Jordan in General

You know, I think almost every American has similar images go through their heads when given the opportunity to travel through the middle east: great mosques, veiled women, bearded men, roman ruins, over 140 degree weather, being kidnapped and beheaded by al-zarqawi etc... However, this is not entirely true. Not all women are veiled. Just kidding. People here are really nice. Most of them actually really like Americans and the weather is actually a little colder here than it was in Provo before I left. People think Bush and his government is totally nuts, but judging by the polls, most americans think that too. People here actually have no problem distinguishing between a country's goverment and it's people. Which is fortunate for me. I probably wouldn't get a very good reaction if every taxi driver in Amman thought that he was about to chauffeur George W. himself around for the next 15 minutes. On the contrary, these people will welcome you to the country EVERY TIME YOU SPEAK. In addition to that, Jordan is the easiest place in the world to make friends... too easy. It's great for finding people to practice my Arabic with and just general friends to go visit all of the ruins with, but seriously, there is a little too much male to male hand holding going on around here for my taste. It is so funny. It's not acceptable for a boy and a girl to exchange open affection in public, but I have seen some VERY intense interdigitation between guyfriends. It's also not unusual to see lots of cheek kissing upon greetings. The sad thing is that I'm not allowed to date during this study abroad so if I'm going to have any kind of relationship involving kissing and handholding over the next three months, it's about 10 times more likely to be with a man than with a woman. *sigh. I love it here though, and it's all because of the people.