I’ve now been at in Jordan for two weeks and my program is just starting to get going. The first week was pretty much just orientation with a few Arabic dialect classes. The second week was kind of abnormal because my program has a lot of different components and to fit them all in, the semester is set up kind of weird. So last week I had three intensive dialect classes that were three hours long each. They tested my patience and my mental fortitude, but my professor is absolutely hilarious and keeps the class entertaining. He was also nice enough to give us coffee breaks every hour, which was awesome. Last week I also had my core course (Jordan: A Case Study in Diplomacy and Development) every day. The idea is that the class is separated into four different modules: history, society, politics, and contemporary policies. In conjunction with that course, I’m also required to do an internship at a local development NGO or research center, which brings me to the whole purpose of this post.
Today, as part of the internship process, I had to go interview at an organization called the Wana Forum. One really cool thing about this place is that it’s located in the Royal Courts, which is pretty much the central place of the Hashemite monarchy. The downside is that it’s not something that the general public can get to, so we (I was going with two other girls in my program) figured that it would be kind of difficult to get in. After we were done with class, we immediately got a taxi and headed to the Courts. We told the taxi driver where we were headed, but he didn’t really understand exactly where we wanted to go, so he dropped us off at the wrong gate and left. When we walked up to the gate, there was a bit of a language barrier and we tried to tell the guards that we were supposed to be going to a job interview. Since none of us could actually communicate that, we handed them the job description and they realized that we were at the wrong gate. So instead of just sending us on our way, one of the guards stood in the middle of the street and flagged down the first cab that passed by, even though the taxi already had someone in it. The next thing I know, he was telling us to get in the taxi and the taxi would take us to the right place. We thanked the guards and headed to the right place.
After a quick taxi ride, we arrived at the right gate and some guards ushered us into the compound. Taxis aren’t allowed inside the Courts, so a driver was going to be meeting us and we had to wait for him to arrive. As we were waiting for the driver, there was a guard that was checking us in. He tried to make small talk, but soon realized that our Arabic was (really) limited and his English was limited, so conversation wasn’t really going to happen. We had been sitting there for about ten minutes when another guard walked in and began talking to the first guard. Whenever people are talking in Arabic I always try to listen and see if there are words that I can pick up. They were both talking pretty fast, but at the end of the sentence, I thought I heard one of the guards say the word hummus, so I looked up and said, “Hummus?!” At that point, they looked at me and both started cracking up. They hadn’t been talking about food at all, which was really embarrassing on my end, but they were amused that I was attempting to understand them. Finally, the driver arrived and took us to where we were going. Usually I get pretty nervous at interviews, but after all the stress of attempting to get to the interview on time, it was just a relief to finally be there!
After the interview was over, the interviewer asked us where we were going. When we said Shmeisani, she said that a driver would meet us out front. I assumed that he would take us back to the gate and we’d grab a taxi from there, but he actually took us the whole way home! When he learned that we were studying Arabic, he insisted that we practice our Arabic and so he was asking us about how long we’d been in Amman and telling us about the different neighborhoods we were passing. There was a lull in the conversation and so one of the other girls in the car asked the driver where the best place to get shawerma was. He listed about three places, asked if we wanted to get shawerma, and then insisted that we get shawerma. It took some effort, but we finally convinced him that we’d get shawerma tomorrow and we just wanted to go home. When we thought our afternoon couldn’t get more interesting, we turned off the main road and there was a HUGE crowd of men and two empty busses in the middle of the road. A lot of the men were shouting and we were sitting in the back of the car wondering if we were driving through a protest. Our driver had a sense of humor and said under his breath, “What is this? The Hajj?!” Luckily the driver was able to break through the crowd of people and take us home. Note: I still don’t know why there was a massive group of men shouting in the middle of the street.
All in all, it was probably the most interesting day I’ve had so far in Amman. Obviously there are a lot of things that are different here, but sometimes I think I unconsciously pretend that I’m just in a different city in the States. Today was really the first time that I actually realized that I’m in a different country. There was no way that any of those things would’ve happened at home and in a way, that was hard to reconcile in my mind. When I walked into my apartment building, I realized just how surreal the afternoon had been.
If you’ve stuck with me this long, you’re a trooper. I promise I’ll put extra pictures in my next post.
Ma Salaama!
-Emily
اميلي تسافر إلى عمان 