Internship

After only being here for a little over a month I have already seen and done some amazing things, but I haven’t talked a lot about what I spend most of my days doing and is perhaps the largest component of my gap-year: my internship.

Nayab and I are both working for a woman named Tessa, Head of English, Department of Communication, Rhetoric and the Literary Arts. She is a wonderful and inspiring person. Nayab and I have been busy applying Kings Academy to be inducted into the Round Square network of schools. It is an organization dedicated to experiential learning and is described in its literature as “a world-wide association of more than 60 schools on five continents sharing unique and ambitious goals. Students attending Round Square schools make a strong commitment, beyond academic excellence, to personal development and responsibility. This is achieved by participating in community service, work projects, exchange programs and adventuring, which can, and often does, take students half way around the world.”

Our office is in the library, where we have been spending our days researching how Kings Academy embodies the Round Square ideals and completing the application. More recently we have been designing a pamphlet which will be used in the upcoming Round Square conference in Canada and in the future as the Kings Academy Round Square information publication. We are also creating a series of posters that will hang throughout campus to inform students about Round Square and all of the schools involved all over the world.

to learn more about this organization, visit http://www.roundsquare.org/

I am learning a lot- I love being involved in such an international initiative and being able to see how schools can work together and do service on a larger scale. After the Eid holiday and when the initial steps of Round Square induction are complete, Nayab and I will be more involved with the service programs on campus.

A wonderful component of Jordanian culture is the Islamic holiday Ramadan. Ramadan offers an opportunity not only for reflection and introspection, but it also fosters a spirit of good will whereby many community service events are held during this time. Working in community service and outreach has allowed me to more closely understand the process of carrying out campus events. We recently conducted a school wide coin drive for the King Hussein Cancer Foundation. The three grades, freshmen, sophomores and juniors competed to raise the most money in an effort to present it to Princess Dina, an influential and inspiring supporter of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation. The freshmen class ended up with the most amount of money collected. Each class lined up their coins on the ground starting from the spiritual center, the three lines reached an impressive length and it was really rewarding to actually see how much money the community raised. Princess Dina came to speak about the foundation and the importance and success of the Jordan-wide and Kings Academy-wide Ramadan coin drive. A representative student from each grade presented Princess Dina with the money and said a couple of words of gratitude.

Soccer Game

I am co-coaching the girls JV soccer team for the fall season, and we recently had our first game! The girls played against the Amman Baccalaureate School and tied 1-1. It is definitely an exciting start to the season, for the girls did not win a single game last year. They hustled, played their hearts out and were victorious in spirit- a recipe for confidence and team pride. We also had a lot of fans!! it was so wonderful to see faculty and students cheering the team on, especially because we heard that nobody attended the girls JV games last year. I hope that the positivity and sportsmanship in this game is a preview for what is to come throughout the season. On the first practice, most of the girls were reluctant to run and could not complete a single pushup- we have been working hard and bonding as a team and the morale is up! We are now running laps at the beginning of practices and ending our sessions with 10 pushups, and have even decided on team captains. I love the team and am looking forward to a fun and successful season.

An Engagement Party!

After a lovely dinner with the King, Nayab, Georgia and I headed to Amman for Reema’s cousin’s engagement party! It was wonderful to see the members of Reema’s family again who we had dinner with a couple of weeks ago, and to meet more from the other side of her family at the party. When we arrived, we were escorted into a house full of women, while the men socialized elsewhere. The house was buzzing with celebratory females- often the older women would sporadically make this very high-pitched, shrill noise with their tongues- something I would like to learn how to do! While we all talked and ate, the bride-to-be was being made-up. She wore a long, mermaid-like, hot-pink gown with a long, flowing hair-do and a dramatic application of make-up- she looked like a princess, and was truly the center of attention. When she was all ready, we headed to a tent where we all sat in chairs lined up against the wall. The couple walked down the aisle to the end where the groom-to-be presented his fiancé with the traditional array of jewelry. We watched as he gave her a necklace, pair of earrings, bracelet and ring. They then fed each other cake and had their first dance. As the music became increasingly more upbeat, men trickled into the tent and everyone joined the couple on the dance floor. The whole night was amazing- I am so grateful to have been invited to such an important family event and to have taken part in the festivities.

Dinner with the King

Last week His Majesty King Abdullah visited the school for the iftar meal. It is so exciting to be a part of a community that is so highly regarded by and special to the king. With a huge amount of preparation the casual, family-style dining hall took on an air of elegance and after a day of anticipation the students and faculty were dressed in their best and standing behind their chairs awaiting the arrival of His Majesty. The King arrived and was welcomed by two students chanting a beautiful prayer, also signaling the break of the day’s Ramadan fast for iftar. After a delicious, traditional meal, the king gave a brief speech about his Kings Academy pride. Before he left, His Majesty took a few group pictures- which I tried to be a part of- let’s hope I come across one soon! The king was extremely personable and kind-hearted- I was so happy to see the man with the Kings Academy vision, and he who has done so much for Jordan and dedicated his life to affecting positive change in the Middle East.

Mansaf Under the Stars

This weekend Nayab, Georgia and I had the incredible opportunity to join our friend Reema’s family for dinner at their home in Amman. The setting was absolutely astounding- their home sits in a hillside right below the infamous Citadel ruins. Their roof is literally the lookout point from the ruins to the breathtaking view of Amman’s downtown cityscape and roman amphitheater. After meeting cousins, aunts, uncles and Reema’s lovely grandmother, we enjoyed mansaf for dinner, Jordan’s national dish. Eating mansaf is an experience in itself- it is a mixture of rice, lamb, almonds, pine nuts and yogurt sauce and is served on a large communal platter. No utensils are necessary as you simply scoop the food up in your hands and mold it into a ball to eat.

After dinner we sat outside sipping sweet mint tea and watching fireworks from a wedding in the distance. While not everyone spoke English we were still able to communicate well and enjoy each other’s company immensely. Perhaps the most surreal part of the evening was conversing about the upcoming US presidential elections. It’s amazing to me that we were able to share our sentiments about the candidates so easily and that we were doing so in such an unusual and unique setting. One of Reema’s cousins demonstrated the custom of drinking Turkish coffee- the person serving the coffee pours a sip’s worth into a very small cup and waits as the other person drinks it, if they cradle the cup in their hands it signals that they would like a second serving, and if they shake the cup from side to side it signals that they are finished, and the server moves onto the next person.

Reema’s uncle then drove us around downtown Amman, where we picked up an enormous pan of kanafeh, a traditional Arab dessert. Kanafeh is a pastry heated with butter (similar to fried-dough) and then spread with a soft cheese and layered with more shredded pastry. It is topped off with crushed pistachios and sugary syrup. We brought the dessert back to the house where we ate it in celebration of Reema’s cousin’s seventh birthday.

We were then lucky enough to be taken on a midnight tour of the citadel by Reema’s uncle- how splendid it must be to have a site of ancient ruins as your backyard! We descended into a pitch-black abyss that was once used as a well, walked through the lit-up chambers of the ruins and sat upon a stonewall looking out onto the stunning view of the city and royal palace. The whole night was spectacular. After living on the campus for so long and dining out at restaurants, it was so comforting to be a part of a family gathering and truly experience life in Jordan.

Wadi Rum

This weekend 10 of us headed south to the Wadi Rum desert. After quite the drive, we arrived at a Bedouin campsite in complete darkness. We were warmly welcomed with a traditional meal of pita, chicken, rice and veggies and sweet mint tea. After the long, relaxing dinner we meandered up hill with bags and blankets in hand. We slept in the soft desert sand, shrouded by the most amazing display of stars. Arriving in total darkness made the morning view that much more dramatic. What had been various shades of black the night before were deep oranges, and the large masses only barely visible against the night sky were enormous and textured rock jebels. As the last of our party slowly awoke, we silently drank in the beauty of Wadi Rum. Next to such magnificent rock formations and the endless stretches of sand, I felt so small and overwhelmed by the landscape’s majesty. After an early breakfast we took a wonderful jeep tour. High spirited and with the wind in my hair I would not have wanted to be in any other place; for a girl who grew up on the ocean, I never thought I would treasure another element of the planet quite as much. Even being in such a peaceful and remote location, time eventually caught up to us and we drove back to campus. I am looking forward to spending many more weekends among the Bedouin, sand and stars.