Top O' The Morning To Ye

I spoke with an Irishman this morning and I had a cup of coffee for the first time in years.

It's kinda funny to be talking to an Irishman who lives in Switzerland...but I suppose it's no more irregular to be talking to one here than it would be in Oregon. Maybe it's just different this time around since I'm surrounded by the majority of german speaking people.

I love those kind of conversations with strangers that end up being the kind of conversations you'd find occuring between friends as opposed to the usual first-time conversations that begin with, "How's it going? Where do you come from? What do you do? Do you like it?", etc.

We dove right into politics, the state of Ireland and the U.S., President Bush, war, drugs, conspiracy theories (such as Did the U.S. really land on the moon? and Was the U.S. behind the 9/11 attacks?), Can we really believe the media?, what it's like to be in a different country other than your own, and does everything really happen for a reason or do things happen because of the choices you make?

Pretty lightweight stuff. ;) It's always provoking to hear another's world view and discover the differences and similarities that are in step or misstep with your own.

It's the kind of interesting conversation that happens in the space of about 45 minutes but leaves you thinking about it for the rest of the day.

The coffee made me sick, though. I'll stick with tea the next time around.