Jordan Day 1- Thurday

Jordan! I was so excited to go to Jordan! The thrill of going was not simply in getting to see another country , it was about seeing how an over 90% Muslim nation lived. I was excited for another perspective on the Muslim way of life. Oh, and seeing some historical sights sounded cool too...(-:
The border crossing was not bad at all and as we entered the new land we began to see a difference in the country. Throughout the whole day we bussed through small rural cities and watched the Jordanian people live their lives. It seemed poorer then Bethlehem and Beit Jala (in the west bank), and much much poorer then Jerusalem. Apparently, though we thought many of the cities were poor and dumpy, this is where people from Egypt come to get good jobs and have a good life (I sure can't wait to see Egypt now!).
It was fascinating to watch the little children playing in the roads, the women-all completely covered, and the men sitting about, talking and laughing in front of their shops and houses. I wanted to jump down from the bus and join them and hear their stories and see how they live their lives, but that will have to wait for another time.

A very blurry picture from the bus window, but I figured it was still worth posting. See the herd of camels?

At our stop at Gadara there was this darling little boy who wanted to shake each of our hands. He made us happy.

We stayed in the capital city of Amman our first night and went to...Starbucks! (-: There are no Starbucks in Israel and this is the only one (I think) in Jordan. In our taxi on the way there our taxi driver informed us that the three big black suburbans in front of us with lights on them held King Abdullah, king of Jordan! We were in the car directly behind his...so cool!

Kaytlin, Ash, and in front of the slightly different sign

Bet you never thought you would ever see this menu in Arabic, eh?