Today it is snowing here in Maryland. I had the choice of a different weather in 5 weeks: sun shining and a warm climate, rain and snow. Not bad for only 36 days! Tomorrow I will fly home, a long fly, a tiring trip, so many hours and the famous jet lag that will be my companion for some days. But in Italy Tuesday is a festivity so that I can try to recover and think. I should be very happy because I am going home, and I am, really, but I cannot forget these 5 weeks in this University of Maryland College, a hotel of Marriott chain. As a matter of fact I am sad in a way. I have found here not only employees 'obliged' to be nice to customers, but some nice human beings who let me feel at home, when it is quite well known that...to be in a hotel for long time is rather...frustrating. There many ways of doing one's duty...and here they found the best way to do it for me.
Hi Miss Mary... as everyone calls you here: you understood my loneliness and found the way to make it lighter. The work of a scholar is always a lonely one and after being 8 hours in the Archives, in silent company of other researchers even the voice has some difficulty to come out and to be used: so the opportunity to talk to someone, to have a bite not alone, but in a nice atmosphere has been welcomed. And also the possibility of going to a very interesting exhibition exchanging opinions about it has been a different way of spending the only afternoon I allowed for myself, free from work.
Hi Andrews, Anja, Johnnise, Carmen, and all the others of the front desk, always ready to implement my requests, like the one of an electric extension, for example, or just listen to my words about researches, with a lot of patience.
Hi Elena, que tal! Hemos platicado tantas veces en su idioma, el espanol, porqué Usted es originaria del Salvador, si mi memoria no anda fallando. Me hablò de sus ninos, de su esposo, de su vida y yo de la mia. Experiancias distintas, pero vida comun. Que le vaya muy bien logrando felicidad y serenidad.
Hi Polly: you come from Brasil, but unfortunately I do not speak portuguese, though I understand it. Nice company in the morning during my quick breakfast.
And what to say about the young people in the two restaurants I have been all my staying here.
Heidi was the first one to welcome me in my very first evening here: I have to confess that though I know English I felt myself at loss because I realised...that I could not understand what you were saying to me. But by now, I understand since I got used to the accent of everyone.
Hi Melvin, young man, advising me about the best beers you are selling in the premises. When I walked in the 'Oracle at Adelphy', you and your colleagues, Valerie and Heidi, welcomed me as I was one of your family, always with a high level of respect, but also, after some days, with a warmth which it is not obliged in your work. You told me something about your dreams for the future and I think that you have to struggle to obtain them because they are quite reasonable and sound. And if you succeed, let me know: I will come and have an Old Dominion Stout. I pay the fare from Italy but you offer the beer!
Valerie nice girl doing well her job: you too have been cheerful and smiling to me.
A smile does not cost much but it has a wonderful revenue! And yours is a very nice smile.
Thanks to Mike, also: the young and gentle supervisor.
Thanks also to the girls I met in the Garden restaurant, Adanech, Azeb, Weiney, Hirute: they come from Ethiopia, a country I visited in my youth: I lived there for six months and I remember very well that period and the country. They were surprised at the fact that I knew Addis Ababa...Asmara...and I was remembering also the food...zighinì...Their smile too has been valuable for me.
It is certain I forgot someone, for example the housekeeper for myy room who comes from Bosnia.
Practically you meet people from all over the world!
In a way all of you acted as my family, with respect but with a human feeling I appreciated very much. So: MANY THANKS from the web!
Happy Xmas to all of you and a Happy New Year full of health and love.
This time exceptionally for you I will sign with the name you know and not with my Persian name, Firuzeh, I adopted for my blog.
Maria Gabriella
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