University of Wisconsin–Madison

Jordan : Ayah Amer (Daily Life in Amman, Jordan)

Daily Life in Amman, Jordan

A street lined with parked cars and palm trees overlooks a city covered in fog.
A sidewalk with two stone buildings on either side and a street with parked cars.

Of the thirteen people in my program, three of us chose to live in an apartment rather than a homestay. Each morning the three of us met in the lobby of the apartment complex at 7:55am, greeted the apartment’s manager, walked past the same handful of stray cats who resided just outside the apartment’s doors, and set out for the bus stop. Jordan is generally known to be a hotspot for healthcare and medical tourism in the Middle East, and our neighborhood was populated with many pharmacies and well-known hospitals. Traveling throughout Amman differs from the U.S. in that most people navigate the city based solely on landmarks within each of Amman’s eight circles (roundabouts) and word of mouth. The surrounding hospitals were our landmarks. Each day we would walk past these hospitals and pharmacies, alongside bodegas, food carts and shops, and very quickly the people of the neighborhood became familiarities.

A city as seen from above with many buildings that are primarily tan and have flat roofs.
A cafe has seating underneath a red awning outside on a sunny day. There is a pot with pink flowers next to some of the chairs.

We would reach the bus stop around 8:15am and step onto a bus that was typically filled to the brim with locals heading to university or work. After getting off at our stop, we would grab coffee, head to the center where our classes were held, take the elevator to the fifth floor, give our morning greetings to the center’s staff and sit with one another until classes began at 9:00am. After three hours of learning Modern Standard Arabic, we would have lunch break. I regularly frequented a restaurant called Akka (named after a Palestinian city) where I would have my daily falafel sandwich—the best I have ever had in my life. I would then return to the center, have my colloquial Arabic class, head home on the bus and study at a local coffee shop every Sunday through Thursday.

 

Ayah smiles in front of blurred trees in the background.

Ayah Amer

Majors: Neurobiology and Psychology

Hometown: Greenfield, Wisconsin

Program: CIEE Summer Arabic Language in Amman, Jordan

On this program, I most look forward to learning more about Jordan’s rich history and visiting famous historical sites in Amman and surrounding cities. I hope to gain a level of fluency in Arabic that will allow me to effectively converse with family members who solely speak Arabic and ask them questions that I was never able to verbalize before. Additionally, I am pursuing a career in the medical field and strongly believe that all healthcare workers who have the opportunity to learn conversational skills in a second language should strive to do so. This summer program will allow me to work towards these goals.