Wants to Meet Up
- Last login almost 8 years ago
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Overview
About Me
I am generally very interested in everything! I love meeting people from different cultures and countries. There is so much about the world to discover and meeting someone from another country is like a virtual mini-trip to that place through someone else's eyes. I also love languages. If I could, I would speak at least 30 different languages! Right now I am learning Russian, including with the help of duolingo. I also am partnering up with Russian-speakers to do local English-Russian language lesson exchanges. It's so interesting to discover a language that has a completely different syntax structure.
Interests
- billiards
- socializing
- scuba diving
- languages
Music, Movies, and Books
I like the arts very much, both fine arts and performing arts. I mostly prefer movies with a flavor from the 1940s to the 1960s, to me, the golden age of cinema. I also enjoy literature, but I have to say I haven't read much. Some of my favorite authors include Julio Cortazar, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Scott Fitzgerald, John Wain, and Bernard Malamud. I hate gratuitous violence and vulgarity in art and in life.
One Amazing Thing I’ve Done
I once decided I wanted to jump off a 10-meter diving board. Well, that's not so amazing, you might say. It was for someone who had thought that three meters was like jumping off the Eiffel tower. I didn't want to dive off, just jumping off feet first was a challenge enough for me. So I jumped off the three meters board. Quick and easy. You're in the water so fast, you almost don't feel you jumped. Then I climbed up to five. That was a bit high, especially when you look down. I summoned my courage and jumped. Doable! So, why not 10? I climbed up all the way to the top. When I looked down, the pool looked the size of a thimble. It seemed a lot higher than when you are looking from the ground up. It looked so tiny - would I actually fall into the pool if I jumped? Could I miss it? I half-seriously thought. It was just so high. The whole idea now seemed very scary. I stood there at the edge and pondered. Someone else arrived to jump. Be my guest. I stepped back. Should I or shouldn't I? Well, I have to do it. Let's go. I stood at the edge and concentrated. And then I jumped.
Then something happened that I never expected. My body seemed to tilt back and forth in the air as if it couldn't keep a vertical line. Sheer terror gripped me. What if I lose the vertical control of my body and hit the water leaning forward? Would I survive? Why was this happening? I tensed every muscle in my body, trying to keep vertical. Time obviously had distended and it felt like I was 10 seconds in the air, free-falling into a never ending abyss where I was no longer in control of my body.
Finally the water. It hit hard, but it was there. And I had jumped - all 10 meters like I said to myself I would.