The other day when I was waiting in line for my morning tea at a local cafe ive decided to muster up the courage to meet someone new just for the heck of it. I carefully scanned the cafe, attempted to read everyone’s personalities, the atmosphere they have created immediately around them…and finally picked a person who was sitting alone with a notebook opened in front of him. There was an empty seat next to him so i settled my things down and told him good morning as i was doing so. It seemed like he was looking for someone to talk to because his face lit up as soon as i acknowledged his presence. He enthusiastically sparked up a conversation and i realized he wasnt from around here based on his heavy french accent and whattya know…turned out hes a traveler from France and works as an urban planner. I’ve been very interested in the field of urban planning so i was very glad for this opportunity to learn more about it. Anywho, he thought he’d come here to learn about Binghamton’s revitalization progress before heading up to meet his friend/professor of regional and city planning at Cornell University. We talked for maybe more than two hrs about films, storylines, graphic novels, what people want in their city, Freud, optogenetic, social injustices, and also learned that he studies ancient manuscripts (freaking cool!) Anything he thought was worth highlighting on anything i said he would jot them down in his notebook even things i thought were insignificant. I definitely learned a lot from this well educated person and the best thing is…he made me forget about people and their snobbery. One thing i hate about having conversations with “experts” or “connoisseurs” is their pop cultural, science, and social snobbery. If people were able to have a conversation like him it could make a community much better. Absence of snobbery helps people learn and communicate better. I also appreciate him for his honesty and general life advises that i can apply to my projects and whenever i work with people. Oh my goodness, i think this was my highlight of the year. This is like two years ago when i met an Australian who came to Binghamton to check out the carousels for artistic inspiration during his improvised trips. Just wow.