A silent joke between strangers

I’ve been taking Dutch Conversational courses for the last four or five weeks. I’m not sure how long anymore. Anyway, I take the tram to the next town over and after class I take it back. Now that I’ve made the trip a few times I’m coming to the place where I recognize people. I’m also to the place where I will have a preferred car to sit in, I think (not sure about that one yet). Last night I stepped into the first car of the tram and took a seat, facing the opposite direction that we were traveling. My back was to only one set of doors (this gave me a nice view of all the other people, whom I enjoy watching).

I recognized already one guy that I saw last week. He always comes from the direction of Utrecht, but has to switch trams at the stop that I wait at for my trip home. He then transfers onto my tram and rides until the stop before I get off. I haven’t spoken to the guy, but I’ve noticed it’s nice to see a familiar face at the tram station, especially if there are a few sketchy characters slinking around.

When I got onto the tram and sat down I recognized another girl. She reminds me of somebody from back home. I noticed her for the first time last week and decided I liked her and trusted her, though there isn’t really anything that I have to trust her with. Two stops after I got on (or was it three stops?) I heard somebody walk on the tram and start talking very loudly behind me. Automatically, before the man walked into my vision, the girl I recognized started laughing. Curious, I waited to see why. The person walked by and sat two seats in front of me. I recognized him. He was also speaking very loudly last week. He sat with the same woman as last week, also. He started to talk to her (very loudly). The girl continued chuckling quietly and managed to catch my eyes with hers, at which time we chuckled together. This fellow is quite amusing. He doesn’t care at all what people think. But because of that I learned a lot about him last night. His name is Richard and he has a friend named Alexander (Alex called Rich to tell him that he forgot a ring and Rich thoroughly checked his hands and denied it until Alex admitted it was a joke, at which time they hung up). It was very amusing indeed. And through Richard I was able to share a silent laugh with an entire stranger.

So now I’m curious to see what will happen next Tuesday evening on the tram. I’m wondering if perhaps I’ll make another acquaintance just through consistent tram riding. Fun.