Sunday, February 25, 2007

meeting new people

One of my hobbies is finding interesting people on the craigslist and getting to know them. Today for example I went for a coffee with a Czech girl, a Slovak girl and a Filipino guy. It was very relaxed and enjoyable meeting, especially during the first part when I was talking only with the Czech girl, and the Slovak girl was entertaining (or being entertained by) the Filipino guy. We talked about everything and nothing, no difficult subjects were raised, but still what can you expect from the meeting on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
After some time we decided to merge our conversations and four of us started talking together. That was still going pretty well until I made a cardinal mistake of asking a wrong question to a wrong person. The Filipino guy traveled around a world (which for him meant Europe) for a year, so I was curious to know what the most memorable adventure that he had had was.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts. The story you are about to read will shake you to the bone and will change your life: The poor guy got a jaw lock in Florence and had to go to the emergency to have it fixed. That involved taking three taxis and going to two different hospitals and seeing several different doctors, and communicating with them via sign language (as it is difficult to speak with the open jaw). And all that in such barbarian country as Italy! Can you imagine? How exciting. So exciting that it took the Filipino guy 28 minutes to tell the story (now imagine how desperate I had to be to check time) and another 10 minutes to answer a question asked out of politeness by the Slovak girl. I was praying for the earthquake or anything else that could save me from listening to this story and I couldn’t stop wondering what’s the point of traveling around the world if this is the most you can get out of it?
I know, I am a hypercritical cold-hearted bitch. But I like myself that way. At least my life IS interesting.