Hi! I'm Gabe. I originally hail from Connecticut, but when I'm not living in Jordan, I spend my time in Washington, DC. That's a distant memory now, though: for the last five months, I've been living in the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Amman!
My path here was winding and exciting. I started out by spending a gap year in Israel, between high school and college. My experiences there encouraged me to continue studying Arabic, which I did while I was an undergrad at the University of Chicago. The cultural context that Arabic unlocked for me inspired me to major in Middle Eastern Studies, so I concentrated on geopolitics in the Levant and North Africa. In fact, I followed up my North African interest by living in Morocco for eight months after graduating college! During the pandemic, I relocated to DC, where I grew interested in nonprofit work and how it intersects with the Middle East. I also grew interested in the issue of refugees, especially after working with Syrian refugees in Chicago. For that reason, I decided to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship, and the rest is history. Here I am! While in the country, I've taken intensive Arabic classes to familiarize myself with spoken dialogue. I've visited different cities, gone hiking, seen plentiful natural wonders, and more! Best of all, I've capitalized on the food scene here, which is (in my humble opinion) one of the best things about Jordan.
Suffice it to say, that's not all. I have so much to share with you already, and I'm looking forward to recounting some of my many experiences, as well as all of the ones yet to come. I'll be doing community service here; working with refugees; trying new things; and visiting new places. As always, I'm motivated by my curiosity and a relentless desire to understand Jordan as best I can in the limited time I have here.
I'm thrilled to meet every one of you and bring you along--in whatever ways I can--on this wild year ahead!
