My Own Little Slice of Paradise

On an unrelated note, Black Velvet by Alannah Miles is stuck in my head.

Ok, right now I am lying on my bed in the hotel room. I am going to pick up my narrative where I left off. 


First, I should expand on what I was talking about before. I didn't want to write this before because the girl beside me, Jill, was reading over my shoulder (I hate that) and I didn't want to talk about her while she read. 


So, let's go back to the boarding of the plane. We had just learned that my brother and I were 4 rows in front of my parents, totally separated. We go to our seats and get comfortable when this girl (I say girl because she had that naive look about her, she was in her early twenties) found the seat next to me.


|-----------------------|   |----------------------|
|   A   |   B    |   C  |   |    D   |    E   |  F  |
|-----------------------|   |----------------------|


A = my brother
B = Me
C = OMG WTF RANDOM GIRL
D, E, F = Doesn't matter, only there to illustrate seat arrangement


So here comes this girl with a Pink tank top, Lululemon-esque yoga pants, a Gucci purse, a gym bag and a Yoga book who begins arranging her stuff in the seat next to me. Now, if you don't know me it is probably helpful to know that I am not comfortable with people I don't know. I try to avoid contact. For example, I would never stop someone on the street and ask them for directions, if I asked for onion rings instead of fries and got fries at a restaurant, I wouldn't go back to the kitchen and tell them, I avoid...I want to say conflict, but that's not the right word... like that. So here I was, hoping that this girl could care less about me, put in her music and read her book for the entire flight. At first it seemed like I was in luck, she smiled at me and said "Hello" to which I replied in kind (I may avoid situations such as this, but I still know how to act sociable). This didn't last long. Before we even took off she asked me a question which I didn't hear because I had my headphones on (One of those things, if there is someone you don't know who has headphones on, don't try and make small talk with them), but I noticed that she said something so I took one ear out and asked her what she said. "What's that about?" I was confused for a second before realizing that she meant the movie I was looking at on my little screen (which I already discussed). This was an obvious attempt at a conversation because she could have easily found the movie on heir’s and read the synopsis. Evidently I was confronted with a chatty person, one who meets someone and decides it is best to begin a conversation with them instead of leaving them to their own devices. I am NOT one of those people obviously. So I did my best to explain the plot of Shutter Island to this random girl I had never met. She made some comment about the movies probably costing money and I said my brother started one for free; he just had to sit through some commercials. In my tone I was sociable, but not welcoming, I answered the questions and asked counter questions, but it may have been noticeable that I wasn't looking for a real conversation. She continued making odd comments here and there such as "OMG, I love Two and a Half Men! It's hilarious!" or "I should make this a good movie, I won't have any movies for a month!” all of which I replied to with an appropriate response without delving further into her personal affairs. It wasn't 'till I took out my laptop to type my last post that she attempted to start a conversation by commenting out of the blue that her "iPod wouldn't sync with her laptop" and "If I had any ideas why that was." Either all teenagers are inherently techy in the eyes of those not so technologically inclined, or I just came across as a nerd. Either is possible. Or both maybe. Either way she eventually decided it would be best if she took out her laptop and iPod so I could show her what I was talking about. She booted up Vista (ew) and logged on to her account (by which I found out her name, it was Jen). As her desktop appeared I was surprised not to find the girly desktop I had expected (she had previously proclaimed that her favourite colour was pink, in case I couldn't tell), instead it was this picture. Yes, I actually went and looked for it on the internet. I had to, simply describing it wouldn't express the surprise I felt when I saw this as her background. And no, this wasn't a picture she just found while surfing and liked, you had to go in-depth on some unsavory sites to find this picture. What surprised me most of all was that she didn't seem embarrassed or try to make excuses, she didn't acknowledge her suggestive desktop or the fact that one of her gadgets was a slideshow of pictures of herself in either low cut tops or bikinis. Despite this, I tried to help her resolve her iPod issue (more of an iTunes issue actually), but to no avail (It probably didn't help that I was mostly focused on the episode of the Pacific that was occupying my eyes and the ear that wasn't facing Jen). Eventually she put her laptop away and began to fill out the immigration form that everyone received. I read the sheet over her shoulder (bad, I know, but she read my blog post!) and learned that she was staying in the Bahamas for a month to stay with a Swami to study yoga in an Ashram. Those familiar with yoga and Hinduism will recognize this. It is kind of like a secluded group that spends most of their time meditating and following the words of a leader, kind of like a cult, but usually for naive young people looking for a new lease on life. That may sound cold and cynical, and I am sure there are many legitimate ashrams and Swamis out there, but many are simply in the business to make easy money off of impressionable young people. Plus, Jen didn't strike me as the genuinely spiritual person. She had the book, the crystal necklace and the homeopathic remedy, but she seemed like someone hoping for an easy answer. She didn't exactly paint a picture of the perfectly humble student ready to toss off all worldly possessions at a moment’s notice with her Gucci bag, pink iPod and Sony laptop. I said all of this in my head, but not to her because she hadn't even brought up the subject. Even if she had brought it up, I probably would have played dumb and gotten her to explain it all to me. I am usually happier when someone else is talking, and people LOVE educating people about things they know about. But anyway... we made small talk off and on 'till we landed, never touching on her spiritual beliefs or her apparent narcissism/lesbianism. She did remark once that she was looking forward to not having any drama for a month. This only solidified my theory that she resorted to this belief as a refuge. Though I had said cynical view of her, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her when she remarked that she had absolutely no idea where she was supposed to go after the airport. I still felt bad for her when I saw her in the line at customs, looking strikingly alone in the crowd. You may think this is the part where I invite her to stay with us, start a surprising and taboo relationship with her (her being bisexual, not a lesbian) and I am writing this to tell you that I am abandoning my family and friends to spend a month in a Bahamian ashram. Well, you would be wrong. I haven't seen her since then and I don't really want to. I wish her well in her life. 


Wow, I just rambled for that long about the random girl I met on the plane. This is going to be a long post.


Ok, this is the part where I apologize to my friend for calling her a 'baby hater' because she doesn't love every small child she meets. I guess I have just had the good luck to be associated with amazingly well behaved young children. That changed today. There were two little girls sitting behind me and over the course of the (thought I felt a spider on me, can't be sure I didn't. I am freaky paranoid now) flight had 6 meltdowns in total and kicked the back of my chair countless times. I love children a little less now.


After leaving the plane we made the 10 minute walk from the gate to the immigration area. On the way, most of the walkways were in the open air, where we could feel the pressing Bahamian heat, with the warm breezes coming off of the ocean. It was glorious, especially after the plane ride. In the immigration line we were all in awesome moods (except for my Dad, he was craving a smoke) so we were joking back and forth. At one point my brother remarked that it would be extremely difficult for Mr. T to get past immigration and customs. To quote my little brother, "The guy would ask, 'What is the reason for your stay?' and Mr. T would be all like, 'I pity da foo who ask u nutha nosy question!'" This amused me to know end. One thing that is striking about the Bahamas is that everyone is friendly. Not just "O, it's my job to act friendly so I am smiling" kind of friendly, but genuine, happy to be alive friendliness. It's like a black Newfoundland. We had a shuttle from the airport to the resort, so we got to see some of the beautiful city of Nassau. The first thing I noticed once we started to drive was that they drive on the left hand side (as does much of Europe), but their drivers seats are still on the left side (as with American cars). The next thing I noticed was the reckless driving in the city streets. This is nothing like you would ever see in Canada (I imagine it is close to what Indian traffic is like). There were cars honking, parking, weaving in and out, speeding, barely moving, etc. The driver said this is a good day, we should see it on Sundays. We are taking the shuttle back to the airport. On Sunday.


It is nearing midnight and I must sleep or my parents will kill me. Hopefully I will continue this post tomorrow night, with additions from my day tomorrow.


-MAESTRO