I sit now in Montage cafe, at the bottom of Rainbow St., right before the steps which lead down to Wasat al-Balad (City Centre), downtowan Amman. A thirty minute walk, this hidden cafe has played host to numerous social and academic endeavours of mine. Here I met Shadi, the soft voiced but endlessly talkative Palestinian waiter…
Category: SIT Study Abroad
Trump Makes My Job Hard
Donald Trump makes it hard to be an American in the Middle East. I am Muslim, proudly. I am Puerto Rican, proudly. I am Arab, proudly. But above all, I am an American. On a sunny September evening 21 years ago, I was born to a pair of poor immigrants in an Orlando hospital. My…
A Note on American Media
It is widely held among young, liberal arts educated students that the United States media possesses inherent biases that, for better or worse, shape our worldview and influence our interaction with our immediate and perceived environment. This first became eminently clear upon my field study to Cuba where I observed that indeed Cubans are not overwhelmingly…
The final countdown
“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, like you’ll not only miss the people you love, but you’ll also miss the person you are now at this time and place because you’ll never be this way again.” Our last night in Samoa is here. I knew that this day was…
Sarajevo, in the Palm of My Hand
The past two weeks have been the focus of an independent study project (ISP) with SIT. This entails setting out to manage your own time, setting up interviews, and experience what the culture has to provide. This has proved to be an interesting task, and quite a handful at points. Being in a city such…
Monuments: Belgrade to Avala Mountain
I had been getting ready for my travels back to Sarajevo to do qualitative research, when I was given the opportunity of going to Avala mountain a few days before my departure. Avala mountain is about a 30 minute drive out of Belgrade Southeast, and offers stunning scenery of all the land around it. On…
Belgrade, Serbia
My first week in Belgrade, Serbia is a blur. It’s been almost three months since I first landed, since I first walked the still warm streets and cautiously ordered food. I still eat more vegetables and meat in one meal than I would an entire week back home. I was half terrified, half excited each…
Armando Abroad: Weekend Adventures
Since we are in the capstone phase of our program here, each one of us is on our own, conducting independent research. We make our own schedule and go to the SIT HQ only when we need or want to. It sounds amazing, but amongst scheduling (and likely rescheduling) interviews, pouring through literature, and analyzing…
Back in Sarajevo
I’m back in Sarajevo. It’s ISP month which means its our four week period of independent research. We were given the option of studying in Bosnia, Kosovo or Serbia and I found myself pulled back to the city in the mountains. When I packed my bags to leave Belgrade I cried, torn at leaving my…