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I Thought the Middle East Would Be Awful. I Was Completely Wrong.
Jordan turned out to be one of the best places I have ever visited
If I’m being honest, I didn’t particularly want to go to Jordan. It had never been on my list of places I had to visit before I kicked it.
When I found out that my university was offering a cultural exchange programme there, my first reaction wasn’t excitement. It was just ‘Well, I might as well give this a go and see if I get picked’.
Jordan is in the Middle East. And, like many other people, I had absorbed the same vague ideas about the region that many Westerners do — dangerous, unstable, unfamiliar.
I figured that I’d probably spend the trip looking over my shoulder. I imagined feeling uncomfortable walking around and being surrounded by things I didn’t understand, treading on eggshells to not say or do the wrong thing.
Instead, I spent the trip being welcomed into people’s homes, eating incredible food, making friends with students I’d only just met, wandering through ancient cities and wondering why I’d ever been so afraid to come.
By the time I left Jordan, I was genuinely sad to go.
I felt safer there than I sometimes do at home.
