nigeria

i like helping people: giving directions, training new people at work, showing them how to do things faster on the computer, doing my brother's homework when they were younger (jk - kind of), etc. so when the nigerian guy in my class wasn't getting things the first few days (and by first few days, i mean MY first few days, which were his second few days since i came late), I was more than happy to show him what page we were on, explain the grammar, help him figure out the exercise, etc. but the thing about helping people, i have found, is that they can think it means more than it does. this is the case of nigeria, who just had to go and ruin my friendliness by asking me out.

this annoys me for a few reasons. 1) i was NOT at all flirting 2) it's not just that he asked me out, but HOW he asked me out. he kind of stroked my hand and said in this weird voice, "soooo.... what do YOU do on the weekends?" now maybe this isn't a complete "wanna go on a date with me" sort of question, and if he had said, "hey, danielle, wanna grab coffee and practice german?" i might've said yes. so i kind of got a shiver up the back of my spine and pulled my hand away and said, "oh, well, i travel a lot - you know, mein hobby ist reisen." [my hobby is traveling - one of the phrases i had been repeating all day in class.] and he kind of reached for my arm again, so i turned to the italian woman i sit next to and said something. 3) the other reason why i am really annoyed by this is that now that i get the feeling that he might like me, i am unconsciouly mean to him. and i really am not trying to be! it's like in high school when everyone told me this guy chaz liked me. i always felt really bad for chaz - he was a big guy, the kind who sweats when he walks across the room, and he was never clean shaven and he had crooked, dirty teeth and a red face. so i was always very nice to him. then i heard he was going to ask me out, and rather than say no, or actually go out with him, i started avoiding him. i didnt want to be mean! and i don't want to be mean to nigeria, but ... i can't seem to help myself. i'm sooo not attracted to him.

oh and there are other reasons why he bothers me now: he'll just reach into my bag (if it's open - he thanksfully hasn't done it with it zipped) and take my dictionary. wtf??? is that acceptable? he'll just TAKE my paper from me, even when i'm looking at it, to copy down the answers because he doesn't know what's going on. he speaks SO QUIETLY, even when we're speaking english i have to lean really really close to him to hear him. maybe that's some sort of tactic or something. one day, i was explaining to him how to form numbers [admittedly, it is kind of backward] and he says, "uggh! this stupid language!" ??? why would you be in berlin learning "this stupid language" if you weren't interested by it? am i missing something? oh, and the worst offense, which is not a good defense, is that he
BENDS
MY
PAPER. i HATE bent paper!! its one thing to FOLD paper, but why does he have to hand me a paper that is no longer smooth and instead has sweaty fingerprints creasing the paper?? or hold my paper while copying my answers and bend it in the middle to get a certain 'angle' while reading it?? horrible. terrible!

perhaps this is all a bit of cultural miscommunication. but for now, i'm going to class late in the hopes that someone sits in my spot and i can sit somewhere else. (see - again! - i dont WANT to be mean and sit somewhere else. and so i suffer.)