Mall Encounters

I step onto an escalator at Mecca Mall (very much the place to be) and the nicely--dressed young man in front of me turns around, sees me, and gives me a funny look. "You're not Jordanian," he declares in English, slightly suspiciously.

"No...are you?"

"Ughgh...no, I am certainly not Jordanian." His face fills with disgust. "Stubborn...stupid...irritating...I hate Jordanians..."

We step off the escalator. "Where are you from?"

"Lebanon. You are from Paris?"

"No, America."

He grimaces. "Oh, I don't like Americans either."

I gather that this conversation is over, so I walk toward the exit doors. As I am almost outside he shouts across the walkway, "You are ruining the new world you know!"

I give him a thumbs-up sign and yell back, "Thank you!"

Wow! That was certainly the first, and will probably remain the only, time in my life that someone has assumed I am from Paris!!! How delightful!