If I stand still long enough someone will eventually approach me and try to strike up a conversation, presumably to practice their English. They ask where I'm from etc. and they've almost never heard of Connecticut. At the gym there is a college-age kid who told me he has been to Chinatown in New York City. At the supermarket today while I was trying to figure out which was the laundry detergent and not accidentally buy fabric softener, it was a guy who gave me his card and told me about the company he works for that is headquartered in Arizona.Yesterday in the park I was reading a paperback and two kids passed by. The boy peeked at the cover and when they were a few steps past coaxed his girlfriend to come back and say hello. They had a jackfruit in a plastic bag with a kitchen knife. (It's common for couples to make a little picnic that way with fruit from a street vendor.) He asked if I would like to share some fruit with them, and when I accepted they sat down and cracked it open. The stem of the jackfruit runs through the middle of it kind of like a bell pepper, only strong like a vine. When you jerk the stem out, the fruits are attached. They're mushy in texture like bananas with a few seeds in each one.
We chatted about university for a few minutes before I had to run to meet Ilene. The girl seemed to understand what I was saying, but I could never get her to speak a word.
-Robert
