The French Connection

When I started this blog, the main idea was to share those funny everyday incidents that brighten up your day. You know those little, sometimes surprising interactions that people have, even with strangers. I love them, they are my favourite subject to talk about. Something worth mentioning tends to literally happen every day.

On Saturday we were getting off the plane in Medan on the northern shore of Sumatra island. Standing in the bus that took us to the airport building, I was holding my passport in my hand so it was very visible that I was from Finland (but I didn't realize it). Suddenly someone cheerfully said "Paiva!" ("Päivää" is "good afternoon" in Finnish.) I turned to look at an enthusiastic French guy who immediately started to take off his clothes.

Oh, you people with your dirty minds! He was just eager to show me his t-shirt that he had bought last summer when he had been hitch-hiking in Finland. Had completely fallen in love with the country, knew two words of Finnish (good afternoon and thank you) and wanted me to translate the text in his t-shirt because he didn't know what it meant. (Luckily he had bought a cute and not an obscene one.) It said "I'm on holiday - salary's running, I'm not". (Lomalla - palkka juoksee, minä en.) His hitch-hiking had taken place in Eastern Finland so I asked him if he knew my hometown, and he did, although he had not had time to go and see it. "But I know about the opera, oh, in the open air, must be really something", he said waving his arms (add French accent).

The French guy introduced himself as Carl and he was in fact on holiday from his job in Singapore. I boarded on the plane to Banda Aceh, thinking how important it is to keep your eyes open to make someone's day, and let them make yours. And to keep your passport where everyone can see it.

P.S. Aceh had recovered from the tsunami fantastically, at least when it comes to material things. People have pretty new houses, business is booming and the once ghost-towns are full of life. I was very happy to see all of it. Let's all hope there will never be another tsunami.