It's been a while since I posted last. I am realizing that I REALLY don't like writing, but since people enjoy reading the blog, I will try to post at least once a week.
You can tell that you are a local when people start asking you for directions AND you can provide them with correct directions. Well, I guess I should mention that my GPS device helped with the directions, but that's beside the point. :-)
Few days ago, as I was walking back home carrying grocery bags from my trip to the farmers' market, I was stopped by a francophone lady asking me if I spoke English. As a matter of fact, I do. :-) Lady's husband (waiting in the car with diplomatic plates) works for the French Embassy in Sarajevo. They were on a week long vacation, trekking from Sarajevo through Banja Luka and Zagreb on their way to Ljubljana.
Poor lady (and her husband) was looking for a Sheraton hotel, and everyone was sending her downtown. The lady did not realize that there were two Sheraton hotels in the city, and that she was staying in the one that was not located downtown.
Using my trusty GPS, I was able to find their hotel (2.5km away from where they were). For some reason, streets in Zagreb are laid out in a really wacky way so there was no way for me to give directions that these poor folks could remember. I told them, I'll hop in and take you there. It was just easier, and less painful for them.
Few minutes and several confusing turns later, we were at the hotel. The couple was so thankful that I helped them, they wanted to drive me back. I thought that it would have been kind of pointless for them to drop me off at home and get lost again. So I walked home (2.5km with grocery bags in each hand. I needed a walk.
The couple offered to take me and Carla out for supper that night, so I told them that I would check with Carla and get back to them. Carla thought that it would be fun to get together with them so we picked up the couple at their hotel in the evening and took them to a nice restaurant downtown Zagreb. Carla did most of the talking (in French) as the husband did not speak English and the wife was not comfortable speaking in English all evening.
The supper was lots of fun as the couple had a lot of stories to tell (they have lived in Beirut, Iraq, and a lot of other interesting places). After the supper, we showed the couple around downtown Zagreb and they were thrilled to have a 'local' guide them. I guess I'm a 'local' now. :-) This was definitely a time well spent!
1 comment:
Ivan,
You may find writing to be tedious, but consider the fodder your blog will offer when you need material for your first book.
Or consider this! Buy yourself a little hand-held cassette recorder that fits in your pocket and keep an AUDIO journal. (Perhaps your MP3 player or Blackberry has these capabilities.) This is THE way to keep a journal, as it is an up-to-the-minute account of ongoing events, and it is not time consuming, like writing. I kept an audio journal when in Argentina in 1996. It is great to listen -- even now, 12 years later -- to the events at that time, and to my perceptions of them. Some of my students even recorded greetings for me, in their new language (English).
Paulette
Post a Comment