I traveled on my own for the first time in 1999, to an international language and sports camp in France. Back then it came as very natural to me when people responded with "Georgia??" every time I said I came from Jordan. I would just start explaining that Jordan is in the MIDDLE EAST, across the river from Palestine/Israel... and then people would be like "oohh, okay".
Obviously so much has changed in the past ten years. All you need to do is hang out at Books@ cafe to get a small glimpse of the increasing number of expats in Amman; people coming to Jordan from all over the world for diverse non-touristy reasons.
But getting a glimpse of it from the other side of the Atlantic has been very amusing and interesting for me Now when I tell people I'm from Jordan, the most common answer is "from Amman?"
I was actually quite surprised by the number of people in my class who have visited Jordan. A couple of them spent a few days in Amman while they were visiting Israel. Another girl told me "I almost took an internship with the Dutch embassy in Amman." My radio workshop instructor used to work as a reporter in Iraq and so she used to come to Amman often for a couple of weeks at a time, and she was like "although many people said Amman was boring, I found it to be a very nice and interesting place when you know how to get below the surface, and I liked it a lot since I was coming there from Baghdad."
My photography skills instructor told me he spent three months in Amman on a Knight Foundation Fellowship, and that he worked with reporters from Al Ghad and other local papers. The printed material he gave out says "Amman, Jordan" on top. When I asked him if he liked Amman, he was like "Oh I had such a wonderful time there, especially because I was in Cairo before that, and I appreciated the clean air and clean food in Amman."
The other day, I was sitting on the pavement waiting for the bus, and I overheard the words "Jordan" and "Middle East", so I couldn't resist turning around. There was this young woman with black hair and brown skin talking to a blond white guy. He was saying "Isn't Jordan such a boring place? I was thinking of visiting last year but my dad was like 'don't even bother'!" and the woman was like "No it's not boring. And especially when you're from Oman, we find it a very pleasant place in comparison."
In case you're wondering, I kept silent and didn't try to join their discussion in any way. But this brings to my mind the many discussions I had in the months before I came here with Ahmad Humeid and a number of people about Amman and its identity and "brand". The point that seemed to come up time and again was that Amman is always compared to the other cities in the region... and whenever you think of Amman, you think of what it is relative to other places.
Walking the streets of New York, observing people on the subway, and exploring the diverse ethnic communities in neighborhoods across the city, I find myself thinking about Amman a lot - not in terms of nostalgia, but in terms of urban evolution, assimilation versus multiculturalism, and "city branding".
And... next time I overhear a totally random conversation about Jordan at the bus stop, perhaps I'll volunteer my two cents on why I think Jordan is such an interesting and complex place :)
Obviously so much has changed in the past ten years. All you need to do is hang out at Books@ cafe to get a small glimpse of the increasing number of expats in Amman; people coming to Jordan from all over the world for diverse non-touristy reasons.
But getting a glimpse of it from the other side of the Atlantic has been very amusing and interesting for me Now when I tell people I'm from Jordan, the most common answer is "from Amman?"
I was actually quite surprised by the number of people in my class who have visited Jordan. A couple of them spent a few days in Amman while they were visiting Israel. Another girl told me "I almost took an internship with the Dutch embassy in Amman." My radio workshop instructor used to work as a reporter in Iraq and so she used to come to Amman often for a couple of weeks at a time, and she was like "although many people said Amman was boring, I found it to be a very nice and interesting place when you know how to get below the surface, and I liked it a lot since I was coming there from Baghdad."
My photography skills instructor told me he spent three months in Amman on a Knight Foundation Fellowship, and that he worked with reporters from Al Ghad and other local papers. The printed material he gave out says "Amman, Jordan" on top. When I asked him if he liked Amman, he was like "Oh I had such a wonderful time there, especially because I was in Cairo before that, and I appreciated the clean air and clean food in Amman."
The other day, I was sitting on the pavement waiting for the bus, and I overheard the words "Jordan" and "Middle East", so I couldn't resist turning around. There was this young woman with black hair and brown skin talking to a blond white guy. He was saying "Isn't Jordan such a boring place? I was thinking of visiting last year but my dad was like 'don't even bother'!" and the woman was like "No it's not boring. And especially when you're from Oman, we find it a very pleasant place in comparison."
In case you're wondering, I kept silent and didn't try to join their discussion in any way. But this brings to my mind the many discussions I had in the months before I came here with Ahmad Humeid and a number of people about Amman and its identity and "brand". The point that seemed to come up time and again was that Amman is always compared to the other cities in the region... and whenever you think of Amman, you think of what it is relative to other places.
Walking the streets of New York, observing people on the subway, and exploring the diverse ethnic communities in neighborhoods across the city, I find myself thinking about Amman a lot - not in terms of nostalgia, but in terms of urban evolution, assimilation versus multiculturalism, and "city branding".
And... next time I overhear a totally random conversation about Jordan at the bus stop, perhaps I'll volunteer my two cents on why I think Jordan is such an interesting and complex place :)
