Conversations

Yesterday I was traveling by train to meet my mum for some shopping. After spending a very lovely day together in the sun, shopping, relaxing drinking coffee and having nice talks we each went our separate way again.
When I got to the station and saw I had to wait for at least 20 minutes I sat down on the bench next to a man who started to talk to me as soon as I sat down.

'Rest' he said.
I agreed with him. It had been a long day with a lot of walking.
'You live in this town?' he asked in English.
'No' I said 'I've been shopping here and now about to take the train home again'
'Not far from here?'
'No not far'
'Good' he nodded.
I asked him if he lived in town.
'Yes' he said 'but I fled from my home' he laughed at his own joke 'My wife, she has a lot of people in the house and I just had to go! Too crowded!' He waved his arms around.
I asked him where he was originaly from.
'Somalia' he said 'but I'm half, I'm chocolate'
Not really knowing what he meant by that but thinking it must have to do with the reason he fled his country I nodded. He didn't want to talk about it because he immediatelly went on to a different subject.
'You are good in English' he said with a big smile 'Dutch is so difficult! My wife and daughter can speak it a little but I think it's so very hard'
Meanwhile my train came rolling in and I said so to him.
'Well' he said 'good bye, bless you' and he walked away.
I said my good byes and stepped into the train.

Behind me some Moroccan boys were sitting talking about their day in school.
I heard that at the way they speak, boys born and raised in this country but still they have adapted themselves a certain dialect of Moroccan/Dutch. (Which is funnier in Dutch acctually)

'You know man, I drank ten cans of red bull a day! I was all shaking and shit'
'You did? Wicked!'
'Yeah but I stopped, first by drinking less now I stopped all together, I am a fanatic in sports man, I can't drink that shit! I am now going to drink those shakes'
'Shakes? What the hell for?'
'I need to gain weight you know, I'm a skinny ass mother f... '
'But with shakes? You're an idiot man!'
'I need to weigh 80 kg man!'

I had to get off the train at my station so I couldn't hear how he was going to plan on gaining more weight. I didn't even see if he was as skinny as he said he was. I'm taking his word for it.
Funny what you hear/or what great conversations you have when you don't have those silly earphones on. Real honest conversations, like you had when those smartphones weren't even invented.

© KH