Last week my boss – a Japanese man in his mid sixties – invited me to lunch. When he first asked me if I was available this weekend I thought he wanted me to work on some legal issues that surfaced in the past week and before I respond he continued in his – Japanese English – “I would like to take you to lunch, will that be ok?”I was flattered that a man in his age and position would be interested in socializing with me.
He is a very influential man; he heads four departments in addition to his position as an advisor for the CEO. His areas of knowledge do not begin only with history and do not end with law and economics. Although he is in his mid sixties, he runs, plays football and each year he participates in the marathon.
That weekend, I went to the place half an hour early, it’s just few blocks from where I live. I explored the area around and I was happy to find couple of my favorite food franchises and a branch of my bank there. Although I live in proximity I never crossed the highway to the other side before.
I wonder why??!
We met at the hotel’s lobby and headed to the restaurant. The place was packed with its patrons, mostly Europeans. Everybody was dressed up like it was dinner and not lunch.
Live music was on, with a Pilipino guy singing a song from the seventies, on the table next to us there were a large group of people celebrating a birthday.
That certainly brings back memories; the only difference is that I was on that other table…
He helped me find the food that goes with my beliefs, we shared one fish and that was the only similar thing we both ate, my main course was different than his, my dessert and even my drinks were different than his.
It’s intriguing how cultural backgrounds can manifest in small social event…it gives me an idea of how politics must be like!!
We talked and discussed issues of life, music, history and even war and politics. I walked him to his car and saw him takes off as I started walking home.
It was a nice change from all the study and work that I do most of the times.
On my way home there was a predominant thought going back and forth in my head… would he have asked me still, had we not been expats? Or is it Expat’s chemistry?
Oh but that’s another story…
