The Middle East is not all the same. Everyone knows that Israel is completely different than the rest of the Middle East, but all the Arab countries are not alike. That's such an obvious claim, but I am definitely guilty of taking my experience in Egypt and just assuming that it goes for the rest of the Middle East as well.
Here's a perfect example of two extremely different places in the Middle East. This article from Generation Faithful -- a series of New York Times articles on young Muslims in the Middle East -- reveals the huge difference between life in Dubai and Egypt.
Jordan was an eye-opening trip because it helped me put Egypt in perspective to the Middle East and not just to America. Egypt's roads are dirty, the drivers are wild, hissing is the normal way to get a waiter's attention, and staring at foreigners is commonplace. The roads in Jordan aren't like the states and the drivers are still absurd compared to America, but compared to Egypt it feels like a huge upgrade. The absence of hissing and staring had a nice refined sense to it. The Jordanians all seemed to love their king, which was a huge contrast to the Egyptians who for the great majority privately hate Mubarak. Jordanian flags are everywhere, and the one in the picture above is really, really big.
