TEFL Training

[Perry Winkle]

Yeah, group sex on every corner, lj.

And really, my year didn't turn out as I planned.

I went to Prague for two-weeks and had a good time. Then came back to finish school off and dropped out in early March.

I went back to school in the summer and finished in December. I'm now back living with my parents (in North Virginia, aka Hell On Earth) until I find a job or figure out a travel plan.

The only complication is there's this girl back in Albany and I can't get her out of my head. I'm smitten and she's somewhere between tolerant and interested but too timid to let it be known with a hint big enough for me to catch. And I'm too much of a pussy to press the issue.

Right now I'm thinking about planning an epic bike ride. I'll free/bush camp 99% of the time so bike upgrades and flights will be the majority of the expense.

My favorite route at the moment:
Fly to Perth, Australia and bike to the head of Stuart Highway and then go north to Darwin. Then catch a flight to Kolkata, India and ride through Agra on my way to Delhi. For the last leg of the trip bike Schengen Europe, especially Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with an optional Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki leg if I'm not too tired of waiting for visas. Also, weather allowing, I'll bike from south England to Edinburgh and/or Glasgow.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by grant

The only complication is there's this girl back in Albany and I can't get her out of my head. I'm smitten and she's somewhere between tolerant and interested but too timid to let it be known with a hint big enough for me to catch. And I'm too much of a pussy to press the issue.

Dude, that's where I met my wife, in Albany. She worked in a stationary store on Central Ave. I'd go in everyday and buy stupid stuff like a dozen paperclips or three envelopes. Really stupid.

I finally screwed up my courage to ask her out for coffee and she says "I don't drink coffee."
I told her it was a figure of speech and she could have tea if she wanted. She agreed and we went on a few dates, then we didn't see each other again for a couple of years. (bad timing w/ other partners) Finally, we hook up and we've been mis-communicating for ten years.

Go for the Albany connection. The worst that can happen is she'll kick you in the family jewels and call you a faggot in front of her friends.

[Perry Winkle]

So that this thread doesn't completely degenerate into a "poor me and my social life" thread. Here's a travel update:

Still modifying possible routes, reading travelogues, scraping money together, planning bike upgrades, and figuring out how to not freeze/dehydrate to death somewhere along the way.

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Dude, that's where I met my wife, in Albany. She worked in a stationary store on Central Ave. I'd go in everyday and buy stupid stuff like a dozen paperclips or three envelopes. Really stupid.

I finally screwed up my courage to ask her out for coffee and she says "I don't drink coffee."
I told her it was a figure of speech and she could have tea if she wanted. She agreed and we went on a few dates, then we didn't see each other again for a couple of years. (bad timing w/ other partners) Finally, we hook up and we've been mis-communicating for ten years.

Go for the Albany connection. The worst that can happen is she'll kick you in the family jewels and call you a faggot in front of her friends.

See, I would go for the Albany connection if I had any idea how. I would have to somehow show up in Albany (a 7'ish hour drive) and explain myself without seeming desperate, crazy, or obsessive.

Also, I'm not sure either one of us is in a place that would be a good time for a relationship. I'm restless, and she's got one more semester of undergrad and she's possibly even more confused about what to do after her graduation than I was for mine.

I've contemplated moving back to Albany and looking for a job there, and pursuing her. But I'm not sure I want to waste a lot of time there, so I keep thinking I should just drive up, buy flowers, and lay it on the line.

Here's some back-story (normally I'm not this socially inept, but when romantic feelings become involved watch out):
I met this girl in class last summer, we didn't say two words to each-other (I was convinced she was attached). We ended up having another class together this fall and eventually I figured out that she was single, and that I really wanted to get to know her.

So I asked her to lunch and it went okay; nothing great, nothing horrible (this was early November). I figured out that she worked at a cafe adjacent to a movie theater (with the same owners so you can take your coffee/tea/hc & food into the theater) so I started going there instead of the Huge-a-plex.

Over the next couple of weeks we kept chatting, and I asked her out 2-3 more times. She turned me down every time. She was under the weather so she wasn't doing much but school, work and sleep. It didn't really bug me (I knew she was actually sick, having class together and all) so I had pretty much given up because if she'd wanted to see me a little phlegm wouldn't have deterred me.

Anyway, we started spending more time together (mostly in groups) working on our large final papers for the class. About the same time she asks me out. This confuses the crap out of me, but I agree. We end up going for brunch a day or two before I left for D.C. (it's now early december, it's about a week between when she asked and when went out)

So I get to D.C. and tell myself I'll just forget about it. The thing is anytime we're both online we end up chatting (conversations started by her as often as me). It makes it really hard to ignore/forget her.

Our online conversations tend to be much more touchy feely than our face to face conversations, which is what leads me to think she might be more into me than is apparent to me.