Well, today, I did something exciting: slept!
All right. Yeah!!
I also took a shower. Seriously, I took a shower. None of this “hook up the hose to the sink” shit. I went to the Chems El Hena hotel and used their “public” shower, for hotel guests oly. They’re only supposed to be used after the beach, or before the indoor pool, or if you’re locked out of your room, or whatever, but I look enough like a tourist that…
Anyway, let’s finish describing the AFS group of kids. I’ve got Marian, Katrina, Juliette, Annika, Sig, Jason & Scott left.
USA MARIAN: Marian is big on causes and big on big words (see the [note] on “Polar Bear”). She seems to be a mixture of California Surfer, California Hippie, & California Yuppie in her words and actions. She loves sex (not that I blame her), and she’s got a body that won’t quit (when she doesn’t wear very baggy clothes). I don’t think that we could be more than friends (or one night stands, but as friends). We’re too much alike in different ways; she’s a good friend, though. No matter what you do (or say), she’ll respect you and still like you. A problem: she’s very patronizing. At least towards me, she treats me like a kid at times. She and I are, to each other, the person you see for a couple of days at a time, and that’s it. Get rid of ‘em for a week and you miss ‘em, but after 2 or 3 days, you’re happy to see each other take off. It’s weird. Also, very tactless. She’s a user.
USA KATRINA: Spunky, sarcastic, blunt New Yorker. Not NYC, but still a few (not many) of the same characteristics. I love her, she’s great! I think, no, I KNOW I could trust her with anything. I didn’t really think about it until now, but yes, I do believe she’s trustworthy. Yeah, I know, “what a thing to say. You mean you didn’t think so before?” No, I didn’t think about it before. That’s what I mean. She’s also a strong person, personality-wise. And she’s tough on the outside, but soft on the inside. I don’t think she shows that side of herself very often; it’s not that she doesn’t want to, it’s just that she doesn’t do it. I need ot talk with her more, I think. Actually trust her with secrets or non-material things. She’s already lost a couple of things of mine.
USA JULIETTE: Intellectual. I think she’ll belong to Marin county or the equivilant in the LA/ Santa Barbara area. She has a future and she knows it. Her answers point towards a very learned and education-oriented background, and she has an opinion on every subject brought into play in a conversation. She’s almost a leader, not quite, though. She needs prompting. As a friend, I’d say “yes”, now. If her future is going where I think it is, it may be a struggle to keep her “humanity” (?). That’s not the word I’m looking for, I think, but it’s close enough. If she loses the struggle, then an “acquaintance-ship” will be more likely, because if you got in her way, she’d shoot you down. If she loses. If she winds, it’s friends to the end. She’s in for a struggle. She’d probably be least likely of us to change families or go home, though.
USA ANNIKA: This one’s tough. It’s unbelievable how alike we are, and we know we’ll be there for one another. It’s unspoken, but it’s there. Right now, we’re good friends. I don’t know if she feels the same way, but she is one of my 2 “best” friends in the group (the other is J). Given the chance, I know I could fall in love with her, but for now, it’s friendship. I don’t want anything to stand in the way of that, and I don’t want to piss her off. Of course, I don’t think that that would happen. I know I can talk to her because I already have, and she accepted me for who/what I am. She talked TO and WITH me, not AT or DOWN to me. And she listened. Most of all, she understood.
USA SIG: Sigrid is her real name. Unimportant. I’m sure my prior feelings for her were not anything but being thrust into a new situation. Lust, my need for friendship, lust, our compatibility at first, lust, her ability to keep up with me from NY to Tunis, and lust were all factors. Our “instant” compatibility turned out to be a dud (maybe) once we got to orientation. For a few days, she avoided me, and she kept her distance with what she said around me most of the time. The last 2 days we were talking again, but I’m not sure of the implications. She may have felt threatened (although I didn’t do anything threatening) or she could be fickle. I’ll take her on as a friend, but I’ll have to stay wary for a while.
USA JASON: “Jason did it”; “No, Jason did it”; “Yeah, Jason did it.” God, we got the volunteers confused. I think that Jason is my meant-to-be twin, we have a lot of the same interests, and our personalities don’t clash, they balance, actually. He’s level-headed where I’m not, and vice-versa. Oh, yeah: Jason Edward Kirby; 16 year old sister (Paul’s 16, too); lives at Lake Tahoe, Lives about the same distance away here, born 12-13-69, my fake ID 12-13-66. Weird. Seriously, though, I know I can trust and stand by him. He’s got charm and personality, and his wit is perfectly timed (and with such a straight face, it makes you wonder). Another thing is, we’re on the same “wavelength”. For instance, at one point, some of us were talking, and J was sitting there reading, not really paying attention: I said “yeah, it’s like when we went to Rome last summer, right J?”, and he picked it up immediately. We had the groups convinced, and following each other’s leads, they all thought our parents were best friends, named us the same name, and more until we got to how we were in Italy. It was great! He was born in S.F., too. Anyway, he’s my other “best” friend here.
USA SCOTT: Last, but not least. Scott. I’m not too sure about him. He’s surprisingly intelligent, and is firm in his belief of God. He wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Ok, well, now, his personality. He is strangely aloof (to my observations), and a little like he’s just an observer, even when he participates. He’s got valid points, and if he believes in something, he’s not going to stray; yet he is also open-minded. He acknowledges other ideas and religions, and he doesn’t believe everything he does or says is right. I know for a fact that he would be a solid rock as a friend, but he hasn’t let this group grab hold so far. They think they have, but I can see it in his eyes, his stance, his face and his speech. He observes in our ranks of participants. It’s not that he’s “better than”, he’s just watching; sensory input. I would like to bring him closer to me, friendshipwise.
There you have it, all the people from my POV. Remember, perspective can change with time.
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