People are strange
26.07.2005
Wow! people ARE actually reading this!!! how heart-warming your responses are too, thanks so much! nice to know that there are really people out in the amorphous blob of internet world 
Yesterday i began researching different travel programs...i am finding it rather frustrating and unfulfilling though, any suggestions of some good volunteer/work abroad programs would be swell. i know ther are some scattered in amongst others questions and answers, but they really are scatterd!
What a funny species we are part of. I have been introduced to the bizarre ways of the 20-yr old BOY at work. i never would have believed that this demographic is the worst source of gossip if i had been told. but now, having worked with around 50 of them for the past 9 months, i have been introduced to this unlovely fact. my mind is blown away by the fact that they find my life intriguing enough to twist and spread around amongst co-workers (other 20yr old boys...and i say boys intentionally here).
Live and learn i guess. the worst part is that most of them are what i would consider friends...
Just increases my desire to get the hell out of this country and society, into one where i have an excuse to not understand the actions of others...different language and culture.
I really have a hard time understanding why there is so much drama in my life when all i want is complete and utter simplicity.
i would love to hear some stories of human kindness, if anyone is willing to share...clear my mind of how much i hate my species right now.
Posted by hippiechic 10:35
I posted this originally on THORNTREE.LONELYPLANET.COM in a thread on people behaving badly when on vacation. Some people complained that we were all focusing on the negative, so I added this story as an "ACT OF HUMAN KINDNESS" story.
I was in Buenos Aires feeling really low. It was too hot and too noisy, and I had just had an altercation with a internet cafe owner who was demanding I pay for my computer time (approximately 1.5 minutes) even though I hadn't been able to get on line due to all the pop-up ads for porn. (The owner, who said he didn't know any English, was able to come up with the words "fucker" and "fuck you" in English as I was fleeing the scene. No doubt if he was here, he would post about me being an obnoxious traveller).
I was walking back to my hotel when a pigeon (or some other bird) decided to use me as a toilet, covering my head and back with black, sludgy poop. A couple was walking by and saw the whole thing. The woman was shocked, and quickly took some kleenex out of her bag and started trying to clean me up.
I however, was in such a bad mood, and had heard too many stories about tourists getting ripped off by the old mustard on the shirt scam that I was sure that I was about to be robbed. So I bolted, leaving the poor lady looking crestfallen, holding a wad of kleenex covered in bird poop. I didn't even saw a "gracias."
I was the obnoxious traveller that day, suspcious of everyone. I wish I could go back in time and thank that woman for trying to help me. And I wish I could go back and tell me to relax and not be so nervous. After all, at the time I think I was carrying about $10 on me. What's the worst that could have happened?
04.08.2005 by GregW