Jabal Amman

Orientation is over. A lot of the kids complained bitterly about how controlling the program leaders were and how long the lectures were, but I actually thought it was one of the better orientations for study abroad that I've participated in, and I've experienced two others. There was some repetition of a couple of the major safety points, but considering that we're all college students and not generally known for our respect for safety rules, I thought that was probably wise. But now it's over, and we've all scattered to different parts of the city, either in apartments or homestays. It's definitely a relief not to have to move in a group of 100 people. I am in an apartment in Jabal Amman (Mount Amman), which apparently is one of the coveted neighborhoods to be in for it's proximity to downtown, although it's farther away from the University. I only have 1 roommate and we each have our own rooms. Before we got to the apartments yesterday Stewart, a CIEE employee, commented off-handedly that some students have said that the apartments are better than dorm rooms. Well, there is absolutely no comparison, at least with Marlboro dorms. It's an apartment meant for a family unit, so Lauren (my roommate) and I each have our own rooms, there is a living room with a TV and cable and matching coach and easy chairs and a dining room as well as a kitchen and full bath. It's entirely furnished, including cooking stuff, and we have two balconies, one of which is in my room and faces the street. All in all, it's a very nice apartment.

There are 6 other girls living in the same building and last night several of us decided to do some exploring and look for food and internet. Internet is definitely a priority for just about every American student I've talked to on this trip. I actually try to avoid the internet when I'm on break, which according to some makes me a luddite. We found a restaurant easily enough, but apparently we were very early for dinner because only as we were leaving (around 8) were other people starting to arrive. However, this meant that we got very personal attention from the waitstaff and the manager. Of the 6 of us, 4 of us spoke some Arabic, but only 2 spoke enough to be of any use (I don't remember much that's useful except phrases like mish fahime, meaning I don't understand) but so far almost everyone we encountered spoke at least a little bit of English or at least understood us. The manager of the restaurant was no exception, and he seemed to enjoy our limited conversation, or maybe it was just our presence, so much that he gave us a round of Turkish or Arabic coffee at the end of the meal on the house, as well as his card and an invitation to come back.

All of this happened after dark, a fact that made me a bit nervous at first, since 6 American women stand out quite easily. I was expecting cat calls, offers of various kinds, and possibly even men following us. I was very surprised when no one approached us at all. In Egypt, at the very least I constantly heard "Welcome to Egypt" and "How are you," which may seem quite innocent and for the most part was. However, it is still a consistent part of the experience of any Western woman walking down the street in Egypt. Apparently, in Jordan this is less common, although certainly there were plenty of stories in orientation of women being followed, flashed, and having men want to marry them. But it seems that the casual harassment on the street that I was used to, and expecting, is less common, at least in the parts of Amman that I've been to so far. Even the stares aren't as intense, although so far I haven't been to any parts of Amman that are completely devoid of Westerners.

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea was not at all what I expected, although to be honest I hadn't thought much about it before hand. On maps, it's very difficult for me to judge the size of anything in the Middle East because my scale of reference is Alaska, which is close to twenty times the size of Jordan. Consequently, I was expecting the Dead Sea to be similar to a medium size lake. It's not massive, and it is possible to see across to the other side, which is the West Bank. (Apparently on a clear day you can see Jerusalem.) However, you can't see the entire lake at once, and since we stayed at one end of it, I'm not really sure how long it is. The aspect of the landscape surrounding the Dead Sea that surprised me was the mountains. Mountains, by my definition, have to be devoid of trees at some point (so the Green Mountains don't count for me, a debate I have had many times in Vermont. They're very pretty hills.), and while these mountains probably don't qualify for the title in terms of altitude, they were almost entire without vegetation, so to me they looked like mountains. The colors of the rocks was incredible, ranging from almost green to vibrant red. I tried to get pictures that conveyed the differences, but only in a couple of them are the colors really visible.

Most of the last two days have been devoted to traditional orientation, the main point of which is to emphasize to us that we don't know the rules of behavior in this society and we should listen to those who do. We did take a break though, to swim in the Dead Sea, one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. The water feels almost slimy and it was quite disorienting for me, since I am used to swimming, because normal swimming is almost impossible. Getting any part of your body below the water line requires real effort, so it's easiest to just lie down. There was a Jordanian man on the beach with a bucket of black mud who, for 2 dinars (about $2.50) would cover you in "healing" mud from the Dead Sea, although there wasn't any on the beach we were on.

Here are some pictures of the Dead Sea and the surrounding mountains.

First day in Amman

So far, Jordan is more or less as I expected it to be. Of course, I’ve only been here one day, so I’m sure there are plenty of surprises in store. In some ways it is similar to Cairo (where I spent 6 weeks in an intensive Arabic program 4 years ago), especially the style of building and the craziness of the drivers. There are streetlights, however, which I only ever saw one of in Cairo, and they seem to be obeyed, for the most part. I went out today with several other students in my program, a couple of whom had already been in the city for several days, and walked around for a while. The frequency of English on signs surprised me a little bit: every street sign and most shop signs were in both Arabic and English. Most of the people on the streets were men, which I did expect from the guide books as well as my experiences in Egypt, but we were a large enough group that no one tried to talk to us, although most starred. I also saw a few tourists, something that I don’t remember noticing in Cairo except at such sights as the Pyramids. It’s also clearly a smaller city, and significantly newer. Most of the buildings look the same, boxes and rectangles built from a whitish stone that I don’t recognize. One aspect of the city that I wasn’t expecting was the fact that it seems to have been built on the slopes of a very small mountain range. It makes it somewhat difficult to judge how big the city is because the hills almost definitely obscure parts of the city that I haven’t seen yet. Another thing that surprised me a bit was the weather. I knew that winter was the rainy season, so I expected downpours but I didn’t realize how windy it would be. The temperature probably never went below 50 F, but the wind chill, combined with the rain, brought it down quite a bit. I have enough layers that it didn’t bother me too much, but several of the other students were not happy. However, the Jordanians are happy because apparently this rain, which has been going on for several days now, off and on, has broken a 5-year drought.

The rest of the students in the program are arriving today and I’m pretty sure we’re going to completely fill up the hotel. I was astonished to find out that there are roughly 100 Americans in this program for the spring semester alone. I didn’t think Jordan was that popular a study abroad destination. The people that I’ve met so far seem to be interesting, usually majoring in some form or combination of international relations, political science and anthropology. I haven’t met any Islamic studies students, but there must be some. Our orientation starts tomorrow, and we begin by going to the Dead Sea for the day. It will probably be the best first day of orientation I’ve ever had for anything, although I’m looking forward to being done with orientation so I can start settling into the city. Our Arabic classes start almost immediately, but the other classes begin with the University of Jordan’s semester, which should be the first week of February. I’ll be living in an apartment (not a dorm) with 1, 2, or 3 other students. There was a homestay option, but having experienced a homestay in an Arab country before, I decided that I wanted more independence this time around. My experience in Egypt was positive, and it certainly helped my Arabic that my family spoke very little English, thereby forcing me to speak Arabic. It also gave me insights into the culture that I wouldn’t have otherwise witnessed. However, I couldn’t leave the house without a parent or sibling with me, and since my oldest host sister was only 16 and I didn’t have any host brothers, her activities were restricted, and therefore mine were too. I spent many hours most days in front of their television watching soap operas or music videos in Arabic, with the very occasional American movie from the American movie channel thrown in. Some of the other students who had older host brothers had a lot more freedom, but it’s a gamble what kind of family you’ll get. Being on my own will also hopefully force me to make connections with Jordanians on my own, rather than relying on a host family.