Tuesday, August 1, 2006
My version of our story 
Rody claims to have forgotten, but I will always remember when we met.
His face popped up on all 20-30 odd terminals in my department- he had sent out a message to the global department to ask for a Mandarin speaker. Which was odd, because the system showed that there was still at least 10 Mandarin speakers available and he could have just routed the call using the software. Or at least direct the message to just the language speakers.
Everyone laughed and wondered who this new kid on the block was, because he looked like a dork in his profile and we had all done our share of stupid things.
I quickly replied to his message and informed him of the correct procedure, and in our course of conversation found out that he was indeed just 2 weeks-old in the San Francisco office.
When I was about to close the chat after fulfilling my responsibility as a senior, he started asking me questions to compare pantries. Which was cute, because our pantries are talk-of-the-town material and he was trying to make friends.
"You look so happy in your FON picture," I blurted out, which was the truth. He looked like a 16 year-old teenager with a toothy smile.
"Hahaha, and you look very glamorous in yours."
In retrospect, it could have been his brand of dry humour. I had a demure smile andf my hair tied back for my shot. The person who uploaded the picture did not bother to adjust the lighting and made me look tanner than I am.
So that was our first encounter, and over the week we took turns to message each other hellos and chit-chatted about work.
But soon later we both changed shifts, he to the earlier shift and me to the later, which meant that our timings no longer coincide. His morning, my evening, his evening, my morning... it was hard to keep track of our days and we ended up only sending random e-mails.
One day, I got a message from him asking if I was on MySpace. Perfect, because I had just signed on in my pally attempt to get on with bad-ass Brit boy (another story for another day) and so I added him. And found out that he was really a bronzed Basque hunk who was nothing like the dork I knew from work!
It was also only after a few months that he realized that I was Chinese. He had apparently thought I was a curious mix of Japanese and Korean! On top of that, he marvelled at how I "speak perfect English" when he listened in on a call I took. I had to remind him that it was not just my first language but also my major in University.
Qué me estás dando la lata...
To cut a long story short, we became really good friends and I downloaded AIM with him as my only contact just to chat with him. (I have since added Ad to that very honourable list, haha!)
We web-cammed on a few occasions as well, but strangely enough, never really spoke to each other until he downloaded Skype with me as his only contact to chat with me.
It was fun, he made me call my mum in to say hi. She giggled and aiyah-ed me for not giving her advance warning, complained about her dowdy outfit and checked her hair before she popped her face in front of the camera. Typical of my mum, she exclaimed what a shuai ge he was, which amused him greatly. Then I got to meet his mum when she got back from the store and I impressed her with the little Spanish I knew and we laughed really hard.
And now we're planning a year-end trip to Spain, woohoo!
It happened after a few conversations of me griping about how I really need a holiday far far away and was contemplating flying to SF to hang out with him, but he decided it would be even more fun if we met some place we've both never been to before. And he, well-travelled with his Basque roots and Spanish skills had never been to Spain so we agreed that Spain it shall be.
I knew he was serious when he checked out flight prices even before I did, and for some reason, that made me smile.
I got a missed call from a strange string of numbers on my mobile today, not realizing that it was him calling to say hi. And so he left me a voicemail and I listened to it again and again and again until I realized I was wasting talk time on my mobile.
Yo estoy loco de contento...
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
His face popped up on all 20-30 odd terminals in my department- he had sent out a message to the global department to ask for a Mandarin speaker. Which was odd, because the system showed that there was still at least 10 Mandarin speakers available and he could have just routed the call using the software. Or at least direct the message to just the language speakers.
Everyone laughed and wondered who this new kid on the block was, because he looked like a dork in his profile and we had all done our share of stupid things.
I quickly replied to his message and informed him of the correct procedure, and in our course of conversation found out that he was indeed just 2 weeks-old in the San Francisco office.
When I was about to close the chat after fulfilling my responsibility as a senior, he started asking me questions to compare pantries. Which was cute, because our pantries are talk-of-the-town material and he was trying to make friends.
"You look so happy in your FON picture," I blurted out, which was the truth. He looked like a 16 year-old teenager with a toothy smile.
"Hahaha, and you look very glamorous in yours."
In retrospect, it could have been his brand of dry humour. I had a demure smile andf my hair tied back for my shot. The person who uploaded the picture did not bother to adjust the lighting and made me look tanner than I am.
So that was our first encounter, and over the week we took turns to message each other hellos and chit-chatted about work.
But soon later we both changed shifts, he to the earlier shift and me to the later, which meant that our timings no longer coincide. His morning, my evening, his evening, my morning... it was hard to keep track of our days and we ended up only sending random e-mails.
One day, I got a message from him asking if I was on MySpace. Perfect, because I had just signed on in my pally attempt to get on with bad-ass Brit boy (another story for another day) and so I added him. And found out that he was really a bronzed Basque hunk who was nothing like the dork I knew from work!
It was also only after a few months that he realized that I was Chinese. He had apparently thought I was a curious mix of Japanese and Korean! On top of that, he marvelled at how I "speak perfect English" when he listened in on a call I took. I had to remind him that it was not just my first language but also my major in University.
Qué me estás dando la lata...
To cut a long story short, we became really good friends and I downloaded AIM with him as my only contact just to chat with him. (I have since added Ad to that very honourable list, haha!)
We web-cammed on a few occasions as well, but strangely enough, never really spoke to each other until he downloaded Skype with me as his only contact to chat with me.
It was fun, he made me call my mum in to say hi. She giggled and aiyah-ed me for not giving her advance warning, complained about her dowdy outfit and checked her hair before she popped her face in front of the camera. Typical of my mum, she exclaimed what a shuai ge he was, which amused him greatly. Then I got to meet his mum when she got back from the store and I impressed her with the little Spanish I knew and we laughed really hard.
And now we're planning a year-end trip to Spain, woohoo!
It happened after a few conversations of me griping about how I really need a holiday far far away and was contemplating flying to SF to hang out with him, but he decided it would be even more fun if we met some place we've both never been to before. And he, well-travelled with his Basque roots and Spanish skills had never been to Spain so we agreed that Spain it shall be.
I knew he was serious when he checked out flight prices even before I did, and for some reason, that made me smile.
I got a missed call from a strange string of numbers on my mobile today, not realizing that it was him calling to say hi. And so he left me a voicemail and I listened to it again and again and again until I realized I was wasting talk time on my mobile.
Yo estoy loco de contento...
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
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