My Experience with the Excellence Center

My name is Alice and I come from Switzerland. I have just finished highschool and after a gap year I decided to participate in the Intensive Arabic Program during a month at the Excellence Center. During my stay at the Excellence Center I participated several guided tours e.g. one to the old city of Hebron and one to the only church of Hebron. Also there was trip to Jericho and Bethlehem and a hike in a beautiful valley, namely Wadi Qult. Other activities were conversation classes, which all of the Arabic students could join and then we also cooked traditional Palestinian food like stuffed zucchini and eggplant. In the first two weeks of my stay, I also volunteered to teach English in the Summer Camp.
My Arabic lesson were mainly conversation classes to learn the Hebron dialect, but since I have been learning Standard Arabic for three years, I told my teacher I would like to read poems and newspaper articles in Standard Arabic as well. My teacher was really lovely and she asked me what I want to put my focus on, so I could really benefit from my classes. When I arrived the first day, I was glad if I recognized a word and I could not say more than introducing myself, but after only four weeks of Arabic I can have normal conversation about nearly every topic.
All the people I have met at the Excellence Center were really lovely people, be it the staff, English students or internationals. Whenever I had a question were to buy books or food, were to sleep over when I went to a city without the Center or anything else, I could ask a local from the center or an international who had some experience. Especially the Arabic teachers were very kind because all of them would talk in Arabic with me, correct my mistakes and answer questions concerning the language. Also I loved the daily breakfast at the Center with all the internationals. It was so interesting to meet people from all over the world, who shared the same interest in the Arabic language and culture. Also I really appreciated Marwa’s efforts to help me, whenever I had a problem or needed some help. She has always a lot of work and still she takes her time to listen to every student and help him to solve his problems.
It was the same when I went to the city of Hebron, and in general in Palestine. People are so kind here, you can ask anybody on the street how to get to the market or the old city, and then he will see it as his duty to make sure you get there safely. So I felt really safe in this country.
Maybe the most important and most beautiful thing about my stay was the possibility to stay with a host family. Especially my host mum and my host sister were so lovely, we cooked together, drank tea in the evening while they taught me important words of the Hebron dialect. My host sister showed me around in the city, told me how to use a taxi or a bus, told me how much to pay for it and actually how much to pay for everything, so that I would not get the touristic price and my host mum was as mums are: always there for me and treating me not as a stranger but from the first day as a daughter. Also I enjoyed the time with my host brothers’ families, and their children. My family took me also to a Palestinian wedding, an incredible and wonderful event, and we visited my grandmother, which was one of the most beautiful and heartwarming visits I did here in Palestine. I think this was also one of my favorite experiences, although it might seem very unspectacular. When I visited my grandmother and met all the other people of my family I realized once again, that I have become a part of the family and that I am not just a stranger from Europe.
Of course I also enjoyed the food, and I will take a lot of recipes back home to Switzerland, sadly this is the only thing I can take with me when I am leaving this wonderful country, but I am looking forward to my next stay in Hebron. So I would definitely recommend the Excellence Center to everyone who considers learning spoken Arabic, because you can apply what you have learned during your lesson and also you get to know so many people, in the mean time you start to understand the culture. So, thank you very much, Excellence Center, for this wonderful experience.