Sketch Story Numero Uno, Hopefully The Last, But Probably Not

So my companera de piso (flatmate) and I signed up for an intercambio linguistico (language exchange) via our new universidad. There's this notice-board online where you can post something about yourself and find people who speak English and want to learn Spanish, or vice versa. So Jory and I both posted a little something and within just a couple hours, we both had reponses from others who spoke Spanish and wanted to learn English. The number of responses was incredible and they're still coming in (I got another one this morning) and I wish I knew how to make them stop because there really is only so many intercambios I can handle at once. Plus, intercambios mean meeting one on one with a complete stranger.

I got lucky; the first person I met was indeed a male, but he was perfectly nice and harmless and even paid for the water I got at the little cafe we went to. Jory was a bit hesitant to meet with her person one-on-one, so I went with her. In hindsight, this was one of the smarter decisions we've both made since we've been here. The first sketchy sign was the speed at which he responded to her emails - persistence is great, but too much of it makes a person think that you have no life and are really, REALLY interested in meeting up - which can be both good and bad.

So Jory and I walk to meet Alberto, who turned out to be a thirty-something year old man who is totally not a student (WHY he is using a university notice-board, I don't know) and is unemployed. So basically, he's just living here with nothing to do and randomly decided to meet up with some university girls. Great. He took us away from our meeting place at Lizarran, a wonderful tapas place, and walked us far, FAR away to some other tapas place about fifteen minutes away. Instead of sitting down to actually converse in English/Spanish, Alberto (who had become increasingly creepy by now) took us on a tour of an empty mall/cinema complex and kept asking us about our plans for later on in the night (meeting up with friends to see a movie WITHOUT YOU ALBERTO thankyouverymuch). His creepiness increased with every single time that he asked when we were meeting with friends, where we were meeitng, what time the movie was, what movie we were seeing, who these friends were....

The fun part of the night came when we ended up sitting in with a group of retired Spanish people who wanted to learn English, only because we didn't have to talk to Alberto and instead could converse with other, non-creepy people. At one point, Alberto mentioned something about going home - thank the lordy. Jory and I, in the most polite way possible, shoved him on his way and kept saying "No, it's okay, we're meeting with friends, you don't have to stay with us please go home and leave us alone and do not come to the movie no do not meet our friends just go home for the love of goodness won't somebody please think of the chilren?!" He either got the hint, or he just wanted to go home because these old people didn't do it for him.

We thought all was well when, ten minutes later, we got up to leave. We figured we'd kill some time and grab some food before the movie, when, right after walking out of the restaurant, Mr. Creeper walks up to us. He apparently did NOT get the hint. Oh. Well, hello. It looks like you waited for us and isn't that just great? Heh. *AWKWARD MOMENT* After a few minutes of, "NO, YOU CANNOT COME WITH US, WE ARE MEETING WITH FRIENDS" he went home, but not before he asked Jory to call or email so that they could meet up again. I hate to break it to you Alberto, but she's not going to be doing any more of that. That night, she swore to never do an intercambio ever again and I can completely understand why. I just got lucky with my first guy and since that night, I've been ignoring/deleting all the responses I get about meeting up. Funnily enough, I have another meeting in an hour or so (which was scheduled before meeting with Mr. Creeper), but it's with a girl so hopefully all will be well.

More adventurous stories to come luego (later).
11:28 am