Litz was carefully washing the dishes in the kitchen, while Dari came in, her bowl of rice finished.
– Just a minute and I’m done.
Litz said smiling. She really appreaciated the discipline she was able to keep by still doing a few humble activities like that. Dari smiled back and connected to her boyfriend by mobile phone in the meantime. The Asian girl worked as a secretary in the luxury healthcare industry. Dari was in Dubai by herself, she had a long-distance relationship in her birth country and led a very quiet lifestyle in Dubai. Litz admired her English-speaking skills and sometimes engaged in a chat with her to understand her perspective as an expat.
Litz’ room was tiny, clean and contemporary decored. She found peace of mind every time she entered that space. Picking your evening dresscode as a woman alone in an exceptional city like Dubai was kind of difficult. Litz opted for a safe elegant option: a shiny flowered long skirt and a white silk top, whose décolleté she smartly covered by a silk scarf. She also preferred to cover her arms as a form of respect, wearing a mid-sleeved white cotton jeans jacket. Her body covered neck to toes, she released her long hair free in the wind. Nobody would notice that too much, as she was heading to the very international Dubai Financial District.
She reached the skyscraper indicated in the meeting’s invitation with some effort, after entering by mistake a weirdly empty adjacent skyscraper. “They still make a cool skyline” Litz thought. Other thousands skyscrapers’ offices all over the world had been abandoned after the pandemics. Her meeting was unluckily only at the base of the building. However, the meeting room was very elegant, with soft leather couches and glass tables.
A German woman was distributing paper material on the tables. Her assistant prepared drinks and snacks for the coffee break. There were not yet many people, so Litz could fill the German-English table. Next to her sat a trendy Chinese girl and a polished Arab guy. After 15 minutes and a few ice-breaking greetings, all tables were full and people started their language exchange conversations.
Litz diligently noted on paper all the new words and sentences she learned. As she was only a beginner in German, she tried to leverage her English to get more interest by her peers, who communicated more at ease in German. It turned out the guy was working at Google and wanted to keep his academic German fresh, while the Chinese girl had a career in finance and was preparing for her next assignment in Berlin. The facilitator was the organizer herself, who engaged in these meetings to spend some good time and network internationally while carrying on her real estate business.
After refreshing herself with a glass of orange juice and chocolate cookies, Litz collected her notes and joined the loud and crowded Spanish-English table as a listener. The introductory conversation evolved quickly around crypto investments and financial stock markets. An Egyptian economist aggressively describing his strategy to still profit with bitcoin, in order to convince an Indian engineer working in digital banking that his less optimistic statistical approach was wrong. Apparently the Egyptian guy had found a recurring pattern in the bitcoin share value trend that he could use to trade online in a more profitable way. Litz looked at the bored face of an Argentinian historian working as a data scientist. She encouraged the other two guys to end the heated conversation. They could have joined one of the many meetings on financial topics offered by the event online platform.
After a group picture to celebrate the event, Litz left the skyscraper and had a relaxing promenade in Dubai Marina. The chaos of the city surprisingly didn’t penetrate the bay area. Walking along the river, you could focus on the slow flow of water, the gorgeous boats hosting modest parties on board, the bright sights of so many different-shaped skyscrapers all around…and simply unwind all the stress that being in a crowded place had brought along.
By metro she arrived back home safe within her usual bedtime.
