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Pictures taken by Elaine Pollard, (Kalamazoo Faculty), Scholar Correspondent for CET Jordan, Fall 2023
Images is one among my favourite methods to replicate again on fond recollections. Every picture has a novel thumbprint, relying on the placement it was taken in, the angles used, the time of day it was taken at, and the chosen topic. They’re not simply images however tales that take us again in time and push us by means of to the longer term.
The images I made a decision to incorporate on this submit are ones that I do know I’ll cherish as being my first recollections of Jordan and the folks I might be calling my household for the subsequent three months. On day 8, I have already got over 300 footage from this journey, so you possibly can solely think about simply how laborious it was to determine on solely 10! I hope you get pleasure from these as a lot as I’ve, Yallah!
Lunch at AlQuds AlJadeed
After settling into our residences on the primary day of this system, we had been break up into teams and tasked with finishing a scavenger hunt! We needed to discover and purchase issues like thermometers, bottles of water, and binders. The aim was for us to develop into aware of our new lives in Swefieh Village. Swefieh is situated within the west of Amman and is a reasonably upscale neighborhood with a lot of choices for eating and café finding out. This picture is of my group getting غداء (Lunch) at AlQuds AlJadeed, which has an enormous menu and even greater portion sizes. Pictured listed below are Arthur, Ara, Clara, and Abby. All of us bought منسف, which is the nationwide dish of Jordan. It consists of rice and meat (lamb or hen); whereas consuming it, you pour scrumptious yogurt sauce on prime to get pleasure from! We had a number of enjoyable strolling across the neighborhood and bought to know one another slightly higher within the course of!
Strolling Round Amman
A couple of days after attending to Amman, we began our language pledge and commenced going to courses. The primary few weeks of this system are very intensive, and we’re at present spending 5 hours a day in courses finding out Ammiya, the Jordanian dialect of Arabic. As a result of we have now taken a language pledge, we will solely communicate English when connecting with our family and friends again dwelling. Having additionally began internships, it shortly turned obligatory for us to search out espresso outlets to check in, which is one thing Jordan is understood for! As a few of my pals and I had been on the hunt for a brand new café to check at, I seen this stunning flower arch and simply needed to take an image! There are such a lot of جميل (stunning) issues in Amman, and amongst my favorites are the flowers and timber. There are such a lot of completely different colours of flowers and sorts of crops right here, and I like to play guessing video games with myself about what they’re! Looking for the character round me is a good way for me to decompress from a protracted day and a protracted stroll again dwelling from finding out!
The picture on the proper jogs my memory slightly of The Beatles album cowl for “Abbey Street.” The one issues lacking listed below are the fits and the crosswalk! This picture wasn’t taken lengthy after our cease on the flower arch, and right here you possibly can see us strolling by means of a neighborhood in Swefieh, on our technique to the Village mall. بالعربية (In Arabic), we talked about how our days went and what we discovered at school. As soon as we bought to the café, we ordered our drinks (I, in fact, bought a milkshake :)) and labored there for a number of hours earlier than going dwelling for dinner. That was our first time finding out in a café in Jordan; it positively gained’t be the final!
A View from my Condominium
Since I’ve been right here for a few week now, I’ve a reasonably set schedule. Day by day, I get this view once I stroll up and down the steps to and from my third-floor residence. On each flooring, the staircase opens as much as a window, the place my avenue, Sa’eed Al-Mofti 60, will be seen. The home windows are barely tinted, giving the view a classic look, or a pure filter, which I believe is tremendous cool! I exploit this street to get to the CET heart, Safeway, the market, and most eating places and cafes. In some methods, it has develop into dwelling. What I really like most about strolling this path each day is the canine on the daycare subsequent door. He at all times greets my pals and me after we move by, and I’d wish to assume that perhaps he even sees us as his pals!
Souk Jara Market
After a protracted week, a few of my pals and I made a decision to go downtown to Rainbow Road. First, we stopped at an exquisite restaurant known as “Mijana” after which made our technique to the Souk Jara, the place we regarded round in any respect the artwork and clothes and even tried some smoothies. We weren’t prepared to go away, so we continued to discover the world, the place we discovered a pleasant bar to hang around at. Going to Rainbow Road on our first weekend after courses was a good way for us to decompress and get to know Jordan slightly extra earlier than beginning courses once more on Sunday!
Additionally taken on the Souk, the picture on the proper goes to indicate simply how colourful Rainbow Road is! At night time, the colours throughout us within the Souk and on the buildings actually stand out. Souk Jara is the second Souk I’ve been to on this journey to this point. This one had much more handmade items akin to luggage, jewellery, and artwork, whereas the opposite Souk possessed extra used clothes and objects that you’d discover whereas thrifting. Thrifting is one among my favourite issues to do at dwelling in Michigan, so I’m excited to make journeys to the Souks an everyday a part of my time right here!
Amman Citadel
Over the weekend, الجيران (Our Jordanian neighbors) took our cohort to the Amman Citadel in downtown Amman. All of us crammed into a number of Ubers and spent about 5 hours exploring the ruins and museum, and having dinner and dessert afterward. The Citadel is a ginormous archeological web site with a lot to see. The encompassing view of town was simply as breathtaking. The Citadel is taken into account to be one of many worlds’ oldest inhabited locations. The Roman Temple of Hercules is probably the most notable, which is why I included it on this submit. Though that is the case, there are numerous different cool issues to see on the web site. There’s the Gateway to Umayyad Palace, the gateway of the Umayyad Mosque, and collections of sculptures, pottery, jewellery, and tombs within the museum. After strolling across the Citadel, we had dinner, after which one of many Jirans, Abdulluh, took a few of us to attempt Kanafeh for the primary time. Kanafeh is a standard dessert with a candy sauce and cheese drizzled over a pastry, and I extremely suggest it!
The picture on the proper was additionally taken on the Amman Citadel, and is of my buddy Arthur. I really like the symmetry within the picture, with him standing in the course of the Roman Temple of Hercules. As you possibly can see from the sky, it was a powerful day to discover the location and downtown Amman. There’s a lot to see and do downtown, and I’m excited to see what my pals and I’ll do there subsequent!
CET Jordan College students
The autumn CET Jordan cohort consists of 23 folks from all around the U.S. Everybody has various ranges of expertise with Arabic, which makes this system that significantly better as a result of regardless of the place we stand in our talking, writing, listening, and studying abilities, we will at all times assist one another out. We’ve got grown very shut after solely being right here for every week. I really feel just like the folks I’ve met right here will proceed to be in my life even after we go away. I’ve liked attending to know everybody and listening to all about their lives. It’s such a supportive group of individuals, which I discover to be extraordinarily necessary as we’re discovering methods to navigate the robust components of this system collectively. This image doesn’t embody everybody in this system, but it surely’s most of us!
Maestro: A Bar Downtown
Final night time, after spending the primary few days of the week finding out, a few of my pals and I made a decision to go to a bar known as “Maestro.” We went as a result of they’ve dwell music each Tuesday, and we thought it’d be a good way to loosen up. The bar is downtown, so we hopped in an Uber and made our means there. Most of our time there was spent speaking and hanging out, however in direction of the top of the night time, we discovered that our pals from this system, Ara and Nick, had been going to carry out with the band! We stayed quite a bit longer than deliberate, but it surely was so enjoyable to observe our pals on stage doing what they love. I wouldn’t be shocked if we ended up going there each Tuesday!
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