"Lust is easy, love is hard..

and like is most important."
-Carl Reiner


I didn't hang out with my friends very much this summer. Maybe 6-8 times total. Why? No, I'm not a lonesome loser. I do honestly have friends. The real reason I saw so little of my closest companions was because I was kinda, sorta in AFRICA.

Yes, Africa. A lion was my neighbor, and my hut was made out of mud and adobe clay.

Only not really. Specifically, I stayed in Algeria. Even more specifically, Oran, Algeria. We stayed at my grandmother's house, and she lived in the city, as in downtown.

My grandfather owns a business in Algeria. He used to own a series of small factories, but ended up selling most of them. Now all he has under his possesion is his farm. Over the summer his financial advisor, who was also his close friend, visited quite a bit. I didn't mind his visits, not at all. In fact, I kind of looked forward to them. Not because I liked the guy himself, but because of who he'd bring with him.

His name was Noah, and he had eyes that reminded me of the strip of Mediterranean you could see from my window. They complimented his olive skin tone nicely. He was smart and charming and would come to apprentice his own grandfather as he was to take over the family business. He was also a very private and modest person. Because of the culture he was raised in, we couldn't even be in a room alone together with the doors closed. We hit it off right away.

My grandfather, one day, had asked me to come to the sitting room so I could hear a little bit about some of his business. It got boring quickly, so I excused myself. I went to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water and I turned around and there he was.

He smiled and bam, I was gone. He asked ever so politely if he could help himself to some water. "So you're the American gal, huh?" he questioned.

"The one and only," I replied. From there he asked me all about life in America, and I asked him all about his.

The difference in culture between here and there is astounding. Boys here are so crude and impolite compared with the ones I met there. Sex is never discussed between girls and boys. Some of the things I told Noah I talked about with my guy friends shocked him. Some of the things I told him that guys would say to girls he would not believe. I enjoyed my summer there with Noah as my companion, but he would never take it to anything furthur than just being friends. He said we were much too young to go anywhere serious, and he didn't believe in just "having fun".

So it makes me wonder, why do people just mess around? Have we diminished the meaning of a relationship? It's rare to find a 16 year old that's never been kissed, but having spend the summer in a culture where kissing is something that's done between two people who love each other very much and are either married or going to get married, makes me understand its real significance.