Reflections

“How was Jordan?”

“Good.” Your broad question prompts a broad answer. Alternatively, I could start from the beginning, get sappy along the way, speeding up the parts that you look bored in, skipping the parts that are too embarrassing or including all the details of my personal relationships that make it the most difficult to reimagine and replay my life over the past year. Or I can give you, “good.” You won’t be able to experience the things I did. To know Jordan from August 2016 to May 2017, living with two host families, taking classes everyday and having an internship. But I hope some of you have heard enough or read enough to visit a country that can’t be describe by only “good,” because it’s a place with so much generosity, hospitality, kindness, and adventure.

Tomorrow I leave for Meknes, Morocco, on a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS). Third time’s the charm applying for this scholarship! I’m about to embark on this 2-month journey after being in the US only one week after returning from Jordan and a quick stop in Italy. My colleagues in this summer program are incredibly impressive with their language abilities, travel stories and experiences, and domestic academic accomplishments. We come from many places around the US, from different backgrounds and religions, academic levels and majors, making this a diverse group where we’ll all be able to learn from each other and tackle a summer in Morocco together, living with host families, experiencing Ramadan and navigating this new (and kind of scary-looking) French-like Arabic. Many of us seem to know Jordan or the Levantine dialect well, so how will this new experience in Morocco add to our understanding of the Arab world and of the Arabic language we’ve all decided to undertake?