joni's world

After almost eight months of being in China, I finally went out on my first date. Yes. Despite the marriage proposals and the i-love-yous minutes after meeting me, this is the only time I got asked out on a date. Sort of. At around 8pm last night, my phone rang: (Due to insistent public demand, by public I mean more than one, I'm going to add the English translations where I deem necessary :p)

JC: Hello?

Andy: Hello. My name is Andy.

JC: Yes, I know.

Andy: Ni you shi jian ma? (Do you have time?)

JC: Umm... Ni xiang zuo shen me? (What do you want to do?)

Andy: (I can't remember the exact words but it has something to do with going out to play)

JC: Umm...

Andy: Ni zai nar? (Where are you?)

JC: Zai jia. (Home)

Andy: Wo zai ni lou xia. (I'm downstairs. Literally, "I'm in your downstairs.")

JC: (taking a moment to register what he just said) Ni zai wo lou xia...

Andy: Dui. (Right.)

JC: Ni zai wo lou... ohgod, you're downstairs!

Andy: (silence)

JC: (almost screaming in panic) You're downstairs! (Started putting on more clothes.)

Andy: (silence)

JC: Ni shi... ni shi... ohgod. Ni shi zai Chang Qing Yuan ma? (You are... you are... ohgod. You're in Chang Qing Yuan? Chang Qing Yuan is the name of my compound.)

Andy: (relieved to realize that I did understand what he said) Dui! Dui! Wo zai Chang Qing Yuan. (Right! Right! I'm in Chang Qing Yuan.)

JC: (rushed to the window and looked out. No one.)

Andy: (asked which building is mine. Again, I can't remember how to say that.)

JC: Um... um, mei shi. Wo xia lou zhao ni. (No problem. I'll go down and look for you. Grabbed my bag, checked for money, keys, phone. Saw my dictionary and grabbed that too. Something told me it was going to be useful that night.)

Andy: Mei shi. (No problem. And something that basically means stay just outside my building and he'll come and find me.)

JC: Um, ok ok.

So that was how it started. The date, I mean. Weeks before, Wendy texted to say that her students would like to invite me to dinner. I said, sure. She said, "...and there's a cool boy who want to make friend with you..." Hehe, ok. Wendy described him as "very cute. Cuter than the boy in the party... tall..." and that "He really wants to be your boyfriend," which elicited a "Hahahahaha!" from me. She said his plan was to first have a translator then little by little be able to communicate with me. More of the "hahahahahaha!" here. Unfortunately, during the night of the dinner, I was too dizzy to even eat anything much less go around meeting cool boys so I had to beg off. A couple of nights ago, the dinner finally pushed through.

First impression: He's not that cute. He's not that tall. Cool? Um, what exactly is the definition of cool?

Wendy whispered that "he said he's going to take you home tonight and that he's going to ask you out to dinner tomorrow." "Hahahahaha! Ok. Hahahahahahaha!"

Dinner was uneventful. Tide said that it was so much easier to talk to me now. Everyone was amazed that I could understand what was being said. They were even more amazed whenever I'd say something in Chinese.

In Chinese, Andy asked where I live. I said Chang Qing Yuan.

Betty, another student: Chang Qing Yuan, wo zhi dao. (Chang Qing Yuan, I know that place.)

Andy: Wo ye zhi dao. (Me too.)

JC: Ok.

Still in Chinese, Andy said, we were going in the same direction so we might as well go together later.

JC: Ok.

Betty: (looked suspiciously at him) Don't you live in the north?

Andy: No.

Betty: You always go to the north after class. You have two houses.

Andy: Yes. Tonight I live in the south.

I wonder if they knew I understood what they were saying.

And so we walked home together, not without a lot of teasing from the other students when we were leaving. I must say that the walk home was quite pleasant. He managed to keep a steady flow of conversation despite our language barrier. And he was patient in explaining Chinese words that I didn't understand. About halfway home, he took out a small piece of paper and said that those were things that he had to say to me. He asked Tide to write the sentences down for him. A cheat sheet, he said. While he was looking for it in his pocket, he told me not to laugh at him. He started reading. Among others, there were "I will call you," and "Do you have free time?" I think he became cuter during that walk home.

So last night, after he found me where I was standing in front of my building, he asked me to close my eyes. Except that I couldn't understand what he was saying so he pointed at his eyes and closed them. So finally I closed my eyes and pointed at them and asked, "Is this what you want me to do?" "Yes. Yes." He gave me a rose. Awww! Sweet!

He took me to a nice little coffeeshop cum internet cafe where you can also rent some board games and stuff. We played a tic-tac-toe-like game wherein you have to form a straight line with five stones. He won the first game, I won the next three, then he kept on winning, then it was pretty much even after that. I caught him letting me win once though so I started having doubts on my wins. Bastard. Cute bastard. We also played the soccer game with the little toy players where I definitely beat him, 3-1. Um, maybe he let me win again? Damn.

It was fun. I had a really great time. I got home at a little past 12 and I still have class beginning at 830am the next day. Aaaaargh! In my fourth class today, I was doing everything I could to keep awake. And I had one more class after that.

There most probably will be a second date. And I do hope the next time he doesn't just show up on my doorstep... Now I have to catch up on lost sleep.