Keith CP #2

It's been awhile since I've updated y'all on the Faisal situation. Well, good news! I've met with him twice since our earlier communication mishaps! Last weekend I got a hold of him and we arranged to meet at Starbucks on a Friday afternoon. It looks like Richard has also had an experience with the difficulties of having phone conversations with our CP's, and I'm here to say it was no different with me. This is not hard to understand though, since even with native speakers the occasions of awkwardness are raised exponentially when there is that conversational middleman. It probably has something to do with the eyes and the hands. What percentage, do they say, of communication is non-verbal?

Anyhow, a few minutes before we were supposed to meet last Friday Faisal texted me saying he wasn't going to make it. I was touched by the way he opened the message with "My friend." We rescheduled to Saturday night at nine, but then I realized that it would be difficult for me to get back into town from the cabin I was staying in with my visiting family. In other words, I had to reschedule too!

After all this it was a relief to see Faisal again on Sunday afternoon.

He brought his friend Abdullah along, also a CIES student, and he helped Faisal along, or answered for him if the vocabulary was out of his range. First off, Abdullah helped clear up a mis-communication: Faisal doesn't work at Shisha, he's been accepted into the Phd. program in Psychology! He has a year to learn English and get a 1000 on the GRE. I realized what a tough order that was-- I've been learning English for 22 years and I still only got a 1070 when I took it in December. (Granted, I didn't study after I decided not to go straight to Grad School, but still...)

Faisal and Abdullah are both from the capitol of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, were they knew each other from the Psychology department there. They both miss a regional dish: Kabsa, made with rice, chicken and vegetables, but the spices are key to its taste-- Black Pepper, Cloves, Cardamom, Saffron, Cinnamon, Black lime, Bay Leaves and Nutmeg. (wiki copy and paste :)

Faisal told me he'd been married for six years (His wife will join him in the states in six months) and the longest time he'd ever been apart from his wife was 1 day. I asked Faisal how they met and Abdullah explained to me that in Saudi Arabia the mothers look for suitable wives for their sons and then the sons meet the choices to confirm their mothers' taste. Abdullah told me that this may seem strange to Westerners, but the fact of the matter is he trusts his mother to know what's good for him. I'm kinda on the fence about this, but I think part of it is wise in the sense that women might be more suited in their judgment...

It was a great meeting and I felt like a learned a lot about Faisal and Abdullah, but I was a little disappointed because I felt like I ended up talking to Abdullah more-- I would ask Faisal a question and he wouldn't understand... I'd ask Faisal what kind of music he liked and somehow wound up talking to Abdullah about how you can watch live Opera broadcasts at the Governor's Square Regal... Anyhow I was resolved to keep focused on Faisal the next meeting.