December was a month filled with accomplishments. I came to Amman wanting to teach English. In Rhode Island, I teach at the Refugee Dream Center - every Wednesday and Friday I would be teaching a group of adults from around the world, learning about so many new things as well as teaching about new ideas and concepts. I really missed this coming into my fifth month on program. The last week of November, I found out that I would be able to work with the Access Program ( a US State Department program aimed at providing scholarships for students to learn English ) that was located in Amman. I attend classes every Friday and Saturday, and to be honest guys, attending the Access class is what changed my entire experience living in Amman. I am always excited to sit in on their classes, to talk to the students and work with the teacher. I have a difficult time not having responsibilities, in Rhode Island I am always juggling a million projects and four internships, and four moths of being away from that was difficult for me. Access kind of allowed me to get back into the groove of "working". For the rest of this post , I'm going to mention some of the highlights of my time in Amman during December :) December 9, 2016: Concerts abroad! After my Access class, one of my friends had invited my roommate and I to see a concert later that night. It was a the first singing concert I'd been to in Amman, and was very excited to go! The whole set up for the performance reminded me of Lupo's ( a place in Rhode Island that hosts a lot of concerts). December 23, 2016: Celebrating Christmas in Amman! Christmas is a big deal in my family back in the US. We go all out with Christmas cookies, the "creepy" Elf on the shelf spends the month of December moving around , we have a theme for our Christmas tree's such as last years " Mike Wizowsktree" Modeled after the small, green, one eyed monster from Monsters Inc. We are basically the definition of the capitalistic version of Christmas. This year, because I was in Jordan, I wanted to celebrate the holidays with my friends. My roommate and I decided to have a small gift giving/ receiving extravaganza. We actually went as far as to look for "Christmas stockings" to put the gifts in, and ended up with hatta Santa hats from a store on Rainbow st. A few days before Christmas we got together with some of our friends and exchanged gifts while playing Jackaroo... which then led to us singing karaoke songs into one of our friends phones, in the middle of a café. The holiday season during my exchange is one I will never forget. December 28, 2016: Beit Sitti! For December, instead of traveling with Amideast, we took a cooking class in Al Weibdeh. We went to Beit Sitti, which translates to " My Grandmothers House" in English. They host cooking classes where you basically prepare four course traditional meals. While we were there, we learned how to make Mujaddara, Moutabbal, FarmersSalad, and Muhalabia. The space was beautiful, and the food was iktiir zaki ( very delicious ). December 29,2016: Markets, Sweatshirts, and Tea. I love adventures, and after arriving in Jordan I kind of refer to everything as an adventure. However, this day is definitely in my top ten. In Jordan throughout December, it was very cold. I accidentally left my jacket that I bought specifically for my time in Jordan in my bedroom... back in Rhode Island... So I had been on the hunt for a winter jacket to last me the few months of cold weather. Because I am lucky enough to know some of the most helpful people in the world, one of my friends offered to come with my roommate and I to an outdoor market to see if I could find a cheap, high quality, preferably black/olive green jacket. We went on a Thursday afternoon and what started as a normal shopping experience slowly became one of the highlights of my exchange. For starters my roommate discovered a beautiful navy blue sweater that in her words was " emblazoned with the perpetually smiling and noble face of Americas true leader and his family... the Obamas". One of our other friends showed up later on and we spent a while looking for flannels in all shades and sizes. Then came time to find the jacket... however we briefly stopped at stand that had a " Grinch" doll, because that is one of my favorite characters of all time. My friend found a jacket that I ended up falling in love with, and then helped me lower the price. After the outdoor market we walked to Al Weibdeh, stopped for a moment to admire the view of Amman , and got tea at a cafe. Days like this, are what have formed my exchange expierence - I constantly try to do new things, things that I will never have the opportunity to do outside of Amman. Carpe Diem.
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