On my way, from London to Cape Town, I sat next to a polite but chatty man - and after only a short while we discovered not only that we were both physics professors, but that he is at Stellenbosch University not far from UCT. He invited me to come give a colloquium, so we exchanged business cards, and I ended up visiting their department, having a lovely time with the students and faculty during my talk, and a very nice lunch after. They were really interested and engaged, and I was very glad to have made that connection. I appreciated meeting him, and was glad he was so friendly - though it was embarrassing for me to be talking professionally with someone after ~40 hours with no shower, and feeling horrible from traveling! (It upsets my stomach, gives me a headache, I feel very conscious about being smelly, and I just want to hide after so long on airplanes!)
On my way home (London to San Fran), I sat next to a lovely lady a few years older than me, from Beirut (though raised abroad and living in the US). She was very excited to tell me about a 24 hour romance she had with a man she met on the beach with amazingly beautiful green eyes. But as she told me more and more about her love-life, it became a conversation i was more and more uncomfortable about having. She wasn't shy AT ALL!! At one point she started using a bunch of cuss words about male and female body parts to explain how upset she was that her 3rd cousin (a marriage option for her) had two kids with his mistress in England. At least it made for a more entertaining trip - and I wish her much luck finding a husband who can afford her but does not want to impose plastic surgery (as the potential one she had just returned from meeting had said on their first 'date'!!)
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