Ha Tien is a tiny, Asian restaurant - and restaurant is a generously large term - merely down the street and 'round the corner from my dorm. I go there all the time when I'm in a hurry, low on refrigerator ingredients, or feel the need to get extra protein in my diet without spending the time or money on supermarket meat. Ha Tien is also a cheap but good eat, which means that my name is probably written somewhere on the outside of the restaurant. In bold.
As I am often wont to do, I planned to order a big bowl of noodles (big = dinner tonight + lunch tomorrow) and take the spoils of the kill back to my room to feast in the darkness of my cave. When I ordered, there was one other guy eating in near the opposite wall from the door. I glanced over as he munched a spring roll and I wondered about this other person who was eating alone on Friday night. I paid for my order and left, but as I got to my dorm, I had this sudden desire to reach out to someone else tonight. Someone I don't already know, I guess.
I went back in and tugged out a stool from the table he was sitting at. I set down my box of noodles and said hi. There's absolutely nothing to lose in these situations. He was likewise very nonchalant about it, and said hello back to me. I smiled back and bluntly said, Company, you know. He nodded and took another spoonful of his noodle soup. We asked each others names and began talking, talking about whatever.
Seba(stian) is fairly tall, probably near 6'4". He has a head of light brown, curly hair. Almost like a Jew-fro. But it looks nice, because it's not a careless, tousled mess of curly. He has some facial hair of the same color, scraggly but also neatly trimmed. I don't really know what color his eyes are. Seba is handsome in face, though lanky, and walks with a strange gait, like his legs are trying to reach a little further than his body can get to in one stride. Seba is not a big smiler, but he doesn't make you uncomfortable, and when he does laugh, it's a pleasure to see.
Seba works and lives about an hour outside of Regensburg, but at the end of the work week, he likes to spend the weekends here because it's more fun and there's more to do. Seba's from way south, near the German-Austrian border, in Oberbayern.
Seba and I agree to walk to the Jahninsel/island on the river and see if the music fest has started up in spite of the rain. We talk about accents while we are on the bridge. He asks if I've picked up any of the local accent (Baierisch!), and if I often do the accent from my home area for fun (American southern! No!) . Seba and I joke about the final essays that I have to write, that he wrote years ago. Seba looks around 28-34, but it's hard to say because people also stay in school much longer here (some of my friends at the Uni are that age). Seba and I walk around on the bridge and scope the festival going on below. A few scattered crowds huddle just in front of the stages or under the bridge's archways. The entry fee is €4 . We shrug and don't bother going in today.
We head back into the main city and eventually go our separate ways again. Seba says he'll follow the gradual stream of people in gaudy, plaid, baggy shin pants to what he predicts is a Bad Taste party. I laugh and wish him luck. We shake hands in parting, he asks my name once more, and wish each other a good evening. I turn down a side alley to go back home. Seba turns and continues down the street with his strange gait, presumably to arrive eventually at a party with many badly dressed people.
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