Miscommunication
Yesterday morning I went to the courts and did some slides and jump rope. It cleared my head a little, and then I went home and fell asleep for a bit.
Erica ended up replying to my teddy bear picture at nearly 2pm with "ha ha". I then took the opportunity to say I wanted to see her on new year's eve so we could go watch the fireworks. She said she was working on the 31st, and I asked if she worked on the weekend as well. She said something about her shop being open 365 days a year.
I was getting a bit mad, as I really wanted to see her either on Christmas or new year's eve. I fantasised kissing her when the fireworks went up as the clock struck midnight. In the meantime, another possibility had entered my mind - what about seeing her at her shop? Wasn't this the original plan anyway? To see her every week or every fortnight? When did it become an unwritten rule that we could only see each other outside of the shop?
So I texted her "I come to shop to see you?"
Her [translated]: Today?
Me: yes
if you have no problems?
It showed she read the message, and then there was a long pause. She usually doesn't pause before replying. The translated reply was "well...if you have time, come..."
Even a blind person could sense the reluctance in her message, so I said:
"it's ok
you don't like
I understand
maybe next time"
Her translated reply was "it's not" and "I'd like to see come" or "I would like to see you shortly".
By now I was pretty pissed, and had decided to go to Naby's shop for a visit. 15 minutes later, on the bus after getting changed, I texted back "don't worry, I was joking, hope I can see you soon". She immediately read it and sent an "okay!" emoticon.
I was pissed off, and caught a bus to Naby's shop from the city. I walked there, hoping to get a last minute message from Erica which would turn me around. I didn't. I planned to get the girl to help me translate some of the texts.
I walked in and the door was opened by the usual guy I'd see all the time when I went to see Naby. I was shown about five girls. None were really lookers. Or at least not Naby's standards. The one in the middle held eye contact with me. I thought about going with her but the eye contact was too much, maybe it showed desperation. I ended up picking the girl on the right, called Sophia.
We walked up the stairs, and went into a room. In the shower, she told me she was studying business in Korea, and said she had been here for about four months. She said it was boring here.
Lying on my stomach on the bed, she asked me how old I was. She said she was 25, and I said she was young. She said because I said that, she guessed I was 32. When I said lower, she said 30.
Her kisses on the back were done in haste, and so were the kisses on the front after I turned around. She got on top and was going really fast, and at one point actually hurt me a bit. When I got on top, I started kissing her breasts and then entered her and finished shortly after.
Lying down, I asked how her Korean was. She said it was good and I asked if she could help me. She said yes and that was when I showed her the messages. She translated the earlier 'fight' messages first, and made it sound like Erica hadn't been reluctant and that she wanted to see me.
She also translated older messages, and one revelation was that message where she invited me to eat and drink in the morning. She said that wasn't an invitation; Erica was just telling me she was going to eat and drink, hence the 'exclamation mark' emoticon and repeating my message in English, to show she didn't understand.
Ohhhhhhhh...so that's what she said.
No fucking wonder she didn't want to see me when I got out to the city.
She also translated other messages which showed Erica didn't want to go to work (which I knew about), and that she had some pain in her hip (which I didn't know about). She also said one of the more recent messages told/asked me to have a happy day, which I had initially interpreted as her having a happy day, and leading me to ask why, to which she replied no, that she was tired.
She said Erica was telling me her schedule was hard and out of her control, and that the day before she had to prepare her hair or something. She added that their job is very tiring, involving moving the body a lot.
Sophia tried to communicate something to me, saying our conversations were something, with her beating her chest. She said "stuffy" but didn't mean that. She tried to translate using my translator but the voice recognition thing kept getting her words wrong.
I tried to explain to her I was frustrated because I wanted to see Erica on Christmas or new year's eve. She said maybe she has to work to earn money because it is all spent, and added that she herself spent all her money in Korea. I tried to say Erica could at least ask for a day off, and she said every girl has a different schedule, and that some girls even work 11 days in a row and then take the 12th day off. I was quite shocked. Looks like I had read too many assumptions into our situation.
It was quite eye opening in one sense to have these translations. I told Sophia that the translation app was maybe about 90% correct, she said it was more like 50%. I told her Erica was in her industry, which I had assumed she knew. Another assumption.
After our shower together at the end, I got dressed and she asked if my name was [insert name here] as she had gleaned it from the messages.
I walked out of the shop, thinking I had gotten mad over nothing. I should've been more understanding. I was now on my way to meet the boys, but my phone was low on battery.
I caught a bus back to the city, and from there I walked to another bus stop to take a bus to meet the boys. During this walk, I decided to send her an apology. I saw she had just sent me one of those game messages, and I replied saying:
"Erica
I am sorry about earlier
sometimes I get wrong translation
me idiot"
With emoticons of a dog holding flowers and one with he dog saying sorry. I wasn't even sure if I needed to apologise. Did she even know I was mad?
She replied, with the translated texts being:
"I do not know what you're talking
Earlier story did something wrong?
Did not want to accidentally funny"
I said "haha do not worry, I am idiot"
She replied with a confused emoticon, and I just sent a smiley emoticon.
I met Shuing at the Indonesian restaurant, as he was too hungry to wait. We walked to Malay's house and waited, then went to pick up Brain. We went to eat at an Indian restaurant. I found Shuing to be a bit too over the top, as he started laughing really hard at memories only he found funny, like stealing money as kids working in the canteen. Malay was more tolerant than I was.
We then moved to a cafeteria for coffee. We started talking business ideas. Malay mentioned some voice recorders being sold cheaply and suggested we could try to re-sell them. Shuing tried to get us to sign up for some sports bet thing that would net us a "free" $500. I took a photo of my dessert and sent it to Erica this morning.
Then I watched The Dark Knight Rises, which was quite inspirational. Combined with the translations from Sophia, I felt a bit more free, and not as clingy or needy with Erica. So with that, I walked to the gym for a work out, and afterwards bought a fruit salad and went to the uni to check out their notice boards, to see if it'd be a good place to advertise the voice recorders.
I remember Egghead telling me he deleted his facebook account because he felt like a slave to it. I never quite understood what he meant. In one way I sorta did, but thought maybe a more appropriate term would be "addicted".
Anyway, I had gone off to the gym without my phone, and now I felt free. I didn't feel like I needed to check my phone every two minutes to see if Erica had replied or checked my messages.
However, I guess that sense of freedom didn't last too long. When I returned home, the first thing I did was turn the internet on my phone on, to see if Erica had seen my photo. She hadn't, but it appears she did soon after, at about 2:20pm. She didn't reply. I felt disappointed, but what could she said? I didn't even say anything to accompany the photo. Maybe now she was afraid to say anything for fear of further mis-communications.
At 2:36pm I sent messages saying "this is nutella bread roll, you know nutella?"
She hasn't read the messages yet.
Erica ended up replying to my teddy bear picture at nearly 2pm with "ha ha". I then took the opportunity to say I wanted to see her on new year's eve so we could go watch the fireworks. She said she was working on the 31st, and I asked if she worked on the weekend as well. She said something about her shop being open 365 days a year.
I was getting a bit mad, as I really wanted to see her either on Christmas or new year's eve. I fantasised kissing her when the fireworks went up as the clock struck midnight. In the meantime, another possibility had entered my mind - what about seeing her at her shop? Wasn't this the original plan anyway? To see her every week or every fortnight? When did it become an unwritten rule that we could only see each other outside of the shop?
So I texted her "I come to shop to see you?"
Her [translated]: Today?
Me: yes
if you have no problems?
It showed she read the message, and then there was a long pause. She usually doesn't pause before replying. The translated reply was "well...if you have time, come..."
Even a blind person could sense the reluctance in her message, so I said:
"it's ok
you don't like
I understand
maybe next time"
Her translated reply was "it's not" and "I'd like to see come" or "I would like to see you shortly".
By now I was pretty pissed, and had decided to go to Naby's shop for a visit. 15 minutes later, on the bus after getting changed, I texted back "don't worry, I was joking, hope I can see you soon". She immediately read it and sent an "okay!" emoticon.
I was pissed off, and caught a bus to Naby's shop from the city. I walked there, hoping to get a last minute message from Erica which would turn me around. I didn't. I planned to get the girl to help me translate some of the texts.
I walked in and the door was opened by the usual guy I'd see all the time when I went to see Naby. I was shown about five girls. None were really lookers. Or at least not Naby's standards. The one in the middle held eye contact with me. I thought about going with her but the eye contact was too much, maybe it showed desperation. I ended up picking the girl on the right, called Sophia.
We walked up the stairs, and went into a room. In the shower, she told me she was studying business in Korea, and said she had been here for about four months. She said it was boring here.
Lying on my stomach on the bed, she asked me how old I was. She said she was 25, and I said she was young. She said because I said that, she guessed I was 32. When I said lower, she said 30.
Her kisses on the back were done in haste, and so were the kisses on the front after I turned around. She got on top and was going really fast, and at one point actually hurt me a bit. When I got on top, I started kissing her breasts and then entered her and finished shortly after.
Lying down, I asked how her Korean was. She said it was good and I asked if she could help me. She said yes and that was when I showed her the messages. She translated the earlier 'fight' messages first, and made it sound like Erica hadn't been reluctant and that she wanted to see me.
She also translated older messages, and one revelation was that message where she invited me to eat and drink in the morning. She said that wasn't an invitation; Erica was just telling me she was going to eat and drink, hence the 'exclamation mark' emoticon and repeating my message in English, to show she didn't understand.
Ohhhhhhhh...so that's what she said.
No fucking wonder she didn't want to see me when I got out to the city.
She also translated other messages which showed Erica didn't want to go to work (which I knew about), and that she had some pain in her hip (which I didn't know about). She also said one of the more recent messages told/asked me to have a happy day, which I had initially interpreted as her having a happy day, and leading me to ask why, to which she replied no, that she was tired.
She said Erica was telling me her schedule was hard and out of her control, and that the day before she had to prepare her hair or something. She added that their job is very tiring, involving moving the body a lot.
Sophia tried to communicate something to me, saying our conversations were something, with her beating her chest. She said "stuffy" but didn't mean that. She tried to translate using my translator but the voice recognition thing kept getting her words wrong.
I tried to explain to her I was frustrated because I wanted to see Erica on Christmas or new year's eve. She said maybe she has to work to earn money because it is all spent, and added that she herself spent all her money in Korea. I tried to say Erica could at least ask for a day off, and she said every girl has a different schedule, and that some girls even work 11 days in a row and then take the 12th day off. I was quite shocked. Looks like I had read too many assumptions into our situation.
It was quite eye opening in one sense to have these translations. I told Sophia that the translation app was maybe about 90% correct, she said it was more like 50%. I told her Erica was in her industry, which I had assumed she knew. Another assumption.
After our shower together at the end, I got dressed and she asked if my name was [insert name here] as she had gleaned it from the messages.
I walked out of the shop, thinking I had gotten mad over nothing. I should've been more understanding. I was now on my way to meet the boys, but my phone was low on battery.
I caught a bus back to the city, and from there I walked to another bus stop to take a bus to meet the boys. During this walk, I decided to send her an apology. I saw she had just sent me one of those game messages, and I replied saying:
"Erica
I am sorry about earlier
sometimes I get wrong translation
me idiot"
With emoticons of a dog holding flowers and one with he dog saying sorry. I wasn't even sure if I needed to apologise. Did she even know I was mad?
She replied, with the translated texts being:
"I do not know what you're talking
Earlier story did something wrong?
Did not want to accidentally funny"
I said "haha do not worry, I am idiot"
She replied with a confused emoticon, and I just sent a smiley emoticon.
I met Shuing at the Indonesian restaurant, as he was too hungry to wait. We walked to Malay's house and waited, then went to pick up Brain. We went to eat at an Indian restaurant. I found Shuing to be a bit too over the top, as he started laughing really hard at memories only he found funny, like stealing money as kids working in the canteen. Malay was more tolerant than I was.
We then moved to a cafeteria for coffee. We started talking business ideas. Malay mentioned some voice recorders being sold cheaply and suggested we could try to re-sell them. Shuing tried to get us to sign up for some sports bet thing that would net us a "free" $500. I took a photo of my dessert and sent it to Erica this morning.
Then I watched The Dark Knight Rises, which was quite inspirational. Combined with the translations from Sophia, I felt a bit more free, and not as clingy or needy with Erica. So with that, I walked to the gym for a work out, and afterwards bought a fruit salad and went to the uni to check out their notice boards, to see if it'd be a good place to advertise the voice recorders.
I remember Egghead telling me he deleted his facebook account because he felt like a slave to it. I never quite understood what he meant. In one way I sorta did, but thought maybe a more appropriate term would be "addicted".
Anyway, I had gone off to the gym without my phone, and now I felt free. I didn't feel like I needed to check my phone every two minutes to see if Erica had replied or checked my messages.
However, I guess that sense of freedom didn't last too long. When I returned home, the first thing I did was turn the internet on my phone on, to see if Erica had seen my photo. She hadn't, but it appears she did soon after, at about 2:20pm. She didn't reply. I felt disappointed, but what could she said? I didn't even say anything to accompany the photo. Maybe now she was afraid to say anything for fear of further mis-communications.
At 2:36pm I sent messages saying "this is nutella bread roll, you know nutella?"
She hasn't read the messages yet.
posted by toey | 15:09
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