Won’t Miss #8: Vague and Late Guests

An irritating part of the flexibility and easy-goingness I wrote about in the post below has to do with guests. In Iran, guests are usually vague and arrive late. 

What do I mean by vague? In the States, people who want to visit will usually give you a concrete time they will arrive – say, 8 PM. Here, it is not uncommon for guests to say, “Oh, we’ll be there after lunch.” What does “after lunch” translate to? Pretty much any time after 2 PM. It’s really annoying having to sit around until so-and-so decides to show up.

Even if guests do give a concrete arrival time, you can count on them being late (I won’t lie, I’m guilty of this too…). 8 PM meeting time? They’ll ring the bell after 8 PM, perhaps no earlier than 8:30, in the majority of cases.

I will not miss the vagueness and lateness of guests in Iran.