Monday afternoon I went down to Xinghai Square with one of my students. Don and I normally go out for supper on Monday evenings because he really likes to practice his English. This was probably our last chance to get together because he has a lot of finals coming up and I'm leaving the country. Since I didn't have faculty meeting this week, we decided to make a longer afternoon of it.
For supper we went to a mall and sampled a few different kinds of Chinese regional foods. As we were leaving, we saw a huge line of people waiting for something and decided to go over and see what was up. We couldn't figure out what was happening. As we turned to leave, I noticed a sharp-faced, tight-lipped woman standing three feet away, snapping pictures of me with her cell phone's camera.
"Do you remember me?"
"Yes," I said dryly, emotionally gritting my teeth. The Stalker had once again uncovered her quarry. "Hello, Yuan Lin."
"Is this your student?" she asked, looking at Don.
I said yes, and she and Don proceeded to talk for a little while in Chinese. Apparently Lin had been part of the big line. He later explained that the people were waiting to redeem points from a store card for a variety of different products, sort of a frequent shopper's bonus sale.
Lin turned back to me and said, "You can call me when you have time."
"I will not have any time," I said firmly.
On the way home, I told Don about the Lin saga. As with anything a little out of the ordinary, Don said, "This makes me feel very embarrassed for my country." I told him not to worry about it: it isn't just a Chinese problem. When I related the story of the girl who was chasing me my senior year of college, he seemed to feel better.
Thankfully, Lin has not called me (at least not while I've been home) since the phone call a couple of weeks ago when I made it plain that I would not be spending any more time with her. I hope our chance meeting doesn't rekindle her interest.
But it does make me wonder, why do some girls chase guys like that? Maybe if I had a different personality, I would enjoy it. As it is, it creeps me out and turns me off. Maybe that's why I'm not married.
When I was in the hospital last fall, a Chinese friend told me about an old proverb. "If you want a mistress, find someone you love, but if you want a wife, find someone who loves you."
Posted by at June 2, 2004 5:51 PMyou are kidding - she was actually snapping photos of you via her cellphone?!
it is good advice.
Posted by: joy at June 2, 2004 6:20 AMThe night we met she took a picture of me with her phone and then showed me. She was definitely taking pictures on Monday night.
Posted by: Jonathan at June 2, 2004 7:11 PM