Strangers I met (DC & NYC)

Being the cheapskate Malaysian, I had to lunch at the golden club lounge. I took a seat with nice big sofas. An elderly gentleman joined me at my table. I figured he didn’t notice my bags and hence, decided to sit there since there were many empty seats available. He was rather friendly and we started talking. I did not get his name but I know he is a rep from US to Murphy Malaysia in the East coast. He told me interesting stories about his work. I figured he is probably quite highly ranked. He come from Louisiana, which is a long way from where he is working now. Luckily, he gets to go home for a month every 2 months. So, the job is not too bad except that you can’t take leave during those two months. Because of him, I didn’t finish reading the Cleo magazine but it doesn’t matter. The conversation was more interesting.

The second stranger I met must be this Malaysian boy who stood behind me while we were waiting for security check at the LAX. My Malaysian passport started the whole conversation. I can’t recall much of the conversation now since it’s 6 weeks ago. We didn’t manage to complete our conversation as we had to go through the security check. By then, we were both going on different ways.

The third stranger I spoke to is this chinese girl who just completed her phd in the US. We were in front of the famous bull in NYC when we first chatted with each other. We were both alone and looking for someone to help us with photos. It’s a pity that I didn’t get her contact. Will be nice to know more friends in the US.

Now, who is the fourth one? Should I mention about the girl from Taiwan who took my photos at the MET? But we hardly spoke. We were just asking about simple stuffs in mandarin. Really good training for my mandarin.

The fifth stranger is actually more significant. Nisreen, Wendy and I were at the Pentagon City metro station when a man stopped by Nisreen asking when is eid. He introduced himself as Sami and started asking about us. He found us interesting and decided to give his train a miss to hop onto the same train with us. We exchanged email and phone number. Probably a day later, I received an email from him, telling me about the free Jazz performance at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. I was excited with the prospect of free performance. I admit that anything free attracts me tremendously. It’s a chinese thing…maybe. Anyway, Sami also went to the performance and dropped by to say hi. That was the last time I met him.

Finally, the sixth stranger who has became my FB friend, Nadeen. I was alone in NYC again. It was sat and BoA organised a free performance (what else?) by the Brooklyn Philharmonic at Bryant Park. A lady took the seat next to me on the bench. I hardly looked up as I tried to enjoy the songs amid filtering the noise pollution from the city dwellers around me. Towards the end of the performance, I asked Nadeen to help me with a picture and then, we started chatting. I can’t remember how it started but soon, we enjoyed each other’s company so much that we ended up dining together. She took me to 46^th st, to a Spanish restaurant near her apartment, The Belmont. We had a wonderful time. I even ordered a glass of sangria. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish it.

End of Part I (written in Dulles)

9.24am (LA time)

I never thought I will meet more strangers on my way to LA.

At the aerotrain to Gate D, a middle-aged man approached me and asked "So, IMF keeps all the money in that bag?" He was referring to the IMF bag I was carrying with me. He was kidding of course. I found out that he works for the State Department. We didn't manage to continue our conversation as the train arrived at the gate. Would have been interesting to chat further.

While waiting for my flight, I was busy typing on my netbook (I was bored). A man sat beside me. I looked up and he smiled. We started chatting. He introduced himself as Aaron, a magician. I was very interested to know more as I have never met a magician in my life! He played some magic using cards. I was totally impressed. There were no camera tricks. The cards just changed in front of my eyes. He also did the usual magic (he insisted there's no trick, only magic) where he took a card from behind my ear. I felt pretty lucky to see a real life magic show. We had to part inside the plane as I was flying on United First. But he gave me his website to check out.