An International Haircut

I needed to get my hair cut, and when we were in the “trendy” Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, I found a reasonable looking place and we walked in. The young man spoke English very well and when I asked him how he came to speak so well, he said he worked for several years in Dubai. In fact, he has only been in Argentina for a year and a half, and since we spoke English the entire time, I have no idea how good his Spanish is—my stylist is Syrian. He left Syria 9 years ago when he was about 19, spent a few years in Dubai and moved to Argentina with a woman. (She does not seem to be in the picture now). He has cut hair since he was in his early teens, and though he doesn’t aspire to cut hair indefinitely, he is pretty good at it, and it does allow him to work almost anywhere. He told a couple of terrorist jokes and we asked whether always being called a terrorist bothered him. He said yes, but he goes with the flow and ignores the fact that he looks as Argentine as he does Syrian. His future plans: go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and anything can happen. I wished him good luck—he should be there by now, as Carnival started today.