So you’ll recall the heartwarming tale of my being complimented on the way to beach volleyball. I follow that up with something, er, less heartwarming. Similar story: walking down a road with a friend, having gotten off the bus this time, also on the way to play volleyball. This time we’re in the burbs though, and as we pass by what I think was a Lebanese restaurant a guy, way off in the shadowy distance, shouts “sluts.” Yes, at us. We keep walking. We are further away now, and he comes closer, but still remains hidden behind the restaurant’s wall. He hollers again. At this point, I shout, “Show yourself, you loser!!” (Perhaps a bit high school, but that’s what I did on the spur of the moment.) He runs away.
One man’s pretty girl is another man’s slut? (A variation on what our high school politics teacher taught us: “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”) This was likely some sort of minor cultural clash (if you can call it that). Hard not to see the Arabic on the restaurant’s sign, is all I’m saying, and I didn’t have a clean burka to put on this morning.
To conclude: We didn’t go there for food after the game.








Oh, Andrea, good for you to stand up to that clown. (You do remember your karate, yes?)
He was/is a clown! And a young clown at that. I think this was likely some kid. I was never able to really see him so can’t say for sure. (And at this stage, I would need a karate refresher course.)
you evil, western imperalists!(just joking). But Lebanese food is really good.
You never know how far those ‘sentiments’ go, though. A friend of mine became pregnant due to repeated rape, left for another country to have her child, and at 6 months, was called…well, essentially the same thing you were, by a group of young lads, who followed and proceeded to beat her in the street. She delivered a dead child that evening.
Culture-clash. (*I always picture this phrase in the context of ‘A Serious Man’)
J->