Photos taken by Ruofei Shang (Boston University), Student Correspondent for CET Jordan, Summer 2023
At CET Jordan, many activities are arranged for us to help us better understand or explore Jordanian culture. One of the most prominent parts of the Jordanian art scene is its underground culture. One day we went on a graffiti tour guided by Aladdin, a break-dancer highly involved in the Jordanian underground scene.
Although I have been on this tour twice, seeing the new graffiti and listening to their stories only in Arabic was interesting. Each artist have their own style and each piece of graffiti have its own meaning.
By the end of the tour, we reached our destination, House of Dreaming, a community art space near downtown. We watched the sunset from their rooftop while the prayer calls echoes around the city.
After the hike, many of us went to a restaurant downtown called Jameeda Khanum. It is famous for its Mansaf, the national dish of Jordan. The Jirans (Jordanian neighbors) chose this location for not only the delicious food, but also their live music and vibes.
Every class gets to cook Jordanian food together. When it was our class’ turn to cook, we made ful (fava beans) and bamia (okra with tomato stew) with a live performance. Another class was doing karaoke with Arabic songs.
Pictured here is my local Jordanian language partner Malak. She just graduated from the University of Jordan with a degree in English and Turkish. On this day, she took me to the police station to help me with my residential extension, and we rewarded ourselves with frozen yogurt afterward.
During the weekend, my language partner, other students, and I met up in a café near the University of Jordan to hang out and play games. We learned how to play “Hand,” and it is also a great way to learn new words related to the café/game culture.
As part of our language-learning-through-cultural-immersion experience, we all went to a famous café with our teachers. We once again got to practice using the terms we’ve learned in classes. Besides the good breakfast, we also got to talk with the employees to ask them questions about the café culture.
The same day that we went to the café was also one of the students (Justin) and our office assistant (Saleh) birthday. They were surprised with a cake and music at the café.
In Amman, you will spot a lot of stray cats around. While I was studying at the Starbucks near CET, a resident orange cat came near me and started hanging out with me. Even such small interactions help me relieve my stress.