St. George Down Under

On Girls

March 24, 2009 at 7:51 pm (Uncategorized) (australia, flirting, friends, girls, macquarie university, relationships, sydney)

“Girls, girls, girls, girls
Girls, I do adore
Put your number on this paper cause I would love to date ya
Holla at ya when I come off tour
I love girls, girls, girls, girls
Girls all over the globe
I come scoop you in that Coupe, sittin on deuce-zeroes
Fix your hair in the mirror, let’s roll”

~Jay-Z, “Girls, Girls, Girls”

In the last few months before I left, I remember being so pumped for Australia. It felt like a dream, something that wasn’t actually gonna happen. I couldn’t believe I was actually gonna be living in one of the world’s greatest cities, Sydney, for 5 months. So much to do, such great weather, and a complete sea change!

These were all things to be pumped for, but in all honesty I was especially excited for the girls. The common refrain in the dingy, dark, cave-like Corvallis apartment was, “Duuude, you’re gonna get so many girls! ” (but with much more crude and demeaning language). Apparently all that mattered to the girls, we thought, was that I was American, and they would just LOVE my accent! I forgot who said it, but somebody mentioned that this is one of the only instances where I will have a leg-up on Aussie guys, so I better use it. I remember saying and thinking, “Man, if I don’t get girls in Australia, I should just hang it up.”

Well, maybe I should start hanging it up. Haha. I got here all hopped up on confidence, and I think it kinda made me look stupid in a few instances. The first week or so I was VERY jovial and outgoing with girls. Probably too much so, if that’s a possibility. I’m already pretty outgoing, but it was like hunting season! I was in the land of the rabbit-proof fence and these bunnies were cornered!

One of my first instances of this almost blind outgoing-ness was in a T2, a tea shop. I had headed in there to buy my Russian room mates some tea and a tea pot, and a nice and talkative female Sydneysider attended to me. We talked a bit about America, Sydney, and school, and I was getting along  very well with her. I remember asking, “Do you have a Facebook? Of course she did! I said, “Well, I’m Peter, and my last name is that” pointing to her credit card-swiping machine. St. George is the name of a bank here, and it really has helped in telling people my last name in order for them to find me on Facebook. I was lucky T2 banked with St. George! We talked a bit more, and I ended up giving her my phone number. We said goodbye with all smiles, and I walked away giddily. Over a month later and no Facebook friend or call.

On the first day I arrived here we stopped off at the International Housing office and I met the absolute cutest girl I’ve ever seen. (I’ve said that many a time, its an expression at this point.) I really felt the urge to go and talk to her and see if there was some way that I could get us into a situation where we could chill and talk. (I’m very confident, even cocky with my one-on-one communication skills. I feel as though if I get most any girl in a situation where we can just talk, that I have a good chance at establishing some kind of positive relationship with her. Although I don’t really have all that much success to base that cockiness off of…) I talked to an Aussie female friend about how I should go about it, and she said to play up the angle of “American foreigner who doesn’t know any Aussies.” So I worked up the courage, and when I had an excuse to go down there, I went with a plan.

I saw her behind the desk and waited until she was free.  I approached her and turned in the apartment checklist, then asked a question. Before I left, I said I had one more question. “I haven’t really met any Australians yet, and-”

“When classes start there will be many more on campus, ” she replied, totally not understanding what I was getting at.

“Oh, nice!” I said, trying to recover. “Well, I was kinda wondering if maybe you would be interested in getting coffee and talking or something…” My heart was pounding and I was flushed, just trying to not look stupid, but casual…chill, like a Don. She just kind of blankly stared back, then looked surprised, and said, “Me?!”

“Yeah”!

She kind of looked around, lowered her voice and said, “I really don’t think we’re supposed to do that while we’re at work.”

 ”Oh”, I replied, trying to brush it off as nothing, and asked her if I could give her my number. She said that probably wouldn’t be ok either.

“I’m a student here, tho, so I’ll probably see you on campus,” she explained, as if trying to give me a hint.

I saw her a few times after that, and it wasn’t weird at all, which was a good thing. Also saw her in the Macquarie Shopping Center…I wanted to ask her if what she told me was an excuse or the truth, but it didn’t really work out. If I see her again I think I will. (Watch her not remember me and then it be totally awkward.)  Whatever, I’m over it/her now. It was just kinda funny. (Not towel-caliber tho…)

I have met many girls, beautiful girls, as school has started. Mona and I met on the first day of Bio, and that friendship has become really cool. She has that M.I.A.-like beauty about her. It was a real disappointment when I found out that she had a boyfriend, but I think that fact has made our friendship stronger; there is no real thought or opportunity of anything going there, no alterior motives, so all of our interactions are just carefree, chill and fun. 

It’s kind of funny how most of my Aussie friends here are 18 and 19. I’m in mostly first-year classes, so many of my interactions are with 1st years (they don’t know what freshman are here). That has made things a little weird in the beyond-friend relationship area, but its all good. Met some cool girls at Ultimate as well, but the one that I was interested in has a boyfriend, as do most of the girls my age here. 

I have a cool friendship with Dulce, though. I have talked about her a bit before. She’s a 21-year old from Mexico City studying to become a type of engineer (Big Red, I need your help. She’s interested in working with assembly-line stuff, making them more efficient. What is that?), and loves math. It was her dream to come here, and I can tell that she is having a great time. She lives in Darling Harbour, which is downtown, about an hour’s bus drive away. We have hung out a bit, and are talking about possibly going to Melbourne and the Blue Mountains. She is awesome, and we have a pretty cool thing going. 

So, as you can see, being an American doesn’t really make it all that much easier to ‘get girls’ here. It gives you an ‘in’ in conversations, they dig the way the accent sounds, but thats pretty much it. It’s been a good experience, and I’ve had a lot of fun meeting many Australian girls, as well as other girls, but its not what my room mates and I built it up to be. Which is ok. Really!