The Strangeness of English on My Front Doorstep
So... last night was probably, quite easily, the strangest evening I've spent in Kralupy in a year and a half, and I would bet that nothing like it would ever happen again, and it was only a matter of an hour. But it was quite strange. You be the judge. So.. here's the story:
At 630pm, while I was in the middle of talking to one of my good friends on Skype, I get a ring on my doorbell. I figure it's somebody who accidentaly rang mine instead of my neighbor's, which happens all the time, since my neighbor is the keeper of the school. So... I was right, and I open the door and the guy starts talking to me. He firsts asks for my neighbor, and i tell him that i'm not him and i'll get him. He says "Wait, maybe you can help... do you speak English well?" I am a little confused at this and wonder if I understood him correctly (since my Czech isn't so good still). And I kinda slowly say "well... yea". I wonder if this guy knows me or something. And then he keeps talking. He tells me that this guy who is with him speaks english and doesn't speak czech and that he is looking for the principal of my school. (I'm still confused cuz i don't know how this guy knows my prinicipal if he doesn't speak czech). So... the Czech guy continues and tells me that since i speak English well (maybe better than he thought), I can translate for the other guy whatever he wants and help him. And I said again "Uh... ok". And then he says "Great, so talk to him". And I say "Ok" and turn to the other guy who is small and all bundled up and has a beard and looks quite homeless. And after a few seconds, he asks (in English finally) "You speak English?" I say again "yea" and the other guy leaves and I'm left to solve the situation. So... apparently, there's this guy, he's actually Italian and he has been biking around Europe or God knows where, for a year or so and he heard about my principal and wanted to sleep at his place. And after an hour of calling everyone I knew to get his number, I couldn't get ahold of him. Bad luck. I was still quite in shock how this strange English speaker had found his way to my doorstep, so he just kept talking and talking and talking. About Italy, travelling, Russians, The Brothers Karamasov, war, love, life, America, etc... And I wasn't speaking so much. I really couldn't. He wouldn't let me get a word in edge-wise. It took him 20 minutes for me to tell him that I wasn't Czech. So... unfortunately, under the conditions with which i live, I couldn't accomodate him either. But I didn't feel horribly bad about it because he made some comments about America (and after a bad day of already talking about America, which isn't somethign I like to do in the first place, I didn't feel like hearing him talk my ear off all evening when I have the fullest of full days on Friday.) So Toto finally left after he had equated himself to Ivan from The Brothers Karamazov which great explanation, and had even pinpointed me to Anyosha (because apparently I CAN'T be Ivan, cuz HE'S Ivan, but it's probably that i COULD be Dmitri). The best of luck to the guy. And apparently he even had literature which he hands out. Before he left, he left me with this little bit of wisdom on a small piece of paper from The Brothers Karamazov which apparently he gives to people he meets:
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself as well as for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love..." And also on the little note is a picture of two people on those two-person bikes, you know.
Hm... so insightful and quite important to the conversation we were having. Some people are just lonely I guess and can never be understood, or they just need someone who is a good listener to listen to them for hours upon hours, and unfortunately, I wasn't one of those people... Maybe next time. I was happy to get back to my normal life safely inside my own apartment though. Interesting. Give me some responses here. Should I have listened to his stories all night? Or did I do a bad thing by letting him go on his way? I'm curious how you think you'd have handled the situation. :)
At 630pm, while I was in the middle of talking to one of my good friends on Skype, I get a ring on my doorbell. I figure it's somebody who accidentaly rang mine instead of my neighbor's, which happens all the time, since my neighbor is the keeper of the school. So... I was right, and I open the door and the guy starts talking to me. He firsts asks for my neighbor, and i tell him that i'm not him and i'll get him. He says "Wait, maybe you can help... do you speak English well?" I am a little confused at this and wonder if I understood him correctly (since my Czech isn't so good still). And I kinda slowly say "well... yea". I wonder if this guy knows me or something. And then he keeps talking. He tells me that this guy who is with him speaks english and doesn't speak czech and that he is looking for the principal of my school. (I'm still confused cuz i don't know how this guy knows my prinicipal if he doesn't speak czech). So... the Czech guy continues and tells me that since i speak English well (maybe better than he thought), I can translate for the other guy whatever he wants and help him. And I said again "Uh... ok". And then he says "Great, so talk to him". And I say "Ok" and turn to the other guy who is small and all bundled up and has a beard and looks quite homeless. And after a few seconds, he asks (in English finally) "You speak English?" I say again "yea" and the other guy leaves and I'm left to solve the situation. So... apparently, there's this guy, he's actually Italian and he has been biking around Europe or God knows where, for a year or so and he heard about my principal and wanted to sleep at his place. And after an hour of calling everyone I knew to get his number, I couldn't get ahold of him. Bad luck. I was still quite in shock how this strange English speaker had found his way to my doorstep, so he just kept talking and talking and talking. About Italy, travelling, Russians, The Brothers Karamasov, war, love, life, America, etc... And I wasn't speaking so much. I really couldn't. He wouldn't let me get a word in edge-wise. It took him 20 minutes for me to tell him that I wasn't Czech. So... unfortunately, under the conditions with which i live, I couldn't accomodate him either. But I didn't feel horribly bad about it because he made some comments about America (and after a bad day of already talking about America, which isn't somethign I like to do in the first place, I didn't feel like hearing him talk my ear off all evening when I have the fullest of full days on Friday.) So Toto finally left after he had equated himself to Ivan from The Brothers Karamazov which great explanation, and had even pinpointed me to Anyosha (because apparently I CAN'T be Ivan, cuz HE'S Ivan, but it's probably that i COULD be Dmitri). The best of luck to the guy. And apparently he even had literature which he hands out. Before he left, he left me with this little bit of wisdom on a small piece of paper from The Brothers Karamazov which apparently he gives to people he meets:
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself as well as for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love..." And also on the little note is a picture of two people on those two-person bikes, you know.
Hm... so insightful and quite important to the conversation we were having. Some people are just lonely I guess and can never be understood, or they just need someone who is a good listener to listen to them for hours upon hours, and unfortunately, I wasn't one of those people... Maybe next time. I was happy to get back to my normal life safely inside my own apartment though. Interesting. Give me some responses here. Should I have listened to his stories all night? Or did I do a bad thing by letting him go on his way? I'm curious how you think you'd have handled the situation. :)
posted by Zach Barnes at 5:09 AM
5 Comments:
that's tough. Part of me said you should have kept him in your place and let him sleep on your floor. but it's a lot more difficult to do, especially when you've had a long day and the guy is bashing on your country. I don't know man.
I think your right that he did need someone to listen to him, but I think that's a need we all have. The problem is that most of us (including myself) we are acctually just waiting for our turn to talk rather than listening.
That's weird to hear about his literature that he was passing out.
tom
i don't understand all the russian allusions -- you are dmitri and he is ivan?? what is that all about?
yea, agree w/tom, first inclination was "why didnt you offer him hospitality?"; second was "hmm, creepy italian old guy with a beard rambling about russians in small town in cz rep..." then i realized your reaction to send him on his way was best. who knows maybe you'll see him biking 'round kralupy today.
Now that we talked about it and I thought it over again...I think that this man didn't sound like he wanted to hurt you or steal something. So, maybe you should have let him in...but, I don't want you to feel bad that you didn't. You never know who these people are and if at that moment you thought it wasn't a good idea, then that's understandable...
I think thanks to this experience next time something like that happens, you'll be wiser to know how to make a decision:)
lonely guy. strange literature. good decision.
cathleen
oh and sweet bike!
Now you can chase after this man. On your bike.
Did you find the shirt?
Happy Spring Break.
I'm using this comment space for too many things.
Grocery list:
green onions
cilantro
2 tomatoes
4 rohliky
taveny syr
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