'Why didn't I say 'pleasure is all mine' or something cool like that?' Mikheil thought moments later, as always having the best ideas when it was too late. At least this time he could blame his English skills - although he wasn't so bad at writing or reading, it took him a while to process what other people said and even more what to say. Sure, the school-fed phrases came easily, but beyond that, he could stammer and pause awkwardly. If he let his language flow freely without stressing about it, he would probably be a lot more fluent than that, but such thought had never occurred to him.

At her 'yeehaw', he laughed as it was such a sincere, amusing way to present yourself, but immediately switched to hoping Anna wouldn't be insulted. "That is nice, I ended up growing up in city. I miss country side," Mikheil tried to explain, but moment later, she had switched to asking about his nationality and he scratched behind ear slightly, just realizing his hair probably looked like the most awful mess - not that it was in any other state normally. Well, nothing he could do about it now. He took a bite out of toast and figured what to answer while chewing (food turned out to be a good cover-up for short-term silence).

"It means I'm from Croatia. It is a small country by Adriatic sea, right across of Italy. Most people don't know about it and its neighbors - Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. However it is now gaining popularity as tourism spot. For example, Croatia has a lot of beautiful beaches. But in all honesty, I am a bit like tourist there myself..." he explained, trying not to sound too much like tourism brochure, but not completely avoiding it. Hopefully she wouldn't throw a strawberry at him for bad performance. He wasn't too great with catching things and couldn't pull off some cool catch-it-with-mouth stunt.

"My name?" he paused, taken aback by such a question. "Well, I am not against nicknames and Michael would be close enough," man said, "but it's kind of like Meek-hee-eel." He spoke slowly, trying to separate syllables of his name. It probably sounded ridiculous and his cheeks toned reddish. In Germany, everyone just called him Michael and no one asked how his name was properly pronounced. Not even teachers beyond grade 3. He similarly to Anna turned to pay attention to his food for a moment.

'You're as smooth as sandpaper, Mikheil' he berated himself. Why was it that he instantly felt ten more levels more awkward around women? He wasn't shy person, after all... Just found it easier to express himself through art. Oh! That's right - art. "So, do you have any hobbies, Anna?" he inquired. "Mine is drawing and designing characters and stories for games." Insert awkward laugh here. 'Now you're labelled as nerd' he concluded mentally.