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Diary This is Jan's diary. If you want to receive this diary by mail, write your mail on the contact form.
‹ Previous (22/11/2010) MONTH Next (2011-01-21)› ‹ Previous (2010-10-08 - Canada) COUNTRY Next (2011-01-23 - Mexico)› US Miami (see on map) 13/01/2011:
Ted from Margate, close to Miami offered to lodge us from the 20th of December to 13th of January, when we had the flight to Mexico. We had offered to pay rent for the room but he refused to accept and just asked me to help him in return to fix some things in the house. We left Naples 3 days before day 20, but luckily we were staying in Miami with another woman of Couchsurfing. Brandee was a traffic policeman and was engaged in many groups of Meetup, a web bringing people with similar interests together. We went to two meetings with Brandee: one night we visited several art galleries and one night we played several games at the home of another lady. Two days later we went to another meeting with Ted, this time at a meeting of atheists. Before, we had to bring the car to arrange in a workshop, exactly the day we had to go to the house of Ted. We had to pay $ 450 to change the fuel pump, but expected to recover by selling the car, and we started asking $ 2000 through Internet. We celebrated Christmas at the home of a man of Couchsurfing, Thom, who had offered to host a party at his house. Thom had not consulted how many people will come and thought that only will come about 2 or 3 people, but in the end we were about 30, but it was not a problem, because there was enough space and food and drinks for everyone. During the meeting I had several interesting conversations, but would emphasize that I had with a girl and a Jewish man, who were interested in my views on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. On the one hand, demonstrating that the Jews had a right to Israel for historical reasons, for 2000 years before these lands were inhabited, but I answered with the same arguments Native Americans, or Indians could claim the entire territory of the United States because 500 years ago had inhabited the land. Anyway, I defend the existence of a state of Israel, because, like the Native Americans that can do nothing against a population already established, it would be unfair to the Palestinians to expel all Jews from Palestine or Israel, but should reach a political agreement in achieving peace. In this respect, the two accused Palestine and Arab Countries for the absence of agreement, but I told them that the Palestinians seemed very concerned to negotiate borders, such as permitting the proposed boundaries for 68, but not the Israelis. And I ended up asking ´what solution would accept the government of Israel?´ and I knew how to respond, assuming that the Israelis were only interested in further tightening the string to get the maximum field in the far future, when they finally sign a final peace agreement. It was curious to meet two Jews these days, both with a sense of identity that did not leave for nothing in the world, including one that surprised me was defined as a Jew in spite of not believing in God and another is defined as homosexual Jewish and every Saturday went to a gay synagogue. After celebrating the New Year in Miami, dining at the Hard Rock Café and watching the fireworks with some friends of Couchsurfing, we stayed a few days at the house of Ted, spending many hours in front of computer writing the book of Africa. Fortunately, some nights Ted took us out to dinner with his friends, skeptics and atheists, knowing one of those nights James Randi, an American who worked in the fifties as a professional magician and escape artist, but who rose to fame as a skeptic, unmasking in the eighties the psychic Uri Geller, accusing him of a charlatan who used known tricks among magicians to pass them as supernatural powers. Previously, in 1968 James Randi had offered $ 100 from his pocket to the first person who could provide objective evidence of the paranormal, an award that eventually grew to 1,000, 10,000 and even $ 100,000, which were small in 1996, When Internet pioneer Rick Adams gave a million dollars to increase the challenge and pressure on the parapsychologists. Thinking that the character was important and interesting enough to write an article for a Spanish newspaper, a few days later I went to meet him and made him a very interesting interview (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUldQZNs1X0). Finally, a few days before leaving for Mexico, we sold the van to a Dutch couple for $ 1,600 a good price, then taking into account the purchase price and all repairs and expenses that we had in the car, it had cost us an average of $ 7 a day, much cheaper than renting a car. A couple of days later we did several farewell dinner with some friends we had made, and we had a dinner on the last night that Ted invited us again. Ted definitely was a splendid host, like many others we had stayed with in the U.S., with the difference that with Ted we had a chance to learn much more about his affable nature and his generosity because he had agreed to lodge us for a longer time. The last night he refused letting us take a taxi to the airport and woke up at 4 in the morning to get us there. Along the way we expressed our gratitude for his hospitality and insisted that he should come to visit us in a year and a half in Catalonia, where we would try to reward him for all the help he gave us. |
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