Jordan?!

First I need to say that my major, International Relations, requires a semester abroad.  So a logical question might be, why Jordan? Well, to make a long story short, I took many classes in the past few years that have sparked my interest in the area of the world.  Some of these classes include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Comparative Politics of Iran as well as my Arabic language classes. In these class I have learned about the ACTUAL practices and beliefs of Islam and not just what the media portrays. My Arabic professor is a Palestinian Muslim who grew up in Jerusalem so she has a very interesting prospective on the climate in the Middle East.

I kind of had the idea in my head that when I go to decide where I want to do my study abroad I could basically sit down with a map in front of me and pick anywhere I wanted to go.  I wanted to use this opportunity to get out of a comfort zone and to learn something new and kinda go somewhere that not many people I knew could say they have been.  Well, Jewell has only a few countries/programs to choose from for study abroad.  I, for about a year, thought I would be in Morocco but when I started the application process I discovered that Jewell was trying to get an Arabic minor going which would require a semester in Jordan.  After what seemed like a never ending battle with the school to expedited the approval process for Jordan, I and the program were approved for the fall semester. 

This is the first time Jewell has sent students to Jordan for study abroad and the first time they have used this program, CIEE, for study abroad. (http://www.ciee.org/study-abroad/jordan/amman/language-culture/#1rightForYou) I will be traveling with another girl from Jewell.  She is a year older and two semesters further than me in Arabic. We are scheduled to arrive in Jordan September 2 and will have about a week of orientation including a language placement test which will help the program to know where to put us for language classes as well as for our home stay assignments (yes, I will be living with a family during my stay abroad). 

I dont know what else to say in this post without making it too long so I will cut it off here.  I kind of have an idea of a few things that I want to write about in my next few posts but if there are questions feel free to post them in the comment box on any of my posts and I will try to answer them as best I can..