Our First "Real" Day

After a morning connecting with contacts, sharing background information, discussing interview protocol, and scheduling meetings, we headed into downtown Amman (Jebel Amman) for the afternoon.

Although this is my third day in Jordan, I had yet to take any photos. My ability to step behind a lens to document all of our adventures so far has been limited by the fact that we students are entirely responsible for the success of each endeavor, be it academic or practical. Since these first few days have been spent primarily dealing with the practical aspects, those of us who do speak Arabic have found our limited skills in particularly high demand. These responsibilities make it somewhat hard to brandish a camera. On the other hand, not taking any pictures so far has been liberating in certain ways, since I tend to be someone who wants to snap everything once the camera is out.

I finally did pull out my camera when we stumbled upon the Roman Theater. This ancient ruin sits unobtrusively in the middle of the Jordanian equivalent of a strip mall (much smaller storefronts for tobacco, clothing, fruit juice and music shops). After the photo op, we opted to continue exploring this shopping district rather than take a tour of the theater. We wandered through a really great produce market off of the main street between the theater and Hussein Mosque. Jordanians in the market seemed more concerned with pursuing their own affairs (although we were certainly potential customers) that those on the street who were happy to spend a few minutes chatting with us.

The longer we lingered, the more they had to say. We talked with a middle-aged Christian bookseller who held forth on the weather in Jacksonville FL (where he once lived), his children in Toronto, the media's scare tactics, and signs in today's world that could indicate the End of Days. We had an equally eclectic conversation with some engineering students that discussed, among other things, the Democratic Primary (one supported Clinton, the other was an Obama fan).

My attempts to speak Arabic have met with mixed results. Understandably, Jordanians whose English is similarly limited are more patient. Others, like the students, prefer to speak English or have mixed conversations. The bookseller was patient enough to correct my pronunciation and try and introduce me to some colloquial. Personally, I am happily surprised with how well I understand others. I myself am rarely understood outside of contexts where one or two-word sentences are sufficient: Hello, How are you, I'm an American student, How much, Turn left, Turn right, Do you know Deir Ghbar?

Near the theater we met a jewelry teacher who spoke several languages and had lived in Israel, the United States, Romania and Jordan. He advised us to keep practicing Arabic as much as possible, to insist on speaking it, and reply in Arabic even if spoken to in English. I intend to follow his advice as much as possible, because I really do want to make the most of our short time here.

I should mention that Zack is particularly great at striking up conversations with Jordanians. West Point uses a different Arabic textbook than Tufts of the Naval Academy, and it is good to help each other. Tomorrow we are all looking forward to a morning at the US Embassy. In the afternoon we are hosting a reporter from the Jordan Times in our apartment for an interview.