More great pick-up conversation.

On the train back from Anton’s I saw another great poster ad, which you can view a picture of on Web Shots. At the time, though, I needed a translation of the poster, so I looked around the train car to see who I could ask.

There was a 50 year-old man to my right, a mother and child behind me, and a cute 17 or 18 year old girl diagonally across the aisle from me. I decided to ask her. “Do you speak English?” She removed her ipod and said yes. I sat down across from her and explained, “I don’t know much Swedish, so I was wondering if you could translate the top line of that sign over there.” She had her back to the sign, so she turned to look at it.

I should mention at this point that the poster had a female hand putting a condom on a male pointer finger, and I knew the sign had something to do with Chlamydia. I should also mention that after I started talking to this girl, I realized she was 16.

Out of surprise she started laughing, but wouldn’t look me in the eye. So I said the magic words that every Swedish girl loves to hear, “It looks like it says, ’Chlamydia occurs in Stockholm,’ at the bottom, so I need to know how to protect myself.” She laughed a little more, mixed in with some nervousness, and still without looking me in the eye told me it said something like, “It’s better without Chlamydia.”

I could tell she was uncomfortable, so I tried to explain that I thought it was funny, and I was going to share it with my friends over the Internet. She was still laughing nervously, but now she was edging back in the corner of her seat, so I thanked her and went back to my area of the train. A word of advice to all the men reading this: the best way to introduce yourself to girls is not by talking about Chlamydia.