The Bus Drive from Amman to Irbid

Like a lot of people, land and my physical sorroundings are the first things I notice when I'm in a new place. Out of the places I've traveled to I'd say the desert hills north of Pheonix, Arizona look a lot like Jordan we saw through the bus windows on our ride from Queen Alia Airport near Amman to Irbid an hour north of Jordan's capital. As we drove we passed car dealerships with spray-painted Arabic signs and herds of goats and sheeps. Since it was early evening and the sun was setting we saw a lot of produce stands on the highway's side closing up and putting watermelons in run-down cars and mini vans.

After about a half hour on the road we stopped at a Safeway ("Seyfwey" سيفوي ) in what I think was west Amman. The biggest challenge I've found here in Jordan is crossing the streets. In Jordan there are few traffic lights and even fewer cross walks. Jordanian drivers, like American drivers, have somewhere to go so they're not a huge fan of stopping or slowing down. When Jordanian drivers se you on the side of the road trying to cross, they don't stop, they don't slow down, they speed up and maybe honk their horns at you if you step into the road. It was here at this fateful Safeway that we learned to cross Jordanian streets. Completely puzzled, and again slightly clueless we crossed the street in isolated groubs. The key to crossing Jordanian streets is to just walk and for the most part ignore the oncoming and increasingly speeding traffic who stop abrubtly when they see you crossing then angrilly honk their horns.

Safeways in Jordan are a big deal, they're more like a Walmart since they sell a lot more than just food. So far I've been to the first one we went to in Amman and one in Irbid. As we strode through the isles of the Amman Safeway we heard Titanic's theme song played in muzack form... repeated about six or seven times. Having gone to Middle Eastern grocers in the states many times I know that Arab stores have unique smell of mixed exotic spices. One segment of the Safeway was filled with this pleasent aroma since it was where about 20 huge buckets of tradtional Arab spices were kept.