Julia ’25, describes the group’s departure from Deerfield and first experiences in Jordan and on the King’s Academy campus.
We departed from Deerfield at 2pm on a rainy Saturday. Upon arrival at the airport, energy was high considering we had just finished a 4-hour bus ride and had a 12-hour plane ride ahead of us. The group was eager to experience everything in store. Before takeoff I spoke to my plane neighbors Elizabeth ‘24 and Diego ‘24 about all their excitements and expectations. Elizabeth explained that she was excited to view the arts and for “being somewhere that is so culturally different from any place I’ve ever been.” Diego said that his biggest excitement was for “swimming in the Dead Sea and knowing what it feels like to be buoyant.” Similarly to Elizabeth, Diego was also very curious about the art and architecture of the Jordanian buildings. The plane ride was a breeze and I even got to see a stunning sunrise (first of many beautiful sky-scapes on the Jordan trip!).
On the bus to King’s Academy, we cruised with shades up and windows open, absorbing all the new sights around us. The first thing that many of us noticed after getting off the bus was the smell. At Deerfield we are used to the cow-poop-infested farm air, and at King’s it smelt floral, like nature. It was very refreshing. Our first activity was dinner in the dining hall. Us Deerfield students were nervous to walk in and bombard a dining hall foreign from our own, especially considering that we are traveling to the Middle East in a time where anyone’s first question would be “is it safe?”. However, we were all soon impressed at how welcoming the students at King’s are, and how safe the community felt. Throughout the night we learned that Deerfield Academy and King’s Academy are very similar! They have a similar sit-down meal program, the same DC process, and the same schedule.
The rest of the night was spent roaming the King’s Academy campus with King’s students: Raad Al Hasan, Awn Hatameih, Adam Al Qatawneh, Adam Yamout, and Mohammad Al Said. They brought us to the arts gallery where Robbie ‘24 played the Deerfield Evensong on the piano while all the Deerfield students sang along, showing the King’s students our school song. They followed up with their own school anthem. It was one of those moments that made me step back and realize that even though Deerfield is our everything, it is just a small place in a big world. I realized how special it is that we are able to expand our amazing community beyond the walls of Deerfield. We then followed the group to their residential life school meeting, where we learned a ton about how their schedule is about to adjust in accordance with Ramadan. We learned about all the practices that they follow and the spiritual changes that they will encounter during this time. The meeting was followed up by a student led rap/roast battle that some of the Deerfield students got wound up in!
This is only the beginning, and we still have so many exciting adventures ahead of us (including meeting His Majesty tomorrow!). I cannot wait to continue to expand my knowledge and to learn more about Jordan!
