When travelling feels like being at home

You want to meet people you know or you have things in common with? here are a fee tips

 

1. Be a good son

Because only good sons have mothers willing to fly 21 000 km to see them.

(Ok, BA is not Rangoon)

 

2. Use Gmail chat

Helps you keep in touch with friends from Uni (Marie Julie) who spend Xmas and new year like every year in BA

 

3. Know people on VIE (work position abroad) or know people who know people know people

 

Marie Julie and I happen to have a friend in common < JF > like her, he is Argentinian and French. And he happens to have been working in BA for 3 months now for a French company.

JF had a friend Dimitri who knows Youri! why? they have a friend in common > russian-polac connexion

 

4. Learn German in High School

 

Philippe Cohen (www.larzizou.com) : we took the same high school German class then went to the same Uni (yeah, he knows Marie-Julie too).

He happens to be travelling round the world too for 8 months. Where do we meet? in BA

 

Party, party, party at Rumi. (First night out in BA for my little 16 year old cousin)

 

5. Travel round the world between march 07 and march 08

 

That way, you will constantly run into Youri (www.levoyagedeyouri.com).

You know him, my high school and round-the-world travel buddy.

We met in Kathmandu, Tokyo and La Paz already.

 

He went to the same high school as Philippe and I and was one of Phillippe close friends back then. Reunited for a hip hop / raggaeton party full of girls with braces!

 

6. Choose the right airport

Mum wants to fly from Buenos to Iguazu. OK.

I go to one of the 150 travel agencies in BA. Who do I see there? These 2 girls from my Uni travelling round Argentina with friends. Crazy , hein?

Next day, at the airport, of course, we meet them again. Picture.

 

 

Iguazu and back to BA. More shopping for mummy before going back to Nigeria

Of course, got to go see mummy off. Queue up at the Air France counter.

Damn, that girl in front of me, backing me looks familiar.

RIght > it is Jessica Rheims , yet another girl from high school, on her way back to France after visiting her mother who leaves in BA

 

7. Speaks French in Uruguay

So many people speaks French in uruguay (mostly the Argentinian).

So if you speak French outloud on Bikini Beach, chances are you will meet other French speaking Argentines

such as Catalina who grew up in Nantes and her friend who went on an exchange program in Troyes !

 

(arrete de serrer les abdos Philou)

 

8. Facebook junior high school friends

 

Youri and I have among our junior high school friends Yasmine+-Camille. Her younger brother happend to be in Florianopolis as the same time as Philippe, Youri and I. Youri got the info thanks to Facebook.

Adrien is planning on buying a bike and travelling round south America mimicking Che Gevarra´s itinerary.

 

9. HAVE A RECOGNIZABLE FACE

Leaving one of the 12 beaches in Florianopolis, sunglasses and cap on, I hear someone calling my name.

Someone looking like this guy is standing in front of me. "Sorry, do I know you?"

 

It happens to be Arthur. One of my juniors in University > he is learning portugues in Floripa before going to work in Sao Paolo. Good memory man!

 

10. HAVE SHARP EYES

While wandering on one of Brazil thousands beaches, I see a face that looks kind of familiar. Not someone I knew from back home, someone I met on the road.

 

Damn, it is Marco, a French guy I met six months ago, 25 000 kms from Salvador in Kho Pan Gan, Thailand, .

He is not travelling round he world. It just happens that everytime he goes on holidays I meet him there.

 

INCREDIBLE

 

EXTRA

The Nigerian football team beat both Brazil and Argentina to win the 1996 Olympic Cup.

Two rival countries really proud of their football teams . So what are the odds of meeting an Argentinian guy in Brazil wearint the Nigerian jersey?

Peace