Okay, I'm recouperated
The drive up was uneventful, as was the drive back. Tedious, but uneventful. Nicole is a very well educated girl, if a bit blunt and... well... slightly imperious. But Danielle tells me that's just an unconcious habit, and all in all she was very cool, sometimes fun to talk to, other times very informative, and more than once cracked up by my usual slew of random wise-talkin'. Monday and Tuesday I'd already covered previously, so I'll skip to Tuesday evening, wherein Mr. Lagomorpho was kind enough to drop on by. Apparently, he only lives a short way from Nicole's apartment. He brought green tea muffins with red beans in them. They were yummy. He and Nicole launched on an intense discussion of linguistics which, frankly, I didn't follow much.
Nicole is learning arabic from and for her fiancee, who is in Jordan right now, but may come to the US very soon. The State Dept. moved his visa interview up by several months. Good times. She struck me as a very aware person, and I appreciated meeting someone who was so completely unattached to the media umbilicle. She and I talked a bit about viable news sources (apparently the Christian Science Monitor is supposed to be fairly balanced reporting) and our mutual disdain for television. I'd been stuck in the rather biased world of Souf Cackalacky for so long, it was nice to talk to someone who wasn't resistant to an open view of the world.
Wednesday saw me enjoying a solo foray back to Chinatown, mostly to pick up one tiny present for Jay (cheapo souvenir 'dragon-turtles'...tell you some other time), but also to satisfy my own need to browse around at liesure. I wasn't really there to shop, and I bought nothing for myself. I really just wanted to walk around in the middle of the city for a while, and also to be around somewhere different for a little while, even if different meant "I can't read chinese" different.
Later that afternoon, I returned and was given a little wooden kit trebuchet from Danielle, who had gotten it in return for a little help at Nicole's place of work. I think I will build it tomorrow.
After that, we went back out and met Shadi's sister, Lina. (Shadi, btw, is Nicole's Jordinian fiancee.) Lina is a flight attendant, and used a training trip to coordinate a visit with Nicole. Lina was extremely beautiful, and more amusingly, very headstrong. She told the story of a lawsuit she was throwing at her employer, who had screwed her out of much deserved pay boldly, expecting her to back down because she was female. His mistake. Apparently, there's a large number of men in the Middle East who expect women to do what they are told, even if it is wrong or wrongs them, on the sole basis that they are women and should obey. Fancy that.
We met another (American) friend of Nicole's, and all had dinner at a very nice little North African place called Nomad, where we dined on briwats, brik, and a couple of couscous dishes, all very tasty. The restaurant itself was small, but very beautiful. It was nice to go in to this place and completely lose track of being in the middle of New York City.
We woke up early, packed, and headed home, and even shortened the trip by more than two hours. Now Danielle and I are home, and because traffic problems have prevented our visit to Savannah, we are enjoying the rest of our vacation being lazy here at home.
Nicole is learning arabic from and for her fiancee, who is in Jordan right now, but may come to the US very soon. The State Dept. moved his visa interview up by several months. Good times. She struck me as a very aware person, and I appreciated meeting someone who was so completely unattached to the media umbilicle. She and I talked a bit about viable news sources (apparently the Christian Science Monitor is supposed to be fairly balanced reporting) and our mutual disdain for television. I'd been stuck in the rather biased world of Souf Cackalacky for so long, it was nice to talk to someone who wasn't resistant to an open view of the world.
Wednesday saw me enjoying a solo foray back to Chinatown, mostly to pick up one tiny present for Jay (cheapo souvenir 'dragon-turtles'...tell you some other time), but also to satisfy my own need to browse around at liesure. I wasn't really there to shop, and I bought nothing for myself. I really just wanted to walk around in the middle of the city for a while, and also to be around somewhere different for a little while, even if different meant "I can't read chinese" different.
Later that afternoon, I returned and was given a little wooden kit trebuchet from Danielle, who had gotten it in return for a little help at Nicole's place of work. I think I will build it tomorrow.
After that, we went back out and met Shadi's sister, Lina. (Shadi, btw, is Nicole's Jordinian fiancee.) Lina is a flight attendant, and used a training trip to coordinate a visit with Nicole. Lina was extremely beautiful, and more amusingly, very headstrong. She told the story of a lawsuit she was throwing at her employer, who had screwed her out of much deserved pay boldly, expecting her to back down because she was female. His mistake. Apparently, there's a large number of men in the Middle East who expect women to do what they are told, even if it is wrong or wrongs them, on the sole basis that they are women and should obey. Fancy that.
We met another (American) friend of Nicole's, and all had dinner at a very nice little North African place called Nomad, where we dined on briwats, brik, and a couple of couscous dishes, all very tasty. The restaurant itself was small, but very beautiful. It was nice to go in to this place and completely lose track of being in the middle of New York City.
We woke up early, packed, and headed home, and even shortened the trip by more than two hours. Now Danielle and I are home, and because traffic problems have prevented our visit to Savannah, we are enjoying the rest of our vacation being lazy here at home.