Americans are freaking nice people. There are many ugly things you can say about us, but we always have a smile on our face and are EAGER to offer advice and help to our fellow man. I find this is frequently true. Of course there are exceptions and I’m speaking in wide generalizations; let’s just say I’m no anthropologist, I just observe.
Why am I struck with this feeling? Well, I’m glad you asked! err… well I guess you didn’t… Anyways, Linds and I were indulging in some Starbucks coffee at our local cafe (yes, I broke down a bit and indulged. I’ve been working a lot of extra hours doing this and that, so I thought it would be fine) and our friendly barista, Frank, who we used to see a lot more often than we do now was cycling out the old donuts, he saw us and offered them. “YES! HELL YES! Are you serious?!,” I exclaimed. Starbucks alone is a great indulgence for us right now, I didn’t even remotely think of getting a pastry; this represented like 4$ worth of merchandise. I was super thrilled.
So, we stood there for a minute waiting for the coffee to brew and got to talking with Frank. I explained the source of my excitement (we’re saving for our RTW trip), and he asked where we’re thinking about going. We listed a bunch of places, S. America being one of them. He began telling us all about a SA trip that he was thinking about too; one where he’d visit all the people he knew there and virtually travel free. We replied that we didn’t have many contacts there. He offered to hook us up with some friends and family in Peru.
Just like that.
Wow. To him, we’re completely unknown. The same thing happened with one of Linds’ work friends a couple weeks ago; a woman from India (Kerala, to be exact. A place we LONG to visit.) offered us her beachside condo should we find ourselves overthere.
We sipped our coffee, gobbled down our free cakey donuts, and left with the feeling that we’d made a contact in Peru. So, I guess the indulgence in some pricey 4-bucks coffee (as my friend, Chris says), may have paid off afterall. We’ll just have to see.
