I was having a pretty good day today until you stepped into it. I took the early bus to Kairouan, south of Tunis. I wandered the kasbah, taking pictures of all that was picturesque. I ate diamond-shaped sweets and drank a glorious macchiato looking onto Islam's fourth holiest city. And for the upteenth time, I pretended to belong to a group to which I did not actually belong in order to see the interior of a building whose interior I as an outsider was not supposed to see. If that were a sport, I would be at least a AAA player by now.
Basically, today epitomized everything that I enjoy in my off-project time - food, wandering, and architecture. Then I went to a bar in Islam's fourth-holiest city. That itself should have set off warning bells, but sometimes I have to take a break from pretending to be religious. I had a few Celtia, the Tunisian local brew. You and I talked in my tipsy-fluent Arabic.
Then I went to the bathroom and you followed. Look, I understand how difficult it must be to be gay and closeted in North Africa (or single and extremely frustrated with social norms), but sorry, the area betwixt my navel and knees is off-limits. Especially for randos in bar bathrooms.
I hope the elbow I delivered to your sternum was a clear enough message, but in case it wasn't, American isn't code for gropeable. Seriously, just move to Tunis or Paris where there are real, live gays instead of being a creep in Kariouan.
And you surely were joking when you asked me to pay for your beer. Chivalry is positively dead when the anonymous bathroom groper doesn't even pick up the tab. I mean, that's just common courtesy.
I hope you will understand when you figure out the phone number I gave you is phony and probably a digit too short.
Best,
Edward
Location:Kairouan, Tunisia
I hope your elbow blow was enough... because you hit like a girl.
ReplyDelete: )
PS- Jk, still have bruises.