Thursday, September 27, 2007

emails not a good communication for some

emails have only the words on them to communicate feelings and thats what can be a limitation, particularly with folks that are not great emotional communicators to begin with. So we have all met up and everything seems on track for the italy trip. My fellow traveler who seem unexcited about the trip looks like he's on board. In person, it easy to gauge things by their body language. Something lacking in emails. For example: email from me "hey, looking forward to lunch! see you then." Response: ok. Now reading this response, one would get the feeling that this person is unexcited, possibly someone who is going reluctantly. Its why i often overemphasis things that i wouldn't in real life. Like thats great! Looking forward to it also! A smile conveys alot, but smiling in real life is not conveyed in email unless you specifically make an effort to translate to email form. anyone else have issues with emails, misunderstandings, communication breakdowns?

Friday, September 21, 2007

the pitfalls of traveling with others

Booked tickets for italy a few weeks ago. I'm going with two people that i used to do improv comedy with. One is excited about the trip and other seems dispondent, but i get mixed messages because the other person, the excited one, tells me that he's excited about going. So here is the wierd thing, in feb when we were talking about going on the trip, the despondent one had a hard time answering a question of do you want to go on this trip. He eventually said yes, but it was not exactly comforting that it took so long to get an answer. I chalked it up as this person personality quirk. A few weeks later, i saw this person went at a local bar and went up to him and asked if he was excited about going to italy. He seemed irritated at the question, taking my statement as sarcasm. He confided that he wasn't sure about the trip and that he felt the other traveler treated him wierd when others were around (me, i think.). So he seemed less then excited and he asked me not to say anything. I stupidly agreed even though this whole thing would involve me to because i'm going on the trip. Anyway fast forward, i'm thinking everythings been resolved because we bought the tickets. Now this person doesn't answer emails about meeting. Sometimes will respond with can't make it, but no alternative date or time. Even follow up emails from my friend asking him to respond are not answered, I'm pretty sure he gets his emails as in the past, he responds to emails if he finds it relevant.

So is this how the trip is going to be? Someone who has conjoled and guilted into things. Thats the last person i want to travel with. anyone have similar travel situations?