Classification: Boyly Girl...

A guy gave me this nickname some years ago...I realise he totally had it right...cos although I love to hang out with the boys I'm not the rude crude dirty mouthed dirty minded burpy beer guzzling stinky farters they are...I am however EXTREMELY BLUNT&HONEST. Which puts women on the off...and offends their sensitivities...

I think when I was younger and more brimming buzzing full of energy, perhaps I did roll more with the boys like a true tomboy might. But now I'm just a scaredy cat GIRL that just likes to tag along and OBSERVE all the scary, sometimes brave but often stupid things that men by virtue of their male ego and lack of forethought do...it's fun :)!

Not to mention I'd rather go to a soccer match above almost all girl-preferred things anyday!

However the key area where my unique boyly disposition truly seems to shine is that area of not just cross cultural inter-relations but rather cross-gender inter-relations...I find as somewhat of a "social bridge" between the genders I am most often called upon by the average person to "explain or intuit" the opposite sex! Typically...women ask me to decipher the internals of men's minds-age old question "does he like me does he like me or WHAT DOES THIS MEAN"...on the other hand I find I am the unconfident slightly socially inadequate man's best comfort to getting more adroit in being better able to deal with those women they have their eye on but have no idea how to pickup...I think rather charitable as being a kind of "mock training ground" for them to practice and rehearse and work on their moves and strategies, lol

In any case I don't mind it so much, as long as these people provide for interesting friends...It's quite satisfying to see little blooms I have tended grow and develop...lol and a much better way to use my "psychologist" hobby than on bonafide fruitcakes!

To round out this post I must say that I am really enjoying these little European fortune cookies that you get in BACI chocolates...I especially liked the first wrapper I pulled- very obviously by a German(Schopenhauer)...haha

Quien es amigo de todos no es amigo de nadie.

Qui est ami de tous ne l'est de personne.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

(And yes, I think that's what you find with most of the current generation and local culture these days...loyalty is a dying virtue in this fast paced shallow dog eat dog get ahead world...)

Out of the three languages which I know a bit...definitely I have to say I like the Spanish language best(verbal/text are both good)...French a close second(verbal good text more hassle), although I do like the relative brevity and succinctness of the English here....

anyway that is just my 2c on language, gender relations and loyalty today....ciao!

Random Serendipity: Making Friends from all over the globe :)

So it's been a good couple of months since I ventured into the online world...it's certainly been eye-opening...and something I would never have done had I not fallen down a manhole and gotten stuck on an island where I knew noone, bored out of my brain recovering my ability to walk for most of the last year!

However, as with all negatives there is a positive: I'm glad I did cos otherwise I wouldn't have made some of the friends that I have :)

And for plane-averse but foreign-culture besotted people like me it's been a great way to connect to people from all parts of the globe. The beauty of this medium is the fact geography is no limitation and it is alarmingly random- you come into contact with people of all backgrounds, ages, ethnicities usually connected by some common interest which is really cool...occasionally I get completely random people write to me...it's pretty cool and kinda exciting - kinda like when you go fishing- you never know what you will pull up!

I guess that aspect is one part of the blogging appeal. Apart from M&D who made me aware relatively late in the game of this word/concept of "weblog"(that's exactly how ignorant and non tech savvy I was)...in any case besides these geeks, I don't know anybody else from my "real life" that regularly go online and have an internet presence, but then again that's pretty typical never knowing people that share my interests! :P

On reflection, penpalling via the net sure is a distant cry from my junior school days where it was "studiously recommended" to subscribe to the school mediated snail mail penpal service so as to get practice in our foreign language of choice - mine was French...No doubt, just like my French, these penpals didn't last long...although geography is no longer a barrier, because I'm only fully conversant in English, unfortunately language still is...

At least now I appreciate penpalling for what it is and the depth of exchange writing affords, not like when my sister and I were younger and it was in large part an underhanded means of collecting exotic postage stamps for our all important stamp collections LOL ;)

I also (obviously) discovered a love of writing- not only an effective vent and stress release for daily tensions but also the means by which I'm gradually rediscovering a small portion of the creativity I exuded as a child but which got totally annihilated with all the pains of "growing up".

One last vaguely affiliated aside...a friend of mine and her girlfriend were recently at San Francisco airport when some random guy started falling over himself because of their Aussie accents...apparently an Australian accent coming out of an asian face was the sexiest thing he'd ever heard- whatever- lucky this friend is a whole lot more extroverted than me...so in the end they got a local guided tour cum chauffeur of the city for the whole 3 days they were there!

I can't say accents get me THAT EXCITED but out of all I've heard I'd have to say I like the South African accent best. In terms of languages though, I Love Spanish and French. Mandarin Chinese has definitely been the most challenging I've attempted to learn. Just in case you managed to read this far...and are a bit of a lingo enthusiast like me...

I'd like to know...
What foreign accent and language are your personal favourites??

Wait wait! 3 more burning questions...
From what country are your favourite people?
Mine would be JAPAN :)
If you didn't live where you do now, where do you think you would be living?
I think I'd like CANADA.
From where is your favourite cuisine?
Hmm...this one I can't choose between
SOUTH-EAST ASIA/FRANCE/SPANISH-PORTUGUESE-SOUTH/LATIN AMERICAN

ok that's all- get back to me!