Monday, June 2, 2008

ATM = Awkward Tongue-tied Moment

Have u ever been standing in an ATM, minding ur own business, doing ur normal banking transaction when somebody suddenly opens the ATM door and barge in on u? Well I have, and it’s really irritating. I instantly thought, what is wrong with this person? Can’t he see that there is somebody already inside the ATM? So I hardly can’t imagine why would someone barge in on another someone inside the ATM, at least until last Wednesday where I found myself in that situation.
To set the record straight, I have no intention on barging in on someone on the ATM for the sake of wanting to know what does it feel like to be a barge inner (wait… I don’t think that’s english, but well u know what I mean rite..). I was actually tricked into doing it. Well ok….  u got me. Nobody actually tricked me into doing it. But I was totally tricked. Tricked by the situation in my campus.
It was the last week of the examination week. My campus was really quiet because most people were either having their exams or studying for em. Moi, u asked? Well, I was working hard too! I used most of my free times working hard on….. playing cards!! Bwahahaha!
Anyhow, I had just finished my presentation test and since it was almost 12 o’clock, my friends and I decided to have our lunch in this place called ‘Gelap Nyawang’ which is located in the front of my campus. It’s a really famous place. Whaaaa? U don’t believe me? Well go watch ‘Jomblo’ and see the place for urself! But halfway there, I just realized that I only got about 3000 rupians on my purse (btw, for all of u non-Indonesian people who read this, before u have this fascinating imagination about how loaded I must be, I have to remind u that 3000 rupians are not a lot, it’s probably equal to 30 cents or something like that). So I then decided to take some cash from the ATM first.
As I have mentioned before, it was an examination day and it was really quiet by the time I reached the ATM site. Honestly, it was so quiet that u could almost see those rolled straws rolling around just like in the western movies. And from the spot where I approached the ATM, I didn’t see anyone inside the ATM. So assuming that there was nobody inside the ATM, I then hastily opened the door. And to my surprise, there was this guy inside the ATM (let’s call him the-annoyed-ATM-guy) who stared back at me with this shocked/irritated looks on his face. I was stunned by this overwhelming situation. It was really awkward and it did feel like the longest 3 seconds of my life (ok, that’s an exaggeration since there were much more embarrassing/awkward situations that caused time-freeze longer than this, like the one where I accidentally went in to the men restroom in an airport. What, Maya?  What did you say?  Well it's a long story, so to to make the long story short let say that I blamed the jet lag). Anyway, after experiencing the longest 3 seconds of my life, the reality of the situation then started to kick in. So I did what a normal person would do when they found themselves in this kind of situation. I cringed, closed the ATM door without saying sorry, and immediately attempted to hide in the bushes near the ATM.
Obviously my friends then did whatever they could to help me…… by laughing at me! Well, I don’t blame them. It was a stressful/long presentation test that we’ve been through. So it must be amusing to find somebody who stupidly put herself in an awkward situation and overreacting about it. Still laughing at me, they then asked me to come out from my hiding place by calling my name -unquestionably, they’re trying to expose my identity to the-annoyed-ATM-guy. But I digressed. I kept hiding in the bushes until that annoyed-ATM-guy got out from the ATM. He then walked to the east-side of the ATM, so I decided to make my way to the ATM from the west-side to avoid him. But quarter-way walking, the-annoyed-ATM-guy then decided to go to the west-side of the ATM, turned around, and walked toward me as I was already got out from the bushes and exposed! NOOOOooo!!
So, I had no other option than just kept walking then cringed apologetically at him. And believe me, the longest 3 seconds of my life that I have confidently stated before was nothing compared to this situation. It was soooooooo awkward. By the time I reached the ATM, all of my friends laughed (again) at me. Then one of them told me that the-annoyed-ATM-guy is one of the student senators in my campus. Seems like he is a quite popular and “important” person  in my campus.
So if I put this whole situation into an analogy, for instance, if my campus were a country then I would have barged in on a senator in an ATM…. and there’d be a teeny, tiny possibility that I might get shot by the bodyguards!!! Cool Scary, huh?