Yesterday I had my first date with
American Teacher Girl (ATG). And it turned into a very odd date, due to a very untimely and rather unnerving incident: halfway the date I suddenly and unexplainably got very sick and almost passed out on the spot...
The date started in the late afternoon at 16:30. The idea was to go for some drinks, and then see whether we would extend the date, depending on how well things would go. That is the best formula for a first date in my experience: don't plan a whole evening, but do leave options open to enjoy a whole evening if things go well. A late afternoon date consisting of a drink somewhere is perfect for that, as it does provide the option to extend the drinks with going for dinner somewhere.
She had chosen a bookstore on a well-known square in the capitol as our meeting spot. The weather was perfect: sunny blue sky and warm, but not too warm. Ideal for a drink outside. Instead of taking the tram, I decided to walk from the train station to our meeting point. We had no trouble recognizing each other, hence so far all went very smooth. Per tradition (I always do this on first dates), I had a red rose with me for her. Some romantic traditions just need to be honoured imho...
She was a bit more, uhm, chubby than had been apparent from her pictures, especially in her face. Not in a turn-off way by the way (there is nothing wrong with a chubby figure for women in my opinion. I prefer it to stark anorexic. And lately I am not the most slim person myself either, although until some 2-3 years ago I used to be). She looked nice, if definitely recognizably American. She had some of those typical American manners as well (compared to Europeans, Americans always seem so self-assured for example). Again, nothing wrong with that.
Unlike with
Bunny (an exceptional date in many ways anyway), I did not have an immediate "click" feeling. That came a bit later in the evening when converstation became more animated.
We settled on an outside terrace for some drinks. As usual, the first hour or so is always a bit awkward, and merely politely and cautiously probing each other with conversation. Although my command of English is quite good, I also noted that the language aspect was adding to this (we spoke English throughout the date). She spoke most during that first hour, telling about her job and how she ended up in my country. I merely asked questions rather than doing much talking myself. Every now and then she would end her conversation with: "Okay, I have talked enough. Your turn now". We had a funny exchange about subtle differences in culture and customs between the USA and my country.
Somewhere around 19:00 the incident happened that is perhaps the most embarrasing thing that can happen on a first date. While talking, I suddenly started to feel nauseous and dizzy, and very warm. I was really starting to feel very bad all of a sudden, to the point where I felt I was about to collapse. She noted that something was going wrong and asked whether I was feeling alright. After the incident she related that she really saw me turn sick and losing "contact" all of a sudden in the midst of the talk.
I felt really horrible and truely had to struggle to stay conscious, bending forward resting with my head on the table for a moment, moaning something like "
oh fuck I feel horrible urrrghh!". I was very afraid to really pass out (or start to throw up) on the spot, meanwhile thinking: "I need to lie down, I really need to lie down". On ATG's suggestion, I stood up and went inside to the toilets. I barely made it up there. While walking to it I notably had difficulty with my balance and felt like I could loose my consciousness any moment. At the toilets I sagged onto my knees and threw up repeatedly, feeling horribly dizzy and nauseous.
Now I hadn't barely had any alcohol at that time, I was only halfway my first (and only) glass off rosé after two softdrinks. So it was definitely not an alcohol induced problem. Rather, I feel the headache I had all day might be connected to it. I already had an headache for the whole day: I had woken up with it and even with Paracetamol it didn't go away.
A friendly British guest at the toilets showed some concern for my wellbeing and asked whether I was allright. I told him I didn't know what was happening, that I didn't have any real amount of alcohol yet (because he asked me that), and that I was really not feeling well and quite unnerved by this as I didn't know what was the matter with me. He asked whether I was with friends and if he could get someone up for me. I told him I was with a lady date, and next he asked rather seriously (apparently, this is a serious option in our capitol): "
Are you sure she didn't slip something into your drink?". I guess he was thinking of some GHB date-rape slash robbery kind of scenario (ATG later found this suggestion rather amusing actually). After the violent vomitting ended, he helped me back on my feet. I poured some water over my face and started to slightly feel better, the nauseousness and dizzyness subsiding. When he noted I was feeling somewhat better, he wished me the best and went.
I hesitatingly went back to the outdoor terrace, to ATG. This kind of thing happening on a first date of course is an absolute nightmare scenario, so I was thinking: "allright, this is the end of the date, and this no doubt will have been the last I see of ATG". I really felt very uncomfortable and embarrased, and she probably did too. She had asked the waitress for the tab and paid, anticipating that I would want to end the date. We discussed a bit what happened, she told me she suddenly saw me turning white in the midst of conversation. I apologized profusely, feeling rather sheepish. As I was feeling somewhat better, we decided to stay for a while to see how I would recover. I ordered a mineral water, and in the minutes following started to quickly feel better apart from a diffuse ache in the back of my head, which stayed all evening.
After the initial uncomfortable moments upon my return from dizzy-land, it actually seemed the ice broke between us. The banter became lighter and funny (up to then it had been rather serious: work, family backgrounds, experiences in the US and my country etcetera). At 20:30, I had recovered from my collapse quite well, and we decided to go and have dinner somewhere. As I hardly know anything in the capitol, she chose the spot, a Mexican restaurant she frequents in a rather famous Gay area of the town close to where we had our drinks. When we walked into the street in question she said: "this is a rather famous street: do you note anything peculiar here?". At first I didn't get what she meant, but then I started to note the evidently Gay scene and got it.
As it was dusk already and starting to get slightly chilly, we chose to sit inside rather than outside. Unaware of each other's choice we ordered almost the same dish. She ordered a caipirinha for herself, I didn't want to risk any more after the earlier incident so kept it on mineral water.
During dinner the talk became very animated (helped by a couple of caipirinhas on her side perhaps). It now truely was more relaxed banter with a lot of humour in it, and we started to share weird experiences with the dating site. She asked me what had attracted me to her profile and whether she lived up to the picture I had before we really met this day. Her account of her first day in my country, 11 years ago, was very funny too. I was feeling much more comfortable now and the unfortunate incident started to drift away from my memory a bit.
We were among the last people to leave the restaurant, at 23:30. Much to my surprise given the weird definitely uncomfortable incident halfway the date, it had turned into a very enjoyable evening and she seemed to feel the same. Our date had lasted 7 hours, which is a good indication that it was a good enjoyable date. When we said goodbye before I hopped on the tram to the train station, we agreed on a follow up date, probably here in My Town.
