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Post 2 – First Impressions of Amman

I’ve been in Amman for only a few days, but the learning curve has been immense.

General Thoughts about Amman:

Amman is NOT a walkable city. The terrain is extremely hilly, and something half a mile away is actually virtually inaccessible by foot. There are also no crosswalks anywhere, even on major streets, and driving is very aggressive, so crossing the street is really a matter of confidence. This being said, taxis are astoundingly cheap, which makes every part of the city super accessible.

People don’t use street names or addresses – this really distinguishes the locals from the tourists. Instead of using the street names posted on signs, certain streets are known by completely different names, and it is crucial to know nearby landmarks, such as a mosque or a mall, in order to communicate where you live or need to go. This system leaves me extremely confused.

The Adhan (the Muslim call to prayer) plays over loudspeakers all throughout the city 5 times a day. It is truly beautiful and is a spiritual experience all its own – even if you aren’t Muslim. Every time I hear it, I am so moved by its unitive quality. Every single person in this city of 4 million people is experiencing this all at the same time. The cadence of the muezzins reverberates off of buildings and throughout the many hills of Amman, echoes, and builds. There is truly nothing like it.

Walking around Amman as a women means that pretty much on every street, someone will honk from their car, or possibly slow down as they drive past, or yell something from their window. But again, I think everything is a matter of confidence, and since I am always walking in a group, these kinds of things just roll off the shoulder and, as I was warned, is just something that is a part of living in this city.

Language learning going forward:

“Arabic is a jealous language – if you give it all of you, it will give you half of it.”

There is a BIG difference between learning and speaking a language in class and using it in a practical setting. Tourism is a main industry in Amman, so English is everywhere throughout the city, and since I obviously do not look Arab and am walking in groups where all of us seem vaguely unsure of ourselves, people will peg us as foreigners right away and start speaking English. This is challenging because even if I try to use Arabic, they will respond in English. Most of the exchanges I have had are in grocery stores or restaurants, so they are quick exchanges, and especially in the first few days, these exchanges left me very discouraged because how am I supposed to put my Arabic in context if I can’t use it?

During Qasid orientation, we were told that that to really improve, for better or worse, we need to study Arabic with a level of obsession – full commitment. My roommates and I have discovered that the only television channel we receive is a kids cartoons channel, and we have gotten in the habit of watching cartoons in Arabic every morning to pick up simple vocab and sentence structure. If that is not the beginnings of obsession, then I don’t know what is.

In order to use Arabic in practical settings and improve, which is what I came here to achieve, I need to have more intentionality, speak in Arabic when I can, think in Arabic, and have patience (not my strong-suit by any means). I think that Reclaim Childhood will also be a space where I am encouraged to speak and am able to absorb dialect.

Another issue, which will resolve in time, is custom. There are fixed phrases that you are expected to say when exiting a taxi, meeting someone, or in other simple exchanges. I always leave these exchanges feeling that I have said the wrong thing or have somehow been rude, even if that was not the intention. There is so much to learn and using Arabic in a practical interpersonal context is both daunting and exciting.

Qasid showed us the typical learning arc, which consists of initial motivation around levels 1 and 2 when you are learning a lot and every concept is new, plateau at level 3 when you realize how much you don’t know and how much work is ahead of you, and then continued motivation at the higher levels when you begin to see your work pay off. Right now, I know that I am in that level 3 plateau and it’s important to just keep going and stay motivated. Classes begin tomorrow and I am excited to continue chugging along on the route to fluency. But the road ahead is long, and coming here has made me aware of just how much I still need to learn.

Highlights:

My roommates are amazing, so sweet, and all so motivated to learn this language and experience everything that the city has to offer. We are in the beginning stages of planning a trip for the 5-day Eid break!

The Amman Citadel / Temple of Hercules: The views alone are breathtaking, but I think the coolest part is learning about the history of this ancient city. One of the aspects that drew me to studying Arabic was the rich history of the Middle East and the desire to more deeply understand history through language (the evolution of the Arabic language and its dialects is extremely fascinating but also extremely overwhelming for someone trying to achieve fluency). But when I think about how many people walked this land, how they lived, worshipped, and communicated with each other and surrounding civilizations, I become amazed and imbued with a desire to learn more.

Produce here is so good and so cheap. Fruit is my main food group and there is a souq within walking distance of the apartment with amazing produce, including pomegranates.

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Post #2: Me After 2 Weeks in Madrid

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my second blog post. It’s crazy to think that I’m writing this at the two week mark because it feels like I’ve only just gotten here while at the same time I feel like I’ve lived in Madrid for an entire year. To say that my first two weeks in Madrid have been amazing would be an understatement. Ive started classes, gotten to know my host family, met an incredible group of friends, and started to feel at home in this exciting city.

My first week in Madrid was one big learning curve, and I quickly learned two very important things: the world around you is often a lot less organized than you think it is, and you are often a lot stronger than you think you are. For starters, I didn’t find out about my host family until the day before I flew out to Madrid because I’m learning that Nebrija is known for its disorganization and last-minute thinking. For anyone looking at the Nebrija or Madrid-university program, the biggest word of advice I can give you is to reach out to a former SLA recipient for help. I wouldn’t change my SLA experience for the world, but it helps to have some guidance along the way. I learned once I got to Madrid that everyone here is at Nebrija through their university’s study abroad program, which provides them with a program director to support them as they navigate placement tests, housing, getting a student metro card, and so much more. I had to do all of this on my own, which taught me that I’m really a lot stronger than I thought I was.

Being one of the only independent students at Nebrija this summer has made me quite the special case with the university’s administration. At this point every admin or professor knows my name, responding with a look of stress and curiosity when I tell them I’m Eva Marie (I’ve decided to go by my full name here). At the end of my first week I learned of an incident surrounding my class schedule that I’m lucky I wasn’t there to witness. The academics director had put my classes in the system as Teatro Española and B2.2 Language, when instead we had discussed putting me in Literatura Española and B2.2 Language. Because of this error I was locked out of my virtual campus for the first week. The first weekend I was out with some friends and my friend Ceci who is in the Teatro Española class told me that a Nebrija admin stormed into the Teatro Española classroom shouting “¡¿Dónde está Eva Marie!? ¡¿Dónde está Eva Marie!? La he buscado por todas partes. ¡No sé dónde se supone que debe estar y el problema es que tampoco creo que sepa dónde se supone que debe estar!” in other words, I’ve looked everywhere for her and I don’t know where she is supposed to be, and the problem is I don’t think she knows where she’s supposed to be either. The truth is, I was in my language class with absolutely no idea that the Teatro Española class was listening to the Nebrija admin shout my name. Luckily for me, my literature professor Ramón also teaches the theater class. Ramón, according to my friend Ceci, stood up for me and assured the admin that I had been to every literature class and that they had nothing to worry about.

When Ceci told me about this I was honestly in shock. I honestly can’t imagine a Notre Dame admin ever storming into a classroom and shouting at the teacher that a student is not where she is supposed to be. Truthfully, I’m glad I wasn’t there when she came looking for me. Looking back a week later, it’s really pretty funny. Ceci and I had a good laugh about it because we both knew that I hadn’t done anything wrong, and it was heartwarming to hear that my professor would stand up for me in front of a member of administration. It also made me realize how important it is for me to let go of my expectations for how the world should work based on what I’ve always known. Just because this would not be expected at Notre Dame doesn’t mean it’s not considered normal here. I’ve found the Nebrija admin and professors to be incredibly kind, welcoming, and accommodating of my unique situation. However, it does seem to be normal here to be expressive with every emotion– including frustration. This is a cultural difference that I will have to get used to. I won’t lie and say it didn’t hurt my feelings to hear that my name had been thrown around to a classroom of my peers. However, I realize now that I can learn to handle situations like this by viewing them with an open mind and understanding that different cultures learn to express themselves differently.

Now, enough with the bad stuff. I have truly had such an incredible time in my first two weeks here. Coming in without knowing anyone, I was free to be whoever I wanted and connect with whoever I chose. I’ve found a great group of friends from the University of Florida, I’ve become friends with classmates from all over the United States, and I’ve grown close with my host sister Beatriz who lives with her mom in Madrid but was raised in the Canary Islands. I’ve been truly shocked by my Spanish abilities, too. I’m able to have complete, fulfilling, and hilarious conversations with my host mom and sister, and I’m learning a great deal in my two classes. On the first weekend I got a taste of Madrid nightlife, watched the FA cup final at a pub near Parque de el Retiro, went to last Real Madrid game of the season, and saw the Little Mermaid with Spanish subtitles. Oh and we ran into Alvaro Monte on the street, followed him for a while, ended up at the premiere for Tyler Rake 2 that he and Chris Hemsworth star in. Picture below. On my second weekend my cousin got married in Vigo, so I explored the Galicia region of Spain with my family and even went down to Portugal. I had no idea that there is so much Celtic influence in Galicia; we watched a Galician band perform with gaitas, which are Galician bagpipes! This weekend I’m off to Valencia to stay in a hostel with the friends I’ve made through Nebrija, and even Keira who is the other SLA recipient in studying in Madrid this summer! I can already feel myself falling in love with this city and its culture. Hard to believe in just 6 short weeks it will all be over.

¡Hasta luego!

Eva Marie

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#4: DIVE into the toilet

WARNING: This post is about toilet culture!

When I finally arrived at my host family’s apartment after the long trip from South Bend to Quito, I first needed to go to the bathroom.

Then I found a trash can next to the toilet, and I thought: “Wait, is this for that thing?” I opened the trash can, and there were used pieces of toilet paper in it. I immediately understood that I should not throw toilet paper into the toilet bowl in Ecuador (Description). In many parts of the world, it is common that toilet paper cannot be flushed and instead must be thrown away in a trash can. Since I had already experienced it in some countries when I was traveling, this fact was not so surprising.

However, my initial reaction was indeed something. After the long Covid period that I spent in Japan, the UK, and the US, I was totally accustomed to the toilet culture where we can flush it in the toilet bowl. So, I could not help myself feeling a bit of mental resistance when I had to do so, thinking like “I just want to throw it away in the toilet bowl; I feel embarrassed because it could smell later” (Interpretation).

I did not talk about this cultural incident with anybody here because I understood it from my own experience, but I do see a piece of paper saying “No tire las toallas de papel en el inodoro” (Don’t throw away toilet paper in the toilet bowl) in public bathrooms in restaurants and cafés. So I would say that my observation has been verified (Verification).

Although I must say that my first immediate reaction was more of the negative side, I got used to it after that (or I switched my culture mode) and now I feel neutral about the toilet culture (Evaluation).

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Post 3 – Cross-Cultural Learning

Though I was always excited to learn about Spanish culture and meet people from other countries, I didn’t expect to have such a strong opportunity to learn about life in a country I’ve never even been to. My closest friend that I met in my first couple of weeks was from Germany, where she’s currently in medical school. Though she unfortunately was only in Spain for two weeks, I really enjoyed getting to know her and learning about her life in Germany, its similarities and differences with the U.S., and the impressions someone my age might have about college students in the U.S. 

When I asked her idea of a typical American university student, she mentioned several aspects, including the fact that everyone lives in dorms, higher education is quite expensive, fraternities are very common, and each school has a very strong sense of pride for its sports teams. On the whole, I think her impression was relatively accurate. Some things might be slightly exaggerated depending on the school, and it might reflect the influence of movies portraying the strong American college sports spirit, but nothing was unfounded. I also don’t think her comments carried a positive or negative connotation, but simply reflected aspects of American universities that might differ from German ones. 

I think most of my autostereotypes would align with her reflection. I might add that to me, college in America is often a time of new independence and personal growth and maturity. Also, it’s a remarkably eye-opening experience – while the majority of students might come from the same country, the diversity within the U.S. means that many different cultures, perspectives, and life experiences can interact and connect. 

This is the first time I’ve really had the chance to experience how people from other countries might view Americans, and I think it’s been very interesting to get this wider perspective. It almost parallels with starting college this past year, when it suddenly became easy to meet people from all different backgrounds. Instead of most people being from the same county as me, they were from all over the country. Now, that view has expanded even further to a situation where most people are not even from my country, but rather from all over the world. It’s offered the chance to explore beyond just my own home or even the place I’m visiting, and to truly broaden my perspective and understanding of the world.