I met a South African boy on the subway, while I was wearing my dark sunglasses and listening to my iPod. He was asking for directions, so I answered his question and instinctively put my earphones back in my ears. Then he said, “People here don’t talk to each other much—do they?”

It turns out that he is a linguist on assignment in the states for six months. He speaks 12 languages fluently and has lived all over the world. He mentioned simply to me, “People here seem so angry.” In comparison to the general mood in his neighborhood in South Africa, the citizens of the North East seem to suffer from “chronic dissatisfaction.”

He followed me out of the subway car and onto the platform, where he confessed to me that it was his birthday and that he hoped we could keep in touch. But he didn’t strike me as a creeper at all—just a lonely boy in search of a birthday kiss.

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