I'm Still Alive!

Hello again everyone! I hope that you all had a very happy Thanksgiving and filled your belly with plenty of turkey and pie. I had a wonderful time back in Florida, I got to see my niece and family and it was also my father's birthday, so we got to roll all of the celebrations in one hectic weekend.

Amazingly, my introduction to my one day father-in-law went much better than my girlfriend and I thought. I went to his house, and brought him a case of baclava (bachlawa in Arabic). The first 30 minutes were very stressful with your typical father questions:

"So, what attracted you to S, her face? Her shape? Her characteristics?"

"Well, everything honestly"

"And what do you do for a living?"
"Your father? What is his name? What does he do?"

From there, he started telling me stories about his days in the soccer team and universities, his house in Baghdad that his niece is watching over, and a few cute stories about S's past. He was impressed with the little Arabic I knew, and offered to start talking to me in more Arabic to teach me.

Apparently I made a good impression on him. Instead of Mr., or Dr., he asked if I could pronounce his first name (which I had practiced quite a bit) and told me to call him by that. Also, when we left I went to shake his hand and he pulled me into a hug, showing me the traditional way to do it. As if that wasn't enough of a sign to say that he liked me, he even showed me the proper way to kiss a guy in a traditional Middle Eastern way. (Obviously not on the lips, left cheek, right cheek, left cheek) He said, "You can do it, because you are younger, but I cannot do it to you because I am older."

That is a sign of closeness over there that I was not expecting to get from him on our first meeting, least of all being able to call him by his first name.

So, all in all, it was a very pleasant experience, I drank coffee (with my right hand), talked, and exchanged phone numbers. Earlier I called it a job interview, and I think that I definitely got set up for a follow up interview, and I'm banking on the job!

But, now I'm back in California, and already things are winding up to make for a very interesting next couple of weeks. Nothing terribly interesting in the news today, but hopefully I can find something that will inspire a less personal post later on!