Nov 19: Willkommen

I love talking to strangers. I think most of us are too reluctant to do this. Whether having coffee at a table two feet away from another person, or standing in line together at the grocery store or bank, whatever. Why not start a pleasant chat if the other person is open to the idea? I admit that I still don't do this as often as I'd like. But I'm getting better about it and this week my efforts paid a lovely dividend. I ended up conversing with a young couple visiting Fort Lauderdale from Germany. Here's what happened. I was indeed having a cup of coffee at a table two feet away. Outside at Starbucks on 17^th Street, I sat savoring my pumpkin spice latte along with the light breeze. The weather was clear, comfortable, thoroughly delightful.

The couple at the nearby table looked over at me and smiled once or twice and I smiled back. No real connection made yet. Just being pleasant. But when I saw her taking a picture of him at the table, I knew they were tourists. So I offered to snap a shot of them together, which they seemed happy to have me do.

I introduced myself and they introduced themselves back. Honestly, I didn't totally catch their names and there seemed no sensible reason to ask a second time. Their accented English was quite good, though, and we struck up a conversation. These folks had come from Cologne for 11 days in the Florida sun. No cruises on their itinerary, but they had rented a car so they could get around easily. I explained that I'm a writer - and that I write a blog on http://www.sunny.org/ about things to do and see in Fort Lauderdale. Of course, that really got us going. I offered some suggestions, especially urging them to take an Everglades airboat ride. I recommended Sawgrass Recreation Park on Highway 27, about a half hour from where we were sitting. And I mentioned a couple of local restaurants I enjoy as well. They were charming people, open and eager to explore this new part of the world. "It seems very nice here," she told me. "People seem much more relaxed. And of course the weather is much nicer than at home." We chatted about the sunshine here and the German beer there, about alligators here and about the autobahn there. I told them they were much safer with the alligators than with the autobahn drivers. After perhaps 20 minutes or so, I had to get back to my desk and so I bid them a fond auf Wiedersehen. But I still find myself thinking about our conversation fairly often, mostly because we had connected at some level despite cultural differences. You never know who you're going to meet in South Florida or how they may enrich your life unexpectedly in some way or other. Sometimes all you have to do is summon the courage to say hello.