Eric's Beijing Diary

Last evening, I entered John's cafe late in the evening and saw a man waving me over to his table. I didn't think I knew him, so I thought he might be waving at someone behind me, but I looked, and it had to be me. I went over to his table, and sure enough, I didn't know him from Adam. Just a friendly guy. He is traveling through China with his wife. They are from a city in the South of Spain. He had managed to bring a bunch of other travelers over to his table, too, and he proceeded to introduce me to them. A guy from England, a couple Australians, and an American English teacher.

This man proves a point that I often make with young people. He didn't wait for friends to come to him. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself. I have a lot of respect for people like him. From time to time, I hear people saying that they don't have friends. While I do feel sorry for them, I don't quite understand. In my opinion, If you don't have friends, then you should make some. In any meeting between two people, someone has to be the first to put out his hand. After I went to America as a young person, I remember reading in Ann Landers that the lady is always supposed to offer her hand first. Ever since that time, I have tried to remember to follow this, but believe it or not, I even break that rule from time to time, if I think that perhaps a lady might need some help making friends.

His wife did not seem to be quite so comfortable with English, and my Spanish leaves much to be desired, so I did not get to talk with her very much, but she was very nice and very friendly, and she assured me that many Norwegians came to her town for vacation.