Hmnnn...Europe

Over lunch, my office friend Nuning regaled the lunch group with stories about her 4 week vacation in Europe. She was saying that she is very, very happy with her trip despite the fact that she is now bankrupt and got stuck in Paris while trying to make her way to Barcelona. I admire her for her bravery, travelling to Europe on her own, planning her own itenerary. I was surprised to find out that she actually stayed with a friend that she just happened to meet on a plane during one of her business trips to India. She met this French guy on a plane and became fast friends with him enough to plan this whole Europe trip in his company, two weeks of which is spent living with him and his family somewhere in Southern France. (How Posh!) The best part of it, she says, is the fact that nearing the end of her 4 week holiday, the French Guy and her became a couple. Talk about stories the stuff of fairy tales!

Her story actually gave me another reason to marvel on my learning that life is really what you make out of it. God gives you what he can then guides you through signs, through other people but really, major turns on your life really depends on you. That's the beautiful paradox of the gift of free will. My friend Nuning for example just one day decided on a plane that she would befriend this French Guy and the rest is as they say history. She took the plunge of actually spending over 4,000 US dollars to make her Europe trip, saw Spain, Paris, Amsterdam, South France and so much more. She is an inspiration and a source of deep awe. Her story poses a challenge...she said that nothing can replace seeing Europe -- Paris, specifically, as a single person (meaning without your significant other if with someone) -- it gives you an erotic mystic that only the lenses of being single can unravel. I wonder what that means...