2010

Jeej it's 2010. It's scary how once you've settled to the habit of writing 2009, once you've gotten accustomed to it, new habit is demanded. 2009 is now yester-year, and I need to continually remind myself that it's the new year. But yet again, what does a year mean but mere number to navigate our way through time. Although the blatant realization of constant change keeps you on the edge. And I like that, to be aware, to have the need of constant searching and reflections. Time flies, but you can be the pilot.

I am writing this now from Hamburg, Germany. This winter break has been such an amazing experience, something you cannot even dream to experience if you did not take the plunge. We hitchiked here, am living at a stranger's house yet I couldn't dream of doing it any other way. I cannot imagine of a better way to start this new year. Trust, kindness and strangely unexplainable bonds between strangers. A guy told me last night that foreigners are acquintances you are yet to know. I think it's an interesting way to look at things - to feel a connection even before we even dare to speak to each other. Hippy as I can be, the symbolic meaning behind this trip will haunt me for months to come.

Went partying last night, met and talked to genuinely unorthodox yet interesting people, drank abit too much and slept too little. Took a walk in downtown Hamburg with one of the guys from the house and the dog, it was freezing. Yet I kinda enjoyed the stillness of a winter afternoon on the first day of the year, people packing their stands for the overdue christmas market, grandmas feeding the doves on the harbor, the silent trains passing the lake, the unawkward silences we had as each got lost in their own trains of thoughts. Perhaps we're thinking of the same thing, Costa Rica or somewhere warmer. Hot cocoa, glühwein and warm waffels. Or maybe we just didn't think at all.

Moments before I was sitting on the kitchen with our host. He's a caricature artist, a damn good one if I may say. He's been showing us his sketches, he's got books full of em! I gave him my travel mini-diary,telling him he can draw something in it that will remind me of him. The look on his face was similar to an innocent child when told that he can skip dinner for sweets. Seconds after he was busy doodling, I was reading my novel. On the other room, his roomate and her friends were just conversing in German, listening to music and enjoying each other's company. Next to me their dog is snoring soundly, deep in her sleep. I took a second to seep everything in, took a mental picture and continued reading.

It amazes me that we only knew each other for 24hrs, yet the idea of not knowing them seems foreign even to me.

So happy new year to you, Internet. May kindness prevails, happiness conquers and laughter redeems.