Getting to know the world

I have been traveling for two and a half days now. And already I feel much wiser.

One thing I have noticed very quickly, is that when you travel, you’re not just getting to know the country you are visiting. Sure, you will see a lot of the country and maybe you will even talk to people who live there (although you will have to put in some effort for this).
But you
will meet other travelers too. And they are the ones that will expand your knowledge of the world.
In two days, I have met:

• An American girl who told me that hairdressers in New York have different specialities, so it is rare for the same hairdresser to cut and dye your hair.
• A British girl who didn’t really teach me anything, but was a nice addition to the company.
• An Israeli girl that has just finished the army. She told me that
  everybody in Israel has to go into the army, it’s obligatory. After that, they often go traveling. After that, maybe they will start university, so their student body is on average probably much older.
• Two Italian girls that study in Beijing
• Another Israeli girl that tried to explain some of the troubles of their country to me, while also emphasizing that the story will differ, depending on who you ask. She also had an American boyfriend. He is Jewish and was also in the Israeli army, as apparently you can volunteer as well. Fascinating.
• Two German girls that were just a lot of fun!
• Two guys from the UK that look like Ken.
• An American guy to whom I tried to explain what rapeseed is, without knowing the name in English (I googled it afterwards). He had no idea what it was and we hope I haven’t revealed some big country secret about that (and am now announcing it on the world wide web).
• An Indian woman that told me all about India and Hinduism. There are so many gods that use energy from each other and therefor partly consist of each other that it kept us going for more than an hour.

Besides this I have met many other people, but I haven’t talked to them all in great detail. I have met up with three Vietnamese people here so far (one of which wanted to date me desperately…) and got to know more about this country as well.

I love meeting all these people, because not only do they teach me answers to many questions in Trivial Pursuit, they also have so many inspiring life stories.
The woman from India was a consultant and she had lived abroad for more than 16 years, as well in New York as in London. Some of the people here have been traveling for a very long time and have seen so much of the world, or they have jobs I couldn’t even dream about.
If I thought my life was awesome now, I have since then realized that it can be even more amazing. And it will, without a doubt, become that.