Jordan

Saturday thru Sunday mornin:

Anna and I get-up to get ready to take a boat from Egypt to Jordan. The boat turns out to be $70. We make other plans. Specifically, we cross back into Eilat, Israel and take a cab to the Israeli-Jordanian border (in case it's not obvious, they blast Britney Spears' "Gimme More" at the Israeli-Jordanian border). When we crossed to the Jordanian side, Anna used her charm and newly-developed Arabic skills to get us out of havin to pay the entry tax. I also began to notice a fascinating trend: hand-holding and affectionate touching among Arab men. I experienced this custom first-hand, so to speak, when the tourism officer at the Jordanian border held my hand lightly as he conversed with Anna. To throw off his game I kept squeezing his hand then relaxing my grip. The Egyptian border guards hold hands, too, btw.

In Aqaba, we hopped on a bus. No, wait. First, this guy offered us a ride for 5 Jordanian Dinar (which did u know is worth more than the dollar?! outrageous). We hopped in his car, but Anna was like "I don't feel the vibe" so we told him thanks but nah. Then we got a bus (that was actually a van). The van/bus was full of Jordanians, packed. I don't know if this was intentional, but the men were in the front and all the women were in the back. How did I notice this, you ask? The only seat left was next to the driver facing the back of the bus. So it's me, the lone American (minus Anna) facing the whole van. A great time for one of the Jordanian guys up-front to ask me, "so what religion are you?"

First I pretended not to understand the question. "Are you [Arabic word for Christian]?" he asked, making the sign of the cross. "Nope," I said. "Allah?" asked the driver, expectantly, as he leaned into my seat not lookin at the road. "No," I said. "Yehud?" was the third guess. I pretended not to know the meaning. "I like all religions," I said honestly. "Allah's actually pretty cool." They tried to understand: either I might be Jewish or that I had no religion at all (speaking from personal experience, that's a hard question, in general). For better or for worse, the language barrier prevented the convo from going any further.

A Jordanian man and his wife (one of two, we learned) invited us to their house and we accepted. His children were adorable. He wore a Keffiyeh, and when I walked in the house his daughter was there with her hair uncovered. She went to her room and started to put on a Hijab, but I walked in on her again while her Dad was giving us the tour of the house. At that point she musta been like "the damage is done" bc she left her hair uncovered the rest of the time we were there.

Our Jordanian Dad was nice enough to lead us to the highway and flag down a car for us to hitchhike in. After tea, of course. Our new friend was a banker and store-owner in Amman, and though his English was weak we had a lot of fun. We played this "game" which was basically him trying to talk and Anna and me trying to guess what he was saying. "In Egypt, the police not follow the..." "Law?" I guessed. "Yes, law! Now one point for Brett, two for Anna." When we got to Amman, tired and weary, he took us to his favorite Hummus and falafel spot. It was divine, truly. Allah or otherwise.

Quick sum-up: Anna has a dope roommate who's written a book on Tunisian-Jewish poetry, Amman is an awesome city, and I caught a 5 AM bus back to Tel Aviv and went to work that Sunday (diff work week here). I hadn't showered since before the beach in Egypt, which made me pretty much like everyone else at my office. JK. Oh, lastly, the border-crossing back into Israel from Jordan is a zoo. And then they dropped me off in East Jerusalem but this nice Jewish-American recent Stanford grad helped me find the bus back to TA.

Wknd was like Whoa.