All day long  Jordanians say “you are welcome” when I haven’t said thank you.  At first, I felt kind of bad about not saying thank you quickly enough until I realized that when Jordanians say “you are welcome” they mean you are welcome — welcome to be here and to whatever I am sharing with you.

 They don’t wait for you to express gratitude before they tell you something to make you feel you belong. I love that!

Here is my second piece of unsolicited advice that you won’t get from a Rick Steves book:

Here are the reasons to go to Jordan:

• You are welcome!  The people are so nice and see themselves as part of one big family
• Tourist dollars reward Jordan for maintaining stability in a region of war and violence, and taking in over a million Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the past ten years
• Petra is among the most important and inspiring historical places on earth
• You can stay in a Bedouin tent, see artifacts as old as civilization, ride camels and horses, float in the Dead Sea, walk where Jesus walked, ride where Lawrence of Arabia rode, and hang out on gorgeous beaches where there is fantastic diving and snorkeling — among other things
• It’s a short jog to Israel, and you have to go to Israel sometime
• Jordan can be super cheap or you can go luxury
• Jordan’s Queen Rania is on twitter

And Jordanians are worldly  — one of them told me that my San Francisco baseball team is going to the World Series. Nice going Giants!