Simple Differences

America and Jordan are two very different places. Recently we travelled home for my sister's wedding, and after almost 18 months away we were already struck by certain differences even before landing back in Minneapolis. There are larger, more substantial and important cultural differences than these below, but these were our immediate impressions that were formed just from the long journey home.

First, in America there are lines! Here in Jordan, there is no such thing as a line. Whether you are at the post office or waiting to order a shawarma, you must constantly be on your guard, fighting to keep your position amongst a mob of people waiting for you to lose focus enough to slip by you. Once at the bus station in the clamor to board a bus that just arrived we witnessed a group of men jumping up the side of the bus and climbing through the open windows to skip the line waiting to get in through the front door and ensure their spot inside. In opposition to this, when we arrived in Chicago everyone calmly made their way from the plane to the immigration area, and then quietly marched back and forth through the aluminum railing maze that brought us to passport control. For us, the environment there at the airport was eerily calm, and we both marvelled at the stark contrast compared to what we knew would be happening in a similar situation where we had just flown from.

Also, we observed that Americans are a casual people. This we noticed specifically on the short flight from Chicago to Minneapolis, where we saw a lot of blue jeans, t-shirts and white sneakers on people young and old. This actually fit the apparel perception that Jordanians seem to have of Americans, as it has been remarked more than once to us that Americans are viewed as what they call "simple" dressers. In opposition to this, here people dress more formally. Adults almost never wear jeans, and although young men sometimes do, they are usually of the darker and tighter variety, and never worn out or with holes. In fact, pants with holes in them are rare enough that when the jeans I was wearing when we were in Syria developed a small tear, somebody asked me if I needed money for new pants. Young men also often wear a buttoned shirt and wing tipped shoes with their darker, tighter jeans. No t-shirts, no white shoes. As a result of this, it was really a jolt to both of our sensibilities to see such a sea of denim on the airplane. It's nothing that we ever would have noticed before, but we notice it now.