dbonessi – Page 2 – GW Blogs from Abroad

Confessions of an American In Jordan: My Cultural Faux Pas

AdminMarch 12, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

I have a confession to make…or maybe a few confessions.

So apparently getting out of a cab from the driver’s side is not allowed. After trying for a solid 2 minutes to open the door on the driver’s side, my roommate and the driver both looked at me and corrected my error.
Going out with wet hair here, is a big no-no. People in Amman, especially young adults attending the University of Jordan take pride in their appearance and going out with wet hair no matter how tired you are to dry it is not allowed. So I will not start changing my habits of drying my hair in the morning, but I will be reminded not to leave it down.
The culture here tends to keep women and men--even if they are the same family—in separate rooms. I was sitting in the kitchen talking to my roommate and my host mother as my host dad was on the enclosed porch with a friend. I said goodnight to my host mom and my roommate and they looked at me with slanted faces and told me I have to wait till my host dad was finished with his friend before I could walk past them to go to bed.

I am sure that there will be plenty of other incidents. I’ll keep you posted!

Jordanian Food for Thought

AdminMarch 5, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

If classes weren’t the first thing on my mind, Jordanian food would be. The Jordanian diet consists mainly of hubaz [pita bread], fool [beans], vegetables—mostly eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes—and almonds. Many students—mostly guys—have said that they find it hard to eat enough protein, but the truth is Jordanians don’t eat a ton of meat and rely more on hummus and beans for protein.

Eating-out here is affordable, if you know where you are going. The small little restaurants around my campus have traditional Jordanian food for 1 to 2 JD ($3-$5). An average lunch for me is hummus with pita bread, falafel, or fool. The bread in Jordan acts as a utensil, in most restaurants you will not be given any utensils and you eat your entire meal with bread as your shovel.

In addition, to a pretty vegetarian diet, fresh fruits are everywhere here. Fruit stands offer various mixed fruit drinks from lemon to kiwi. Some of my favorite treats are lemon-mint, and mango- banana. Once the weather is warmer here I will probably be drinking a lot more of these refreshing beverages.

As for meal food, the process of cooking here can be an all-day family event. Especially on Fridays—day of rest for most Muslims—families will cook large meals together. Last Friday I stayed home and made pancakes for my host family. My cooking responsibilities weren’t over from there; I finally learned how to make stuffed olive leaves or yalanji.

Here is the trick:

Take one leaf cut off the steam and place the leaf on a plate steam spine down.
Flatten out the leaf and overlap the edges so it looks like one sheet.
Take a teaspoon of rice and place it in the middle, then—like a burrito—firmly roll the olive leave up tucking in the edges.

Another dish I have had the honor of helping prepare with taboole. This salad like dish can take a few hours to make. It contains parsley, cilantro, tomato, crack wheat, and white onion. My only task in the group effort to make the salad was crushing the parsley into very tiny pieces. After most of the steam has been removed cut with a knife into small pieces, and later but into even smaller pieces with a wedge cutter. (See picture below). After it is well crushed, combine with crack wheat, tomatoes, and onions; later adding olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, and salt.

But my all-time favorite meal time food is makhish, this savory dish is stuffed zucchini with rice and ground beef in a yogurt or tomato sauce served with rice and bread as usual. Finally for dessert, throughout the Mediterranean region and the Middle East traditional desserts are almond based—I apologize if you are allergic to almonds. My host mom made almond cake with honey called bilboosa.

Really you can’t go wrong with the Jordanian palette, it has everything you need for a well-balanced diet and to fill you up.

Well time for me to go eat again! Yum!

Sahti [enjoy]!

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.

First Impressive Impressions of Jordan

AdminFebruary 12, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

Touchdown! 5:15am. So tired—travelled all night from Spain on Turkish Airlines into Jordan. Upon arrival I was greeted by the bright lighting in Jordanian airport and a long line at passport control, but after a exchanging some money and few yawns I was off in a taxi with another student from my program for my host’s home.

Sam, my companion in the taxi, has already been to Jordan doing an internship over the summer and had a better grasp on the Jordanian dialect. Between the two of us we managed to get Sam to his host neighborhood and I was able to direct the driver to my home. The best part about getting to my home was that my roommate provided perfect directions. Rebecca has already been in Jordan for a semester and she is well-accustomed to the culture by now. It is great having someone to show me the ropes and get me acquainted with my surroundings.

The taxi drove up to the green gates—exactly as Rebecca’s directions said—I got out gave him 15 dinar for my trip and 15 dinar from Sam, and rang the buzzer. I wasn’t sure upon arrival if this was a house or an apartment complex, but the housekeeper, Ruma, came out to greet me and show me to my room. Finally meeting Rebecca, I settled into our apartment that is the loft beneath the main house. I can’t believe my eyes the room has a sitting area, wide screen TV, one queen-size and one twin bed, a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and small full-bathroom. After a seven hour nap, Ruma, came knocking to see if I was hungry.

We made our way up through the garden to the main house. The house has a warm glow of colors and at the center of the house a beautiful courtyard with grass, a fountain, and beautiful shrubs all around. I meet my host Lamia in the kitchen talking with her sister, in Austria, over Skype. She quickly greets me with two kisses on each check and asks if I am hungry. She has prepared for me stuffed zucchini and eggplant with bread. I didn’t realize exactly how hungry I was, but the homemade food was absolutely delicious.

The host family I am staying with feels like an Arab version of Steel Magnolias. Lamia, the cook and the head of the house hold. Then Ruma, the young help and kind soul, Saya, Lamia’s daughter and looks like an Arab version of Beyounce, and two of Lamia’s friends all meet in the kitchen. They drink strong Turkish coffee, smoke cigarettes, talk about their weight, and exchange habibi [love] every other word. And there is Lamia’s husband, who I have not met yet, but it seems like these women are independent and make up a family.

I can’t believe I’m finally here. It is going to be a great four months.

‘You can think about wonder, And wonder what to think, Oh, the things you can think When you’re on the brink

AdminJanuary 31, 2014December 14, 2018

By Dominique Bonessi

With less than a month until my program in Jordan begins, my anxiety has reached its’ peak. So much to do prepare and plan for; I find myself avoiding my first post for fear that I will sound too formal or too anxious or too idealist or digressing in getting to my point—which I have already done.

I have been studying Arabic for three years now and the Middlebury Program at the University of Jordan will advance my Arabic. If you haven’t heard of the Middlebury Program let me give you an idea of how intense this language program can be. A friend of mine went to the Middlebury campus in Vermont over the summer after one semester of French and never really being able to learn a language and came out speaking fluent French. My program is a little different. I will be living with a host family in Amman, taking four classes entirely in Arabic, and signing a language pledge that says I will only speak, think, read, and write in Arabic. For the next five months I will be eating, sleeping, living, and breathing completely, 100% in Arabic.

In order to brace myself for what is to come in two weeks and three days I have made the following preparations. First, I have been reviewing my Arabic vocab and grammar so I can place into the proper level for my placement test. Second, I have downloaded an Arabic language pack on my computer so I can type in Arabic. This was preceded by making my own stickers to put on my keys in order to learn the Arabic keyboard. Finally, I have taken the initiative to read news about Jordan in both English and in Arabic in order to keep up with current events.

In addition to the language classes, I am also anxious and excited to live for five months in an Arabic speaking country. I realize Jordan is probably not the most westernized country there is to study abroad in; therefore, there will be challenges to overcome. As a side note, I am currently writing to you from the comfort of my friend’s family’s house in Madrid, Spain. I’ve know them since I was 12 when I came to visit in the summer and this is my fifth trip back to Spain to visit. Like most of Europe, Spain is modernized there is always some form of transportation to get around, walking around is very easy and safe, and there is little in the way—for me—of a language barrier. Going from Spain to Jordan maybe like jumping into a pool of ice cold water, where transportation isn’t as simple, walking around my neighborhood may not be safe to do alone, and I have yet to learn conversational Arabic. These challenges differ from the challenges of my classes as they are more difficult to prepare for because until I arrive in Jordan I don’t like to have expectations. I only have one, which is to expect the unexpected.