united nations pub quiz

My neighbour from Inner Mongolia and my neighbour from South Africa invited me to the pub from half-nine to midnight.

I'll go for an hour, I said, and so we set off. For a minute I feared we'd end up at a raucous student bar near Queen's but they set my mind at ease. We're going for a pub quiz at a neighbourhood place, they said. And we're meeting some friends.

All the friends, it turned out, are Not From Here. There was the development worker from England, the Israeli traveller who had just completed his required military service, the social worker from Germany, the Australian doctor on holiday, and on and on. I was the American who hoped all the questions would involve Shakespeare quotes, "The Simpsons" and the Tom Petty catalog ["I'll take Stan Lynch for £100, Alex"].

We were a formidable pub quiz team. With that much international knowledge, we had almost every base covered. I contributed a few U.S. geography answers and, I am proud to say, the obscure "Simpsons" factoid.

But one woman from Derry - our local ringer - was pretty much a one-person team. She knew everything, and could understand what the quizmaster was saying. Still, despite our global brainpower, we came in third.

Our team was called the Couchsurfers. Please let me clarify. Couchsurfing is a way that people with wanderlust but little cash can find lodging all around the world. You visit a website and in effect write a little note that says, "Can I sleep on your couch? Check one: YES    NO"

And you thought buying a car on eBay tested your levels of Internet trust.

This group of people are involved in the Couchsurfing community and the man from Israel was camping out for a couple nights in our ringer's front room. All the other folks knew each other from a loose social network of Couchsurfing websites; some had crossed paths during various travels; one pair met just last week on a plane.

I love that.

This level of exploration and intrepid adventure really amazed me. I had at least 15 years on everyone else in the group and when I was in my 20s, I don't recall my peers being so open and welcoming and accomplished. It was wonderful to listen to their stories, which were not at all braggy or competitive. I am still in awe.

My neighbours went home at an appropriate time (and slagged me about my "I'm only going for an hour" remarks). I stayed out much too late talking with a woman from York and telling her all my tales (she asked for them - she said she was homesick). I also spent some time looking through the iPod of the guy from Australia. He was sweet and slightly nerdy and crouched by my chair for a good deal of the night.

For the record, if you are sweet and slightly nerdy, and have an accent, please do crouch by my chair for a good deal of the night.

Alas, such idylls must end. There was talk of going clubbing this weekend for one girl's 25th birthday; think I'll take a pass on that one. And although the ringer proclaimed I was "essential" and must return for next week's competition, I think I may leave that to the youngsters. After all, when the alarm rang this morning, I needed to get up and off to work.

I imagine they were still on the couches.

Comments

[Alan in Belfast]

A few guys in work used to do the quiz in there every week - this is about 12 years ago. There was a big prize if you got all the questions right. But the quiz master (allegedly) always cheated so that you couldn't get full marks.

Stories of nipping next door to Simpsons to look up racing results in the paper.

In the days before PDAs and Blackberries made it possible to more easily cheat - yet usually too slowly to be of use in the fast round quiz.

Glad you enjoyed another slice of Belfast life.

[Opie]

I have a childhood friend who has a neighbor from Inner Mongolia. (I'm saying that to myself because it just sounds so exotic.) In fact, it's not just a neighbor, it's a neighbour, because she lives in Northern Ireland.

And me, I'm driving in my taxi, taking tips and getting stoned.

[mapgirl]

So I say, how are ya, Harry?