Some good news and some bad news. But some background first. During the past three months our initial plans of Jinlin visiting Finland morphed into a plan of me visiting her in Shanghai:
But after re-reading this chat now, I realize the "Maybe" might well have referred to my first question "Would some other time be better?" This would make more sense in the light of "I am busy studying in the daytime" which makes sense to the question of the suitability of this time but does not make sense to the question about possible holiday times. Furthermore this exchange took place in text chat which has usually considerable temporal overlap between each others writings. So she might have started to write the answer to the first question before even seeing the second one, whereas I would have seen her answer to the first question only after writing the second one.
And with the Chinese politeness considered, "Maybe" to the first question would most certainly mean "Yes".
Well, my bad if I misunderstood her comments in this way. But if that is the case, I am still happy about my misunderstanding. Because otherwise I might have been kind enough to postpone our plans once more and seen her next time earliest in February, three long cold months later. That would have been a let-down. So it will be Shanghai in December or bust :-)
P.S. She has a new haircut and sent me nice new pictures. Without and with some make-up:
2012-08-07: Jinlin: You asked if I can visit Finland in September. But in September I must be in school, learning my specialized courses. I will go to Shanghai, and then plan to go to Finland. In November will be China's National Day, I will probably have then seven days of the holiday and I can come to Finland.
2012-08-08: Robert: I have two weeks vacation left. If you come to Finland for one week, I have one extra week left. I thought, maybe, I once again came to visit China. I could come to Shanghai on October before your visit to Finland? I know that you do not have holiday then, but I can do sightseeing when you are in school in daytime and we can be together in the evening. What do you think?
2012-08-09: Jinlin: I think such plan is very good. If I am at school at the time you visit China, I think you can also visit my school. To get to know my new study friends.
2012-09-14: Robert: Dear, you told me that you can visit to Finland in one week in November, because you have school holidays, then. See when I looked at the Chinese calendar is the festival. I do not see any public holiday in China in November. Do you have a holiday, like you told me, in November? I hope you have a holiday in November, so you still have time to arrange VISA.
2012-09-29: Robert: I worry that you do not have much time left now to arrange your visit to Finland in November. What do you think? You have not told me how your travel plans progress. In any case, I have a visa ready, I can come to Shanghai, if you tell me when is the right time.
2012-10-04 Robert: Honey, do you know if you can come to Finland this year? Although I hope you can come, I understand, if this is not possible. But I need to know.
Jinlin: I also hope to be able to come to Finland but I'm very busy studying. I hope I can have the time to come.
Robert: I have my visa valid. Therefore, it is easy to come to Shanghai. So, if you do not come I can come to visit you.
Jinlin: Very good. I hope you come to Shanghai
2012-10-08 Robert: I am planning now my visit to Shanghai. Because it turned out you do not have any school holiday, I will choose the time according to what best fits my schedule. I intend in Shanghai from December 2 to December 8. Tomorrow I will buy tickets. I try to book a hotel near your school. Can you give the address of your school?
Jinlin: My school in Shanghai Jiading District Jiahang Road 851
2012-10-09 Robert: Tomorrow, I will buy a ticket to Shanghai.Now to the good news: I got quite good price for Finnair flight tickets to Shanghai. The Stockmann department store had it's yearly "crazy days" rebates at a very suitable time for my plans. In co-operation with Finnair, Stockmann was selling Shanghai flights with 560 euros compared to the normal 800 euro price. Of course Aeroflot has even slightly lower price at 480 euros, but that includes 12 hour wait in Moscow on both ways. The extra 80 euros is definitely worth the extra 24 hours of time (and rest) gained. So I was happy to tell Jinlin:
Jinlin: Good. How long will you stay in Shanghai?
Robert: I will be in eight days. I will arrive on 1st December.
Jinlin: Good. But I will not have much time to accompany you.
Robert: I understand. Would some other time be better? Do you have any holiday in the coming months?
Jinlin: Maybe. I am busy studying at daytime.
Robert: I know. But I prefer to come anyway, even if you are busy during the day. Otherwise, we can not see each other at all.
Jinlin: Okay. Thank you for your love.
Robert: Thank you dear for your lovely words. If you get some holiday later, I can come again.
2012-10-15 Robert: I have good news. I now have a ticket to Shanghai!Then come the bad news:
Jinlin: Well, you can send the information to my mailbox.
Robert: Sent! I will be in Shanghai for two weekends and one week.
Jinlin: In fact, I am very sad the airport is very far from my school. And I can not leave. I'm sorry, but I think you should not come at this time. You can consider meeting me in February in Zhengzhou.Well, that felt bit of a let-down, I must say. But there was no way I would be cancelling the trip at that point with the non-refundable ticket in my pocket, with the plans that we had been discussing before and with the postponing our earlier attempts to meet:
Robert: Dear, I have bought an expensive flight ticket. So, I'll come to Shanghai whether you want or not. You should have told me earlier if you do not want me to come now. You do not have to come to the airport. I will take care of all my travel arrangements. I will be in Shanghai for nine days. This includes two weekends. I can do my own sightseeing. But surely you can see me on some evening or weekend?Fortunately it turned out that Jinlins main worry was her not being able to come to meet me at the airport. Quite unnecessary worry indeed. So things turned out to be quite okay after all and earlier plans nicely back on track:
Jinlin: I estimate I cannot come to the airport. My school is in the suburbs, too far from the airport. I will be late from school when I come to the airport.
Robert: Do not worry about the airport. I'll come to your school. I reserved at a nearby hotel. I can arrange these things.
Jinlin: Okay. I have classes on weekends also but I can arrange time on weekend afternoons.
Robert: Thank you dear!
Jinlin: Tell me your hotel. We can meet at your hotel.
Jinlin: I can also help you to plan your sightseeing routes for the days. We can use our time together to visit the Shanghai Bund.
It will be interesting to see in the end how much time we can have together during the trip. A Pessimist might say that I'm travelling 6000 km to see my girlfriend and then she's not even with me most of the time. But an optimist might say that I'll get to travel for an interesting sightseeing experience to an exotic city and, by the way, there is the bonus of having lovely and dear female company every evening for free ;-) Now that sounds to me like a glass half full :-)
So how is it possible that she was even temporarily asking me not to come after I told her I had bought the ticket? Didn't we have clear agreement about the plan? When re-reading our discussion I noted there might have been misunderstanding on my part in a critical point in our planning discussion above:
I automatically interpreted her answer "Maybe" to my most recent question: "Do you have any holiday in coming months?". So I though: "She does not even know whether she will have any holiday in the foreseeable future, no use waiting and hoping for that. Hence better to go now as planned, holiday or not."Anatomy of a misunderstanding?
So how is it possible that she was even temporarily asking me not to come after I told her I had bought the ticket? Didn't we have clear agreement about the plan? When re-reading our discussion I noted there might have been misunderstanding on my part in a critical point in our planning discussion above:
2012-10-09 Robert: Tomorrow, I will buy a ticket to Shanghai. [...]Jinlin: Good. But I will not have much time to accompany you.
Robert: I understand. Would some other time be better? Do you have any holiday in the coming months?Jinlin: Maybe. I am busy studying at daytime.
But after re-reading this chat now, I realize the "Maybe" might well have referred to my first question "Would some other time be better?" This would make more sense in the light of "I am busy studying in the daytime" which makes sense to the question of the suitability of this time but does not make sense to the question about possible holiday times. Furthermore this exchange took place in text chat which has usually considerable temporal overlap between each others writings. So she might have started to write the answer to the first question before even seeing the second one, whereas I would have seen her answer to the first question only after writing the second one.
And with the Chinese politeness considered, "Maybe" to the first question would most certainly mean "Yes".
Well, my bad if I misunderstood her comments in this way. But if that is the case, I am still happy about my misunderstanding. Because otherwise I might have been kind enough to postpone our plans once more and seen her next time earliest in February, three long cold months later. That would have been a let-down. So it will be Shanghai in December or bust :-)
P.S. She has a new haircut and sent me nice new pictures. Without and with some make-up:
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