My writer's group homework (Gail Taylor):

"Take a phrase or line that intrigues you from anything you’re reading – in any genre – and either do a timed writing (free association that you will follow anywhere it leads) or compose something more reflective that stays on topic but expands on your response and relates to your own reality."

  Dear friends, to tell the truth, learning writing in English is the purpose I am in this group for. I would be very grateful if you prompt me on my possible grammar mistakes or not right English expressions. This text is pretty complicated, even in my home language.

 So, my task is:

- To write something impromptu

- A phrase I recently read and accidentally remembered should become the title of my future story.

- I am choosing “free association that I will follow anywhere it leads"

 I was just looking at the YouTube headlines, and one was, "The strangest place in the world." Yes, it is very intriguing. So, my reader (if I have one), let's go to my story

   Is this place unfamiliar to me or am I a stranger there? Both! Being a stranger in unfamiliar places has never been strange for me, and among them it is impossible to identify the strangest. Maybe the adjective STRANGEST has some hidden meaning? The associations that have arisen take me back to 1995, when at the age of 57 I appeared as a stranger in a strange place. As I said above, there was nothing strange about this. The strangest thing was that this strange place (the city of Montreal) belonged to a strange country, in which I planned to become not a stranger. As I thought then, my creative life was over. With that in mind, it was a real challenge!

Wanting to make it real I had started thinking about my place in the Universe. In my imagination the Universe is a set a complex “jigsaw puzzle” pictures, where each cell (puzzle) has its own place and configuration. The existence of one puzzle in another place in the picture is impossible, and without this separate cell, the picture will be defective. Every moment of life any person is inside of a puzzle which belongs to one of puzzle sets. In the material World one could exist in multiple sets, for example: country, society, friends, courses, swimming pool, job, Writers Group, book club, Bible Study group, etc. Some of these puzzle-sets are simple and are parts of complex-sets: country, society...Wishing the country to become not strange to me, I must not be a stranger to the country. According to my theory I have to get as many puzzles as possible in this country puzzle-sets. Am I right?     Okay, but how do you get to these puzzles? All the puzzle sets that are the source of money and that you want to belong to are taken. You have no choice: get a puzzle in a set having not professional, but simple work.  Do your job in good faith (any job !!), bearing in mind that "Freedom is a conscious necessity." Make friends and join the puzzle sets where money is not paid (you often even have to pay for membership). The most important thing is creating a business as your own puzzle-set, even if it cannot feed you entirely. Do simple work somewhere, having the business card of the business that you have created. Others may develop it and strengthen.

   Another set that you can create in a foreign land is new friends. It is difficult, but possible if you follow the previous instructions. Finally, if you are lucky, something worthy and money-making will appear.  You came to capitalism, and you are judged by how much you earn. Therefore, it is very important to have a business with all the necessary attributes: a website, a business card, a catalog, an advertisement, membership in the required association, a workshop and participation in city events. It doesn't matter how much you earn, but you are already not a stranger.

Cheer up, at least two sets will save your puzzle even if you will be no longer there:

- Your family, for which you arrived in a foreign country,

- Your friends and relatives who stayed in your country and who have spread all over the world.

I have been following this theory for 28 years and I can tell you: not so bad.