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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( The next few blog posts are going to be recaps on the last four months in Amman. To anyone who reads, thank you and I hope you enjoy :) )
November was a month filled with a wide range of experiences, from visiting Ajloun and Jerash, to helping decorate the new YES Alumni Park, oh and don't forget volunteering with the US Embassy for their Election Night Event. In this post, I am going to speak about some of the things I experienced during my fourth month living in Amman; I guess we are starting on November 5 ... November 5, 2016: The YES Alumni in Jordan were working on a project to open a park in Amman for the community. Because we are currently on the YES Abroad program, the four of us exchange students were invited to help "set up" the park for it's opening day! My roommate and I went earlier in the day with some of the Jordanian Yes Alumni. When we arrived, we all basically broke off into "groups" - some were planting flowers around the entrance pathway, others were painting stairs, and some were playing soccer. I helped plant flowers ( partially because anything which involves "art" isn't really my strength ) and it was hard work, but a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to talk to two of the YES Alumni while we planted and although we mainly spent our time laughing at our attempt at gardening it was really nice getting to know more of the "YES Family". Fast forward a few hours and the park was decorated, guests for the "opening ceremony" arrived, and all of the volunteers were tired. The ceremony was brief, and afterward everyone was welcome to buy snacks, jewelry, or get henna in a small open market that was set up, and some of the YES Alum played American Football. I got henna for the second time in my life ( the first was in Disney World ) and it was beautiful... about ten minutes later one of my friends and I tried to have the "perfect" high-five, and low and behold we partially messed up the henna! My favorite part of the day however was after we left the YES Park to get food. We went to a burger place near Taj Mall and while we all waited for food, one of my friends tried teaching me how to read some words in Arabic. I wasn't great at it, however I loved trying to figure it out - eventually he just pronounced it for me and I memorized and repeated it. But this moment, it was the first time someone actually attempted to teach me the Arabic alphabet without giving up after two minutes. I really appreciated the help he gave me, it allowed me to gain confidence with reading Arabic script and it helped me get out of the " I can't do it " mind frame. November 8, 2016: ELECTION NIGHT! Although I am not old enough to vote, this election was one of the most important elections I have lived through. The U.S. Embassy in Jordan hosted an event which allowed Jordanians and Americans to interact in a "party" like atmosphere, where we celebrated US and Jordanian relations as well as the US election. Results were not out yet ( because of the time difference). The four of YES Abroad students were invited by the Embassy to volunteer throughout the vent. Two of us worked on recruiting event guests to participate in making video messages to the future president, while the other two helped run a photo booth. My roommate and I walked around in heels with giant red poster boards using our Arabic and English to communicate with a wide range of people. Later on in the night my roommate and I switched shifts and I took a break. Some of my friends were at the event so I ended up hanging out with them. A DJ was playing music for the event and somehow we all ended up dancing and singing along to "Happy" by Pharrell and then doing the "Macarena". When the night was coming to an end, the US Ambassador to Jordan came out to greet guest who were coming for the second party the embassy was hosting. The four of us decided that we wanted to meet her, so we asked one of the employees if we could get in line to shake her hand. He walked us around the building and brought us to the front of the line! We shook her hand, which was a great ending to a really fun night. November 12, 2016: Downtown is my favorite place in Amman. I love the energy, and all of the new and exciting things you can discover while walking through the balad. My friend and I decided that we wanted to spend a day exploring and visiting historical sites. We started on Rainbow st and walked to the Citadel. I had been to these sites before, but it is always a different experience when you go with new people. We spent a lot of time at the Citadel and took some amazing pictures/videos. Afterward we walked to the Roman Amphitheatre - but first we stopped at a small store to buy chips and drinks. The Roman Amphitheatre is beautiful, it is my favorite place to sit and think. We walked up the steps and found a place to sit where we ate our food, discovered that Doritos and salt n' vinegar chips taste great together, and listened to music. We walked back to Rainbow st, later on and sat at the Wild Jordan Café, because the view of Amman their is incredible. November 26, 2016: Castles and Greco-Roman Cities! With the YES Abroad program, we take different excursions throughout Jordan. For this trip we ventured north of Amman to Ajloun and Jerash. We traveled to Ajloun to see the Ajloun Castle which was built in 1184. We walked its long corridors, learned about the history of the castle and the city from our guide, and stood atop the castle to view one of the most breathtaking views I have ever had the privilege to see. After leaving the castle we traveled to Jerash to see the ruins of a Greco-Roman city. We stood in what once was a huge chariot racing stadium, took pictures in "the Forum" ( a huge oval shaped space with massive columns ), and visited the Temple of Artemis. This day trip taught us all a great deal about the history of Jordan and we were able to gain knowledge about some facts we previously had not known - for example some of the best olive oil and honey in Jordan comes from Ajloun and Jerash. |
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