Amman
The first 5 days of our 11 day trip was spent in the capital, Amman. From the moment our group stepped foot out of Queen Alia International Airport, I knew that I was in for an amazing experience. The most memorable thing from that first half day was our first dinner. Before the trip in our info sessions, Dr. O'Brien had told us many things about the food culture in Jordan: They will keep giving you food until you actually tell them to stop, and hummus as you knew it would be ruined. I'd say she was right in both parts. I wasn't really a fan of hummus before the trip, because it always felt too "chunky." But the hummus in this trip, oh boy, it was something else. Not only was it so smooth and creamy, it had a bit more flavor to it than hummus I've tried in the states. As for the food itself...well it was as good as you could possibly imagine. Since Muslims cannot eat pork, there were a lot of chicken, rice, lamb, etc. The amount of flavor in them was astonishing. I have eaten Middle Eastern cuisine before, but it was not quite like this.
The best thing about the stay in Amman was the very loose schedule. We only had about one or two required events to attend per day, then after we were free to explore the city in small groups. Although our American group really stood out in one of the largest Middle Eastern cities, I was surprised at how friendly and hospitable the locals were. Everyone knew a little bit of English, and tried to help us in turn with our rather broken Arabic. Safe to say, it was very unlike how the media here in the US portrayed the Middle East to be.
That being said, the required events really left an impact on me. One day, we visited two refugee organizations. One was focused on the local scale, helping Syrian refugees settle in here in Amman. The second one was a more global organization that helped refugees all around the world, not just here in Jordan. Another day, we talked with the founders of a LGBTQ+ organization and their goals in spreading awareness on LGBT people in the Middle East and protecting them from harm. Considering the difference in culture and social structure here as opposed to the US, I was pleasantly surprised that such an organization actually existed. We also visited the University of Jordan, where we were able to watch a few concerts (to my delight) and talk with some of the students in the art department. Despite being an entire world away, I felt quite at home talking to the students. They were not so different from us; young students aspiring to learn and change their current world to be a better one.
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Our final day in Amman was a scavenger hunt around the entire city. We split up into groups and were assigned various tasks that offered varying amounts of points, whether it was finding a specific place or buying a food or commodity. We had to take a picture of every task we completed. Despite the cold, rainy conditions (which made us particularly jealous of our counselors, watching everything from the safe, warm confines of the hotel) we had tons of fun. Our group sort of gave up halfway through and merged with another, and decided to just enjoy the rest of the time we had here in this amazing city.
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