It probably is a culteral thing that the business partner takes precedence as this is very old friend and the partner is a few years older. My boyfriend is definitely not misogynistic in any way but I believe the partner probably is. None of this would be terribly difficult except for the length of the visit. I have a job, family and friends nearby and other things to keep me occupied but, by American standards, six weeks is a long visit and it really has disrupted the flow of our relationship. This, of course, bothers me, but the boyfriend is pretty relaxed about the change. I would say how nice to have a calm, go with the flow, boyfriend...but he's mentioned that this annual visit (which used to be even longer) caused problems in prior relationships. I just have the sinking feeling that it may be one of those "just deal with it situations" with not a lot of wiggle room for compromise in my direction. I do think that Kaliope is correct in that I'm probably reading every little thing the wrong way at this point...I think that frustration is clouding my judgement and I may need to shut dow the brain for a bit to see if things bounce back to normal when the visit is over. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.