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That was . . . unsettling.
Sep. 21st, 2007 02:09 amI am at a conference in Madrid, Spain. But Wednesday was a spare day so we went out to see sights. Apologies if I misspell things.
About 10, we walked into the Plaza de Espagna. Very nice statues of Don Quixotes and Pancho. And as we walked up, three young women, nicely dressed, clean, big smiles, came over and one tucked red carnations in my shirt pocket. She was saying in bright fast Spanish something about free flowers for the fiesta de la de nada con friture (or make up your own babbling brook). I think one of my mistakes was trying to understand her.
Anyway, we said no, no, and handed back the flowers. She tried to get us to give just one cent, but we refused.
The girls went on, we took our pictures and went on, with some talk about what was that. We checked camera, wallet, etc. and decided nothing was obviously missing.
A couple blocks later, Mitsuko went into a store and I started to make a few notes. I keep a folded sheet of paper in my shirt pocket just for such notes - except it was gone. Along with a receipt from the coffee shop where we had churros and hot chocolate that morning.
Our friendly young woman had picked my pocket quite smoothly. I've seen many men here carrying Euro notes (money) in their pocket, so I think that is what she thought she was getting.
We walked back and I found my pocket papers in the trashcan a few steps from where we refused the flowers so she had quickly realized her mistake.
I lost nothing, but somehow the very attempt - combining friendly smiles and stumbling language with clever fingers taking whatever they can find - is troublesome.
About 10, we walked into the Plaza de Espagna. Very nice statues of Don Quixotes and Pancho. And as we walked up, three young women, nicely dressed, clean, big smiles, came over and one tucked red carnations in my shirt pocket. She was saying in bright fast Spanish something about free flowers for the fiesta de la de nada con friture (or make up your own babbling brook). I think one of my mistakes was trying to understand her.
Anyway, we said no, no, and handed back the flowers. She tried to get us to give just one cent, but we refused.
The girls went on, we took our pictures and went on, with some talk about what was that. We checked camera, wallet, etc. and decided nothing was obviously missing.
A couple blocks later, Mitsuko went into a store and I started to make a few notes. I keep a folded sheet of paper in my shirt pocket just for such notes - except it was gone. Along with a receipt from the coffee shop where we had churros and hot chocolate that morning.
Our friendly young woman had picked my pocket quite smoothly. I've seen many men here carrying Euro notes (money) in their pocket, so I think that is what she thought she was getting.
We walked back and I found my pocket papers in the trashcan a few steps from where we refused the flowers so she had quickly realized her mistake.
I lost nothing, but somehow the very attempt - combining friendly smiles and stumbling language with clever fingers taking whatever they can find - is troublesome.
