The rexonian april 2008

T HURSDAY, A PRIL 10, 2008

S INCE 2008

From Mid-East to Far East

Global Energy Crisis Hits Home at King’s

SCIENCE IN THE SUN

BY REEM ALHADDADIN AND GHAIDA EL-TAYEH REXONIAN STAFF

A student recounts his journey to China with HM King Abdullah II

BY SUHAYB AL-JAWHARI REXONIAN STAFF

Saturday, Oct. 26 Today is Saturday, the first day of my adventure in Beijing. Yesterday at 5 pm, I left my home in Jordan, and said goodbye to my parents. My fellow King’s Academy student Maria Zabaneh ’10 and I boarded the plane last night and flew for about three exciting hours along with several members of the Royal Court to Dubai. We had to stay in the Dubai airport for quite a while—six hours, I suppose, from 9 pm to 3 am. In the tremendous airport that has a huge place for duty-free shops, we shopped for gifts for our family and friends and for ourselves. Maria and I spent about two hours shopping and then we sat waiting for our flight to come. We had a splendid time talking, socializing and getting to know each other more for the rest of the wait.

See CHINA Page 2

M ADABA - M ANJA , J ORDAN

PHOTO: REBECCA O’BRIEN

Yazan Fanous ’11, Laila Al-Naif ’11 and Hamdi Alaud-din ’11 build a wind turbine for The Solar Project, held on campus March 23.

Alternative Energy Heats Up Campus

BY SWARA SALIH REXONIAN STAFF

On March 23, 2008, King’s Academy took part in a workshop to study the use of sun and wind energy sources. The Solar Project was a collaboration between the Jordanian Ministry of Economics and Technology and the German energy agency DENA. Throughout the day, students were divided into groups that

observed the process of divining wind and solar energy through various situations.

According to Physics Teacher and Associate Dean of the Faculty Mazen Jarrar, this is the first time anything like this has happened at a Jordanian school, and plans have been made to expand these types of programs all around the country. This project is what organizers called “Madaba’s First Wind Farm.”

These days, you don’t need to read the news to know that the cost of energy has been increasing dramatically worldwide. It costs more to heat our homes, drive our cars, transport our food and cook it. A spike in oil prices does not just affect energy companies and policy-makers: everybody, from bankers in London to farmers in Madaba, feels the effects of this change.

Jordan is one of many countries grappling with this growing energy crisis: as a developing country with no natural source of fuel, the economy has felt the sting of price changes on all levels.

And while students at King’s Academy might not notice the consequences of price hikes in their everyday lives—particularly now, as the weather gets warmer—the school adminstration is all too aware of the costs of energy consumption on campus, and so are parents, who will have to face an increase in tuition on account of the rising cost of fuel.

The anxiety about prices

and energy has been evident on campus for months. As the weather got colder in November, and our use of the increasingly pricey utilities increased, King’s Academy residents were warned about wasting electricity and heat, and advised to turn off their lights and their radiators when not in use. In the meantime, the administration was working to offset the skyrocketing energy costs.

Even with one week of holiday, the school spent JD45,471 in January on heat and hot water from the boilers—excluding the electrical water heaters used in the administration and education buildings, the student union, and the guest house. The boilers worked 24 hours a day to heat dormitories, faculty apartments, the Academy Building and the Al-Sabah Administration Center.

In late January, the government stopped subsidizing the price of diesel and fuel. The price of fuel shot up quickly, and by the end of February, the price of fuel was 50 percent higher than it had been at the end of 2007. Today, the price See ‫ﹸ‬ENERGY Page 3

LETTER FROM THE HEADMASTER Dear Readers,

WINTER WONDERLAND

We have looked with great anticipation to that day when we would all welcome the first edition of the Rexonian, the King’s Academy student newspaper. Now I have the pleasure of congratulating all of the students who have brought the paper to life, under the attentive oversight of their adviser, Ms. Rebecca O’Brien.

In this first year of our existence we know that everything we do we are doing for the first time. Some of those things are so commonplace that they are of only a whimsical importance. The first edition of the Rex, however—Vol. I, No. 1—is another matter altogether. We will always look upon it as the start of what will be a continuous record of King’s Academy activities and accomplishments, beginning now, and lasting, as far as we are concerned, forever.

Can anything be more momentous than that?

PHOTO: REBECCA O’BRIEN

Eric Widmer

Ghaida El-Tayeh ’11 stands beside a snowman constructed in celebration of a King’s snow day in January.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE VOLUME I NO. 1

STAFF

2

EDITORIAL

3

SPORTS

4

FUN PAGE

F O R U P D A T E D N E W S A N D E V E N T S , V I S I T K A N E T. K I N G S A C A D E M Y. E D U . J O

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T HE R EXONIAN , A PRIL 10, 2008

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King’s Students Go East CHINA from Page 1 When we got to Beijing, the airport was crowded but eventually we got to the Beijing International Hotel, which is a very nice hotel. It is a unique building with a bathroom. My room is on the 20th floor and it has a huge window, from which you can see Beijing and its tall buildings. As for its bathroom, it also has a huge window next to the bathtub so you can see the TV in the next room, and it has a speaker also in the bathroom. You can watch TV while you rest in your Suhayb and Maria, along with two university students from Jordan, take in bathtub!

Tiananmen Square (and the Forbidden City) on a rather chilly day.

Sunday, Oct. 27 Today, we went with the Royal Court to the Ming tombs.

The Ming tombs were a bit boring for my taste—we just saw tombs of dead people. It’s not really exciting. Then we went to The Great Wall of China. We went to a place called Badaling, the most popular part of the Great Wall. It was very cold over there. We went in a machine— called a “gondolah”—that took us to the top of the mountain.

It was very high. Maria was terrified, but I wasn’t that scared.

When we reached the top of on the mountain, it was even colder.

Then we had to climb to the top of The Great Wall. That was scary to, because the steps and the paths were really steep. It felt that if you leaned a little bit, you could fall back and break your head.

Monday, Oct. 28 Today, we went early in the morning to see Tiananmen Square. It is a huge public space that is covered with tile. And at the end of the space, there is a huge monument. Then we went to the Sony Explorascience Museum, a small museum that demonstrates natural phenomena.

Later, a member of the Royal Court told us that somebody wanted to meet us. He didn’t know who it was, but we were told that we would meet him later that night. In the evening, the supervisor told us that we would be eating dinner with our special person--the King of Jordan. So I was kind of in shock, as was Maria. I wasn’t really nervous, but I think Maria was.

We had a wonderful dinner with the King and his sister at a normal Chinese restaurant. I felt that he was just a regular person.

He wasn’t snobbish at all. He was really interested in the answers that Maria and I gave him when he asked us questions. He

told us a couple of stories about his previous trips to Beijing. One of them was that once when he went to a restaurant here with his family, the waiter served him very weird food like duck feet and other stuff like that. It was impolite not to eat the food so he ate a bit from it, and then he told his family, “I ate it so you have to eat it.” Well, this time, the King got to pick his food.

After he ordered, he told us not to worry about what we ordered, which was good because I ordered normal food. I smiled.

When the food came, the king started to eat with chopsticks! I was thrilled! We also saw a wonderful show that they made for us. I had so much fun there.

Tuesday, Oct. 29 Today, we had an official event to attend. We went to a university where the King gave a speech about China and its relationship with Jordan. On that day, I was on Jordan TV, but apparently Maria missed the camera. Later, we went to another official event.

This one was the most official of all: it was a grand welcoming for the King and a dinner in the Great Hall of People where the Chinese welcome diplomats. We watched a great march of the army and then we went inside to eat dinner. The meal was different from any other food that I’ve ever eaten, but I managed to eat a little from each dish.

Wednesday, Oct. 30 Today is the last day of our trip to Beijing. We went to the Forbidden City, where the emperors used to live. It was huge!

We couldn’t manage to see all of it because it was so big and because Maria and one of the other students with us were tired. What we did see was nice, even though it was cold. Then we went to the Grand Hyatt to eat lunch with a lot of VIPs. The King gave a

short speech and then we ate. It was nice and the food was tasty and, well, normal.

Because it was the last day and I hadn’t picked up any gifts for my family, I had to buy something for them, so I went to a place called the silk market. The silk market is a place for bargaining. The dealer would give a price for a shirt, like 400 Yuan— which is 40 JD—and you can bargain with him until he gives you 30 Yuan, which is just 3 JD. I liked that place. Everything was cheap.

Thursday, Nov. 1 Today, we left the hotel at 2:30 am. We had a long and tiring trip back home, arriving in Amman at 5 pm. I met my family and everybody was happy. My family was really excited because I got back okay,. The first thing I ate when I got home was Msakhan, which is bread with cut onion on it cooked with olive oil and chicken.

Despite the weird food, I had a lot of fun in China. I got to practice my Chinese and learn more about Chinese traditions and lifestyle. I also learned about all the work the Royal Court does, what the King does on trips, and how they manage diplomatic relations.

I had midterms on Sunday and I immediately started studying on Friday. I did well on all of my tests, thank God, and I got the second highest grade in my Chinese class, which is pretty good considering Mohammad Foda was the first and he lived in Taiwan last year.

I thank the school for giving me permission to miss a whole week of school to take this once in a lifetime opportunity. I said it once and I will say it again, I had a lot of fun in China. Or, as Maria said, despite the cold,“it was the trip of a lifetime.”

Who Are The Junior Fellows?...

BY SWARA SALIH REXONIAN STAFF

At King’s Academy, there is a group of individuals who are not students or teachers, but a collection of recent high school graduates taking a year off before entering college. The eight students, called Gap Year Junior Fellows, live and work at King’s Academy doing a variety of jobs—they assist in the dorms and in the Al-Sabah Administration Center, they coach sports, they take a seminar with faculty and classes in Arabic, English and History, they administer various student activities and services, and they mentor students.

The main reasons that motivated them to come here were to have a break before entering university and to learn about Jordanian culture. They all have their individual reasons for coming here as well.

Isabel Nassief hails from Belfas, Dominica—an island in the Caribbean—and went to Deerfield Academy. She had already taken Arabic in her sophomore and senior years (she spent a year abroad in Spain during her junior year), and first heard of King’s Academy from Headmaster Eric Widmer in an e-mail he wrote to her when he was still headmaster of Deerfield. Aside

from those reasonss, Isabel also came because of her desire to continue learning Arabic. After King’s Academy, she plans to attend Bowdoin College in Maine, although she has not yet decided what to study.

John Gwin, who grew up in Andover, MA, and Shaker Heights, OH, attended Phillips Academy in Andover. He had first read about King’s Academy in an article in The New Yorker about the school that was published about the school in September 4, 2006. His reasons for coming are that he has always been engaged in news about the Middle East, took a Middle Eastern studies course during his senior year of high school, and he had taken Arabic courses the past summer and wanted to continue. Next year, John will attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he plans to study either Middle Eastern studies or modern history.

Elena White originates from Houston, TX, and went to Deerfield. She first heard of the Academy in her sophomore year there, when Dr. Eric announced that he would be the school’s founding headmaster. Elena had already decided to take a gap year before college, but it was Isabel who convinced her to come to Jordan, and she completed the applica-

The first class of Gap Year Junior Fellows poses outside the dining hall.

REXONIAN STAFF Staff for this issue: Jeris Abuhouran ’10, Reem Alhaddadin ’11, Suhayb Al-Jawhari ’11, Robert Bahou ’11, Ghaida El-Tayeh ’11, Dalia Mehyar ’10, Ghaith Odeh ’11, Laila Salameh ’11, Swara Salih ’10, Jumana Shahzadeh ’10, Tala Shokeh ’10, Leen Sinokrot ’10 Lacey Gray, Designer Rebecca O’Brien, Faculty Advisor

T HE R EXONIAN , A PRIL 10, 2008

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...Our Reporter Explains It All! tion two weeks after the deadline.

She got the position, and is happily here at King’s. After the year is over, Elena plans to go to Rice University in Houston, perhaps majoring in Middle Eastern studies and continuing Arabic.

Matthew Schubert grew up in Reading, MA, and went to Phillips Academy with John.

He also heard of King’s Academy from the New Yorker article, and he had also taken the same course on the Middle East as John. Matt wanted to come this year since he knew it would be an enriching experience, and a great way to learn about Jordan and the region in general. After his gap year at King’s is over, Matt plans to attend Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, although he has not decided what to major in.

Katie Hutchins hails from New Canaan, CT, and also went to Deerfield. Like Elena, she heard about the school when Dr. Eric made his announcement, and since she also took classes on the Middle East, she felt that coming to King’s would be a great experience. She also says that she is a boarding school supporter, and wanted to be part of starting the school.

After King’s Academy, Katie may stay in the Middle East over the summer before she attends Hamilton College in New York, where she might study law.

Keith Tracy grew up in Hong Kong and attended St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. He heard of King’s Academy during a class on the Middle East in his senior year, where his teach-

er told him about the Gap Year program at King’s. Keith decided to come because he loves to travel and explore new cultures—“I like to take myself out of my comfort zone”—and because he wanted to learn Arabic.

Keith has been accepted at Edinburgh University in Scotland and he plans to major in economics and Chinese, and may also study Arabic.

Margot Robinson is from Sunderland, MA, and went to Deerfield as a day student. She heard of King’s Academy from both Dr. Eric’s announcement, and the article in The New Yorker.

She had not planned on taking a gap year until she’d heard about the school, but now says that she feels taking a year off will help her appreciate college when she gets there. Margot plans to attend Williams College in Massachussetts, and says her majors will be physics and theater, and she may also study math, history, and foreign languages.

Davis Shaver, who hails from Lebanon, PA, went to the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. He first wanted to go to China for his gap year (as he had taken Chinese), but his mother prohibited him from going.

However, he learned from one of his “teacher friends” (who used to be a dean of students at Deerfield), about King’s Academy, and decided to apply to be a junior fellow for his gap year. Davis has not yet decided which university he will attend, although he plans to study art history through the view of the Chinese.

PHOTO: WENDY BRADLEY

Yasmin Lukatah ’11, Reed Ghandour ’11, Jumanah Shahzadeh ’10, Leen Sinokrot ’10 and Tala Shokeh ’10 spend some casual time at night in Alnilam, the girls’ dorm on campus.

Editorial: Life in the Girls’ Dorm

BY TALA SHOKEH REXONIAN STAFF

For those of us who live in the dorms, even for only part of the week, King’s Academy is not just a collection of classrooms and athletic fields, it is a home.

There are 22 girls who live in the girls’ dorm, Alnilam (aka “The Castle”), on the weekdays, and a handful of girls who stay for the weekends. “I like living in the dorm,” said Reed Ghandour ’11, “but it comes with a lot of responsibilities, and it’s an experience we get a lot out of.” Living in the dorm means adjusting the way we live to the way others live, and it means figuring out how to rely on yourself and become an independent person.

A lot of us like living in the dorm because it means being with your friends all the time, which joins us together, and we become a family. Another reason we like

living in the dorm is that we have the teachers there next to us, to help us, and to lead us in the right path.

Even teachers like being in the girls’ dorm. As French teacher Ms. Linda Bouziane said, “I love the girls’ dorm because there’s so much life in it and the girls are amazing. I like to see them together interact with each other and with us, and they are like a second family to me.” Many teachers like being in the dorm: even if they’re not on duty, they often pass by and spend some time with us and are a part of our lives.

The dorm throughout the year has become our home, and we all feel like we are really becoming a family. And while we in the girls dorm might disagree at times, the one thing that we all agree on is feeds! We all like having feeds and we get them pretty often. We

get many different types of food, from shawerma to vegetables to cookies to smoothies and shakes.

I know what you’re probably thinking, what’s so special about being a boarder at King’s Academy? Well one of the answers comes from the only official female full-time boarder, Dana AlJawamis ’10. Dana loves dorm life at King’s “because it’s not like any other Middle Eastern school, it truly embodies the idea of it being as a home.” Another answer, from Jumana Shahzadeh ’10 was, “All my friends live with me! Safah!”

Some part-time boarders are in the process of becoming seven-day boarders, drawn to the weekends by the fun activities and a chance to relax on our great campus. We want to encourage day students to think about becoming boarders, because it’s an easier and much more fun life.

King’s Feels the Effects of Fuel Price Hikes ENERGY from Page 1 of fuel is 90 percent higher than it was in 2007, and is expected to rise to 160 percent of that cost by the end of the year.

In February, operating at 85 percent capacity, King’s Academy spent JD67,000 on boiler heat for dorms and apartments. This was even after the boiler schedule was adjusted to lower costs: heat in certain buildings was turned off at certain times of the day, even as dormitories were kept heated all day.

“In the last few months, fuel prices have risen dramatically in Jordan,” said Deputy Headmaster and Chief Financial Officer Dana

Adwan. “This has had an immediate impact on life at KA, given that it is both a school and a residential complex running 24 hours a day.”

Faced with the challenging task of keeping the school running comfortably, without running’ low on funds, Ms. Dana is keeping a close eye on the budget while considering how to serve the needs of the school.

“Every aspect of KA life is affected by this increase from heating water, apartments, classrooms and dorm rooms, transporting students and residents to and from the city, to cooking meals necessary to support the whole community,” Ms. Dana

said. “In order to ensure the comfort of both students and residents, at present, our main concern is to balance the needs of the community with the financial capabilities of KA.” While fuel is the main consumer of money at King’s Academy, it is clear that other aspects of daily life, on- and off-campus, have been affected by the energy costs.

As Director of Facilities and Maintenance Ola Bseiso said, “Electricity, gas cylinders, construction material, wood, plastics, and other consumer products have significantly increased in price and will negatively affect the cost of living for the average citizen.”

It has been a frustrating time to

live in Jordan, on and off-campus.

When heaters were placed on a timer, students and faculty froze at night in their dorm rooms and during the day in their classrooms.

Faculty and staff members living in Amman have seen their electrical and heating bills double in the last few months. As Ms. Ola said, “the cost of living has increased altogether.”

“I am totally shocked at the rise in heating prices,” Director of Communications Vera Azar wrote in an email. “We filled up 1500 liters of heating oil (solar) at the end of January for 485 JD. We then filled up the exact same amount five weeks later, and it cost us 920 JD...Since then, we’ve decided that

extra layers of clothes and blankets are the way to go; no more heat unless we’re absolutely freezing!”

“The cost of heating my apartment doubled in January,” Director of Admissions Renee Dugan wrote in an e-mail. “I finally ended up turning my heat off completely.” Ms. Renee said her electricity costs more than doubled in January and February, despite the fact that she was gone for ten days in January.

Fortunately, summer is upon us, and in the months without heat, the school’s expenses will decrease substantially. As Ms. Renee said, “like so many families in Jordan, I was very happy to see the warm weather finally arrive!”

T HE R EXONIAN , A PRIL 10, 2008

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SPORTS King’s Hoops Makes Debut Just two months into their inaugural seasons, the King’s Academy’s Boys’ and Girls’ basketball teams took part in a five-team tournament, held from March 27-29 at the Amman Baccalaureate School (ABS).

While the girls and the boys lost all four of their games, both teams went out with a strong finish, and the boys’ team was awarded the tournament’s sportsmanship award.

The four schools who took part in the tournament were the local ABS and the American Community School (ACS), a team from Aleppo, Syria, and a team from

Beirut, Lebanon. The Beirut girls and the ACS boys took home first place.

The boys’ team was lead by Coaches Junior Fellow Keith Tracy and Sandra Idehen, with co-captains Faisal Kawar ’10 and Muthana Tarawneh ’10. The girls’ team was lead by Coaches Jessica Gorman and Rebecca O’Brien, with cocaptains Farah Hamati ’11 and Tala Barakat ’11.

Despite a fight in the boys’ game against Aleppo, and a big loss in the girls’ game against Beirut, the final games against ACS, a strong local competitor, brightened spirits before the weekend was over.

SCOREBOARD KA GIRLS V. ABS (35-15) KA GIRLS V. ALEPPO (12-32) KA GIRLS V. BEIRUT (4-42) KA GIRLS V. ACS (17-22)

KA BOYS V. ABS (28-62) KA BOYS V. ALEPPO (24-59) KA BOYS V. BEIRUT (32-61) KA BOYS V. ACS (35-44)

PHOTO: REBECCA O’BRIEN

King’s co-captain Faisal Kawar ’10 takes a shot against home team ABS in the teams’ first games of the tournament.

BOYS’ SWIM MEET

BY JERIS ABUHOURAN REXONIAN STAFF

PHOTO: REBECCA O’BRIEN

Laila Al-Naif ’11 shoots for a three-pointer against home team ABS in the afternoon tournament opener.

On March 26, after months of sweat, hard work and powerful swimming, the King’s Academy boys’ swim team faced off against the Modern System School and the Al Manhal School. Despite honest effort, the young King’s team was overpowered by its opponents and lost each meet.

Jeris Abuhouran ’10, Hashem Attar ’10, Tarek Attar ’10, Qusai

Al-Dwari ’11, Omar Malkawi ’11, Ribal Al-Khatib ’10, Suhayb Mohaidat ’10, Swara Salih ’10, Hasan Abu-Khorma ’11 and Hamza AlQudah ’11 all competed.

Coached by Junior Fellow Davis Shaver, and Dr. Yasser Tabbaa, the boys competed in 10 continuous races. “We did well considering it was our first time,” Davis said. He also added a couple of tips for the swimmers, “We need to work on our nerves and foot turns for next time.”

THE FUN PAGE Need Advice?

Horoscopes

Dear King’s, As you know, this is the new King’s Academy student newspaper, and since we thought that it should be mainly about the students and faculty of King’s, we have decided to offer advice to all members of our community.

You can ask about anything you want! If you would like to be anonymous, you can: we will have a small box in Ms. Wendy’s office, so that anyone can submit a question for our two experts to address in the next issue of the paper.

BY TALA SHOKEH

Yours, Tala and Yasmin

Aries (3/21-4/19) School: You will do well on your next math exam and you will love this week’s classes, but you have to stay focused. Social life: You might have a few problems here and there, but you will find your way around them.

trouble. Social life: You’ll have a fight with one of your close friends. Try to see their point of view.

to manage it right! Social life: You might be feeling a bit lonely, but you’re going to enjoy this week.

Cancer (6/22-7/22) School: You might be having a few problems with sciences, but just ask for help. Social life: You and your best friend will go on an adventure that will help you to get to know each other better.

Libra (9/23-10/22) School: Your school work has been going pretty well until now,so just keep working hard!

Social life: You will realize this week who your real friends are.

Taurus (4/20-5/20) School: You’ll be surprised by your next grades if you try your best. Social life: Your social life is going pretty well these days, even if you think it’s not.

Leo (7/23-8/22) School: Let’s just say, study hard for your next biology test if you don’t want to fail. Social life: Your friends aren’t happy with the way you’ve been treating them.

Gemini (5/21-6/21) School: Be careful, Ms. Wendy is looking for you! Stay out of

Virgo (8/23-9/22) School: You are having a problem with time: you need to learn

Scorpio (10/23-11/21) School: You are going to realize that what you thought was hard is not really that hard. Social life: Be careful with telling secrets!

Sagittarius (11/22-12/21) School: Ms. Wendy is going to keep a close eye on you so don’t do anything you might regret.

Social life: Tell your friend the

truth, because you don’t want them to find out elsewhere.

Capricorn (12/22-1/19) School: You will have a good week at school, so be happy. Social life: Everything is going well, just don’t go crazy this week!

Aquarius (1/20-2/18) School: Honestly, I don’t think you will like this week at school, but try anyway. Social life: If your friends are really your friends, they won’t be easily lost, so don’t worry.

Pisces (2/19-3/20) School: Dr. Eric might call you for a meeting this week, so be prepared. Social life: All you have to do this week is regain the trust of your friends, because you need them.