Lost Adventures & Scary Security Briefings!

Now I am finally caught up and can post about my first day of classes here in Amman! Today, I would say was really a great one! It was exactly what could be expected of the first day of classes for someone who does not speak the language or know their way around anywhere in the city in which they live. I had my first true Arabic class this morning, which was extreeeemely useful. We began learning a lot of phrases that we need for everyday use - especially for talking to the cab drivers. Taxis are the major mode of transportation for people who don't have cars here, because they are fast, cheap and everywhere! However, try riding in a cab by yourself as a girl, where you don't speak the language and all of the adults from your study abroad program have continuously told you to beware creeper cab drivers... and this while you obviously stick out as a foreigner and cannot for the life of you pronounce anything right! It really is an adventure every time I get into a cab. Yet, at the same time it's somewhat liberating when I am able to successfully carry out a transaction with a cab driver on my own... it really makes me feel more accomplished!

So after our awesome lesson, the few of us who are in the beginner's Arabic class went on an adventure to walk to the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR), which provides all of Jordanian students and us with a fantastic library and free wifi AND free coffee and tea. So we thought we would go there until our scheduled US Embassy Security Briefing to kill time and relax...

Relaxing is the last thing we did for the next hour or so. We literally hiked up a ginormous hill, wandering around for about an hour, trying to find this place. We asked multiple people on the street and got numerous cat calls and honks from drivers-by who all wanted to drive us to who-knows-where... all this in a mixture of cold air but blazing sunlight and really uncomfortable shoes (well, for me at least)... until we FINALLY realized we should probably take out our CIEE handbooks, that have a nice little map that shows the way from the University to the ACOR office. I know. We felt extremely ridiculous for not thinking of it before. But, I have to say it was definitely a bonding experience, getting lost in the hills and sweating out butts off until we finally found the location. We were rewarded with free wifi and awesome tea when we got there and a really nice place to relax. It was definitely worth it.

It soon came time for the US Embassy Security Briefing. This was a little ridiculous for me to attend, because I'm not a US citizen, so all of their promises to help us out when we get in trouble meant nothing to me. But I went anyways and was able to listen in to the extreme lecture of scariness they bestowed upon us. They literally did nothing but freak everyone in the program out by deciding to tell us that political violence and terrorism were high in Jordan and that we, as westerners, were the number one target for any attack. Horror stories of assault, sexual and otherwise and crazy police arrests that would prevent us from leaving the country followed. Honestly, even though I know they were just doing their jobs, I think it was a bit much. After we explained to our family what they had said and how scary they made Jordan seem, they only laughed. I seriously do not know why they love scaring us so much here in CIEE. I know they want us to be careful and this is their way of achieving it, and I guess we do sort of need it... but talking about hard core Al Qaeda attacks and stuff like that I feel was a bit overkill... 

Overall it was a pretty eventful day... yet going to a hookah bar and drinking turkish coffee with some hookah on the side was the perfect way to end it... Now I'm sitting on the couch about to take a nice break with a good movie with my host family, while I try to review some Arabic for tomorrow...

Also, I am extremely nervous for tomorrow, because I have an interview at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy for an internship! It is extremely formal and freaking me out!! I reaaaalllly hope I get it, because it would honestly be the dream internship for me! I should probably go now to memorize their entire website, so I can make a good impression tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Host Families & Hospital Adventures

So last time I left off with the end of my second day of orientation... since I have some time to make up due to my lack in keeping this blog updated, I'm going to speed through the next couple of days.

So on wednesday, it was the big day: we were going to meet our host families. Now, understand - CIEE scared the living crap out of us when it came to this. But it all had a purpose, which was preparing us for the worst. There are a large amount of cultural differences between the US and Jordan, which is why CIEE was very adamant about making sure we were extremely prepared for the worst of the worst in terms of culture shock. Coming from a Turkish family, I sort of knew what to expect, but Arabs and Turks still differ in many ways, so I was a little nervous myself.

I really didn't need to be, though. My host family is absolutely incredible. It's a young(ish) married couple, whose dynamic is actually extremely interesting - she's a christian and he's a muslim. This like neeeever happens here in Jordan, where more than 95% of the population is Muslim and tends to be pretty conservative. So their story is definitely a very unique, but super beautiful one. They are both extremely nice and super relaxed. I actually don't have a curfew and they allow me to go out with friends as I please, as long as I am safe and keep them up to date with where I am. This is also an incredible miracle! They are truly amazing people. One of my favorite parts of this past weekend was staying in and watching like 5 movies in a row with the family.

Another awesome thing about this family, is that the woman's family is hosting other students. Her mom is hosting two guys from the program, and her cousins are hosting another girl. The most amazing part is that this girl turned out to be Evelina! The only other Clarkie from the entire program! So we have a big christian, extremely loud and funny family thing going on. Literally, my favorite thing is going over to either her cousin's or mother's house to spend time with the other kids from the program and the big family.

Also, one of the cousins that Evelina is staying with is getting engaged in a couple of weeks. This means a huge family engagement party! The four of us are absolutely thrilled for this, as there will be lots of loud family members, food and dancing! I literally cannot wait.

In other words, I could not be more happy with the host family I ended up with. I feel extremely lucky.

However, I need to share another adventure from my third day of being here in Jordan. Since before I arrived, a couple days before or so, I had started to develop a severely sore throat. While we were here, it got considerably worse... to the point where I was pretty much blinded from the pain. I couldn't even swallow water, let alone any pain killer pills. It got so bad on the third day, I had to ask CIEE to help me make an appointment with a doctor.

It was amazing how fast they were able to get me to the Arab Medical Center. They hailed me a cab, where the taxi driver literally walked me all the way in to help me with the paper work and I was able to immediately see a doctor. Another thing I didn't realize about Jordan, is that all the doctors here are required to learn English. So my doctor spoke perfect english and was able to help me in no time. I was given antibiotics for the obviously severe case of strep throat I had caught. The medicine was super cheap to obtain and I felt better after only one day of taking it. This experience really made my day, because I now know that I can really really trust the health system here in Jordan. I am in good hands, which is super comforting.

Otherwise, we finished up the week of orientation with lots of different lectures on culture, academics, and other things that were meant to scare us a little into behaving while we were here. I think all of us were ready of the weekend. I spent most of it at home, doing literally nothing but sleeping and watching movies with my family - it was just what I needed.

So that pretty much wraps up the first few days of orientation and such...

Orientation, Day 2 & A Night Out

So after our first amaaazing day here in Amman, we took the second day of orientation to tour the University of Jordan, where we would be attending school. My first impression was - it is crazy how big the school is. It literally takes 30 minutes to walk from one end of the school to the other. This, for me is ridiculous, since us Clarkies are used to walking everywhere on campus in like 10 minutes or less. The campus was extremely beautiful though and extremely green, which I don't think many of us expected. It will definitely take a long time to get accustomed to the size and not get lost, but I definitely am glad at how gorgeous it is.

After the tour and eating another amazing lunch, most of the students went off to take the Arabic placement exam. Me and another 5 students, who had never taken formal lessons in the language, went off to our first lesson! Our instructor Rabiah was extremely energetic and fun! I think I can learn a lot from her for sure and am excited to start real lessons!

That pretty much wrapped up the second day of orientation. Later that night, some of the people who were from the year-long program ended up inviting us out for the night to a bar. Now, most of the population in Jordan does not drink, however there are a select few who do. So it is possible to find a few bars and places that serve alcohol. It was nice to go though, because the place was filled with other CIEE students who were studying abroad either on the year-long program or were new-comers, just like me. Plus we got to mingle a little with locals, which was an awesome place to practice the 10 words I had learned in Arabic earlier that day! Overall it was lots of socializing, dancing and having fun!

The second day here in Amman was definitely a lot of fun. The next day we were looking forward to meeting our host families, which was both extremely nerve-racking yet exciting! It was definitely one of the things I looked forward to the most. But again, it is impossible to not feel nervous about meeting a family you are going to live with for the next four months, but have no idea about! As it turns out though, I got extremely lucky...

Orientation, Day 1

So it has taken me a long time to post again, but these first days have been pretty crazy and has given me very little time to relax, let alone post. But let me start by saying this...

Amman is AMAZING. 

I have had an incredible week so far. I arrived on Monday night to an extremely cloudy and rainy city, went straight to the hotel and fell asleep, not seeing too much of the city. We woke up the next morning to the first day of orientation and to even more rainy weather. We had to wait for a little bit for it to clear up before we could depart on our trip for the day.

Once the weather was better we were split into 3 groups (another fourth group being the students who chose the apartment stay while they were here, who were also stationed at a different hotel) and loaded onto buses. The whole plan for the day was to tour Amman and get to know the city a little better. On our buses we even had our own personal tour guide who explained everything to us as we went. It was really awesome!

We started our journey with the citadel. This place was truly amazing. As you can see from the pictures below, this was basically a collection of a bunch of reallllyyy old ruins located on top of a tall hill. The ruins ranged from various centuries and were built during times of different occupation, as was shown by the collection of churches, roman temples and a mosque all located on the same spot. It was truly amazing. But what was also really amazing, from on top of this hill you could see the multiple hills of Amman roll out right in front of you - and they were massive! I knew before coming here that the city was originally built on 6 hills and was now around 8 hills or so, but I never expected these hills to be this huge! And every square inch of them was covered in buildings. On the bottom of the hill that we were standing on, you could see a main street, which was the downtown of the city. One could aslo see the roman theater located right there. If you look at my first post, and the picture of the postcard I put on there, that was exactly the view we had standing on the hill of the citadel. We also visited the museum portion of the citadel, which was really awesome, as well.

Afterwards, we were loaded onto the buses again and descended into the downtown area. The downtown of Amman is located in the eastern part of the city, which happens to be the more traditional part of the city. But it was really amazing, as we got to walk through it! Lots of little stores on a busy street, with people shouting out to us to buy their stuff. I'm pretty sure one of the girls even got 120 camels offered to her as a proposal in marriage. It was really an interesting experience. We continued on to visit the roman theater. It was truly amazing! I didn't expect the rows of seats to be so steep! I was only able to climb the first flight of stairs, after which I was too scared to go up higher, since it was steep and slippery due to the rain. But it was still super fun. There was even a spot in the center of the theater, where you could stand and say something and the echo was the loudest. Even just saying "hello" in a regular voice echoed back to me quite a bit. We went into the museum of this site as well, which was also very amazing.

Afterwards, we went to probably one of the better places I have ever eaten, a restaurant called Jafra. We were served all of the typical things you'd expect from a middle eastern meal... and it was AMAZING. I literally have not tasted better hummus in my life. On top of that, while we thought we had enjoyed a wonderful meal of hummus, salad, pita bread and other amazing appetizers, they brought out a giant dish of meat. They had various kinds kinds on there and they all tasted so wonderful. It was the perfect introduction to the middle eastern food culture.

After our tummies were over-sufficiently full, we were loaded back onto the buses and continued onto the royal automobile museum of Jordan. This was an amaazing place meant to introduce us a little into the culture of the royal family. The cars I saw there, I literally have never seen before. I also could not tell you half their names or what makes them truly amazing, since I don't know anything about cars, but it was truly a sight to see. So many ginormous cars with huge grills and plush seats, and all in different colors... so luxurious. They started out from being as old as from the 1940s up until one of the most recent models of ferraris. It was incredible.

After touring this place, then visiting a place called ACOR, the tour for the day was over. It was a seriously exhausting yet amazing day and I was super glad to see so much of the city. After a great meal at the hotel, all of us passed out pretty much right away.

Pre-Departure Thoughts...

Hi, my name is Helin Akcam and this is the first of what I hope will be lots of blogs about my study abroad experience with CIEE in Amman, Jordan. Being one out of two of the first students to go on this newly approved Clark program, I am extremely excited to share my experience with all of you. I hope this will be a very educational and exciting journey that will teach me a lot, both academically and otherwise so.

There are about nine days left before I leave for Amman and there are a lot of thoughts floating around in my head. It is hard to believe that after nearly a year-long process of thinking about study abroad and applying, the time has already come for everything to begin! One of the strangest parts for me is the fact that I will be gone for so long! I already left the United States back in December, to come visit my mother who lives in Turkey and am now spending time with my family here before I embark on my journey. I won't be returning to the US again until August, as I'm planning on traveling to Lebanon and Turkey after my program finishes in Jordan in May. It is the longest I will be away from the US since I moved there when I was 10 and it is definitely hard to believe I will be gone that long.

Other than my long absence from home, I am filled with a billion different types of excitement, nervousness, impatience, happiness, anxiety and many other mixed emotions. There are just so many things to look forward to!

As a Political Science major, I am studying International Relations, specifically between the Middle East and the US. That's why I chose the program in Amman, because it not only offered me an excellent opportunity to learn Arabic, but also gave me the chance to immerse myself into the region and culture that I will be focusing on in my career. The program Clark offers is the CIEE Language and Culture program, so I know I will be in very good hands for learning Arabic. Of course, I am really nervous about not having studied Arabic before departing on my trip. I know the first couple of months, where I will not speak any Arabic, will be extremely difficult. I am hoping that some of the others on my program (from other schools) who have studied Arabic can help me out at first! But the other courses I am taking are all related to what I want to do (i.e. Arabs and Americans, Conflict in the Middle East, International Relations in the Middle East, etc). I am definitely excited to take a couple of those classes! I am also hoping to get an internship while I'm there, which would make my whole experience even better! We don't find out until we get there, but hopefully I got lucky enough and will be able to intern this coming semester.

Another point of excitement and slight nervousness is the fact that I chose the homestay option for my residence while in Jordan. This means that, if they find one suited for me, I will be living with a local family in Amman during my time there. I decided to do this because it would be extremely beneficial for learning the language and getting really immersed in the culture. But of course, this will be the cause of many changes to my lifestyle. As a girl, I will probably have a curfew somewhere between 9-10. Also there are different house rules about certain things, such as always wearing slippers in the house and keeping things extremely clean and neat. Some of this stuff I have already had the chance to experience, due to my Turkish culture, but a lot of it will be different for me too.

When I think of all the traveling I will get to do, however, all my nervousness goes away! I know we get about 3 trips, one of them being overnight, funded through CIEE. These include visiting the ancient city of Petra, Wadi Rum, the city of Aqaba and many old castels and ruins left over from thousands of years ago. I am so so so excited to see all of these places that have existed for so long! I also hope my travels bring me into other countries, such as Lebanon (where I will actually go once my program ends) and Israel, as well as the West Bank. Traveling as much as possible is definitely one of my major goals for when I am there.

With all of this in mind, I really cannot wait to start my adventure in Middle East! I know there is a lot that still seems overwhelming and scary, but I think it is definitely going to be one the funnest and most exciting things I've done in my life so far. T-9 and counting!