Bittersweet Symphony
2004-04-23 at 8:33 p.m.
Money for sale
I've been doing errands today. I had to go to three places at three different parts of the city. Traffic is bad here. It's not a good idea to be driving around between 12 and 7. I saw a lot of reasons why there are smog laws.I also called a lot of travel agents today. It was hard to find someone who understood me. One of them said, "No speak English," but the others weren't so honest. Heaven knows I'm used to talking to someone who isn't a native speaker, but every non-native is different. When I finally did reach someone American, they said, "Hmm, I believe Lebanon is a country that you cannot fly to." I was like, well, you have to fly through Europe or something, but you can go there. And he said, "Yeah, but I think US citizens aren't allowed there at all." What does he think? I just woke up this morning and was all, "Hey, I want to go on vacation to Lebanon," or maybe I'm travelling to every country in the world and alphabetically that's where I'm at. Anyway, there's a freaking US embassy in Beirut that just opened in the past year so I'm pretty certain that there are US citizens there. He put me on hold, and I would have just hung up, but he was the first English-speaker, so I didn't want to lose the chance. When he came back he told me about the travel advisory issued by the state department and that I shouldn't go there unless it was "absolutely necessary." Well, thanks for your advice Mr. Travel Agent. I really appreciate it, especially coming from you, whom I've been speaking with for all of 30 seconds. He told me he'd call me back, like all of them. And never did. What are we coming to when you have to work hard to find someone to sell you something? PLEASE take my money. Seriously.
So then our temporary roommate gave me an Arab business directory. Most of the travel ads were for Hajj packages, but I called one who I think is promising. His name was Bilal, he spoke very good English, and I have genuine faith in his willingness to exchange his product for my money. So that is good.
In other news, Aidan has the most adorable little curly at the base of his neck.
Can you see it?
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