Everybody hurts… sometimes

You can’t help but find humor when you are over here. People are different, but we’re all the same. Elle has been after me since last week about needing to take her favorite girl Rebecca out for some coffee when she gets back from her missions trip this week. She gave me a big speech about it this morning in fact before I went out for a run. She said she had been praying about the two of us and that I should be praying about it, too.

 

So today at the beach I thought a lot about how seriously Elle seems to be considering all of this. Then when we got home tonight, Elle informed me that another guest had been added to the dinner party tonight. She said, “Oh Jeff, come, come. There is a vedy special girl coming over tonight. She’s very speereetual, and she’s preetier than the other wan.” I knew what this meant. I knew something was up, though, because her attitude had changed completely. After everyone left I asked Elle, “Did you give up so quickly on Rebecca?”

 

“Well,” she said. “You know, I called Reebecca and said  ‘Oh, Jeff would like to meet you and get to know you.’ And Reebecca, you know, she told me, ‘Well, Jeff is like a brother to me. I don’t think I could see it that way.’” I couldn’t help but laugh because I just find it funny that girls have the same excuses no matter where you are. So I guess arranged marriage number one won’t happen.

 

On to tonight we went. In regards to Rebecca, Elle at least was telling the truth that she was good looking. I found out later that it might have been a stretch when Elle said the new girl was “preetier” than the other girl. In fact, it was quite a stretch. So tonight when the other guests came, Elle was making very subtle (read awkward) attempts to get the two of us together to speak to each other. The only thing that was more awkward was when it finally worked and the new girl told me how she was addicted to the five games on her cell phone. Still, I didn’t want to be rude to Elle, so I was civil and asked questions and showed interest in her conversation.

 

A little after 11 p.m. the family who brought the new girl (whose name is a derivative of the Greek word for love as Elle pointed out) announced that they would be leaving in five minutes. I figured this would be my out, and was looking forward to my chance to report to Elle that this new girl was like a sister to me. That’s when Elle dropped the bomb on me. She invited the new girl to stay the night and sleep in Breanna’s room with her. I couldn’t figure how Elle couldn’t catch how absolutely awkward the moment was. Now, it wasn’t a complete surprise that Elle asked her to stay. She did that with the last girl, but she was at least interesting to talk to and we all stayed up until about three in the morning. Needless to say, tonight was the earliest we went to bed since I got here.

 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that story. Now on to more pressing matters.

 

After rereading my old post from last year that I included in the last installment, I’ve come to the realization that I’m MUCH worse at writing. I am completely out of practice. I’m sorry that you have to put up with all of the nonsense that I’m writing now. If you haven’t seen it before, you should check out my old travel blog at www.xanga.com/czechsandbalances . The writing is much better and the tile was much more clever than this one. It also has better pictures because I had a steady internet signal instead of one the disappears unless the laptop is placed perfectly and precariously on the ledge of the roof or the balcony.

 

Back to this trip now. Today we spent another day at the beach. It was incredible. I had an interesting experience while I was out in the sea. It’s unbelievable how shallow the sea was here. Except for one span of about 15 feet where the sea was about six-and-a-half feet deep, I was able to walk out about 100 yards into the sea and was still able to stand up. It’s quite freaky being out the far, and it always makes you wonder about sharks. Possibly there aren’t any in the Mediterranean. At one point while I was walking, though, I saw a huge shadow in the water. I immediately freaked out and started to turn the other way and swim. It then occurred to me to turn around and look at the shadow and I discovered an unfortunate truth. It turns out that I was actually afraid of my own shadow.  And I’m sad to say it, but it actually took a little while for me to get over that and turn around and march back into the sea. This may not be the right place to air this out, but I honestly thought about any future kids I might have (apparently not with any Greek girls) and how I’m going to raise them. It’s very important to me that I raise kids who are unafraid (rationally, of course) in the world. I want them to have good sense, but at the same time, I never what fear of the unknown to conquer their desires. I did that too often in my life. And only recently have I begun to really overcome it. In fact, moving to Prague was probably my first major step in that direction. Maybe that’s why I keep traveling. It’s like returning to the high dive to reassure myself that I’m not afraid to jump. I guess once you get past the depth of the drop you find that the fall is always exhilarating and the water always fine. The important thing is to make a giant splash and hope others can enjoy the waves.