February 3, 2007
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“We are men. We are men.” –from the movie “Glory”
What do you BURN for?
“there is something worse than dying young–it is dying with no purpose.” Joan of Arc
My friend from Taiwan went diving today. i couldn’t understand her English so she drew me pictures of all the fish and stuff she saw today. My friend from Conneticut got a personal tour of some guy’s world renown orchid collection. and i went bike riding in the Everglades.
What i love about a hostel is putting my stuff down and not worrying about it getting stolen. taking a ride without wondering about being kidnapped. Being open for friendly conversations. Not knowing what is going to happen that day and delighting fully in the fact that nothing HAS to happen. i took off my watch–why eat at mealtimes? why not when i am hungry instead? Why not hop a bus somewhere new? why not turn off my MP3 player and start an interesting conversation? things are constantly happening and i can say yes or no. i can join or decline.
Evian, one of the hostel owners, was telling me the difference between travelers and tourists. Travelers NEVER make reservations. (or carry pancake recipes) they live day to day. He told me about “day work” where he’d go down to the boats (at Ft.Lauderdale) and they’d hire you for the day. you’d get trained right there. he got picked to be trained for engineering, lucky ducky. how amazing is that? just go somewhere, start working, if you like it stay, if you don’t, you leave.
I love learning how to meet new people. to ask questions. to come into a conversation knowing that the person knows things that i don’t and i want to learn. They’ve been places and seen things, loved, hated, and lived. I really like trying to find the right questions to unlock them past “Hi, how are you?” like for the bus driver, all i did was say “how long have you been driving?” and i learned about the whole system and how bus drivers make 70,000 a year. that may just become my next goal. that’s good money.
The front door. normally only used by new comers. tons of other doors are located tons of other places:)
