"My Top 5 Experiences during My Time Abroad" by Ciara Tenney
Spring Break in Israel
I took this photo at the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa, Israel. One of the highlights of my time studying abroad was the opportunity I had to spend spring break in Israel, which is a relatively short and easy ride from Amman. I started my trip in Tel Aviv and was fortunate enough to visit other places like Jerusalem, Nazareth, Haifa, and the Golan Heights. Not only is Israel beautiful, but the weather was more moderate than it has been in Amman this semester and I really enjoyed walking along the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv. To my surprise, I was hit by culture shock in Israel because I was so accustomed to speaking Arabic with taxi drivers and in restaurants in Jordan, and many of the people I encountered in Israel spoke Hebrew and English, but not Arabic. I was frustrated with myself because I don’t like being that American that can’t speak the local language, but I was. Due to this language barrier, my favorite place in Israel was Nazareth, which is the largest Arab city in Israel because everything was written in Arabic and everyone spoke Arabic. If you chose to travel while abroad, try to learn a little bit of the language of the place where you are going beforehand! Photo credit: Tenney, 2019
Dead Sea Trips
I thoroughly enjoyed both of the trips that I took to the Dead Sea, the first being with Amideast. The trip with Amideast was an absolute blast; we stayed in the Hilton Hotel, which is incredibly nice, with fantastic pools and food. Apart from the hotel being gorgeous and clean, Amideast hosted a mock traditional Jordanian wedding between two students, and we all immensely enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Jordanian culture and throw ourselves into our assigned wedding roles. All of the Arabic professors attended the wedding as well, so it really was a program-wide event. In addition to the wedding, most of us played hours and hours of volleyball in between rounds of swimming, and I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun. The group dynamics were perfect, everyone was competitive but never frustrated and we all worked together well. It was a perfect trip. Photo credit: Tenney, 2019
Petra and Wadi Rum
The whole trip to Petra and Wadi Rum was an amazing experience, but the absolute peak of this excursion was the Jeep tour that we took through the desert in Wadi Rum. The weather was perfect: hot without being blistering, the sun was shining, and it was a little windy. The desert looks a lot like Mars, and the film The Martian was actually filmed there. We began the Jeep tour from the camp we had stayed in overnight and drove through the desert for around two hours. We had three trucks, and all of us sat on benches in the back of them. While we were driving the wind was whipping which both kept us cool and was exhilarating. The desert is gorgeous, and we had several photoshoots on top of the dunes with various action shots. After driving through the desert for around an hour, we visited a Bedouin camp and enjoyed very sweet tea. Photo credit: Tenney, 2019
Learning to do CrossFit with Friends
While studying in Amman I was fortunate enough to be able to become a member of the gym Quicksand in Abdoun near the Taj Mall. After walking around Abdoun to look at several different gyms, five of us chose to sign up for Quicksand. Beginning in February, my fellow Blog Abroad Correspondent Michaela and our friends Elizabeth and Sophia decided to do the CrossFit Elements course, which is a 12-class introduction to CrossFit. Not only was the experience of leaning to do CrossFit enjoyable, it changed my entire perspective on fitness and my own ability to achieve more. For me, studying abroad is about more than learning Arabic, it’s about making yourself a better person in many different aspects, and I am so grateful I was able to do that with my friends. Photo credit: Tenney, 2019
Snowstorm Week #1
I’m from the State of Maine, which is cold and snowy during the winter, but I was shocked to arrive in Amman and have a snow day on our first Thursday (the Jordanian workweek ends on Thursday, so it is the equivalent of Friday in the US) in country. One of the students studying here this semester did a summer session in Amman during summer 2018, so after our introduction sessions on Wednesday he led us all to a restaurant called Hashem in downtown. We all sat down to eat and were talking to get to know each other as we had only met a few days earlier, and suddenly one of the student’s Amideast provided cell phone (we call them burner phones) rang and it was Ghassan (one of the program managers) asking us where we all were. We had been cautioned to stay home because of the predicted snow, but we all wanted to get out and explore the city. It was quite the moment when he said that every single one of us was downtown and that we would go home as soon as we paid for our food. It was incredibly difficult to find a taxi in the hail and snow, as much of Amman shuts down whenever there is snow. The journey home was quite the adventure, and I will never forget being pelted by hail and snow in the Middle East as one of my first experiences in the region. Photo credit: Tenney, 2019
