Housing and Classmates
In past years, students on this Jordan Dialogue have lived in homestays. Having been on two study abroad programs, three dialogues (including Jordan), and every continent except Antarctica, I would have personally loved to try out a homestay. It would have been a great way to practice my Arabic and fully immerse myself in the culture. On the other hand, Jordan is a very religious country (at least for my standards) and the male – female expectations are drastically different than anything I am used to. With that, I can see how something like this could negatively impact one’s experience when coupled with homesickness, exhaustion, and multiple hours of class and homework a day.
This year, however, we are living in apartments provided by Qasid University. This is also our first year partnering with Qasid. The apartments are all close to each other and a short 5-10 minute walk to school. My apartment is actually really big with two living rooms, a laundry room, 4 bathrooms, a full kitchen, and 4 bedrooms. There are six of us living there, but it doesn’t feel crowded at all. My only worry coming in was the fact that all six of us would be sharing a weekly water ration. In fact, our water was accidentally turned off one day and we had to go a full 24-hours without any water until the issue was resolved. Other than that slight hiccup, everyone has been really good about conserving water!
My roommates are 4 amazing Project GO girls and one wonderful Northeastern girl. Everyone got along immediately and is very clean and organized. One of the P-GO girls, Shellie, and I were initially roomed together and instantly became close. Due to contracts with the university, however, we had to change apartments with the guys upstairs a week into the program. Since P-GO is staying for an extra couple of weeks after Northeastern leaves, I moved into a different room so the P-GO girls could all be in the same room.
Outside of my apartment, everyone else in the program is equally as wonderful. As of yet, I do not have a single complaint. Because my building has an apartment full of P-GO guys and one full of P-GO girls (other than myself and Marissa) I feel that I have gotten closer to those students than the Northeastern students. My Arabic class is all Northeastern students, though, so I imagine that will bridge the gap! My only worry moving forward is that there will be a divide between P-GO and Northeastern. Everyone seems to be very excited to be here and meet new people though, so I think it’ll be fine once people get more comfortable!
