Mark wrote: >It's easy to be awkward in unfamiliar surroundings. One of my experiences >in >the Philippines were the helpful "istambays" or "stand-bys" who, having no >gainful employment literally gathered around street corners because they >had >nothing else to do. In Twain's _Innocents Abroad_, at least in the first >couple of chapters that I got to, they were a little bit of a nuisance. My >fellow countrymen seemed worse, since they are good at what they do. > >My question is, where do I get help with travelling? Is it better to know >somebody there beforehand? Ah well, I don't have all that much time to >look, >I'll just wing it.
I always prefer to know somebody there beforehand, even if I only met them online -- although I tend to shy away from folks I meet in a chatroom. Lists like this one are much better places to get a feel for people. In a chatroom you usually get "idea bytes," but on lists like brin-l, you get nice long posts that really give you a feel for (part of) who a person is. Reggie Bautista -- whose father was stationed in the Phillipines in the late 1940's, by the way. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
