Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Pick-up lines on BART

I've seen magic happen on BART, I really have. If you've read my blog for quite some time, you might recall the story of the sweet couple who first fell in love on BART. Well, I don't know if they are still together, but I've witnessed who they've started talking to each other on the train.

While magic happens, plenty of underwhelming pick-up attempts happen as well. I've talked about the guy who pretended that he loves knitting and the guy who freaked a women out by forcing her to sit in his vacated seat.

One very consistent pick-up strategy that surely almost always leads to no good is the foreign language "hello." What am I talking about? This is one that Asian or Latino women on BART sometimes experience. A man thinks he's impressing you by saying "hello" to you in what he thinks is your native language. Now, there are a few things wrong with that thinking. First, just say hello, we understand English. Secondly, just because we look one way doesn't mean we understand what you're trying to say. I know this is totally innocent but for the sake of the blog, do allow me to elaborate.

This has happened to me a few times. Here's the most recent example. A man comes up to me and says hello to me in Korean. I'm Taiwanese American but I've heard the Korean greeting enough times to recognize it. I politely acknowledge him with a faint smile and look down at my phone again. He then interrupts, I said hello to you in Korean. I said, I know, I'm not Korean, I'm Taiwanese American. He insists further, no way, are you sure you're not Korean? I have a lot of Korean friends and you definitely look Korean. At this point, my patience is extremely thin and I found his ignorance (likely innocent) and lack of tact awfully annoying. I could say so many things at this point but simply replied, yes, I'm sure that I'm not Korean and walked away. In the past, one man actually said to me, "oh, I love Thai food" when I told him that I'm Taiwanese American and not what he thinks I am.

I've heard this scenario a few times on BART with different women and it's pretty funny. Some respond flat out that you don't need to say hola, I can speak English, others completely ignore the attempt.

Just one more random thing to keep me entertained on BART when my Twitterfeed isn't working.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

And you wonder why I hold my breath in the BART stations

Glad to know that BART is finally removing asbestos in the stations but didn't know until that point that the stations were caked with toxic paint.  Lovely.  Now I am really glad that I make a point to take a huge breath of air before entering the stations everyday.  Even if that did nothing to minimize any toxins I sucked in, I know it at least saved me from smelling the odors and bodily fluids that permeate the stations. 


Friday, August 12, 2011

No need to bond over Angry Birds

I usually spend my BART ride going through my twitter feed but whenever we're in no Internet zones, I get bored and sometimes whip out Angry Birds. I'm not obsessed with it but I do expect myself to pass at least one level at each sitting, but lately, in the more advanced rounds, I haven't been able to do so.

Anyhow, I was playing Angry Birds and struggling with a level. I knew the man next to me was looking, I could feel his breathing and unfortunately got a few whiffs of his breath. Coffee + cigarette make a bad breath combo. I ignored his staring. I tried to angle my phone so he can't see.

Then, one more failed attempt at the same level, he says, "What you need to do is hit higher first and get those blocks to roll down and hit in both directions, here let me show you." He reaches for my phone.

I did NOT want him to talk to me about Angry Birds in the middle of a crowded train and even worse, I did NOT need him to touch my phone and demonstrate it for me.

I politely said, as I moved my phone into my purse, "Oh it's OK, I'm just wasting time, I should be reading up on work stuff." I pulled out an old copy of PR Week and pretended to be engrossed thereafter.

Was I out of line??? Did I need to socialize over Angry Birds there? I am not that social on BART, I could be in the right situations, but I really did not need to make a big deal out of a game in public, and have him put his fingers all over my screen.