Christine

Not much happening today aside from my math midterm.  Probably bombed it.

What currently fascinates me is Christine.  It's odd, I swear she's warmed up to me far faster than anyone in the past, aside from romantic interests.  Even though we're group mates, her behavior differs from any other group member or acquaintance I had in the past.  She sits next to me every class.  Next to me as in the seat right next to me.  Though it may seem mundane, human beings tend to distance themselves from each other unless they're familiar with each other.  For example, on a bus, plane or even in a class room, people prefer to distance themselves at least one seat apart.  They would fill up every other seat and will not sit next to a person unless they want or have to.  That's what makes Christine's behavior so interesting.  Does she warm up to people fast?  There's plenty of other seats in class, yet she always sit next to me.  Why?  There are other people in class who knows her by name and could sit next to another girl like Jocelyn.  Why not sit next to them?  Usually I don't think much of one single observation, but during our first group meeting, she and I were the first ones to arrive and she stood side by side next to me in the shade even though there's shade right across from me.  People, especially women, prefer to be across from someone they're not familiar with, not next to.  When I'm looking in her general direction, not directly at her, she would look at me to see if I'm looking at her.  I'm probably reading too much into it, but interesting observations to contemplate nonetheless.

My personal body language around her has been adequate but somewhat lacking.  When she says something, I keep looking at her out of the corner of my eye when she's next to me.  Today, she said something and I couldn't hear her so I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and leaned in, she already turned away when I did that.  Fortunately, I compensated for it by making an "empathetic comment", making her smile.  I need to watch my own body language around Christine.  I may have only one month left, but I want my last month here to be in the green.

On an another observation, I noticed that when Christine took out her little journal/calendar thing, she wrote jiejie's baby shower on one of the dates.  Odd, jiejie is Chinese for older sister, yet she has a Vietnamese last name.  Older sister in Viet is completely different.  She's Chinese-Vietnamese maybe?

On another note, Wendy re-established contact with me.  I'm happy that she did.  I thought I made her upset a long time ago.  It's good to hear from her again.

Note to self:  Watch body language around Christine.  Smile more, don't look at her out of the corner of your eye.