a night at burguer king

23/6/2013

I have decided to talk a bit less politics and talk more about my daily life, feelings and thoughts

of course sometimes i feel down and a bit worthless like most people do, but then i think about it and i realize im actually really lucky and most people actually envy my lifestyle

is unique and strange, but quite interesting also, because i chose to live without using money, or using way less than everyone else, I'm usually in different cuntries or different cities within a country, try to live in the moment and learn something new every day

i know what you're thinking, living without money = freeloader, but actually is not like that, not at all! but more about that later

also i meet many new people every day and learn from them as well

yesterday it was saturday, the 22nd, i was stuck without a place to sleep, as usual. well not as usual, but it does happens a few times a week.

and as i cant pay money for accommodation for reason i will also explain later, my options are usually 4, couchsurfing, knocking on the door, finding some other place (abandoned building, car, empty room) or sleeping in the bush

yesterday i got stood up by my cs host after waiting for 5 hours int he cold, so gave up on that one, it was way too cold to sleep on the bush and I knew it would have been quite dangerous as it was literally as cold as it gets in new zealand. very windy and dry air that makes it hard to breath

so i found a burguer king along the highway, get in and asked them what time do they close, hoping they would stay open all night, and I could have just stayed there and sleep next day in some park

they said they close at midnight, and I thought "oh man, I am fucked in the ass" as there was nothing else around, it was 8 pm, so i said well at least i still have 4 hours off the cold

sitting on a stool for 2 hours, thinking and dreaming, then i was 3 hours, and there were just 3 other guys sitting on a nearby table, looking at me.

I thought, hey, it would be nice if they invited me in to stay at their place, but then i thought ufff, they actually dont look so friendly and i would have to socialize, and then we would find all the things we don't have in common. but i thought what the hell is that or no sleep, because i knew i would have to walk all night, because its hard to knock on people doors after midnight, people are scared, providing i could even find their house in the dark

but well anyway the 3 guys left and i switched to imagining a different random scenario.

I imagined there was a big group of about 50 people, mostly teenagers, and a few adults, like 5. I noticed that many of them were heavily over weighted, so i instantly thought they were australians on a school trip. but hey at a random burguer king on the highway, at 11.30 pm, no that's not possible, its past their bed time, well anyway. 6 of them sit on my table and the adult in charge of them strikes a conversation

hey man where are you from, he said, i'm from argentina i replied

he seemed a bit confused that i was the only person there and had nothing on my table, no food, so he asked, are you waiting for your food?

i said, well... not really, it's just a bit cold outside so i was just hanging around, i found that many people laugh when i I say a bit cold, because actually is terribly cold

I was aware of the fact i have this homeless vibe around me, with the beard, greasy hair, tired eyes, wearing lots of clothes and a filthy sleeping bag next to me, so he asked, have you got nowhere to stay?

'this is my chance' I thought, and I said, yeah, I'm just waiting for that to.. to come along, so he said i could stay at his mate's place, other of the guys who was ordering burguers there with them

that'd be awesome I thought, but decided to go a bit japanesy about it and politely refuse, i said no, don't worry, I don't want to cause any trouble

there's no trouble he said, come ans stay with us, so i said 'are you sure?' he said of course

we kept talking and he mentioned they were from a christian church and were on their way home from some inter churches school event, when he said that i thought 'oh man, religion? what am I getting myself into'

the he said ' I don't believe in religions, but have you heard of jesus crhist' I said yes while reminding myself choices were thin on the ground tonight

soon after that i found myself in a van surrounded by 10 kids ages 10 to 16 screaming around about who score more goals on the game they had just played, while they were shouting i started calculating the odds of what had just happened, so came up with a kind of drake equation for it, some of the variables included the amount of sports events they participated yearly for the ones they had to leave their city, amount of children that played, amount of nights i find myself sitting in a fast food restaurant in the middle of nowhere before they close, and some of the constants were the number of fast food restaurants along the highway, the number of tables on this one, the number of adults, etc, and then i lost count, but well there were like 15 tables, more than 100 seats there, and just a few adults, chances one of them sitting next to me was easily 100 to 1, and while calculating and with some kids staring at me i thought to myself 'this night took an unexpected turn'

now is the morning after, i had a great night sleep in a warm bed with clean sheets, a nice breakfast, a hot shower, and the time i was fearing came, they said, we are going to church, would you like to come, so i politely explained them I was not really into religion and felt a bit unconfortable going to church, thank them for everything and said i would be on my way and may try to make it to queesntown before nightfall

they said, oh its alright you can stay another night if you want to, you dont need to come to church

i said cool, and now is almost noon and I'm typing this while they are in church, used the first hour to clean the kitchen and to do all the dished of the dozen children who had breakfast before leaving, so now can sit on the computer without guilt

i did learn a bit from this big family, but that's another story