Thursday, July 27, 2006

What´s in a name?

Half the fun of traveling is meeting people. Not just the locals - although that part is awesome - but also the other travelers. In the past few weeks I´ve hung out with (mot just ¨met,¨ but actually spent significant time with) people from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Australia, and pretty much every South American country. Oh yeah... and the US. Surprisingly few from the USA, though.

Over the past week or so I´ve been hanging out with the same group of people... a bunch of hooligans in our early 20´s. We did the Death Ride together... we rode the subsequent 15-hour bus to the jungle together... we did the pampas trip... we hung out in our hostel after the trip... we were on different buses for the 18-hour ride back to La Paz, but we still kept running into each other at meal stops, or when our buses got flat tires. We even hooked back up in La Paz for a day before we all headed off in different directions. It was actually kind of hard to say goodbye...

The fun part, though, is how well our names fit us. Our core group consisted of several boisterous, wise-cracking Germans with names like Yoern and Dirk and Yakob Boormeister; a laid-back Aussie gal named Isabella (or just ¨Bella¨); some British chaps named Max and Richard (not Rich or Rick... Richard); and, finally, a French-Canadian figure skater name Jolianne LaLié-Martou. I was the lone American. A Californian, no less. Dude!

2 comments:

Jael said...

Hey, my friend and I were discussing the other day how much people like to hear their names, and how good they feel when you remember them. It's a powerful thing.

Anyway, thanks for the comment on my blog. I wasn't expecting it. Nic and I were talking about you last night, and we both decided that you should come to San Diego and do interns! I did two years and it changed my life. Nic's doing it this year with another group of amazing people. It's a good thing.

1 more thing. If you happen to go to Nicaragua, and travel the east coast of it, get a boat and go to Orinoco and just walk around and meet people. It's such a beautiful place, and there's monkeys, which if you go for any other reason, go for the monkeys, but be carful, one of them bites. Trust me, it's not a happy thing. ;) (yes I got bit by a monkey)

Anonymous said...

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