I changed the title of my blog to reflect my current situation. Earlier this year I was awarded the U.S. Department of State's Critical Language Scholarship, which allows me to take part in an intensive Arabic language training program in the Middle East. I happened to be placed in Amman, Jordan and as of yesterday that is where I am. I will spend the next 2 months practically speaking Arabic all day, every day. This blog will now be telling stories of this adventure.
Me and 36 of my fellow scholarship recipients arrived in Amman yesterday at around 10pm after a two day orientation session in Washington D.C. As soon as we walked off the plane I couldn't help but smile because I felt as if I had never left the Middle East some nine months ago. We all exchanged our dollars to dinars, bought our visas (which are basically just stamps taped into our passports), passed through immmigration and picked up our luggage. We were greeted by some of the coordinators who will be with us during the program and then boarded a bus to head to the American Center for Oriental Research - which is where sleep and eat.
I purposely sat at the front of the bus so I could have a good view of coming into Amman at night. At some point we passed a road running parallel to the highway that I had driven on and got lost on back in December 2008. It was here that myself and my four bedouin friends made our way to a rural horse ranch where one of the bedo would ultimately purchase a new horse. Continuing into the city we passed a long stretch of the road where dozens of cars were parked while dozens of people sat by campfires enjoying the cool Jordanian night. Supposedly this is a makeshift park, albeit a roadside one, where locals like to go to get away from the city and spend time with friends and family.
We entered the area of West Amman known as Tlaa al-Ali, which is near to the University of Jordan, and finally reached the place that will be new temporary home situated on top of a hill. The facility is nice enough - there is a lobby, kitchen, veranda and library on the ground floor and all the upper floors are residence halls. I have a room, which I share with one other girl. It is a typical dormitory type room - with two twin beds, a desk, two closets and a bathroom with a toilet and shower.
This morning I found out that I was placed in the lowest level of Arabic at the program, "Beginning Advanced," which is basically one step below Intermediate. I am happy about this because I feel that it will allow me to learn in the best possible way and help me to only improve!! We had our first Amiyya Arabic lesson today. Amiyya is the dialect that is spoken here in Jordan. As it is very similar to Palestinian Amiyya, I had a bit of an advantage. It was interesting to see how people who had purely been trained in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) had difficulties moving over to the colloquial stuff. I think for me it will be the other way around!!
