so yesterday my study abroad program with SIT officially kicked off! everyone (there are 25 of us, i think?) arrived at the airport in the evening and we were shuttled over to a hotel near the 4th circle, where i am now. (an easy way to orient yourself in amman is by the circles, which are numbered from east to west) anyway, after about 24 hours of awkward small talk, we are starting to get comfortable with each other. a few rounds of bananagrams didn't hurt either.
today was all about orientation at the SIT headquarters in the abdoun neighborhood of amman, which is pretty chic and upper-crust (BOUUUUGE). so we were inside all day, but no one minded because it rained all afternoon. orientation was both comforting and off-putting. the directors of the program are amazing. they really emphasized that we could come to them with ANY question and ANY concern ANY time.
however, a lot of the reason they wanted to us to feel comfortable with them was in the context of responding to sexual harassment. about 1/3 of our orientation day was about harrassment, what kind of harassment we should expect and at what frequency. they had MANY stories to share from semesters past, including some very disconcerting incidents with homestay fathers. a former student who is still in amman doing fulbright research was here today, though, and she said women probably have to deal with harassment maybe only 5% of the time, and it's mostly just catcalls or overly-chatty taxi drivers. she gave some very good tips and arabic phrases to shut down any inappropriate conversation, and how to react to catcalls (pretty easy, just ignore them and don't make eye contact). in the end, i'm not too worried about it, but i'm definitely going to have to make an effort to change some of my habits.
for instance, striking up a conversation with a cab driver can be very suggestive, even if you truly just want to get some insider info about this new city. also too much smiling is a no-no, as is laughing when it's not called for. this is bad news bears for yours truly, as i love making small talk with strangers, i tend to smile whenever i talk to strangers, and i definitely laugh as a nervous habit. i'm going to have to bite my tongue a bit more though so i don't accidentally end up with a jordanian cab driver boyfriend.
we've had some changes to the program this semester due to the political situation over here. there was originally going to be a 5-day excursion to cairo, but that's no longer in the cards. so the alternatives are syria (please please please) or oman! i'd be really excited either way. things here in jordan are changing too! just today, king abdullah II dismissed the government (like, all of it) and appointed a new PM. (here is a cnn.com article about it: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/01/jordan.government/index.html) the SIT staff were all pretty excited about it, and, "insha'allah" (god willing), it will mean real reform for jordan.
tomorrow we learn all about our homestay families and do some "drop-offs" within the ciy. i don't know exactly what this means, but i assume i'm going to have to put my geogrpahy skills to the test and do some extreme map-reading. then on thursday we meet our homestay families and move in with them. then we have the weekend (which is friday and saturday in the arab world) and classes start on sunday. fingers crossed for a homestay family with babies and/or grandparents and/or one million pet cats!!
so, family and friends, don't worry! i'm alive and quite well, taken care of by a generous and kind SIT staff, and in the company of some good people. until next time,
molly
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