Vindication

Yesterday, I decided that I was going to start playing with girls' heads.

By this, I mean that I decided that whenever I saw a girl that was sufficiently cute in my estimation, that I would look at her eyes as she walked by or steal lengthy glances at her if we were standing around somewhere. If they looked back, I would meet their eyes, keep staring, and after three to four seconds, smile just slightly.

This is colloquially known as "the green light glance".

I'm justifying this rakish behaviour to my conscience by taking the following stances: I have no ill intentions (to be precise, I have none at all, other than perhaps to appreciate a pretty face), and I would personally be very flattered, and my day brightened, if one of these self-same girls were to do this to me.

So yesterday, I started tossing out the hooks.

Today I got my first bite.

I was standing around the Billings Bridge bus station waiting to transfer, and noticed a cute asian girl coming up the stairs; offhand I'd call her a 7, maybe 7.5. She glanced toward me as she topped the stairs, our eyes met, and I kept staring as she walked past.

She kept her eyes locked to mine as she walked by; I don't think her head could have turned any further over her shoulder. (Suddenly the one scene from Memoirs of a Geisha pops into my head. I don't think I'm just that good yet.)

After about four to five seconds I smiled, and so did she, in that oh-so-cute and mildly sheepish way, before she went and sat down across the room (proceeding to steal long glances at me for the next five minutes).

I tread the moonlit path.

~~~~~

On the other side of things, I made my Japanese Sensei laugh so hard she almost fell out of her chair today.

I'd can't really recall ever having seen an asian person actually turn visibly red in the face, but after I made my class presentation, she was the color of beets.

This in hand, I predict that her teaching me Keigo is the worst thing she could have ever done. It's not that I now end everything I say with de gozaru. No, no, that would be too simple.

Let me give you an example of how I unloaded the Keigo Combo at the end of my presentation:
"After that I found out about the JET Programme. I moved in with my sister in Ottawa and started attending university studying linguistics."

How I could have written it:
"Sono ato de, JET Programme wo hakken shimashita. Ottawa e hikkoshite, oneesan to sunde itte, daigaku de gengogaku wo benkyou shite haiteimashita."

How I actually wrote it:
"Sono toki no ato de, JET Programme wo hakken itasun de gozaimashita. Ottawa e ohikkoshi itasun de gozatte, aneue to sunde orite, to daigaku de gengogaku wo benkyou itasun de gozattekara ohairi itasun de gozaimashita."

My Sensei could not speak after I delivered this finish.

I nearly got a standing ovation for it.

After class ended, I caught Sensei in the hallway and called out "oshitsurei itasun de gozaimasu!".

She turned around, walked back to my end of the hall, and we ended up chatting about the bit for five minutes as she took the long way to her office. I was that awesome.

Just thought I'd share.

Ja de gozaimasu ne!