On the other hand, I do keep close contact with some people I met when I was in Spain last year, both men and women. But again, you need to watch out that your contact doesn’t get too close (or only if you both want it to be close, which I don’t want at the moment).

Thank you for writing a post based on my comment; that was very great of you to make it public.

I definitely agree your statement about their being a lot of lonely people out there. That was exactly the problem. He was a 26 year old student finishing his Master’s degree at a university far from home. He had been living in his own studio apartment for four or six years without roommates. I only ever heard him speak once of one friend, one time. He found comfort in my friendliness and I honestly believed that he misinterpreted his feelings.

“Also, keep in mind that cultural differences can come into play, especially with the way men view women and vice versa.” This is a great point. When I say he misinterpreted his feelings, part of it is that he has told me that he’s never opened his mind to Americans before, and that every time he thought of the United States he envisioned the naval ships along Chile’s coast, obesity, materialism, bombing innocent countries, etc. He said he opened up to me to help me with Spanish and tell me about Valparaíso. I have to admit at first I was incredibly intrigued by his habits and culture (as anyone would be with a new culture), and of course he was intrigued by mine. I honestly believe he mistook his intrigue for an American culture for intimate feelings for me as a person.

Does that make sense? It makes sense in my head. The feelings that he felt he had for me, I believe, were more like the excitement he felt to meet someone from the United States who discounted all the ideas he had, and that differed from every day life in Latin America.