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Hey! First, let me respond to your comment, dad. I did in fact fast on Yom Kippur. But I fasted in the extreme, because I fasted while attending celebration after celebration and watching everyone else eat the biggest feast of the year. Oh yeah, Yom Kippur extreme style.
Speaking of "extreme," I was thinking yesterday about how the tourists here are "extreme tourists" or at least they seem to think so... It seems like everyone here is a hard core backpacker type who is trying to find themselves SO intensely and is doing tons and tons of extreme sports in order to do it. I almost find it a bit funny.
Last night, I went to dinner with a bunch of backpacker types. ...but I'm skipping ahead.
Yesterday afternoon while I was walking around, I passed this guy in the street. And I noticed him in particular because he looks nearly identical to Alex. It was actually kind of creepy how similar these two look. They could nearly be twins. They could play the same role in a play and no one would notice a change in actor. I had the urge to talk to this random guy, because I miss Alex, butI decided not to be creepy and let the opportunity pass.
Later, my volunteer friend, Rebecca, invited me to come to dinner with her and these two Danish guys she'd met a week ago. When we met them, they had decided to invite these two Israeli guys they'd met today. Ironically, I had met the same Israeli guys earlier too. Just as we were about to leave, the Danish guys decided to run upstairs to their hotel (also my hotel) where this guy they'd met this week, James, was asleep. Coincidentally, this James person had the room directly next to mine. James decided to come along and came downstairs to meet up with our group. You may have seen this coming, but in fact, James was the guy I'd passed earlier who looks like Alex. The universe is weird sometimes....
On the way to dinner, I started talking to this James guy. He's from upstate NY and is a free-lance journalist. I know it was silly, but in my head I was kind of hoping it would almost be like talking to Alex. And at first, it was. I say at first, because at first, I was doing most of the talking. However, when James started talking, it became starkly aparent how unlike Alex he is. During dinner, he talked mostly about all the countries he'd gotten completely wasted in and all the under-age girls he'd hit on. He told this story about how last night he was so drunk he could barely walk. This girl came up to him and offered to help him get home. She was Dutch. After she got him to his hotel, he asked her to meet him for lunch tomorrow. She gave him the name of a restaurant and said she'd be there at noon. The next morning, James realized that he didn't remember the name of the restaurant, the name of the girl, or even really what she looked like. He just remembered that she was hot and she was Dutch (he says he has a thing for dutch girls...). So, James did the most logical thing in his mind. He went to every restaurant that sounded vagely familiar and looked for a lone girl. If he found one, he'd ask if she was Dutch and if she said no, he'd keep looking. Surprisingly, he actually managed to find this Dutch girl. Despite that, he still couldn't remember her name even after his sober lunch with her. Special.
So anyway, shortly into our dinner, I began to very much regret selecting the seat next to James. But I lived through the dinner. And Rebecca, Lena (another volunteer friend), and I went to Buddha bar alone. I think James and the others attempted to find some sort of strip club... Anyway, Buddha bar was really nice. All the people who work there are friends with Rebecca and they all came and talked to us. Then, these two Nepali guys came over and started talking to us. One latched on to Lena and the other latched on to me. Rebecca was sitting in between us. I think she was too far away. My Nepali, Rex, was a young and good-looking guy. I wasn't interested in pursuing anything, but I thought a conversation with a friendly Nepali guy couldn't do any harm. In my experience, most Nepali guys are usually respectful and friendly and almost never breach the touch barrier. This Nepali guy was quite different, however.
For one thing, this particular Nepali guy was very very very drunk. He would occasionally touch my back or shoulder, which is always a obvious sign of flirtation. He also kept telling me I was "very very beautiful" and that he would take me to his village so his family could give me Tikka. Romantic. Pretty soon, his arm was around me he was whispering in my ear (and spitting slightly on my face...). There is a pretty fantastic photo of him with his arm around me, trying to look cool, and me edging away awkwardly and looking uncomfortable. Luckily, both Lena and Rebecca chose this moment to get up and go to the bar "to get more drinks." I used this as an excuse and went to go talk with them. Rex looked really sad and kept saying "why are you leeaaaving me? Don't you liiiike me? If you don't like me, just tell me and I'll leave. You're so pretty! Why are you leeeeaaving me?" I apologized but left to go talk with my friends. We didn't actually order more drinks. We also didn't return to the table. Instead, we laughed about the whole situation with our friends, the bartenders. Eventually, Rex and his friend went to go hit on another table of western girls.
As he was leaving, Rex came by and asked me to go to another bar with him. He promised to buy me drinks. Obviously, I didn't go. I told him I was tired and after a few more refrains of "Why don't you liiiiike me?" He and his friend decided to go. Not before asking me, at the very end of all this "So wait, what was your name?" To be honest, I don't want you to get the wrong idea here. Rex was clearly not malicious or anything like that. I could tell he was a nice person, just really really really drunk. And slightly too touchy feely.
Both of these experiences made me miss Alex a ton. They proved that there really is only one Alex in this world, no one else I've met really comes close. Not personality wise, anyway. He does happen to have a double from Upstate NY...
After all of this, we ended up meeting another American, Scott. He was older (in his 40s) and from San Francisco. He was really nice and we laughed about my encounter with Rex. He'd witnessed the whole thing. He and I also spent a long time discussing music, life, and why we've ended up out here. He was really friendly and I'm hoping to run into him again. He's staying at the same hotel as me also. He also mentioned that it's possible to vote at the US embassy. I went today, but it was closed. You don't need to register for an absentee ballot, you just can go in and vote. I'm going to go back this friday.
So... that's pretty much my life of late. Rebecca and I are going Canyoning tomorrow. I'm really excited, but somewhat nervous as well!
Speaking of "extreme," I was thinking yesterday about how the tourists here are "extreme tourists" or at least they seem to think so... It seems like everyone here is a hard core backpacker type who is trying to find themselves SO intensely and is doing tons and tons of extreme sports in order to do it. I almost find it a bit funny.
Last night, I went to dinner with a bunch of backpacker types. ...but I'm skipping ahead.
Yesterday afternoon while I was walking around, I passed this guy in the street. And I noticed him in particular because he looks nearly identical to Alex. It was actually kind of creepy how similar these two look. They could nearly be twins. They could play the same role in a play and no one would notice a change in actor. I had the urge to talk to this random guy, because I miss Alex, butI decided not to be creepy and let the opportunity pass.
Later, my volunteer friend, Rebecca, invited me to come to dinner with her and these two Danish guys she'd met a week ago. When we met them, they had decided to invite these two Israeli guys they'd met today. Ironically, I had met the same Israeli guys earlier too. Just as we were about to leave, the Danish guys decided to run upstairs to their hotel (also my hotel) where this guy they'd met this week, James, was asleep. Coincidentally, this James person had the room directly next to mine. James decided to come along and came downstairs to meet up with our group. You may have seen this coming, but in fact, James was the guy I'd passed earlier who looks like Alex. The universe is weird sometimes....
On the way to dinner, I started talking to this James guy. He's from upstate NY and is a free-lance journalist. I know it was silly, but in my head I was kind of hoping it would almost be like talking to Alex. And at first, it was. I say at first, because at first, I was doing most of the talking. However, when James started talking, it became starkly aparent how unlike Alex he is. During dinner, he talked mostly about all the countries he'd gotten completely wasted in and all the under-age girls he'd hit on. He told this story about how last night he was so drunk he could barely walk. This girl came up to him and offered to help him get home. She was Dutch. After she got him to his hotel, he asked her to meet him for lunch tomorrow. She gave him the name of a restaurant and said she'd be there at noon. The next morning, James realized that he didn't remember the name of the restaurant, the name of the girl, or even really what she looked like. He just remembered that she was hot and she was Dutch (he says he has a thing for dutch girls...). So, James did the most logical thing in his mind. He went to every restaurant that sounded vagely familiar and looked for a lone girl. If he found one, he'd ask if she was Dutch and if she said no, he'd keep looking. Surprisingly, he actually managed to find this Dutch girl. Despite that, he still couldn't remember her name even after his sober lunch with her. Special.
So anyway, shortly into our dinner, I began to very much regret selecting the seat next to James. But I lived through the dinner. And Rebecca, Lena (another volunteer friend), and I went to Buddha bar alone. I think James and the others attempted to find some sort of strip club... Anyway, Buddha bar was really nice. All the people who work there are friends with Rebecca and they all came and talked to us. Then, these two Nepali guys came over and started talking to us. One latched on to Lena and the other latched on to me. Rebecca was sitting in between us. I think she was too far away. My Nepali, Rex, was a young and good-looking guy. I wasn't interested in pursuing anything, but I thought a conversation with a friendly Nepali guy couldn't do any harm. In my experience, most Nepali guys are usually respectful and friendly and almost never breach the touch barrier. This Nepali guy was quite different, however.
For one thing, this particular Nepali guy was very very very drunk. He would occasionally touch my back or shoulder, which is always a obvious sign of flirtation. He also kept telling me I was "very very beautiful" and that he would take me to his village so his family could give me Tikka. Romantic. Pretty soon, his arm was around me he was whispering in my ear (and spitting slightly on my face...). There is a pretty fantastic photo of him with his arm around me, trying to look cool, and me edging away awkwardly and looking uncomfortable. Luckily, both Lena and Rebecca chose this moment to get up and go to the bar "to get more drinks." I used this as an excuse and went to go talk with them. Rex looked really sad and kept saying "why are you leeaaaving me? Don't you liiiike me? If you don't like me, just tell me and I'll leave. You're so pretty! Why are you leeeeaaving me?" I apologized but left to go talk with my friends. We didn't actually order more drinks. We also didn't return to the table. Instead, we laughed about the whole situation with our friends, the bartenders. Eventually, Rex and his friend went to go hit on another table of western girls.
As he was leaving, Rex came by and asked me to go to another bar with him. He promised to buy me drinks. Obviously, I didn't go. I told him I was tired and after a few more refrains of "Why don't you liiiiike me?" He and his friend decided to go. Not before asking me, at the very end of all this "So wait, what was your name?" To be honest, I don't want you to get the wrong idea here. Rex was clearly not malicious or anything like that. I could tell he was a nice person, just really really really drunk. And slightly too touchy feely.
Both of these experiences made me miss Alex a ton. They proved that there really is only one Alex in this world, no one else I've met really comes close. Not personality wise, anyway. He does happen to have a double from Upstate NY...
After all of this, we ended up meeting another American, Scott. He was older (in his 40s) and from San Francisco. He was really nice and we laughed about my encounter with Rex. He'd witnessed the whole thing. He and I also spent a long time discussing music, life, and why we've ended up out here. He was really friendly and I'm hoping to run into him again. He's staying at the same hotel as me also. He also mentioned that it's possible to vote at the US embassy. I went today, but it was closed. You don't need to register for an absentee ballot, you just can go in and vote. I'm going to go back this friday.
So... that's pretty much my life of late. Rebecca and I are going Canyoning tomorrow. I'm really excited, but somewhat nervous as well!
1 comment:
So...now that you've been to Buddha Bar in Nepal, you need to come to Athens, GA and go to our Buddha Bar. And visit me.
I can't believe you're so close to leaving.
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