first impressions

First impressions count for a lot I guess. Everything about her outfit felt very deliberate and careful. (by the way, ash, this post is for you : I know you like stuff like this =p)

I am lucky, in retrospect, that I was semi dressed up as well : good quality material shirt and pants, with a reasonably smart looking jacket. The shirt was made of the kind of thin shimmery material that causes your skin to tingle, and is pretty cool to look at. I need a more formal jacket at some point though.

Well, this isn't about me. She was wearing a strapless white top, modestly covered with an ordinary looking brown jacket. Matched her shoes, now those looked really cool. Can't really explain, they were a unique design that I had never seen before. Jeans skirt, long wood themed beaded earrings. Her long black hair looked great - you know, luscious not oily, just healthy, with a good bounce to it. And layered just the way I like it too =p And she had a pair of shades pushed up above her forehead to complete the look.

She carries herself well, speaks with a maturity beyond her age. I compliment her lip gloss, and she gets thrown off completely. It suits her : with her fair complexion, she was using mild shiny silver glitter gloss. Not many girls can pull that off effectively : it's one of my favourite colors. A more experienced or older girl would have hid her surprise and smoothly taken the compliment. Ah well, my fault there, will keep in mind for the future. We chat about the common topics : lack of potential guys at her all female boarding house, shopping in the city, family, residential options. She pulls out her tube and brushes on another layer of lip gloss after she finishes her ice cream.

Eating the ice cream calls attention to the fact that she could probably stand to lose a few pounds. Maybe the difference is more obvious, since I haven't seen her for 4 years now. Perhaps we're all too used to the stereotype of painfully thin Asian girls.

She slyly asks me to take her clubbing, and I dance around the question, turning it elsewhere. One telling point I pick up : she tells me her relationships with guys never last long. Because she gets tired of them and tells them to leave her alone =p They all bore her eventually, she says. My ears prick up.

That's exactly the cousin I know.

( hah, gotcha =p )

We've known each other forever, but I never really bothered getting to know to her properly, since we lived worlds apart. Our paths in life are pretty much chosen by our parents, and her parents chose a vastly different life for her. I could never imagine being able to relate to her.

But now, perhaps, things are different. We've both grown up, and, in this place thousands of miles from home, living away from our parents, we finally have enough things in common that we can start being friends.