i spoke too soon

just as i'm ready to hunt down every last mitsubishi dealer in the UAE, serge calls me this morning to tell me that yazan, the sales rep, called him to let him know he located another pajero (same type) for us. same price, same deal. score! 

so i try to get ready to go to the dealer to put down a deposit. let me tell you, julian tried my patience today many, many times. nearly impossible to get out of the house. when we finally got to mitsubishi, he was running all over the dealership. lucky for us, people are sooooo accommodating when it comes to children here. all of the men in the place were like, "don't worry, let him play. it's okay, no problem." cool.

then, since the cashier was not yet at work, i had to wait for my receipt. the guy who cleans all the cars (and i would imagine a lot of other random things around the place) is called over to me because i was offered a beverage. everywhere you go, if you have to wait, people offer you beverages. if you do not want anything, they kind of don't know what to do and keep asking, so it's best to just accept and take something - water, coffee, tea, whatever. the other day, serge went over to talk to our neighbor across the way about our parking spaces. the guy asked serge if he wanted something to drink, and he declined. the guy wouldn't continue the conversation until serge would drink something, so he said (advice from my uncle who is a frequent traveler to the region), "i'll take some water." so the guy says, "okay, i'll give you some orange juice." alllllrighty then. 

that little story takes me on a short tangent. the other weekend when we were at the JAL resort in dibba, ursula had asked for a salad, just a green salad for an appetizer. the waiter was like, "how about some grilled chicken on it?" and she said, "no thanks, just some salad." and he insisted, "okay, i will bring some salad with chicken." and she was like, "no, that's okay. i just want some lettuce." and it was decided - the waiter said, "one salad with grilled chicken coming right up." grilled chicken it was. only it wasn't, because the chef had already made her some tasty mushroom risotto. it's just funny. "what would you like?" doesn't really mean that, it just means, "if you answer this question, i will bring you something of my choosing, and if you don't want anything, i'll keep asking until you want something, and then i'll pick what you're having anyway." at least it's hospitable.

back to the story...

we chatted on and off for about 45 minutes as julian raced around and checked out the cars, brochures, etc. the beverage guy brought me a coffee and a glass of water, as well as a cookie for julian (hello new best friend!). yazan is from jordan and has lived in thailand, so we had some stuff to talk about. in the end, i waited about 45 minutes (hence the need for beverages!). we only had to put down a deposit of 1000 AED, about $300. the car will be delivered at the end of the month, hooray!