6 times my year abroad in Jordan felt like a fever dream

Tales from a year abroad in the middle east

This September marks five years since I lived in Jordan for my year abroad. To mark the occasion, I thought I’d finally share a few of the stories I’ve spent years sitting on: anecdotes from what was, without question, the craziest year of my life.

I’ve always been a little wary of coming across as that annoying year-abroad friend, so most of these have stayed untold. Which, looking back, feels like a shame.

If you study Arabic at university (which I did), politics usually dictates that Jordan is your only real option for a year abroad. It is a remarkable place to live in your early twenties, with twenty of your mates.

Take one shared apartment building, cheap food, hammams, desert trips, a 30% pass rate for that university year, and a culture where a Jordanian soldier might try to marry you poolside at the Dead Sea while an American wonders how you guessed his nationality – despite the massive eagle beside an American flag tattooed on his back – and you have the recipe for the best nine months of your life.

Arabic lessons from 9am-2pm every day kept us grounded and made sure our brains weren’t frying in the heat. Classes were about trying arabic food and tea, and repeated rounds of hangman while also trying to make Arabic short films. On top of that, the university ran school trips to farms, castles and canyons and honestly it felt like an Arabic summer camp. And it’s these excursions where my list of anecdotes begins:

1. Ayman jumping camel to camel

I’m still not entirely sure what Ayman’s official job title was at our university, but just know that man ran the whole operation. He could have run the entire country if only they’d let him. That man could do anything. He was so efficient, sharp as a tack, and endlessly on top of things.Everybody loved Ayman. Our university organised around two trips a month in which you could go canyoning, swimming, cycling or on a trip to a farm - you name it, we did it. It was on a trip to the Wadi Rum desert where Ayman had his shining moment. After scaling the side of a mountain in his Abdidas trainers, Ayman mounted a camel. He then proceeded to leap from the back of one camel to the next (obviously trying to find one fit for the king he was), as they plodded steadily across the desert plain. Take a second to appreciate the Cirque-de-Soleil-level agility and skill required to perform such a stunt. To round off the day, Aisha and I, stargazing beneath the desert’s cold night sky, were rewarded with a shooting star. I’d be willing to bet that Ayman had something to do with it.

Wadi Rum Desert

2. Hassan trying to make me his second wife, and Amina his third

Henry and I were making our way back from class when a man called over to us from across the street, attempting to initiate conversation on the basis that he too could speak English. Great. He asked if we wanted to come over one day for dinner to meet his family and experience true Arab hospitality, without forgetting to mention that Arab hospitality was not something we could turn down. And so, in keeping with my life motto which is apparently “do it for the plot”, I reluctantly exchanged numbers with our new friend Hassan (we suggested giving him Henry’s but, apparently,that wasn’t good enough). An invitation to dinner came via whatsapp, and a few days later we arrived at our host’s apartment to the sight of a table fit for a feast. His family was warm and welcoming and the food was wonderful, but the evening was perhaps spoiled by an invitation to be Hassan’s second wife, an offer extended to Amina for third if she fancied it. I love Amina but I’m not sure we’d want to share a husband. We left abruptly, but that didn’t stop Hassan from messaging me daily for weeks afterwards.

3. The cast and the car crash

I had damaged the ligaments in my foot after a day of canyoning and was given strict orders to keep my cast on for at least a week. But, when an invitation to a pool party came up, I handed the scissors to Aisha and demanded she take it off –the cast would obviously not go with my bikini. Before taking the cast off, I took it on one last excursion around Tla Al-Ali - one of Amman’s main shopping districts. To this day, I have no idea why we needed to be there so urgently on a particular afternoon, and why our shopping trip couldn’t wait a few days, but there you go – confessions of a shopaholic. I hobbled around cast-clad and crutch-less, wearing shorts which were definitely too short for the Middle East. While standing on the side of the road trying to figure out which boutique to head to next, the shock – perhaps of a woman in short shorts or the sight of me determinedly hobbling around left a very stunned man staring for a little too long, resulting in him crashing into the car in front. That is why your parents should teach you not to stare.

A successful shopping trip

4. Momentarily lost

After our first outing in Amman on our first day, Amina and I got into a taxi to go home. When the taxi driver turned around and asked ‘ila wayn?” (where to?), our heads snapped towards each other as the colour drained from our faces. We couldn’t remember where we lived. We had arrived at 2am the night before and had been escorted by the university to an apartment building they rented out to students. We had no address and no internet so couldn’t look it up or call anyone. However, being the annoying (and perhaps inadvertently crafty) Gen Z that I am, I had taken a snapchat video of the view from my new balcony which I then showed to the taxi driver in the hope that he might recognise the area… Every building and road in Amman looks identical and, unsurprisingly, he had no idea where my snapchat video was taken, so we ended up driving for half an hour before finally finding the security guard who manned our building - now he was a very recognisable man.

The snapchat video i showed him

5. Ordering dinner via a phone call to grandma

During our first week of Qasid when we were all bustling around trying to make new friends, around 10 of us had just been to see the Caves of the Seven Sleepers and were now sitting down for lunch. I can’t actually remember where in Amman this restaurant was because this whole lunch felt like a bit of a fever dream but it certainly wasn’t on the beaten tourist path. Our very very patient waiter spoke absolutely no English and our Arabic skills were virtually non-existent (despite two years of university), so when he came to take our order (the menu was only in Arabic and Google Translate gave up at the crucial moment) there was a bit of a language barrier that no one could cross. Naturally, the waiter called his grandma - the only person he knew who spoke both Arabic and English - to take our order. Grandma was a little deaf and a bit of a gossip, far more interested in asking us questions about lives than in taking orders, it took over half an hour to do so as the phone was passed down from person to person around the table, before our orders were relayed back to the waiter, her grandson. If I remember correctly, the food we got wasn’t what we ordered but 10/10 for effort.

6. Uber finish

Aisha and I were in a taxi home and we got into a mini car crash on the motorway. The driver huffed, turned around and said “uber finish”. Having been ushered out of his dented cab, we were left stranded on the side of a busy motorway trying to hail a taxi to take us the remainder of the way home. I think he actually gave me a bad review.

From being asked if we were terrorists by a taxi driver, to nearly being traded for three camels, to falling off a horse mid-ride in the desert, the list goes on but the annoying year abroad friend has to stop talking at some point. I hope you enjoyed!

Also, if you’re ever given the chance to do a year abroad yourself, take it.