Ni

I met Ni in Rarotonga on my 1st morning back after 6 years since my 1st visit.
She was working on her thesis on Chinese backpackers for her doctorate paper.
She made quite an impression on me because of her topic of choice 

We shared many a beautiful sunsets on this trip, like this one:

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And this one (below) at my place, 
which I invited her to stay with me feeling sorry for her because she got herself an out-of-place accommodation to stay at for 1~2 nights instead of remaining at the backpackers which was actually a really good place.

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Ni is quite the combination of Pisces Moon and Aries.
I've nothing against Aries usually, Ni really got on my nerves sometimes.
She thinks out loud, which doesn't give you much peace and quiet,
she's also verbally indecisive, indecisive to a point of no return.
Her sentimentality is strong,
​which gives her a good appreciation for art, and a dreamy heart.
This is what perhaps bonded us initially, 
I was fascinated by the topic of her study.
When I first met her, she was going through her PhD thesis,
which was on how different backpackers travel as 'learners' and non-learners.
But all of that romantic wonder comes out of her verbally, too.
This is something I really deplore in people -- overtalkativeness.

She loves people,
but she chose to stay in a place which ended up having zero other guest.

​I invited her to stay at my villa.
But I also encouraged her to stay at the Backpackers, where we met,
and at the backpackers, she would have more freedom of mobility,
staying with me at Muri means she'll have to stick with me the whole time, 
as Muri is on the whole other side of the island.
She chose to stay with me at my villa.
​
So often she'd want to go do this and that,
and I didn't and I wanted to stay with our friends from the backpackers,
so she was reluctant to hang around, and went to work on her thesis far away from us.
Essentially she spent a lot of time waiting for me to finish hanging out with my friends, 
because she chose to stay with me, she didn't get to go to Charlie's again - a place she raved about,
I didn't want to go to that 'cultural dance' performance at the Edgewater, 
when she was really looking forward to it, so I let her go with Kasia, who wanted to go see it.
This is but one example of daily dilemmas she found herself in, 
verbally, too.

Towards the end of the trip, I had to tell her to try to conquer her indecisiveness,
because it is not a good trait to have as a person.
I'm not saying it's a fault, 
but it is a flaw of character.

Ni is also unnecessarily scared of the littlest tide of water.
She isn't even able to step into the sea at a water level that goes slightly higher above her knees.
I had to try so many times to hold her hands, and gently led her in.
But she'd scream or say it's cold, and gave up on trying.
Yet she loves the sea...

What was really (... i don't even know how to describe it...) of her,
was how constantly she took selfies and snapped photos with her phone.
She had a selfie-stick, too, which she used daily.
I'd offer to take photos for her,
because selfie sticks don't necessarily provide the best shots.
​And she'd be posing like a pro blogger, 
and the poses wouldn't stop,
i'd be snapping 20-30 photos of her already, and she'd still be posing...
I'd give the phone back to her, and she'd only then realise I was done taking photos already. 
I really don't know how one could have so many photos for 1 place...
(I usually only take 2 pictures max to ensure quality...
​or am I the odd one out?)

Something I found quite inconsiderate of her was, 
one night when I had stayed up quite late at the backpackers,
chatting away happily with people sitting all around the table on the deck,
it was well past midnight when I drove us back to the Passage Villas.
Ni struggled to get her contact lens out before bed.
She whimpered and called out and whispered and cried, 
till way past 1 am, 
and I was trying very hard to sleep.
She had the bathroom door wide open, 
running the tap for water to help wash her eyes.
So the light was on, the tab constantly ran, Ni went on crying,
and I was dead-tired, really trying to sleep, and truly as pissed as she was upset about her contact lenses.
I invited her in, and here she was, torturing me with the noise and the light as I tried to sleep.

I've never met someone so conflicted before,
not that I don't know enough Pisces already,
but a sharp combo of Pisces and Aries could really drive me through my villa's roof...

Ni is too Chinese I find, Chinese not in a good way.
She also wears these leggings that are semi-see-through,
so that she won't get tanned.
She's got a strong Chinese accent, 
but she uses her English very well.

What I do like about Ni is how much she had explored on her own, 
all on foot, the whole island.
That is a very good quality as a traveler,
is the willingness to explore, even when alone.
She knows a lot of hotels and resorts because she had already explored them herself.
Wherever I drove past, or we walked past,
she'd say, "I'd been there!"
Even though she is doing a paper on 'learners' amongst travelers,
I feel that she has a lot of potential to become a great 'learner'-traveler.
But first,
she needs to shed her indecisiveness -
otherwise she may struggle to find a resolve in simple decisions like hanging out with people,
or doing things on her own, when she next solo-travels.