Getting to know your new friends or why nobody likes them Russians.

The feeling of loneliness can creep up on you in a heartbeat. One moment you hum the last Korean hit song and try to memorize the snazzy dance moves, and Boom, just like that, you find yourself staring out the subway windows at the passing beams scattered along those dark tunnels, face smeared on the windshield, trying to find some comfort hidden away beyond the overpowering masses of the crowd standing in the same compartment.
I never really thought about meeting other people than what one would expect in a certain country… In Korea, you usually find Koreans, and plenty of them. In Thailand, you find Israelis, and some other tourists. But never would I have guessed that my tiny hostel harbours such a diverse company, of which I had (and still have) the delight of mingling with.
Of course, the Chinese are the majority. All of them are either working students or… well… students who work. The Clerk here is Chinese – a 25 years old fella who finished a master’s degree in business something something and possesses a terrible agonizing longing for his Chinese girlfriends touch. But besides them, the hostel contains an Indian, Brazilian, Thai, Israeli (yours truly), Austrian, south Africans and more….
...Oh yeah, there are them Russians as well...

Most of us hit it off quite easily. You know how it goes – you wake up in the morning, meet at the kitchen and start the talking, and soon you find yourself screaming Christmas carols with your newly found buddies at the Karaoke Bar. …Well, except for them Russians.
And this is how you become addicted. You forget your loneliness, but you don’t forget how it feels, and so for the next ohh so many days to come, your itinerary becomes not the where and the when, but the who you are going with.
And then they depart, back to their countries, back to their families. And the only remains of this short lived connection between you and the once were complete strangers are some fuzzy memories, a handful of pictures, and despair... despair of knowing that you will probably never meet again.
…
...well, except for them Russians...


Dedicated to Dhiren, Marlyn, Alwin and Nuni