Living Down Under!

Please excuse spelling and grammatical errors! I didnt feel like making corrections.

What is wrong with Australians? Please follow this story as it turns from a normal evening to something really strange and awkward!!!

Today I met up with a couple PCV friends for dinner. They had two friends with them from Australia, which I thought was cool at the time because I like Australians. One Australian guy met my friend in May while she was backpacking through South America and they meet the other guy the night before at their hostel. After dinner we took a walking tour of VT lead by yours truly. I showed them the scenic route that usually goes unnoticed by tourist so that they could get a real sense of Bulgarian historic culture. They took many pictures, chatted about the beautiful scenery and traditions. I really enjoyed myself because I actually got a chance to hangout with people whose first language is English!

After our walking tour we all decide to head to my place so that they could use the bathroom and hangout. Once they arrived they looked at the city from the view of my balcony, drank water, checked their emails, and listened to me have a conversation with my friends who lives in the South of Bulgarian. I have a very large map of the world (it’s a great conversation piece) in the hallway of my apartment. After we had a lengthy discussion about places to visit around the world (both guys were the typical Australians backpackers), we headed to a restaurant.

We originally wanted to see a movie but one of the Australian had a train to catch at 10:20pm (it was about 7:30pm) and didn’t want to risk missing his train to Romania. So we settled ourselves down for conversation, food, and fun in a restaurant/bar. Things were going extremely well. I tried to make sure everyone was comfortable so they would have a great time. One of the Australian guys noticed and said that I was a very good hostess, which is funny because I think I picked up these skills in Bulgaria because everyone here tries to make visitors feel extremely comfortable. Anyhow, I looked him in they eye and was about to thank him but I noticed a certain look of interest. I stared back at him thinking “what is wrong with this guy” but I simply smiled and said “thanks” (This moment is key to the events that occurred after dinner). The evening continued as normal with small talk, food, and drinking. We talked about Saddam Hussein’s execution; the difference between the British, Americans, and Australians, wages in Bulgaria compared to wages in London; and a host of other random topics that I can’t remember right now. The Australian guy that had to catch a train left at around 9:30pm. We continued to hang, the other Australian ordered another beer and things were going great. Occasionally he would look my way but I tried to think nothing of it. Eventually the other two girls got extremely tired and wanted to call it a night at around 10:30pm. I wasn’t tired yet but I thought “Whatever its their trip and if they want to leave no problem”. The Australian guy paid the bill which was fine for us considering we are all poor PCVs.

Anyhow as we made our way to their hostel, the Australian guy made the suggestion that we should hit up a discoteka (Club) that is well known throughout VT. I thought it was a great idea so I was all for it. The only problem was that the other two volunteers didn’t want to hang. I didn’t want to bail out after I already got really excited about the idea so I am like fine I hangout with the Aussie for one night, even though I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be a good idea.

The Aussie and I headed to the discoteka together and the entire time I was thinking this is not a good idea, I need to go home. I didn’t listen to my instinct though because I didn’t want to be rude and we kept walking. When we got to the discoteka I ordered a coke and he ordered a Bulgarian beer. We sat at a table and chatted it up. The conversation was pretty interesting and I was starting to have a really good time talking to him. We stayed at the disco for about an hour and he made the suggestion that we head to another bar. I was like fine. I have nothing to do tomorrow, why not hang for a little more? So we went to another hot spot in VT. I started to get a headache from all the smoke so I move in closer to tell him that my head is hurting and that I wanted to go home. It’s at this very moment that he started talking about vibes. He mistakenly took my moving in closure as a means to get closure to him. The entire time I thinking, what in the world are you talking about! I have a headache from all the cigarette smoke and I want to go home. So I just smiled and mumbled “yeah uhhh, uhhh, yeah” as I looked away from him not making eye contact. After his long speech I look him in the eyes and say “you are a very interesting person and I think you’re nice but I am going home because I have a headache. By the way I am not hooking up with you”. I than went into this long speech about people knowing me in the town and how my reputation would be a stack…blah,blah,blah. He said “yeah I understand but I will walk you home”. Again my gut reaction was like no!!! Don’t let this weirdo walk you home. You don’t know him from any other stranger on the street even though he has known your friend. I originally totally told him “no” but he was pretty persistent. So in the end I agreed that he could walk me home because it was kind of late. The funny thing is that I could have taken a cab but I never thought about it until this very moment as I write this blog entry. Anyhow, he walked me to my door and I said, “Yeah well have a great night. It was great meeting you. Have a happy New Years”, as I reached into my coat pocket for my key to unlock the door and to go in he got this disappointed look on his face and said “Well can I come in to use the bathroom”. At this point I was thinking what in the world do you want? Didn’t you hear me at the bar say that I am not interested? Urggh I am started to get really annoyed but I let him into my apartment to do his business because I thought he really needed to use the bathroom.

While he was in the bathroom I began tidying my apartment because it was messy from their visit earlier and the volunteers that had slept here the night before (yeah random PCVs always stop in VT to see the beautiful city and they always end up sleeping at my place). I also light some incense because I usually do that to make the apartment smell better. I went into my bedroom and got PJ ready because I planned on going to bed right after he left.

So dude (yes I am referring to him as dude now) came out of the bathroom and is like yeah incense is very romantic. I look at him like uhhm yeah no and said, “I love incense but I don’t think anything is romantic about it. Do you want me to walk you downstairs?” He than walked over to my couch and sat down as if he was staying a long time!!! I looked at him and said, “yeah I am pretty tired and I still have a headache do you know how to get back to your hostel from here otherwise I can call you a cab? He said that he didn’t want me to call him a cab because he didn’t want people to know his whereabouts. At this moment I was kind of scared and thinking “Why in the world did I let some random Aussie guy into my apartment? He said he needed to use the bathroom but yeah that’s the oldest trick in the book!, Urggh”. So than I said to him again “It’s kind of late and I am going to bed soon. Do you want me to walk you downstairs?” He changed the subject and proceeded to talk about Chicago. At this point I am thinking no you really need to go so I went to my bedroom grabbed my gsm and texted my neighbor to come over in five minutes. He saw me texting her and walked behind and is like “who are you texting?” I said ohh my friend, who will be here any minute. Once my friend arrived she called him a cab, even though he protested and said “Yeah Crystal is really tired and you need to go”. Those were not her exact words but it went something like that. He looked at our faces and went downstairs to catch the cab!!! Thank goodness for site mates!!!!

From down under,
Crystal