Real tales of Oslo City
Jesus, it’s already been 3 days since I posted! My attempt to post once daily the first month is in ruins before I’ve barely even started. I had completely forgotten how difficult it is keeping a blog. I’ve been trying to post as little as possible about my personal life, as I’m frightened of boring you to death. But the other possibility - not posting at all - makes boredom even more likely. So I guess the former is the lesser evil. ;)
Little piece of information about me: I am absolutely awful at saying no. I’m a people pleaser. I want everyone to like me, and I definitely don’t want anyone to find me rude. This has bitten me in the ass more times than I can count. A recent example follows.
The other night, I had been to the city, so I was sitting on Burger King while waiting for the train to come. Now, note that I was alone, and that the area around the central station is not one with a good reputation - you could walk 20 meters from the main entrance and on the way score both heroin and a hooker. Anyway, once I’d finished the meal, I fished my iPhone out of the pocket and started watching random YouTube videos to keep myself entertained. Then, out of nowhere, a complete stranger sits down across from me and begins conversing. He’s maybe a year or two older than me, African, and speaks somewhat broken Norwegian. I play along despite being completely uninterested.
When my train’s a couple of minutes away, he insists on following me down to the platform. When I’m about to board, he asks for my number. I hesitate, but because I’m terrified of being impolite or rude, I give it to him.
On Sunday, he sends me two texts and calls me thrice. I never dared to pick it up, instead ignoring it until it stopped ringing. On Monday, he calls me thrice more. By now, I’m dreading every time I hear my familiar Super Mario theme ringtone, but he seems to have given up and finally taken the hint.
I feel awful about it. :( And slightly flattered. But mostly awful.
My best friend is now making me say “NO” to a request at least once daily, to ensure something similar doesn’t happen again.
Well at least you have a friend that’s trying to make sure something like this never happens again :P
Posted by Emsz, March 4th, 2008Word of advice, next time give the guy a wrong number. Trust me, you wont feel so bad when your phone never rings. I have to do it all the time, because when I’m not interested, I’m just not interest.
Posted by Kiera, March 4th, 2008Hmm…jeg ville nok ikke gitt ham nummeret mitt. I think I would have pretended not to understand what he said or something. I had this thing happening to me once. I felt sorry for the guy cause he was new in the country and I thought, why not? But he kept calling me, and when I ran into him, he asked personal questions and stuff. He asked me if I was married, which I am, and then stopped calling me. It was a bit scary, cause the guy would call five or six times a day and I’d never pick up the phone anyway. I felt so bad…
Posted by Regine, March 5th, 2008I’m personally a bit frightened about the entire giving a stranger your phone number concept. I agree with Kiera: give a fake phone number. They won’t know, you won’t receive phone calls, and life goes on as normal :)
Posted by Yingna, March 9th, 2008