Start of semester

Saturday + Sunday, September 28th + 29th

6:30 am. Today is the day of farewell. The summer school officially ends and everyone who is not staying for the semester in Amman is now starting their journey back home. After saying goodbye to Amaka, Sarina, and Pepa as they board the shuttle bus to the airport, it is now time to bid farewell to Rania and Noor. I have spent many hours with Rania and have learned a lot from her, and I really hope that we will meet again someday. She would definitely be a good reason to visit Lebanon in the near future. However, all those who are leaving now will be missed. In the past few days, we have really grown together as a group.

Finally, our exchange semester colleagues Markus, Jesús, and Sophia are also leaving: they are already heading to Amman today and moving into their apartments, while Rebecca and I will stay one more night in Madaba. We can only move into our apartment in mid-October and have to find ways to pass the time until then. The hotel here in Madaba is a good place to relax after the stressful last weeks. We spend the whole day by the pool, Rebecca writes a travel report for her loved ones back home, and I still have to finish the reflection reports for the university. At 11:59 pm, I made it and sent the reports by email. Right on time.

7:00 am. For the last time, I go for a swim, then have our usual beloved breakfast at the hotel. We then pack up our remaining things and at 8:40 am, we are sitting in a pre-booked taxi heading to GJU Madaba. Today, the first of several semester welcome events takes place on campus. Our taxi driver is not allowed to drive into the campus, so we have to get off before and find our way to Building C with our big backpacks. Fully loaded, we feel a bit like moving into the campus, and I suppose all the other students, who are already numerous here on campus, think the same as they curiously stare at us.

Shortly after, we sit together in the large lecture hall with all the students who are here for the semester from various German partner universities, about 60 in total, from various fields of study. We already suspect that our course will be mainly occupied by international students in the end. Thanks to our luggage, we are even mentioned in the first speech by a GJU representative, who says that some of us have just arrived in Jordan today, as he has seen. One should never judge too quickly, I think to myself in that moment.

Next, the head of the 'GJU Office of Industrial Links' speaks. Yes, that really exists. Proudly, she tells us that GJU has more connections to the industry than any other university in the Middle East. As I have wondered in the past few days, I ask myself again why the connection between university and industry is seen as something positive here. After her, another professor from GJU speaks, giving us information about tourist sites in Jordan and promoting hotels at the Dead Sea where one can stay for 100 dinars per night. Until the group photo at the end of the event, where we are photographed with all the other unfamiliar students, most of whom we will probably never see again, everything at this event feels truly surreal.

After a coffee and falafel break, Rakan now takes care of us, a GJU staff member who will handle our registration and enrollment. After paying our semester fee at a large bank located right here on campus, we then proceed to register for the Arabic courses. I decide to attend both the Jordan Colloquial Dialect course and the Modern Standard Arabic course. I want to take in everything I can.

After about two hours of back and forth on campus, we are done and retrieve our luggage from Rakan's office. We had already noticed before that one can only open his office door from the inside by pressing a button on the wall, and from the outside, you have to enter a security code to open the door. I ask him why the offices here resemble those in a high-security wing, and I am a little surprised when he tells me that you can't trust the many unfamiliar people who enter and leave the campus every day. "Ali Baba," Jesús whispers in my ear. Our luggage is still intact, and now Rakan explains to us which bus we need to take from here to Amman. Public buses here are the cheapest means of transportation, but they can be a bit tricky if you don't speak Arabic and don't know exactly which bus goes where. We have Rakan write down the bus lines in Arabic for us, and then we try our luck standing on the roadside in front of GJU. And it turns out to be easier than we thought: for just one dinar, about 1.20€, we are soon sitting in a rattling bus, taking us the 35 km to Amman.

Once we arrive there, Rebecca and I take an Uber taxi to our hotel. Stuck in Amman's traffic, it takes us a whole hour for the originally just a few-minute journey, and then we find ourselves in front of a large, gray building on a traffic island in the middle of Downtown: the Jordan Tower Hotel, where we have booked ourselves in for the first 5 nights. The area here seems familiar to me. I vaguely recall passing by here with Adib, who told us that we should not look for apartments in this area. Well, it's only for a foreseeable time.

The hotel seems deserted, except for the receptionist who now hands us the room key. Our room is sparsely furnished: two beds and a wardrobe, shared bathroom in the hallway. In any case, we won't be spending much time here in the next few days, and now we have to immediately head out again for another introductory event on the GJU campus in Amman. Considering the traffic, we decide to walk the one and a half kilometers using Google Maps, which turns out to be a good decision: as we turn into a small side street, we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a market. It smells of fish, spices, and fresh herbs. My eyes can't get enough of the colorful vegetables and fruits being sold here. This must be one of those markets where you can buy the cheapest and best food, as Hannah told me at the beginning of the summer school. Unfortunately, we are in a hurry and rush through the market stalls and crowds of people. We will surely come back here in the next few days.

About 20 minutes late, we arrive at the next introductory event, which is exclusively for our Social Work course, consisting of about 25 people. The ratio of Jordanian to international students: one Jordanian. The rest are from abroad. I am glad that we have already made contacts through the summer school and are not stuck in an exchange semester bubble. After a few organizational details, it is already 5 pm and we start our first lecture: Mental Health.

Our lecturer, a Jordanian who speaks perfect English, makes a good impression right away. We introduce ourselves one by one, and she takes the time to learn more about our experiences and motivations for studying. Her demeanor reminds me of Hannah, which is incredibly comforting after the events of the past few days. A few of her sentences directly resonate with me. "We are emotional beings and we are emotionally engaged," and "Our minds are very powerful but can also be very stupid." I feel like I have returned to a human world. Our first introductory lecture is only interrupted once when a military aircraft flies by with thunderous noise seemingly right above GJU. Our lecturer shakes her head. She can't understand how something like this can happen in a country where hundreds of thousands of people live with traumas caused, among other things, by such noises.

We have completed the mandatory program for today and now gather for a small gathering on the university terrace, where a few students from previous years are waiting for us. Including Adib, Mahmoud, Bara'a, and Bushra. It's nice to spend time with them again (even though we technically haven't seen each other for only 2 days), and I am looking forward to the next time in Amman. Later, Adib and Mahmoud drive us back to our hotel. After 10 pm, when the shops here in Downtown slowly close, it is not safe to be on the streets anymore. That's their recommendation. Rebecca and I enjoy the view from the hotel rooftop terrace for a while, watching the bustling activity still happening on the streets, and later we fall tired into our beds.

I have neglected my vocabulary a bit in the past few days...

Echo- صدى

Island- جزيرة

Fairy- حوريَة

Dining room- سفرة

Tower- بُرج

Guest- ضيف

Muscle soreness- العضلا

Free- طليق

Holidays- عطلة

Bon appétit- صحة وهنا