Thursday, June 19, 2008

Attempted pick up (?) at the gym

My bf came up with the genius idea to get up at 2.45am this morning to watch Sweden play Russia in the European football championship... I can tell u this much: when the alarm rang I didn't move. And thank lord I didn't. They lost to Russia, 2-0, so nothing worth losing sleep over. We have watched some other games (in the middle of the night), and I'll def be watching the final, but watching football games on CCTV with Chinese commentators is a bit boring, because the commentators don't get very excited in their commenting, and well... it's just not the same as watching it at home. (Plus -u're dead tired the next morning). But anyways, enough about football.

Yesterday I had an interesting moment at the gym. I work out at the same gym as a very beefy guy, and we have chatted a few times. He is one half Mongolian, one forth something, and one forth something else and has lived in America for many years, so he speaks with a very special dialect which I find hard to understand. Hi is very short (the top of his head reached my chin...)and round everywhere, and when I say everywhere I really mean it -hands, feet, bum (not that I've been looking but..), head... he just looks like a big, pumping muscle walking around with hair on the top. Unless someone didn't get it: he doesn't look good. But he has told me before that one of his biggest fears is to become a skinny Chinese guy.. (Well, he def doesn't have to worry about that).

Anyways, what happened the other day at the gym is a bit... weird. He knows I have a bf. He has a gf. And still, he asked for my phone number. While I was working out?! (Actually -aren't there rules for these things? Dos and don'ts for when you can and cannot ask someone for a phone nr?) Obviously I wasn't carrying around my mobile phone but he simply pulled out his. I said I don't remembered my phone number (I don't... or OK, I probably do, but NOT when I am working out!) so in the end I never gave it to him... But still. Obviously, since this happened at the gym, there was a bit of an audience. Great.

When I later told one of my girl friends she said:

"Well, there you go. One short, beefy Mongolian guy, one tall Shanghainese taxi driver, and two old Taiwanese men wanting a mistress! And you say the Chinese men are not into you!"

Yeah, true. I should feel so special.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

hilarious. i started reading your blog when i was considering moving to shanghai...


now i just read it b/c i need a smile during the work day.


do guys try to pick you up at bars? we need more "hitting on jonna" stories!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your personal thoughts on such a personal issue. As a Chinese man, oftentimes I have no clue if someone, especially a foreigner, who we fancy has an interest in me. So it's good to know. There are so many Western male/Chinese female couples, but you hardly see any Chinese male/Western female couples. I think there is a reason to it. Again thanks for being so brutally honest.

Anonymous said...

I was sad after I watched the soccer at pub with my friends. I thought Sverige would win the game before. It reminds me the game between England and Sweden during the world cup 2006. That day, my friends and I went to a sport pub in Stockholm to support Sweden. That day was good and everyone enjoyed a lot.

This time, Group D just Spain (where I studied for 3 months) got the ticket. Sweden (where I lived for more than one year)and Greece (where I lived for nine months) lost the games. Now I am in England, but the English team did not even have the qualification for this year's europe cup. So sad, just spain left up to now.

And recently, Chinese football team lost the qualification for next World Cup in South Africa.

By the way, you can watch europe cup 2008 online. For example, BBC sport and ITV.COM,if you google, you will get it.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh... the terrible price of beauty! ;-)

Jonna Wibelius said...

Anonymouse1 -haha, I rarely experience pick up attempts at bars... I think the most recent one before this was the tall taxi driver, or a 40+ year old German man who tried to pick me up at 10am at Starbucks. Lord!!!

Anonymouse 2: don't take it the wrong way. I am not saying there's anything wrong for Chi guys to try and pick up Western woman, only this time it was a bit odd coz I happen to know this Mongolian beefy boy already has a German girlfriend?! Plus, he's just so... beefy and round everywhere?! Not the kind I am into... I've got some friends where the man is Chi and the girl is Western and they seem very happy together!! So f course it is possible. I think Chi guys are a bit intimidated by western women though? Right? Or, another idea I have is that they must all think we are giants coz we have hips and are definitely not as petite as Chinese girls...

Kista -wow, you have lived all over the place!??! Where r u originally from?! What did u do in Sweden for one year? Did u like it? I am personally not a huge fan of Sthlm, seeing I am from the south of Sweden...

Jonna Wibelius said...

Btw.. if u enjoy pick up stories u should read one of my earlier posts: "The art of picking up" from Jan 3 this year (I think)....

Anonymous said...

Jonna, I was born in Shanghai and lived there for 18 years. I was studying in Kista, where the IT university located is part of SU and KTH.

Are you from Malmö? I like Stockholm, especially in the summer. And the swedish meatball, sometimes I went to the IKEA any cities if they have, including that one in Xujiahui:)

Nice to read your stories, especially from a Swedish eyesight. Tack!