester (for Thanksgiving). When it comes time to depart from Union Station for my home in the hills, I always look forward to it. I'm excited to return to family, friends, pets, the house I grew up in, and the restaurants that I never really appreciated until I left. We all know the feeling of comfort that accompanies familiarity. Conversely, at the end of long holidays, I'm always ready to go back to DC. I'm excited to return again to my other friends, classes, parties, nightlife, etc. But my desire to return to these two places has never been uncomfortably strong.

However, this past week was the first time I really experienced homesickness. I think a combination of missing both of these homes, in addition to missing creature comforts (like bacon, fresh milk, public transit, burgers, clean streets, English proficiency, good beer, etc...) really just got to me. I kind of just laid in bed, thinking about how great it was going to be to see all my favorite people and places again. Focusing on this made anything else just seem gray.

But after a wasted day filled with a disgusting amount of sleeping, lounging, and Facebook, I just got tired of being homesick; I came to the realization that there's no way I'm going to do everything that I want to do before I leave here, and I'll most likely leave wishing I could come back to experience this that or the other thing. And while I still miss all those things back in the states, I've stopped thinking about it so much. Constantly comparing things to their counterparts "back home" gets you in this terrible state of mind where you fail to fully appreciate what's in front of you. So while I'm still looking forward to my homecoming experience, I've stopped looking ahead to it. That is. I've been focusing on where and when I am right now, and no more, and that has been much more enjoyable.

The Wall

AdminOctober 13, 2013

Street art in Aida Camp depicts the community's plight.

As a few friends and I walked strolled past the separation wall in Bethlehem, a voice called at us from across the street. A middle aged Palestinian man was standing in the lot of an old gas station, and the credentials around his neck revealed that he was a tour guide at the Church of the Nativity, where we had just been an hour before. He must have recognized us.

"What do you see in the wall?" he asked.

Confused, I said "The art? Or the wall itself?"

"How do you feel about it being there?"

"Disappointment. Frustration. But I'm not Palestinian, so--"

"We are like caged animals. It is like a prison," he said.

I'm kind of glad he interrupted me, because wasn't really sure what I was going to say. I'm disappointed that such a blatant restriction to freedom exists, that trepidation persists despite all the diplomatic processes put in place to create justice in a tumultuous region. I'm frustrated at my basic understanding of the issue, and even less about what I can do to contribute to the peace process.

As I walked along the separation wall today, I saw graffiti reflecting an air of oppression and the need for drastic change, which was reflected in the words of the locals I spoke to as well. I felt like as a GW student I was supposed to respond with what the worlds' leaders should do about it. I'm still working on that response, but the road to a deep understanding of complex international issue is long. But there's only one way to complete long journeys-- step by step. And after today I'm one step closer.