Hannah in Jordan - My Fulbright Year: Week 3

Getting into a routine

Tomorrow marks my one month anniversary since arriving here in Amman. Just as is expected with any big change, some weeks go by slowly while others seem to pass before I even realize it. I’m happily settling into my routine and am grateful to be back teaching. I’ve been assigned two courses at the University of Jordan. Monday and Wednesday mornings I teach “Oral Skills” and Monday and Wednesday afternoons I teach “Reading and Listening.” These are both fun topics to facilitate although my biggest challenge so far is managing the large class sizes. I only have 35 in reading and listening and it’s going well. However, I have 62 students in my oral skills class, which is really quite laughable when you consider they’re supposed to be improving their speaking skills. The room I’m in is essentially a small lecture hall with fixed seats in graduated rows. I do my best to break them into small groups and walk around to monitor the students but it’s pretty challenging. I’m very glad I have a few years of teaching under my belt both for practical reasons related lesson planning and classroom management, but also because now I have the wisdom to understand that I can only be expected to do my best. My 6 hours a week of classroom time is slightly less than I thought I’d have, but the time I’ll be spending grading nearly 100 students worth work will make up for it. I’m also glad I have teaching experience because I’ve really been thrown into these classes with very little explanation of the expectations. It’s no coincidence that I, an MA holder, am the Fulbright teacher at the University of Jordan. Generally the Fulbright ETAs who have less experience in the classroom have been placed in schools where they are either assisting the main teachers or are given a lot more guidance. The installations at the University of Jordan are what would be expected in a developing country. The copy machine doesn’t have a staple feature for example. This alone does not mark the end of the world of course, but I spent an extra 45 minutes making copies last week simply because it was such a challenge to find a stapler that didn’t jam up or spurt out multiple staples at once. Printing is also a challenge. At this point the shared faculty computer isn’t set up to print and the poor secretary has been so busy with matriculation issues (yes, people still register in analogue fashion) that I’ve felt so guilty asking her to print documents that I email to her. Students have all made photocopies of the text book at this point (also standard practice in developing countries) so hopefully I won’t need to print and copy too many more documents for the rest of the semester. There are countless other things that are annoying about the university (cigarette smoke in the hallways, dusty surfaces everywhere, no speakers or av equipment or internet in the classrooms) but I won’t get into it too much. My students have been great so far. For the most part they are very eager to learn and seem to come from relatively humble backgrounds. They remind me of the scholarship students I used to teach in Rabat who were from low-income backgrounds and demonstrated a passion for learning English. I’ve taught my fair share of wealthy students in the past and so far, my University of Jordan students do not seem this way at all. In the end, I’d much rather teach at an institution that has poor facilities but eager students than at a fancy school with privileged students who are apathetic toward learning.

This is where I hold my "Oral Skills" class.

Empty campus before classes begin.

I ran into my Fulbright colleague Amal at the copy center the other day.

We were both shared a mezze near the north gate.

This meal cost about $4.

Renting cars and exploring the country

I’m grateful to have come here with the Fulbright group. There are more than 25 of us living in Amman and what’s great is that is almost always a small group interested in going on an adventure. Two weeks ago, before I started teaching, a group of us rented a car and headed to the Dead Sea. The car was dropped off at one of the apartments where a bunch of Fulbrighters reside and we headed out at around 10:00am. Armed with day passes to the Holiday Inn Dead Sea resort, we made our way out of the city to the lowest point on Earth. Our first trip renting a car went mostly smoothly, however we did have a slight delay at the last roundabout of the city. The roundabouts in Amman are a total mess and we managed to slowly scrape a car as we tried to exit the turn. Unlike in the States, accidents are resolved on the spot, where a police officer decides who is at fault. I imagine it kind of like a fighting match where the judges point to the victor at the end of the final round. Our friend who was driving felt at fault and after a very calm and peaceful discussion (the other driver shook our friend’s hand as a greeting immediately after the collision occurred), we gave the other driver a relatively small sum of money and both parties were happily on their ways. Our Dead Sea trip was very fun. The Holiday Inn had quite a few relaxing pools and the salty sea was fun to float in. I brought my GoPro and the group took a selfie while we floated high upon the water. We had a delicious lunch at a seafood restaurant with tremendous views of the Dead Sea and returned to the pools of the Holiday Inn to relax some more. This would be my last “day off” before the semester started and it was very well spent. Per the recommendation of Alain, our commission director, we returned to the city before sunset.

Necessary floating and muddy Dead Sea selfies!

The following weekend, a larger group took a trip up to the north to visit the Roman/Ottoman ruins at Umm Qais. This time we took two cars and made it out of the city with no scratches. However, we made up for our smooth exit out of the city by taking some wrong turns near Irbid. After getting stuck in Irbid traffic (Google Maps sometimes indicates roads where there are none) for a little under an hour, we managed to ask some people on the street for help. A kind group of young men actually led us in their car to the turn off we needed to take to head north to Umm Qais. Literally 200 meters from the point where they directed us, we hit a pothole and got a flat tire. While Andrew changed the tire (thankfully there was a full sized spare in the trunk), Norah and Mark ventured to a nearby house to ask to use the restroom. After about 20 minutes, they still weren’t back so we assumed they not only found a bathroom but were most likely invited to tea by the residents. We called them and were correct in our assumption. When we asked Mark how long they thought they would be, he explained that we were all invited to have lunch with the family. Unable to refuse (really, it can be impossible to refuse a tea or meal invitation from an Arab), we parked our cars near the army post (being guarded by men with no magazines in their weapons) and entered the house. Norah and I hung out in the kitchen with the mother and younger children while the guys chatted in the living room. The mom teaches Arabic at a nearby school and between our limited Arabic and her limited English, we got along quite well. The youngest daughter proudly showed me her school books and they happened to be at a perfect level for my Arabic (the colors, preposition etc.). Soon enough lunch was ready and we made our way into the dining area. The house reminded me of the more traditional homes I used to spend time in in Morocco where the walls are lined with sofas and the floor was covered with carpet. Strangely the family didn’t eat (they said they had had a big breakfast) so the six of us sat around the shared dishes and enjoyed hummus, goat cheese in olive oil, olives, french fries, sweet black tea, pickled vegetables, and za’atar (a thyme and sesame seed dip), homemade honey from the father’s honey bees and some of the most delicious bread I’ve ever had. As if our meal wasn’t enough, we were served another round of tea after lunch, then coffee, then juice. It was about a two and a half hour affair! Our hosts shared with us family pictures and we chatted about a range of topics including the teacher strike (with the help of the more advanced speakers in the group) and our time in Jordan. I took some nice pictures of the family and got their emails so that I would be able to send them as a thank you. It was an incredible experience and honestly, I’m getting the impression that experiencing such generosity isn’t that out of the ordinary here. My friend Andrew wrote a nice post on Facebook about the experience and I’ve included that below. I’ve learned two important lessons. Always bring some kind of little gift with me wherever I go, and don’t leave town without my SLR because it’s in unexpected times like these that I’ll want to have it. Thankfully I did and the low light indoors pictures came out super well!

Photo by Andrew Fichter

By about 2:30pm we said our good-byes and were on our final stretch toward Umm Qais. The Greek and Roman ruins were very impressive as was the juxtaposition of the later Ottoman buildings on the same site. It’s pretty crazy how much freedom tourists have to walk on the structures and potentially fall in gaping holes. From Umm Qais, you could see Israel and the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights, and Syria. We could hear explosions off in the distance but considering southern Syria isn’t experiencing as much violence, we projected that it may have just been Israeli practice fire. I have really enjoyed my Fulbright travel companions and am very pleased to know that they are just as interested in taking nerdy photos as am. This one wasn’t even my idea: