MISTI Blogs

As I approach the final week of my stay in Amman, I am starting to reflect a lot more on my time here. Over the course of the past 9-10 weeks, I have been all over Jordan. I struggled to decide on what I should write about, so I looked through some old blogs for inspiration. That’s when I found  “done with the b.s.” by Waly N. ‘24. Waly decides to recap 4 years of undergrad at MIT “by the numbers,” giving exactly how many units of classes they took, number of dorms, emails received, number of blogs, etc. As soon as I read that, I knew I needed to think of my time in Jordan the same way.

So without further ado, here is Jordan “by the numbers!” 

1. Number of Distinct Neighbourhoods visited: 19

I am proud to say that we were as thorough as possible in our 2-month-long exploration of the entire country. We visited Downtown Amman, Sweifeih, Abdoun, Abdali, Jabal Al-Weibdeh, Gardens, Khalda, Petra, Wadi Rum, Aqaba, Al-Salt, Jerash, Ajloun, Madaba, Mount Nebo, Wadi Ghuwair, Wadi Mujib, and (finally) the Dead Sea. 

Visiting so many places and people helped me appreciate the subtle and obvious differences throughout the country. Ajloun’s treetopped mountains look nothing like the ancient churches of Madaba, the hipster bars in Jabal Al-Weibdeh, the overstimulating streets downtown, or the suburbs of Khalda. 

2. Number of km hiked: 20 km

Admittedly, that is not very impressive 💀, but we as a group are very appreciative of AC and indoor spaces. Even with that in mind, we ventured outside of our comfort zone into a 16 km hike of Wadi Ghuwair, and a 4 km hike of Wadi Mujib (where I did, in fact, lose my glasses. RIP 2021-2025)

3. Number of Weekend Excursions planned: 10

We were sure to spend every single weekend visiting at least one new place. Most often it was multiple times in a single week. I can’t even count the number of days when we left our apartment in the morning and came back fully exhausted in the AMs. 

After a full day/weekend of adventures and summer heat, we would have the deepest, most comfortable sleep of our lives, and get rudely awakened way too soon to go back into the work week. It was amazing to experience so much in such little time! (It was, unfortunately, heavy on our wallets also, but so worth it!)

4. Episodes of Narcos I watched: 24

If you refer back to my previous blog post, you will find that my MISTI groupmates and I were positively obsessed with Love Island: USA. After the ending of that show, it left an irreparable hole in our day. We would come back from work, eager to bond over an exciting show, but nothing could compare. That is until a fateful day when Sabah (roomie #1) was boredly scrolling through Netflix, and she put on the first few minutes of Narcos Season 1, Episode 1.

  I remembered that I had watched this before in my freshman year, but I got busy and never finished it. Before I knew it, I finished the first two seasons in less than 2 weeks. As of time of writing, I am trying to finish the rest of the show before leaving Jordan. 6 episodes left over 3 (very packed) days. Wish me luck.

Editor’s Note: I was not able to finish Narcos before leaving Jordan </3

5. Visits to my favourite coffee shop: 8

A mere 14 minute walk away from our apartment, there lies the best hazelnut latte I have ever tasted in my life. I even remember the first time I visited. I just looked up the closest coffee shop to our apartment, and headed out for some sorely needed post jet lag coffee. I ordered a lotus latte, and the barista said they ran out, but they recommended a hazelnut instead. That was unfortunately the end of all other Jordanian (western style) coffee for me.

Qahwa BLK is my favourite coffee shop in all of Jordan. Even after trying many other lattes, I will always mentally compare them to that hazelnut latte in the early June sun. Early in the trip, I realized I forgot to bring a tote bag with me for excursions, so I got one from there (pictured below). I also took my friends there to try it, and we posted a selfie of us on the mistiatmit instagram page. I got a notification later that we have been reposted on the Qahwa BLK instagram page. I can die in peace now.

6. Visits to Buffalo Wings and Rings: 8

My relationship to Buffalo Wings and Rings is more complicated than the worst situationship you know. I promise you.

It all started on the first week we arrived in Jordan. We were recommended to go to City Mall to do some shopping and hang out. After walking around for a few hours, we felt hungry enough to stroll through the upper level food court and decide on something to eat. We stood in front of BW&R reading the menu, weighing our options. That’s when I heard-

• “Sandra?”
• “Hanan???”
• There stood Hanan with her family. She was a) my close friend’s younger sister who really liked MIT, then b) the kid I hosted for WISE who really wanted to get into MIT, and finally c) the kid I hosted for CPW who is super excited to attend MIT in the fall! Here we were, thousands of miles away from Cambridge, unaware we would not only be in the same country, but the same city, mall, food court, standing in front of BW&R at the exact same time. What?!?!?!?!?!

After hanging out with Hanan for the evening, her dad told us that BW&R has an offer every Tuesday where you can get each traditional chicken wing for 0.19 JOD (0.27 USD). After knowing this, the group spent every Tuesday at their dearly beloved BW&R.

Unfortunately, the first time I tried their wings on a fateful Tuesday evening in late July, I fell horribly ill the day after. Now, none of my group suffered the same painful experience as me…

• “It can’t be the wings, Sandra, surely it was the kunafa you had afterwards.”
• “No it can’t be, Hager (roomie #2) also had some. Maybe it was the guava juice?”

They can say whatever they want to say, but I knew deep down. It was the wings. I don’t even like wings. Bro.

That being said, the group continued going even though I chose to stay behind. Three or four Tuesdays pass and I think, some relationships are worth suffering for. I take a tentative step into the familiar wood-panelled floor. The air is thick with the aromatic smell of chicken, the jukebox is blasting, my heart is beating fast. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich, and it was delicious. The night passes peacefully, and the following morning does too. The curse has been broken, and I can enjoy the spicy tanginess of BW&R chicken once more. I may never look at wings the same way again, but it is a worthy sacrifice for the friends we made along the way.

7. Participants in the Injaz Educational Bootcamp: 76

During the last week of our stay, we helped organise a 5-day long bootcamp aimed at bridging cultural gaps through education with mySTARTUP, an incubator set at Injaz. 76 college students and recent graduates from all across the country signed up for the program, and we had the great honour to work with them! 

It was so exciting to work with Injaz staff to organise the crazy logistics involved in such a large program. We met so many people of many different degrees and backgrounds. It was exciting to sit in on their roundtable discussions and hear their perspectives on social and technological problems they identified in Jordanian society at large. Many many new friends were made that week <3333

It also prompted me to think some more about how our identities frame our world’s perception. I walked into Injaz on day 1 thinking I’m sure I know what they have to say about using AI in universities, and saw that even an issue this global can have identity-dependent implications.

The IdX blogs explore how travel experiences are affected by personal identity. I signed up for them because I think it’s such a good idea! I am very interested in the intersection of identity and experience. I know that objectively all the things that make up my identity affect how I interact with the world and how it interacts with me (gender, ethnicity, color, nationality, sexuality, religion, language, etc.) But I like to hope that I am perceived as the sum of my parts rather than being defined by each individual thing, you know? 

A lot of surface-level interactions are initially defined by my predominant identities. For example, I met many men who respectfully do not shake my hand because I present and identify as a woman. At first, this felt awkward and discouraging for me, but I came to understand the cultural difference since I found I was presented with respect and acceptance. This is not to say that I have to like or accept a practice just because it is cultural, I still do not. However, I mean to say that no cultural difference is so large it cannot be approached with respect and empathy. Even if I do not agree with the idea that it is more respectful not to shake my hand, I understand it is a sign of respect and goodwill on their part. Much like I hope I am not taken at face value from my gender, I certainly don’t know everything there is to know about a person because I know their ethnicity for example. 

It is easy to generalize in a short blog post like this, but I want to emphasize the richness of identities and disagreements in perceptions in people I come across. An analogy to this is that I can describe my time in Jordan in terms of how many chicken sandwiches I ate (8…i think), but that doesn’t mean my entire trip is adequately described by chicken sandwiches.

I like to think identity is more like a house. In my house, my gender and ethnic identity are load bearing structures, because they have defined much of my life whether I intend it or not. But all my windows are tinted yellow since it is my favourite colour. A sunroom holds watercolours and gouache growing old. In some contexts, my ethnicity/sexuality/gender/religion can be less relevant markers of who I really am compared to how much I love coffee and Narcos, enjoy hiking, teaching and chicken sandos. It is also undeniable that they are massive parts of my identity, but not a single thing alone can define me. You can be many wonderful and contradictory things at once, your identity is not a pillar!