Happy hour my butt!

10/30/08 9:30 pm
Happy almost Halloween!!!!! I wish I had gotten someone to wear my punkin sweater!

Okay, with two glasses of wine, and a great big glass of Glenlivet inside me, with only some Lebanase appetizers to keep my sober (the business lounge food came from - yup! - the hotel's Lebanase restaurant, where I had dinner last night!), I will not write too much. I simply got online to try to fix the problems with the files for students on my course web site.

But I just had to say - yikes. I can certainly hold my liquor better than some big-talking Canadian gentleman who works as an oil equipment repair engineer for a Saudi company. Before the discussion devolved too much, it was rather interesting, getting view points and stories from others around the world. (And I am - believe it or not - a bit starved for this, because - unlike back at home, where I hear EVERYone's stories - here, it is rather less apppropriate for me to openly talk with males... and most of the people in the bars are of that gender, after all!)

Mostly, I found myself talking with, and listening to, the expat hospitality workers, who are looked down on by the locals. (I have not actually spoken with true Bahrainian nationals yet, other than my students.) Hence the earlier post about the Pakistani gentleman looking to travel the world. And I can now add to that Vishnu, a Nepalese who has worked in this hotel for 10 years, and formed strong friendships with several of the "regulars" - including the Canadian gentleman. I watched with great interest as men would enter the lounge and go right up to Vishnu (head of the evening hospitality shift in the lounge), shake his hand or even hug him, and greet him by name... and Vishnu remembered most of the Bentley professors and spoke very warmly of them. I told Vishnu that if he could find his way to America, he could easily get a job as bartender and make a lot more money than I make!

But I digress - discussion with Canadian gentelman about Canada vs. US (okay, I am not exactly a flag-waver, so that was fine), and then some commiseration & hopes about the upcoming US election, then he started to tear apart our system of government (okay, he's right - it's not a true democracy...). But when he told me that he understood I was a McCain supporter - HUH??? [Sorry, John!] - and later when he told me I knew nothing about his company (Really? Does he know some of what I teach in my Environmental course?), well, when he realized he had crossed the line, he basically excused himself for his drunken ramblings, and that was fine... Maybe I should just stay in my hotel. Luckily this gentleman is going back to Saudi Arabia tomorrow, so I won't have to worry about running into him again!

Back to the files!