Dino The Italian

I just had the most unique plane ride experience ever in my life. There is so much I want to say to describe it too.

Right now I am on my way home to visit my family in the States. That is all I am thinking about. The moment I walk through security and see my brother there waiting to give me the biggest hug he's ever given me.

This even experience only occured on my first flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong. I was so ready to go that it wasn't a problem for me that the taxi driver showed up at my apartment an hour early. In fact, I was sitting in the first seat in the waiting room closest to the ramp to get on the airplane I was so excited. I think I was maybe the 6th person on board, and there were so few people on this flight that I had a whole row to myself. "Perfect" -I thought. "I can just stretch out and fall asleep. This will help me with my time transition I'm working on."

I thought this until one of the 3 older Italian men crammed in the row behind me decided to make some space for the group and sit on the aisle seat in my row. I smiled politely at him and attempted to fall asleep on the window while we boarded. The only problem is that I wanted to be awake when the food came so I could eat. Somehow I managed to miss lunch and was shaking like crazy. Instead of sleeping I listened to my mp3 player. When the food came he ordered the same as I, and took the opportunity to say Same-Same to me. He didn't have a very expansive English vocabulary., but was proud of the fact that we now had something to talk about. He then thought it was brilliant that we could share the table of the chair between us to put our drinks on. I smiled to myself at how deliberate he was being trying to talk to me, and I wondered how much more he was going to talk to me the rest of the flight.

"Are all Italians this friendly," I wondered? It wasn't long after this that he motioned to me to pull my earplugs out, and then handed me his! I was a bit bewildered at why he would want to me to listen to his iPod. To this he holds the iPod in his hands, points at the artist and says very slowly and deliberately, "Italiano. You like?"

I had the head phone in my ear the entire rest of the flight, and he talked the entire time too. At one point he felt it was easier to sit right next to me so we could share. He would read the name for me and tell me, "very good" or "Espanola, you like? Italiano and Espanola- same-same." When he asked me if I knew any Italian, I told him no; to which he proceeded to go through a list of words which I guess I did know like: ciao bella, bonjourno, amore, bambino, imbecile, belissimo! At another time in this experience we got the flight map out and he showed me where his city is in the boot heel of Italy, or what he called, "finish terre." Here is a taste of how he described Italy,

"Uh see you have Milano, it is very good. Then there isah Roma, this is also very good. Then you have where I come from. It is beautiful no. Anda my city where I come from is in finish. You understand, finish terre?"

Our conversation continued:

"So where you go in Hong Kong?"

I am not staying in Hong Kong actually, I am going home to visit my family today.

"Oh, no good. You stay in Hong Kong 2 days. You can take us around to place to go. If you ever go to Italy, I speaka Italiano for you, and you speaka English for me. See same-same. So you are in vacation in Bangkok who long? 5 Days?"

No I live there as a missionary actually.

"You studio?"

Well yes, I am learning to work as a missionary for the church.

"Oh missiano! I am very religio too. This is very important. Macho bella. You are very good! Very good. This is very important for me. Ok, you be good. Oh we talk and not know name. My ah name isa Dino. Nice to meet you! What is your name?"

Betsy.

"Oh I call you like the Italians, Bettasie."

Ok, so this entire time, I just kept thinking to myself, this is so crazy ridiculous. I love Italians. If I didn't understand a little bit of background of Italian culture and how they are open and forward, it would have been totally awkward, because he kept slapping my arm when he would say, "you see?" And he definitely touched my cross on my neck. It was so crazy. As we were walking through the airport, he even put both of his hands to his lips and blew me a kiss. It was so great! My first experience with an Italian.

Right now I am sitting in the Hong Kong International Airport. My flight to the US leaves in a little over 2 hours for the US. I don't know how it could get more interesting. Also, can I say that it is strange how much people are worried about this swine flu epidemic. First of all, lots of people are wearing masks, and second it sucks to be Mexican travelling in Asia. They are being detained everywhere I hear. I even saw a group of them waiting to be given a clearance to go to their gate.