Ah, the Fulbright Fellow. One of my favorites. For those of you "outside the know," the Fulbright Scholarship is a competitive post-undergraduate scholarship that allows the recipient to do research, work, and/or teach in a foreign country for a year. In Jordan, most of the Fulbright Scholars/Fellows/Pretentious Proper Nouns are either English Teaching Assistants or Researchers.
For most, this is their second time in the Middle East (their first usually being a Study Abroad Adventure), so they know full well that this is a paid, one-year vacation in the guise of a prominent US State Department funded fellowship.
Also known as Peace Corps Lite.
The average Fulbrighter is from an affluent, private university in the US...and most of 'em are white. Given the opportunity to study the lingua vernacula of the region, some make the most of it and improve lingusitically (at least to the point of ordering in restaurants and increasing their ability to yell at landlords). Some study Arabic the entire time they are here and seldom interact with the local Arab community outside of their once a week English teaching volunteering gig or their Arabic professor.
Now that's what I call immersing yourself into the culture!
All of them go back to the US totin' their shiny Fulbright title into their graduate schools and high-falutin' jerbs. But, little do their new employers and professors know that as a researcher, you are not required to produce a single page of research. Nor are you required to work any more than one day per week as an English Teacher.
This is BY FAR the minority, but it should infuriate nonetheless (rabble rabble rabble...our tax dollars...tea party...rabble...). On the other end of the spectrum, some Fulbrights become incredibly worn out and jaded from their experience. They have spread themselves too thin between Arabic lessons, volunteering, research, and internships and fail to see anything good coming of the Middle East or the work that they have done here.
They go to bed early, castigate their friends, and become snippy little buggers.
Don't get me wrong; for those lucky enough to get it, a yearlong break between college and the working world would be the perfect decompression from the Lala-Land of school in the soulless abyss of The Real World. But I didn't get one, so screw them.
Analysis
Ridiculousness: 3/5
While most of the recipients can be described as either Plain White Vanilla- or Future Hill Employee-types, some individual candidates defy any rational explanation, so this measure is rightly skewed.
Insecurity: 2.5/5
Most of their personal/emotional baggage is left at home (or discarded altogether) when they arrive. A year is a pretty solid commitment, but you start seeing the neurotic cracks as the Eventual Return begins rearing its ugly, realistic head.
Intangibles: 2/5
Some of my best friends here are Fulbrighters. But they never got cars. Still, extra points, I guess.
Total: 2.5/5 Picard Facepalms
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