An unexpected overseas visitor.

Yesterday we picked up from the bus stop this young french woman who is currently travelling in Australia and working in Sydney at the moment.
The story began when a common friend to my mum and I wrote me an email to let me know that her young neighbour was currently in Australia and that it might be nice if we met each other.
I just casually exchanged a few emails and phone calls with this unknown person and she seemed nice over the phone and then the other day she was struggling to find a room to rent for just a few days. She has found a place to stay starting from the 7th of February, but because she had to leave the previous flat she was in, the transition period prooved to be a bit more of a challenge in finding a place to stay than what she had anticipated.

After consulting briefly with my wife, I offered her to stay with us for a few days. My wife was a little bit apprehensive and I can understand this since we didn't know her at all. Plus under the circumstances we are currently in, I wasn't sure whether we were ready to share our personal space.


As it turns out she is a very bright young woman who speaks very good english and although she has only been with us since yesterday afternoon, we have kind of bonded straight away. She smiles a lot, has a great sense of humour and is very inquisitive.
Last night she played some french folk songs on our guitar, very nice !

It's kind of weird because I have become very protective of her very quickly, I find myself concerned over her safety .When you're 23 , you tend to be fearless, a little bit gullible and more likely to do silly things than when you are 41 and have a little bit more knowledge and experiences in your life.
So when she said casually that she was going to do some hitchhiking to come to our place, I kind of panicked in my mind, sure Australia is a "safe" country as opposed to others, but hey I wouldn't recommend for a young beautiful woman to go hitchhiking in any bloody country regardless on how "safe" it is rated!

So I had to tell her about the do's and don'ts for a few things, I translate stuff for her from french to english and vice versa and answer all her questions to the best of my ability. I kind of feel a degree of responsability towards her, and subconsciously I think I see myself as a "father figure".
I mean realistically speaking had I had children when young, I could have had a 20 something year old daughter, so it's kind of giving me a very small taste of what it must feel like to be a father and I find it very rewarding even with a total stranger. I really look forward to raising a kid ...

I think that it will do us good to have our overseas visitor sharing our home with us despite some of our early reservations . Sure she might be disrupting our space just a little, but I believe that it will do us good to focus on someone else for a change.

Oh well today is Saturday here, I have vacuum cleaning duties to assume among other things so "A bientot" and have a good and safe weekend wherever you are !