A friend of mine asked me to join him on a spontaneous dive trip to Egypt this year, so of corse I was in!
The trip took us to Sharm el Sheikh, a place I have never before thought about going to.
Anyways – I liked it a lot, but yet – it was very difficult for me, too.
I am a spontaneous, outgoing girl, I like to express my thoughts, talk to people and enjoy myself.
But I found this quite challenging in Egypt.
One day, I left our hotel in order to get some souvenirs in the stores nearby, while my friend was staying at the hotel.
After entering the first store, I saw the salesman and another man (I guess a friend) having their lunch. Of course, I couldn’t keep quiet and wished them “Bel-Hana we’eshefa” (which is supposed to mean something like enjoy your meal in Arabic, no clue if I got the spelling right).
Instantly, one of the men got up, picked a bracelet for me and put it on my arm. Of corse I liked it (after all, I’m a girl), but it took me some time to realize he gave it to me as a gift – of course “you don’t have to buy anything” (nooooooo….)
Soon, they started asking their typical questions “where are you from”, “what are you doing here” etc.
One of them started complimenting me, whilst the other one left the store. Actually, I still felt comfortable then.
In the meantime I got another present – a necklace.
When I returned to the bracelets (I was still looking for souvenirs), he started singing next to me. First, I liked the idea of him not caring if I (a client) was around and just sing, but he was actually singing about me. I can’t remember the lines, but it was about my eyes being a window to heaven, my smile making him comfort and my voice sounding like angels.
This was a little to weird. Now, I wanted to leave.
But still, I didn’t want to be rude, so I politely told him I had to l leave. He wanted to give me a goodbye present, another necklace. When he put it on, he was so close. I felt his fingers on my neck, his breath too, oh, how I wanted to get away, but he sure took his time.
When he was done, I said goodbye (this took for about 10 mins as he wouldn’t let go of my hand and I didn’t want to upset him, as I wasn’t quite sure whether to be pleased or scared) – and finally left the store.
That was when I decided to not go shopping on my own again.
divemone 