Yesterday I hung out with some new Dutch friends and a few guys I've known a few months and have really come to appreciate and think of as 'real friends' - more than people who hang out cause you speak English and get along moderately well but still need stuff to fill your time together as you only sort of connect. In other words - I have strong affection and appreciation ( you both may be reading this... it isn't anything you don't already know.)
After dinner with a few more people who I don't know quite as well but whose presence I really enjoy - I was going to go home... instead I stopped by a party I had rather circuitously been invited too... a text from an acquaintence inviting me to a party at a strangers whose voice I'd heard a few nights before as he identified me at a meeting but with whom I'd not engaged with at that time.... I knew about the dinner invitation but had opted to stay with my friends - the people who matter, rather than the people I don't really know. However, on my walk home I gave a call and ended up walking past my house and on up to his.
I had already told someone (not involved in any of these events) that I was planning on an early evening as I'd had too many late nights too many times in the past week. I was wrong.
I met quite a few people completely disconnected from my social circle and enjoyed expanding upon the acquaintance dynamic with the few people I had met already... as I was getting ready to go I engaged in a conversation with this guy from Serbia. At some point he made a remark about having fought against Americans in the war - and I had to ask him his age as he looked far too young to have been active in that conflict.
It turns out we're only 8 days apart... his birthday is next week and mine the week after. (Side note - I swear - not smoking in a country full of heavy smokers preserves your appearance - but in relative terms - cause I can look in the mirror and to me I've aged drastically since I've been here!) We got started talking and talking, and he was probably the most fascinating and knowledgeable person I've had the chance to talk with in a very, very long time - not fascinating as in - he's an expert in this field with this degree and that title blah blah blah - like the people who are supposed to be fascinating and to who the term is applied to far too liberally, but fascinating as in, he spoke from experience balanced with knowledge gained through education and his personal passion, his ideas and theories were well thought out and more unbiased than I've been exposed to in a very long time, and the dichotic manner in which he has been forced to live his life would drive me crazy... And yet he spoke passionately and at length - but not too long, I could have continued the conversation but realized it was well after midnight and everyone there had work in the AM.
Every now and then something little happens and it makes me go - THAT is what I wanted when coming over here, THAT is what interests, THESE are the people and ideas that need to be raised up and attention given to, and THAT is what feeds me. This was one of those experiences.
I had ben introduced to him in a large group of people, with another man standing next to him. We talked for hours, literally as it was well after one when I got home, and he walked me back down the street (strip club central) and around the corner towards me flat on his way home too. Despite the length of time and the quality of our conversation I have no idea what his name is. None.
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