Whilst I was in England doing my Bachelor's degree, I went to the University of Jordan in Amman for a summer study of Arabic 1. I had a false beginner's knowledge of Arabic already but wanted to study more and improve.
I stayed in a rented room in a private house in a rather upscale neighbourhood just behind the back gate of the University.
There were students from all over the world studying with me at the summer language course at University of Jordan. I became better acquainted with two females who came from a very wealthy Kenyan family. Most of my friends though, during my stay in Jordan were Arab guys, who were either Palestinian or Jordanian.
I enjoyed my language lessons which were taught by two Arab women. One was younger and wore a hijab الحجاب, and the other was older and was uncovered, showing her full head of coloured blonde hair. I felt I learned a lot from them over the summer.
Of course along with language classes, we had day trips to places of interest around Jordan which was fun because we got to practice our Arabic more as well as meet different students who were travelling together with us. I met an interesting Palestinian guy who grew up in Germany. He befriended me rather quickly and, after following me back to my flat, I found out that he had "naughty fingers" and was rather frisky behind closed doors. Need I say more?
Other Arab guys I befriended were Jordanian guys who were from villages in the South. We ate dinner and went around together in a group and looked like brothers. One of their friends was a reallyy cute Palestinian guy who lived still in the " mukhayyam filistini" مخيم فلسطيني or the Palestinian refugee camp. I was invited by him to come to the camp and meet his family and stay overnight with him.
I recall that it was an eyeopening and rather humbling experience for me as I never stayed in a camp before. His living quarters were clean and nice but cramped. I met his younger brother and his mother. We enjoyed a simple local dinner and when it became dark outside, and it being a very warm evening, we both slept on the small veranda outside sharing a few blankets to sleep on for the night. I found it rather novel and exciting as it was a fun thing for me to do when I was a small kid to sleep outside on porch in the back garden.
It was difficult finishing my wonderful stay and saying good bye to my friends whom I became so close to, but I had to start my other studies back in England.
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