I've been feeling lonely but a little more independent lately. While everyone plans their club hopping weekend, I've been planning a solo agenda to go museum hopping (it is free too!) Either way, its been an uphill battle dealing with the girls here. I've met some interesting foreigners the past few days, but nothing more then small talk. It made me missed the in depth conversation I had with all those people in Greece, so I tried to track down some of the people I met, which led me to some of their blogs where they posted about our intense discussions and how each person was different. This is a clip from the 19 year old boy from Canada that has been backpacking across Europe for the past few months by himself....it was nice to meet someone I could talk to on the same wavelength as me...but his detailed crazy blog of his travels is at http://jdueckathousandmilesinmyshoes.wordpress.com if you feel like reading the whole thing... but here's the part that surprised me as I started to realize he was talking about me!!!...maybe I'll be in his book too!
"Back at the hostel..... I wrote some poetry for a while, did my work on the Internet, and met some really nice girls while I was up there (all American - one from Washington state, and 3 from New Jersey, although none of them previously knew each other. .... and we had some of the best discussion that I had had in a while about a bunch of different things. One thing that I end up talking a lot about here is American politics, notably the upcoming election. We also talked a lot about the gay marriage issue, religion, travels, life, etc., and there was one girl that I found myself seeing eye-to-eye on a lot of important things with. Her views on religion, morality, etc., were nearly identical to my own, she was really nice, had been going through some hard times after being ditched by some mean 'friends' (rich English girls who were embarrassed by her company, etc.), and she was pretty in a 'down home cute' sort of way. She was basically the first girl that I had met on my adventure who I was actually attracted to, and, it therefore pretty much goes without saying, the coolest girl I had met on my trip as well. There have been a lot of physically pretty girls, but that isn't what really gets me about a girl (physical beauty is important to me as well though) - it's much deeper than that, and this girl (her name was Jenna, and she was just under a year older than me) had it. We talked until about 2 am in the hostel lounge, and it was pretty much a perfect evening, leaving me feeling quite fulfilled. One really cool thing was the way that Jenna and I set the tone for the conversation that the 5 of us were having. Our views on morality were very similar, as I have said, (she doesn't do the drinking/partying thing, etc.) and when a couple of the girls tried to tip the conversation in the direction of swearing, drinking, etc., Jenna and I didn't really follow along, so it was unconsciously felt that such topics weren't cool, and it all stayed clean. Instead, it was unconsciously recognized that it was cool to stay home and talk rather than to drink, to watch clean movies about the beauty of life and living in the moment rather than crude garbage, etc. I am sure that I had a lot of influence in the room, being the only guy among 4 girls, but I don't think I even did it intentionally - I just stuck with my standards, and since everyone has a natural desire to be accepted, they almost unconsciously shifted what they said so that it would be acceptable. I don't think I am doing a very good job of explaining of what I mean, but I am just trying to say that we have incredible power in a very subtle way to shape the direction of a conversation almost unconsciously, and that was something I did a bit of thinking about. "
=) I can't wait to come home to you guys. Send me emails.
Love you,
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