Na Vashe Zdorovya.

I was taken to a friend’s friends house in the mountains where I was warmly greeted by an aged husband and wife. They were very welcoming and lively, they invited us to sit down on their sofas and offered us something to drink, I had water. We began to get to know one another, originally the husband was from Mongolia and the wife Egypt, the man had grown up travelling all over the place whereas the wife had grown up in Switzerland, this is where the pair met and fell in love with one another, they had twin babies in Switzerland then relocated to Canada. I felt the need to ask them where they were both from as their accents certainly were not from Canada or Quebec in eastern Canada; this is how our conversation evolved in to me discovering their roots.

We were having all sorts of great conversations about culture, history, current war affairs, artificial intelligence, human cloning and so on.  Suddenly we were on the topic of wine when the husband said speaking of alcohol you must try my homemade schnapps made with handpicked white grapes from my garden. The husband explained how hard the drink was before offering me some. I can handle a hard shot I explained and so I accepted. Na vashe zdorovya he said, I responded with the same as over my travels I had picked up some Russian and so I understood what I was saying. We clinked our glasses together, raised our shot glasses to our mouths and drank the lot in one. He made a satisfied gasp as if drinking his schnapps was the equivalent downing a bottle of not too cold water after a long and vigorous run. I was noiseless and made no expression in my face, as I experienced and savored the flavor in my mouth. He made it quite clear that he wanted some sort of reaction out of me as every person he has ever given the schnapps to coughs violently, or roars, essentially his point was that every one gives him some sort of revolted response. The truth is I simple take shots really well. I actually liked it in the sense that it did not taste bad; I would drink it again if he asked me to, as I was not scared for life by my first experience.

After conversing some more about other worldly topics, he began pouring two more shots, one for him and one for myself, he did not ask he simply assumed, I could see which direction my afternoon was heading in. 

We did the same as before, the clinking of glasses and so on, we continued like this for a long while afterward, he was telling me stories of his past, he is a very attention-grabbing well educated man undeniably, his wife was just as interesting although she was not partaking in our arbitrary drinking leisure. Their house overlooks the Okanagan Lake, it is surrounded by mountains, when looking out their gigantic glass window I became mesmerized by what a beautiful sight existed beyond the glass. Eventually the time came to leave their home, just before leaving I was presented with my very own bottle of schnapps to have and to drink, I was very appreciative that this man was kind enough to give me his home made drink in which he was so proud of.  Here is to random encounters.