My experience with the Excellence Center in Hebron

My experience in Palestine

My name is Maya and I am 19 year old Belgian girl. This year I am having a gap year and I am ready to start my studies in September. I have spent one month learning Arabic in Excellence Center Palestine in Hebron. I followed the intensive Arabic course that gave me the chance to study Arabic very intensively and learn the dialect. Every day I got 3 hours class with a private teacher. This gave me the opportunity to improve my Arabic skills to the fullest. Beside the classes I learned a lot of Arabic from the people in the center and from my guest family.

My time at the center has been unforgettable. There were so many lovely people I got to know in the center and in Hebron. My favorite time of the day is for sure breakfast in the center. Than we all enjoy a super Palestinian breakfast together and have a chat. I really like that everybody here has a passion for Arabic culture and that really connects us. The center organizes different events, activities and day trips that have been always very nice. I for example went on a day trip to Wadi Qelt where we went for a big hike and swam in waterfalls. Sometimes we all cook together in the center and afterwards we enjoy our food and share stories. These evenings are really cozy and ideal to get to know traditional Palestinian dishes. Mostly we have five days classes and two days of. On these days it`s nice to explore Palestine. It's really easy from Hebron to get to other places in the West Bank with public transport. Often people of the center make plans together so you always have people to explore with.

During the week you spent most of your time in Hebron. The center is situated in the most central street of Hebron which makes that everything is really close by. After the class you can easily go to restaurants, to the shops and also the old city is very walkable. Most of Hebron I got to know thanks to my guest family who took us to many places and always let us know where we could eat delicious Palestinian food. Hebron is as well a very safe place. I often walked alone in Hebron and this was never an issue. For me it is mostly because there are so many people in the streets that I never feel scared. Most people are very helpful and know English. Especially in daylight I feel very safe, in the night I prefer to not walk alone in the streets and have somebody with me. But that’s the same in a lot of Belgian cities. Also the other Palestinian cities are very nice to spend time in.

I am already planning my next trip to Palestine and probably I will come back to the Excellence Center. It is just the ideal way to learn Arabic and explore Palestine. I am so happy I took this chance and that I had this unforgettable time at the Excellence Center.