The First Meeting Between Faisal II and Keith

I went to the CIES dinner last week with Richard, Elizabeth and Riuting.

It had been a good week, month, end of the semester for me--a huge renewal of self-confidence, a huge purge of self-consciousness--and I was obviously happy to be there.

It was great to see Rita again--my Surrogate German Auntie. I have been seeing Ramin everywhere, it seems. He looks good clean shaven. Like my dad, I told him. Elizabeth seemed disappointed he didn't look like Jesus anymore.

I was at a table with five Asian guys--not to be stereotypically ignorant, I just don't know where from specifically--and I enjoyed listening to them speak in a language I couldn't understand. I couldn't understand the words, but there was familiar emotions and social gestures being expressed among fellow men.

One of them mentioned that he had made one of the prominent dishes on my plate--what big plates someone bought! Am I wrong, fellow attenders?--and then the conversation went around to the delicious Kabseh that someone had made. Faisal, one of them said, was responsible for the culinary masterpiece. Faisal! I said How is he?

Eventually a different Faisal came around and after going through the initial, Oh you're not the Faisal I know, we had a very fun conversation. I started giving him tips on picking up American girls. He told me he'd been going around with a piece of paper saying Hey I'm and international student, can you help me find this building? and parlaying this into a phone number...

He was worried about his accent. I told him American Women, as a homogenous whole, no exceptions what-so-ever, loved accents and he was, in fact, all set to do some serious macking on Tallahassee's fine women. There are so many beautiful girls around here! he said.

I told him he should ask the girl questions, find something interesting about her, something he was actually interested in so as not to fake it, and then reveal something interesting about himself---say, I grew up in a little village outside the capitol. My father owned a bakery. IDK I said, anything that shows you are exceptional. Because everyone is, and people like idiosyncrasy so long as it isn't harmful to others.

Walking out, on the way to a concert & and to meet as girl of my own ;) I saw Faisal and some other Arabic students--again, ignorance here is not unintentional--smoking. I know, I know. But as that guy with the beard proved in the movie we watched in class, smoking does have pros, and one of those is the social aspect. So Faisal II, as it says on my phone, and I are going to be conversation partners over the summer as I earn the next few hours for the certificate.

Love at first sight!