The travel blog is back! I'll be writing more frequently now I hope, with pictures to come. (Although unlikely as many pictures as Morocco/Egypt)
I've been in Amman for three weeks now. It's taken me a while to get to writing, my apologizes, but I hope to make this a better habit.
I came a week before the rest of the students were set to arrive because the Boren mandates that I spend exactly six months here, and my two programs combined were a week short. I set up a week of one-on-one Arabic lessons (with fantastic help from the Midd staff here) that proved to be really helpful. The professor was super flexible, set up lessons on the spot, and had innovative ways of thinking about the language that really helped me refresh my basics. I had class three hours a day and had not to much else to do the rest of my time.
It's been a lot better since the rest of the students showed up. We have a good group, the other students are fun and seem very dedicated. Everyone has their own experience traveling in the region or elsewhere, their own stories from home, their own views, ambitions, and backgrounds to share (in Arabic). I've really enjoyed some evenings out in cafes, (learning) and playing backgammon, etc. Orientation week was really well run, well organized and pretty helpful for learning how things work at the University. A better job probably could have been made to show us the city, as if I didn't already have an idea of where I was I don't think I would be situated at all. The administration is very hands off to say the least.
Classes started this week and my schedule is awesome, I have class Sunday-Wednesday from 11am-5pm. My modern standard Arabic class is at exactly the level I think I should be at, and its nice to study the language outside of the damn Al-Kitaab books. My colloquial Arabic class is less helpful, there seems to be no good way to structure that class. I'm also taking Literature and Politics. All of the classes are only with other kids in the program, meaning the language pledge is followed and the classes are small (8-12). The language pledge is exactly what it sounds, from the moment I wake up and ask my roommate if he's made coffee or I have to make it, all of our conversations are in Arabic. It makes the days exhausting as there's no real break. I step out of Arabic class to go to lunch... in Arabic. It gets frustrating more with Jordanians who speak perfect English (there are many) than it is with other people in the program because we in the program will help each other while any random person just wants to talk to us, ask a question, interact and we're insisting on speaking a (very rough) version of their language.
The Literature course is a survey course of modern Arabic literature, read and taught in Arabic. It's hard. The professor just rattles stuff off about famous writers, the different structures of stories, whats a novel, short story, life story, and how their defined, the terms for setting, character development, etc. He talks a mile a minute for 90 minutes. It's tough but definitely helpful. I'm able to follow the lectures to a large extent and after staring at the readings for long enough, and with judicious use of my dictionary, I can get the readings too. This is the first week, so I expect both the class to get harder and my Arabic to get better, so we'll see.
The Politics course is a whole different beast. The professor is largely American educated, has taught and lived in the US for years and has worked as a political advisor for both this King and the last. The class so far seems to be oriented towards a history/discussion of politics in the Middle East and Jordan. He doesn't have all that much patience with this language pledge thing and sometimes rattles off a term or two in English rather than go through the pain of explaining it in Arabic. The first class was excessive English-wise, but the second lecture was great. We're starting with the Arab revolt (~WWI) and presumably going from there. The lectures aren't necessary organized, but they flow logically, and we're getting a lot of useful terms thrown at us as well as an insight to how Jordanian (albeit foreign educated) academics view their own history. One glaring example today was the focus on the British betrayal of Sherif Hussein and his sons Abdulla and Faisal. When asked about what role the Al-Saud family had during this time and all that, he pretty much just changed the subject. I'm looking forward to hearing this guy talk about politics and respond to our questions. Plus I'm with a sharp group of students who will definitely ask some good questions. The professor is also helping me out with my Junior Paper while I'm here, which (the plan is) for me to translate a long article written about a modern topic in Arab world politics. Depending on what the article turns out to be and how this goes, I might try to interview him about his thoughts.
It's been really encouraging over all to be back in Amman and feel that 1) my Arabic has improved since last time and 2) that my overall cultural/travel awareness is up from last time. It's like a whole new city without my people here. I really feel like I'm rediscovering it. It's also great to be able to talk to people and feel like a) I'm understood and b) they're not always messing with me. From my conversations, it definitely feels like the overall mood is much different. While everyone always talked (foreign) politics to some extent, the conversation always focused on and rarely departed from US/Israel/Iraq stuff. Now, any conversation immediately goes to the plight of the Syrian people. I'm finding utter empathy with the Syrian people against Assad here, and support for the Arab Spring (in principle) overall. While general support for the Arab Spring is widespread, some people make it a point to say they're against anything in Bahrain and afraid of Shiite ambitions in the region. After spending so much of last semester writing about Bahrain, this attitude definitely interests me.
Since getting here I've been able to set up what I hope will be a long term internship with an orphanage in Amman (outskirts Amman?). I got an email from the Idealist (best thing ever), sent in a message and got a reply from someone who signed his name as a Peace Corps volunteer. He brought me in, I met with him and the director and expressed my interest in working in the legal department with the resident lawyer, doing what I understand is legal aid work for people in need. It seems like I'll basically be a fly on the wall as the social worker and lawyer work, with opportunities to hang out with the boys and ask tons of questions at my desire, and all in Arabic. So I expect the first couple of visits to be really tough, but eventually very helpful inshallah. I won't be writing a ton about this part of my time here (publicly).
More posts to come, and more pictures. As the weather gets better I'll get better at bringing my camera along with me. If you're reading this, I probably miss you and would love to talk.
Peace,
Robert
I've been in Amman for three weeks now. It's taken me a while to get to writing, my apologizes, but I hope to make this a better habit.
I came a week before the rest of the students were set to arrive because the Boren mandates that I spend exactly six months here, and my two programs combined were a week short. I set up a week of one-on-one Arabic lessons (with fantastic help from the Midd staff here) that proved to be really helpful. The professor was super flexible, set up lessons on the spot, and had innovative ways of thinking about the language that really helped me refresh my basics. I had class three hours a day and had not to much else to do the rest of my time.
It's been a lot better since the rest of the students showed up. We have a good group, the other students are fun and seem very dedicated. Everyone has their own experience traveling in the region or elsewhere, their own stories from home, their own views, ambitions, and backgrounds to share (in Arabic). I've really enjoyed some evenings out in cafes, (learning) and playing backgammon, etc. Orientation week was really well run, well organized and pretty helpful for learning how things work at the University. A better job probably could have been made to show us the city, as if I didn't already have an idea of where I was I don't think I would be situated at all. The administration is very hands off to say the least.
Classes started this week and my schedule is awesome, I have class Sunday-Wednesday from 11am-5pm. My modern standard Arabic class is at exactly the level I think I should be at, and its nice to study the language outside of the damn Al-Kitaab books. My colloquial Arabic class is less helpful, there seems to be no good way to structure that class. I'm also taking Literature and Politics. All of the classes are only with other kids in the program, meaning the language pledge is followed and the classes are small (8-12). The language pledge is exactly what it sounds, from the moment I wake up and ask my roommate if he's made coffee or I have to make it, all of our conversations are in Arabic. It makes the days exhausting as there's no real break. I step out of Arabic class to go to lunch... in Arabic. It gets frustrating more with Jordanians who speak perfect English (there are many) than it is with other people in the program because we in the program will help each other while any random person just wants to talk to us, ask a question, interact and we're insisting on speaking a (very rough) version of their language.
The Literature course is a survey course of modern Arabic literature, read and taught in Arabic. It's hard. The professor just rattles stuff off about famous writers, the different structures of stories, whats a novel, short story, life story, and how their defined, the terms for setting, character development, etc. He talks a mile a minute for 90 minutes. It's tough but definitely helpful. I'm able to follow the lectures to a large extent and after staring at the readings for long enough, and with judicious use of my dictionary, I can get the readings too. This is the first week, so I expect both the class to get harder and my Arabic to get better, so we'll see.
The Politics course is a whole different beast. The professor is largely American educated, has taught and lived in the US for years and has worked as a political advisor for both this King and the last. The class so far seems to be oriented towards a history/discussion of politics in the Middle East and Jordan. He doesn't have all that much patience with this language pledge thing and sometimes rattles off a term or two in English rather than go through the pain of explaining it in Arabic. The first class was excessive English-wise, but the second lecture was great. We're starting with the Arab revolt (~WWI) and presumably going from there. The lectures aren't necessary organized, but they flow logically, and we're getting a lot of useful terms thrown at us as well as an insight to how Jordanian (albeit foreign educated) academics view their own history. One glaring example today was the focus on the British betrayal of Sherif Hussein and his sons Abdulla and Faisal. When asked about what role the Al-Saud family had during this time and all that, he pretty much just changed the subject. I'm looking forward to hearing this guy talk about politics and respond to our questions. Plus I'm with a sharp group of students who will definitely ask some good questions. The professor is also helping me out with my Junior Paper while I'm here, which (the plan is) for me to translate a long article written about a modern topic in Arab world politics. Depending on what the article turns out to be and how this goes, I might try to interview him about his thoughts.
It's been really encouraging over all to be back in Amman and feel that 1) my Arabic has improved since last time and 2) that my overall cultural/travel awareness is up from last time. It's like a whole new city without my people here. I really feel like I'm rediscovering it. It's also great to be able to talk to people and feel like a) I'm understood and b) they're not always messing with me. From my conversations, it definitely feels like the overall mood is much different. While everyone always talked (foreign) politics to some extent, the conversation always focused on and rarely departed from US/Israel/Iraq stuff. Now, any conversation immediately goes to the plight of the Syrian people. I'm finding utter empathy with the Syrian people against Assad here, and support for the Arab Spring (in principle) overall. While general support for the Arab Spring is widespread, some people make it a point to say they're against anything in Bahrain and afraid of Shiite ambitions in the region. After spending so much of last semester writing about Bahrain, this attitude definitely interests me.
Since getting here I've been able to set up what I hope will be a long term internship with an orphanage in Amman (outskirts Amman?). I got an email from the Idealist (best thing ever), sent in a message and got a reply from someone who signed his name as a Peace Corps volunteer. He brought me in, I met with him and the director and expressed my interest in working in the legal department with the resident lawyer, doing what I understand is legal aid work for people in need. It seems like I'll basically be a fly on the wall as the social worker and lawyer work, with opportunities to hang out with the boys and ask tons of questions at my desire, and all in Arabic. So I expect the first couple of visits to be really tough, but eventually very helpful inshallah. I won't be writing a ton about this part of my time here (publicly).
More posts to come, and more pictures. As the weather gets better I'll get better at bringing my camera along with me. If you're reading this, I probably miss you and would love to talk.
Peace,
Robert
