Today I had no special plans, but the afternoon ended up being much more interesting than I though. At lunch I had a conversation with the only female in the hotel reception for the first time. Laotians are very shy, especially girls and rarely speak to westerners. Today, though, we managed to break the ice and spoke about the usual, age, birthdays, siblings. Then as I went to have my afternoon coffee another rare thing happened. I wore my 1982-Rose Bowl shirt today and as I sat slurping on my Iced Latte a voice said to me: "You are too young to have been to the 1982 Rose Bowl!"
The voice belonged to an older gentleman, he in turn belonged to a large group of men and women all in their 60s. As I explained the shirt's origin, he commented on me not even being from the US, and I defended myself by saying that I actually used to live in New York and therefor have the right to wear the shirt. And I also comment on the story of how this 100% American shirt managed to end up in a second-hand store in Sweden must be fascinating. The gentleman and his ladyfriend left the café together with the rest of a group with a smile and I returned to my coffee.
I then stumble upon my Step-grandfather having an afternoon beer at a local café and with nothing better to do I join him. A while later we split up, he going one way on the bike and me going the other to visit a local shop. On my way home as I walk down Main Street I meet the group from the café and the ladyfriend recognizes me.
"You are the Swedish girl from the café!"
I stop and we talk for about ten minutes, discussing how she is from California but is of Swedish heritage and have been to Stockholm several times and how her daughter spent a high-school year in Stockholm. I tell again the story of how I ended up in Luang Prabang and what I'm doing here. We then go our separate ways, wishing each other good luck and an enjoyable stay in Luang Prabang.
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