Love thy neighbours...

It's been 3 months since my last blogpost. I fail at consistency. A friend of mine made an interesting observation. He noticed that the regularity of my blog writing was directly proportional to my emoness level. The emoer I was, the more I wrote..so the fact that I haven't written in a while is a testimony to my happiness level. I am a very happy chappy right now and the subjects of this post have played a huge role in contributing to my blogging irregularity. It takes one epiphany to get me writing and I had one such epiphany today as I was rick rollin with 4 crazy people. It was a "this is it" moment..the moment in your life when you look at things and think damn, life is pretty damn amazing! This is it. This is what happiness would look like. This is what I'll talk to my grandkids about someday. This is it that I have travelled thousands of miles for.

I left NZ six months ago to embark on a new journey of life. I wanted to live in and explore a new continent, I wanted to do a (somewhat) "real job",I wanted to meet a whole bunch of different people and I wanted to find myself. And I did indeed find myself...in a flat filled with 6-8 other crazy people from different corners of the world. Think FRIENDS but more multicultural and less incestual. Think Spanish apartment but slightly tidier. Think three's company but with 6 people. Think world without borders, a mini united nations, a live united colours of benetton commercial, think my heaven on earth.

To be honest, I was very worried about who/where I'd live during my traineeship. I hadn't really lived with anyone except my family (with the exception of 6 months in Canada). Although peaceful co-existence is the motto of my life...I was a bit worried about how I'd peacefully co-exist with sooo many people without driving either them or myself crazy. I am a pretty useless person to live with. I don't cook, I clean occasionally (i.e. only when realllllly needed) and I have a bit of eccentric streak. Fortunately for me, my flatmates not only love cooking but also feeding lazy useless people like me. Cleaning is not everyone's top priority but has been mandated by the cleanliness Nazi and her lovenotes around the flat and I wasn't the only one with a "bit of an eccentric streak". I live with a whole bunch of crazies!

I hadn't ever lived with anyone that wasn't family and I guess that tradition continues..I live with a family. A family of people from Brazil, France, Colombia and Croatia (to name a few). A family that spends every living moment together. Personal space is so overrated in our flat. We cook(I watch) together, we go shopping together, we have boytalks and girltalks, we maintain the alcohol level of our alcohol stream together, we discuss philosophy,politics andmovies, we do silly things, we remind each other of silly things (that some of us often forget :P), we gossip together, we sing to disney, we rick roll. We are a bunch of shiny happy people from different countries, speaking different languages, brought up in different ways, living in a home away from home and making a home away from home. I think if the founders of AIESEC would look at us today, they could pat themselves on the back and think they've done a great job of making the world a smaller and more tolerant place.

Coming back to my epiphany, I thought if an alien was to come and ask me what happiness on earth looked like..I'd take them straight to my raggedy little (shared) room in Andel apartment and show them these 5 crazy people from 3 continents dancing to Disney songs after eating a meal prepared by one of them in Ikea bowls bought during a "family" shopping trip to Ikea. Positive energy level in room: extreme, differences: say what? Similarities: more than you can ever imagine. Silliness level: extreme. Goofy grins, uncoordinated dance moves, out of tune singing in a weird mix of accents. Kodak moment of a perfect life. C'est la vie right now and I'm very happy.

The cheesiness level of my note is making me throw up so I'm gonna stop right here. However, I'd like to say that I came to Prague for several aforementioned reasons but the only reason that would hold me back in Prague are these bunch of crazy looney toons. This is really "it". The bible says one must love thy neighbours as one loves thyself. As a self-proclaimed narcissist, I can admit that I have come to love my neighbours just as much as I love myself ;)