American Girls

A delicious ice cream treat in a local coffee shop, 7-11.

Travel lesson number two: Travel in small, attractive groups. It has only been three days, and we have reaped the benefits. As Rebecca and I made our way from a sterile, cold internet cafe to a comfortable, free internet cafe, we contemplated the impact of only knowing the Arabic alphabet. Dismissing the idea, we quickly became comfortable in an environment that we were used to. An hour after the shay fiasco, our server came out with two heaping bowls of ice cream. He smiled broadly as we profusely thanked him for being so sweet. The owner asked if we had a good time and hoped that we would come back in again. Free things? Yes, we'd love to.

The next incident occured today in Amman. Gabriel, another student here, wanted to show us a Byzantine church with an art exhibit inside that he found intriguing. As it was Jordan's Independence Day, it was closed to the public. Fortunately for us, the exuberant maintenance man was more than happy to open up the gate and walk us around the church. Not only did he offer us refreshments from the cafe, but he squeezed lemons to make us lemonade. Jordanian people are so friendly.

Rebecca and I cannot walk down the street without cars stopping to 'welcome us to Jordan.' Everyone is ridiculously excited to hear that we're from the United States, and one man showed us the American flag on his passport. It may help that Rebecca and I never stop talking. We met the University president's daughter in the grocery store, and we have incidents that should place us on the list for our own sitcom. A wonderful example occurred today in a place resembling Target.

Rebecca cannot live without a hair dryer and is lacking the converter to allow hers to work. The lack of converters in this country led her to buy a new Jordanian hairdryer from a store in the mall. Not surprisingly, Rebecca picks the hairdryer with only the floor model left. As she asks one employee if she can take it, two older women come by and try to help the poor salesman that speaks no English. This causes four more employees, who have been watching us stealthily from the moment we walked into the door, to sprint over. Their limited English skills lead to the conclusion that we want a stereo. The continuous laughter of the American girls brings a manager over, who promoptly gives Rebecca the hairdryer. As three more employees circle us, the first employee takes the hairdryer and beckons us to follow him. We turn to see him with the hairdryer plugged it, blowing air around the store. With all customers and employees of this superstore watching, Rebecca takes the hairdryer and we stumble to the registers, trying to contain our laughter. What do we see when we walk up to the register? A huge crate of the very hairdryer we were buying the floor model of. After profuse apologies from the manager and our continued laughter, we left the Jordanian superstore waving goodbye to our newfound friends.

Everywhere we go, Jordanians want to chat with us. They love to teach us Arabic and learn English. Rebecca and I stood in the student center waiting for our ids-3 new friends, one Syrrian, one Palestinian, and one Algerian. We sit on the bus from Amman to Irbid-two new friends, both from Jordan and wanting to help us with Arabic. The only awkward thing is the staring. There aren;t many blondes here, so they're probably just curious. I don't think many Americans come to Jordan, but I don't know why they don't. Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming!