Teddy Bear Face

The strangest thing happened on my way to Leeuwarden...

I was standing in line, waiting to buy my train ticket from the ticket machine when a hurried-looking woman comes up and asks if I am in line. Yes, I replied to her. And, seeing as how she was looking so rushed, I asked her if she was in a hurry (smart cookie, aren't I?). She told me she was indeed, to which I replied that she could get ahead of me in line as I had to wait 30 minutes for my train anyway. She thanked me and stepped ahead. An older man in front of us was having trouble putting his bank card in the machine so she asked him if she could try. She bought her ticket in moments and wisked away, thanking me again for letting her go ahead. :)

The old man was still having problems so I stepped forward a bit to see if I could help. I and another woman behind me ended up helping him figure out how to use the machine. Imagine! A foreigner helping a Dutch buy a train ticket! And he actually seemed to understand my stunted use of his language. Happy days. :)

Now, you may be wondering where the whole "teddy bear face" thing comes into all of this. I'm getting to that...

While I was still standing in line waiting for the older man to finish getting his ticket, another, younger man walks by. This in and of itself is admittedly nothing to write about. But what followed is. This young man, whom will be the centerpiece of the remainder of my little tale, stopped right next to me and exclaimed (in what I felt was entirely too loud a voice), "What a cutie pie!" Surely he couldn't me talking to me, but I turned to look anyway. There he was, not more than 2 feet away, looking right at me with a huge grin on his face. Getting compliments from strangers is not exactly something I'm used to, so I suppose I had a rather surprised look on my face. He turned and walked away after a few moments and I breathed a sigh of relief. What are you supposed to say to a crazy man who announces to the entire train station that you're a cutie pie?? :p

But the saga did not end there, oh no. I had bought my ticket and turned to go look for a record store before my train arrived and I heard him again. "You're so cute! You've got a teddy bear face!" What was I to do? I kept walking toward the record store. "Teddy bear face, teddy bear face!" he kept calling after me. I walked faster...

I made it to the record store and bought the new Live album (woohoo!) and walked back out to buy a drink for my long train ride. I was paying for my drink when I heard that same English accent. "Teddy bear face!" The guy behind the counter gave me a puzzled look, but I just grinned at him and made a break for the train platforms.

About 10 minutes later I was safe and sound on the train. I half- expected to see Mr. Teddy-bear-face pop up outside my train window like some bad episode of "The Twilight Zone," but the train pulled away from the station without further incident.

Phew! Thank goodness. I just can't handle adoration from strangers. *smirk*