Last day at Rima’s office and it was full of very informative meetings about HR and finance. As I have said before, everyone has been so generous with their time and overall very obliging.
I have noticed that when the phone rings during one of our meetings, my host generally waits for me to indicate that they should take the call before answering. Generally, unless it is particularly important, they don’t even look at the phone until they make sure it is okay with me (being the guest). For me, when the phone rings my natural instinct is to reach for it immediately and, when there is a brief pause in the conversation, check to see who is calling before excusing myself in order to answer. It feels like by waiting to reach for the phone here, you are telling people that they are as important as the phone call and that face-to-face communication shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s quite nice.
Back at Aunt Lina’s we all got ready to head out to the beach house. It seems that, about an hour’s drive out of the city, practically everyone has a “chalet” right on the beach for the weekends.
By the time we got here it was too late to go swimming because the tide had gone out and their house is on a shallow area but I walked down into the sand a little, which is really soft. You have to watch out for the rocks though because they are really sharp.
We had a bit of a traditional American picnic dinner with (chicken) burgers, fries, corn on the cob, and for desert, apple pie (it was supposed to be Apple Betty, but when she cooked it she forgot a few steps so it was more like apple pie filling, which still tasted good, but this means I am going to have to make it again so that we can have a real one before I leave. “Third times a charm…”).
We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and I got these:
Mini peachy-o’s and Skittles “Littles”! Plus strawberry Mentos (by the way, Mentos has become my new favorite thing to keep in my purse while traveling. I had orange ones in Beirut, and I got mixed fruit in Amman. You never know when you are going to want one).
After dinner, Aunt Lina made Latifa and me practice dancing for the wedding which we are going to tomorrow night. Apparently, there is a traditional two-step dance which is done. I seem to have picked it up alright, but I am waiting to see how people do it at the wedding before I actually try. I like to dance though and I plan to spend a lot of time doing so because that is how you spend time at weddings.
I have noticed that when the phone rings during one of our meetings, my host generally waits for me to indicate that they should take the call before answering. Generally, unless it is particularly important, they don’t even look at the phone until they make sure it is okay with me (being the guest). For me, when the phone rings my natural instinct is to reach for it immediately and, when there is a brief pause in the conversation, check to see who is calling before excusing myself in order to answer. It feels like by waiting to reach for the phone here, you are telling people that they are as important as the phone call and that face-to-face communication shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s quite nice.
Back at Aunt Lina’s we all got ready to head out to the beach house. It seems that, about an hour’s drive out of the city, practically everyone has a “chalet” right on the beach for the weekends.
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| The chair in the room I stayed in |
We had a bit of a traditional American picnic dinner with (chicken) burgers, fries, corn on the cob, and for desert, apple pie (it was supposed to be Apple Betty, but when she cooked it she forgot a few steps so it was more like apple pie filling, which still tasted good, but this means I am going to have to make it again so that we can have a real one before I leave. “Third times a charm…”).
We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and I got these:
After dinner, Aunt Lina made Latifa and me practice dancing for the wedding which we are going to tomorrow night. Apparently, there is a traditional two-step dance which is done. I seem to have picked it up alright, but I am waiting to see how people do it at the wedding before I actually try. I like to dance though and I plan to spend a lot of time doing so because that is how you spend time at weddings.
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