Issue date: 9/24/04 Section: News

Media Credit: Michelle Dwor Alaa Ishak is a member of Jordan´s royal family and an undergraduate student at UNM.

One UNM student stays in a mansion one step down from a castle when she visits her second home.

Alaa Ishak a member of Jordan's royal family, Hashimi, is working on a bachelor's degree at UNM. Ishak's mother is a descendant of the Hashimi king of Jordan. In America, she is considered a princess.

"I'm a princess," she said. "But over there, there's so many of them, so you just get treated better than the common people."

Ishak returns to Jordan once a year. She said members of the Jordanian royal family also reap benefits in other Middle Eastern countries.

Because Ishak is not a part of the immediate family, she is not obligated to marry royalty. She said in Jordan, marriage is a family affair where meetings are arranged with potential spouses before they are wed.

"You get to see the husband or wife before and consent if you want to or not," Ishak said.

She is engaged to someone from the Middle East who is also not part of a royal family. After meeting so many potential husbands, she said she could not count them.

Ishak was born in Arizona. When her father became a doctor in New Mexico, the family moved. She said she considers Iraq and Jordan her second home, but the lifestyle in America is more normal.

"I live like everyone else," Ishak said. "It's nice - more down to earth. Everyone treats you the same."

Because Middle Eastern countries are smaller with more people, she said the traffic is much more chaotic. She said drivers do not stay in the lanes and do not wear seat belts.

But she said there is more to do in the Middle East. Because she is surrounded by her entire family, she said she feels more unity. When she is back home, she does similar things to what Americans do, such as shopping and sightseeing.

"It's like the bazaar," Ishak said. "There are parts of Jordan where the shops are right next to each other."

To give back to her community, she said she would definitely like to return to the Middle East. She said she wants to stay in the health care field and possibly enter a research laboratory in biology.

Continued...

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