pascal the manager

indulging in all the perks of the job - smooching, cuddling & romancing with the female part of beethoven house. has a special talent for scaring all lunatics away - either by playing strip poker or offering to help them find a job as an...escort.

afik&noam the issies

the duo i met in the kitchen.
afik - a classic case of a decision making problem - most of it strangely having to do with parts of his wardrobe...?
noam - the one craving fame on wordsaround (?!). gets all the credits for lengthy conversations. expressed genuine interest in kiwi picking. plus...a shabat dinner that had all that familiar Polish flavour (rosol i golabki!!!!)

ruth the tough

bruised arms were probably the only drawback of dumping her boyfriend as she had to carry all her gear by herself. ruth was on a mission to get over it and get strong. ans she seemed to have achieved all that when i bumped into her three months later, shared thoughts, laughter and a few glasses of wine...

Ed

beethoven manager.
a screenplay writer, a director-to-be, an insane extension of allen, he started the contagious mental decomposition of making up insane settings for the reception area (go to james and becca).
ed got REALLY desperate, trying to hit on any of the millions of girls staying at beethoven which usually resulted in them being set on fire ;-)
i hope he finally did get a date...
i reckon he might become another lynch one day.

Gerard the kiwi

gerard hangs his babies on the wall. every other day he takes one of them down only to ride it recklessly.
the most extreme case of 'men and their toys' disease. deeply in love with his bicycle harem.
continously trying to capture life in photos.
the most freckled person i've ever known.
a good catholic boy with a flare for mischief ;-)

James and Becca

a kiwi-irish couple that became long term beethoven residents
becca - a dangerous frown master, should not be approached when packing bags at new world supermarket, her curiosity led to a traumatic discovery that yes, girls DO pee in the shower
james - a dubliner with a wicked sense of humour, a music star-to-be, good at moronic imitations, a generous subway worker
both immensely involved in hostel life by personal contrubution to the reception area - one of them being 'godfather'-like scene with a choir hidden in the cabinet murmuring theme song

Jane, Mika, Allan and mika's car

a foursome? or a twosome with an extension?
jane - an avocado alergic addict (rabies style swelling and ...) with a party trauma and an imaginative haircut. reigned over the biggest wine glass in beethoven house.
mika - the german girl in love.
allan - the one with smelly feet, the terrace conversations companion - willingly answering my ridiculous questions
the car - a miraculously revived wreck that somehow managed to take them as far as wellington with a few 'blackouts'

Allen

allen is a state of mind.
a fixed ratio of hatred, distributed in short phrases (I hate this f...k sun! All those bloody f....ing idiots!)
an extreme caution in throwing anything away - most often resulting in shocking discovery of life forms in the fridge.
the owner of beethoven house where people either lingered or which they simply avoided.
if ever seen doing a split on the floor with a painful expression flapping his arms around - it would most probably be a dying swan.
it took him over 25 years to perfect his porridge - which resulted in purely addictive bowlfuls of creamy delicacy.

John mc greedy :-)

mmmh yes - the most frequent sound he made. a characteristic pom-like murmur.
john and subway - it first started with a six inch sandwich. then a footlong. then he went through his 'free subway stickers collection' every day, and finally, he was granted a vip card which he showed off passionately. his subway obsession turned out to be quite contagious -reaching it's critical moment when some of beethoven house residents started working there...to get the 50% staff discount?

hardcore Yann

known as Yanni Punnani.

met in the east cape, te araroa, almost lost in gisbourne after three days of constant giggle.
eighty kilo - that's the weight he'd been carrying for the three months he cycled around the north island.
six - an approximate number of punctures he got while cycling with us (within 48 hours).
breaks - front and rear - neither of them did his bike have when descending all those hills while cycling with us.
pasta - the only thing Yann would ever eat. brrr.

Nina the Uruguayan cyclist

time. Nina always has it.
any place in the world? name it and she'll know something about it. and she will SO much want to see it.
coffee - wherever and whenever. wouldn't it be easier simply getting a caffeine drip?
beef - from now on, the only thing i'll associate with Uruguay will be having steak for breakfast.

what people?

so. what people do i have in mind?
PEOPLE that i've met on my journey
PEOPLE that i've learnt from about all those things i would go past without noticing otherwise
PEOPLE who i find worth remembering
PEOPLE i'd like to share with anybody who reads all this
PEOPLE who've helped me
PEOPLE who've made my journey even more enjoyable
and lots of other reasons which i could keep on listing.