Meeting my first American!
Tuesday, April 18th, 2006Before I left on my trip i oftend wondered to myself what it would be like to meet my first american abroad. I figured i would meet plenty so i awaited the first encounter with eager anticipation. After a few days in fiji and still no american’s to be seen i thought this trip might be better than I thought. After 6 days out on the Islands, still no American…”what the bleep.” It felt like the first few days at summer camp when you can’t take a crap. You know it’s going to happen eventually but you are just not sure if you are going to enjoy it or just be glad it’s over. So on my 7th day in Fiji at the Mango Bay Resort it happened, and i swear the story has not changed to protect anybody. I was sitting in the restaurant at the resort with two english guys and a canadian guy i had met earlier in the day. We had all just sat down to have some dinner and some drinks. To my right i noticed a young lady sitting down all by herself. After a few minutes i noticed she was still by herself. I decided against all better judgement to go over and ask her if she would like to join us as i know it’s not fun sitting by yourself.
“Hello, are you sitting her by yourself?”…Yes, (with a glazed look) the young lady replied.
“Would you like to come and join our table?”…No, that’s ok.
“Come on, come and sit we can make room.”…No,that’s ok…blank stare.
So eventually on the third try i got her to come and sit. So she came over and sat down and pretty much ignored the fact that i asked her to come over in the first place.
“What is your name?”…Allison
“I’m Brian…nice to meet you.”…blank stare.
Now here is where it get’s good.
“Where are you from?”…Boston
No freaking way i thought. I’m in the middle of the pacific ocean on an island no bigger than Massachusetts and the first American person i meet is a chick from Lexington, MA. I swear i almost just got a ride to the airport and came home. After several more difficult and brain busting questions like, “what are you doing in fiji?” and “are you a red sox fan.” I just basically gave up and stopped talking to her. I can honestly say that i’ve had better conversations with people that didnt’ even speak the same language as me. I don’t know, hopefully it wont’ always be like that but I have to say i’ve met a ton of people and out of all of them she is the one i’ll remember as being the least friendly. I hope it’s just a coincidence but i guess that will be determined later. On another note i met a guy from france who said he was asked by an American if they had cars in France…i’m sorry but i guess that just doesn’t need a response.
Gagnonius