Day 24: Stranger

Everyone is a stranger until you meet them. Brian was a stranger until I met him July 13th. Stratus, Sprout, Lucy, Emmie, & Willow were all strangers until I met them the same day. Kim & I met a lot of strangers, because we apparently cannot help ourselves and we must talk to people who look like they need help. From Alaska to New Jersey we aided those in need, on their journeys to Montana & Wyoming (Kim more so than me I might add).

Another definition of stranger is someone who is different from others and the others think that person is just off somewhat. I was watching a food show the other night and one segment was in a Tokyo restaurant with a medical theme. People dress for the theme, and in the case of these diners, anything goes. The drinks were squirted into the mouth with a syringe. Beer was in a clear bedpan shaped container. Red toppings looked like blood. You cannot tell me that is not strange! (The photos were taken from the TV screen. IMHO being on TV gives their automatic permission to use).

Strangers...sometimes talking to them is more fun than talking to the people you already know. Having been the stranger in many train stations and airports in China I can tell you first hand sometimes it is a lot of fun, others it seems like a curse. People assume I want to speak English so they just stare until I speak up. Once I was waiting for a train near a Great Wall section and writing in my journal. Being left handed automatically got them interested so being a foreigner, left handed, writing in a journal on the outside steps of the station, made me a direct target. I looked up, after being particularly engrossed in what I was writing, to see a circle of about 12 people silently watching me write. Ok, so maybe it was a slow day, but seriously? Several gave me their emails to write them to practice English. It was all in fun, after the fact,however there is no way I would go up to a foreigner in my country and stare until he/she started talking.