Jordan

I don't know whether I expected Jordan to be the same or different than Israel, but whichever one I expected, it was both. The two countries share a lot of commonalities - similar buildings, crazy drivers, beautiful scenery. In more ways, however, they are different. Jordan has much fewer immigrants so everyone you see on the streets of Amman has dark skin, hair, and eyes. Almost all the women wear head coverings, some with stylish western clothing and others with face coverings and long, black robes. Overall, the country is more rustic. Even in Amman, it's not uncommon to drive past a camel parked outside a store or to see a herd of sheep running along a side street. The poor things were probably being herded into the city for Ramadan.

The city itself was interesting. The zoning that can cause such a headache in the States is unheard of in Jordan. An apartment building or a house is right next to a store which is right next to an empty junk lot. They are all mixed in together. "I wonder if there are any Jordanians enrolled in Urban Development or Urban Planning majors in college," Darren wondered out loud as we explored the city. Compared with other Arab countries, Jordan is not only the most religiously tolerant, but it also has the most stable economy independent of oil exports. Being a kingdom, they had pictures and banners of the king, past and present, everywhere - on streets, on buildings, on postcards. I hope they never have an ugly king because then they would have to look at him everywhere! One thing they didn't have posted everywhere were street signs. Posted road names were extremely few and far between which made reading a map extremely difficult. Instead of road signs, we saw many signs to turn encouraging us to "Turn to Allah" because "Allah is God". Those signs weren't much help as we wandered through Amman in a hopeless search for our hotel.

One completely western part of Amman is Mecca mall. It is a three or four level mall full of souvenir shops, scarves and head covering shops, and clothing shops like Old Navy, Gap, and even Forever 21. Mecca mall, and the lady covered from head to toe in black robes who was coming out of Old Navy, is an interesting example of how Jordan has adopted many of the western ways of life while at the same time retaining its own, unique culture. That is one mall in which I would love to sit and people watch. Darren tried to get us to all walk behind him so that he would look like sheik leading his tribe around. We tried to humor him! :-)