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Salamu Alekum Raven...
I don't know what I should tell you about first: the wonderful 95°F weather or the friendliness that one encounters on every corner. People say that America is the land of limitless possibilities, but is it possible to just drive the wrong way down a one-way street or to ask a police officer if you can park right in the middle of the street to pick up something in a shop 6 miles away?! Everything is possible here and the temperature is always over 70°F -- an absolute dream.
Peace to Hamburg from the mega-metropolis Cairo,
Mo
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I'd like to think that if I were to have a party where I invited all of my friends that it wouldn't end with some sort of physical altercation between different factions. But then I think about friends of mine, like Sophia, who are basically just professional brawl-starters. I'm not really kidding either, Sophia's clashed with (at least) 3 different other friends of mine.*
That's an extreme example, but I tend to kind of float between a lot of different types of people...who probably wouldn't really gel with one another. I know this, because I've witnessed it.
So, I consider myself very lucky to have a friend like Mo, who also seems to get along with all of my other friends, despite the fact that he has basically nothing in common with any of them. He's just got this disarming personality that puts people at ease.**
Anyway, our friendship consists largely of making plans to meet up, then the "plan" gets altered to such a degree that it no longer resembles the original at all...or it gets cancelled altogether, in which case he calls to lament about what a bad friend he is, begs for forgiveness, an alternate plan is made. Rinse, lather, repeat.
However, whenever we do meet up, I have such an entertainingly good time. I (mock-)complain about his chronic tardiness and lack of ability to stick to the itinerary, but the truth is, I could really care less...because his fun-ness makes up for it.
The plan for Friday: Dinner and a Movie
Mo was going to end the day's Ramadan fast by driving to Hamburg (he lives in Marschacht), pick me up around 6pm, then go to dinner, and then watch a movie before he had to go to work.
Around 6:30pm, I get a phone call from him. His sister has the car so he couldn't leave home as yet. He apologized, and asked if I'd like to hang out with him at work, because from 11:30pm to 6am no one is there. So we have a conversation like this:
Me: Well, where do you work?
Mo: Hagenbecks Tierpark (the zoo).
Me: Um...dude, the zoo isn't open at 11:30pm, as far as I know.
Mo: I mean it's not the zoo, but it's near the zoo...the NDR building. There's like a swimming pool here and a sauna that you can use, we can eat and watch a movie if you want.
Me: (puzzled) Um...ok...there's a swimming pool and a sauna in the NDR building?!
Mo: Well, it's not exactly in the NDR building.
Me: (sigh) ...just tell me the name of this place...
Turns out, Mo works the night shift at a hotel, which is neither at the zoo...or in the NDR building, but between them both. It's a pretty swank place.
I ended up taking the 30 min train ride from Barmbek to Lokstedt and was rewarded with chocolate, coffee and croissants.
I was going to tough it out until 6am, but instead I packed it in around 4:30am and went home. We never got around to watching a movie and I was totally jealous of his camera phone, which cost less than my digital camera, but takes much better pictures.
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*= Granted, she didn't know that they were my friends until I told her.
**= One time, he gave Andre a hug. It was cute.
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