Small talk

I'm not a fan of small talk. You know, questions like where are you from, what are you working with, what do you do in your spare time, that type of thing. However, when you mingle and meet people for the first time, what else is there to talk about?

Some people are geniouses in this art, I am not. But I am good in watching people and seeing who seems to be a bit left alone. Mostly nowadays because I step away from a group of people having a smoke, as to not disturb them (all these friggin healthy-living youngsters!), and that gives me plenty of time to observe.

Today I saw a guy seemingly being on his own, so I went up to him, extended my hand and presented myself. We then had a brief chat, "oh, so you're Swiss", bla-bla-bla, yes "I'm voluntering in an old peoples home", then I said following the protocol, "so what do you do?". He promptly replied "I don't want to talk about my work" and showed me his back. Oh? That was surprising. I felt like I offended him. And to be honest, I wasn't really interested, it was just a way of continuing the conversation. Maybe he was unemployed and ashamed about it? Otherwise he could have just said something not meaningful and moved on.

Well, there were some other people easier to talk to. There was one in particular, who I thought was a homeless who moved in on the food table with a purpose, but weren't shown away. After all, this was an open venue with everybody welcome.

And he turned out not to be only not homeless, but very well travelled and fluent in English. Whaddayaknow?

And I guess it's a good thing that people can still surprise me. It means I'm not THAT old and cynical just yet :).