Yesterday marked another day in which I needed to adventure to the grocery store. My mentality again encouraged me to beeline to the same old supermarket and run back to my English haven of an apartment as quickly as possible and work on my lesson plans all afternoon- but once I actually got outside I felt a little more brave and set out towards a market further away where I could buy meat. Along the way, a boy was standing by a store front, greeted me with a hello, and offered me a little plastic card with a bunch of Chinese on it. I took it and kept walking. About a block further up the street I realized they were chasing after me so I stopped and asked them what the card was for and the boy asked where I was from. After a very brief exchange and me never finding out what the card was I said zai jian and went on my way.
About this time the light drizzle I'd been walking in developed into an all out rain so I whipped out my brand new Paradise umbrella I'd purchased the night before. Umbrellas are kind of a big deal. Girls always carry them when its sunny to try to keep their skin as light as possible (plus- its really hot in the sun!) so it ends up being a pretty big fashion accessory. Paradise is a famous umbrella company out of Hangzhou and the one I purchased is pretty simple - a irridescent green with sparkly flowers and butterflies on one side of it. Some had lace insets and much more elaborate patterns. Regardless I was ready for the showers yesterday.
After picking up some Taiwan sausage (a tiny, half stick of butter cost 11 yuan.. which would even be expensive in US currency) and my standard item which has no pictures or english which I can identify the contents of later, I ran into dude with the little cards again. "Hello!" "Hello, again!" "umm, what are you doing for dinner?" Well, I now have a random boy's phone number and I really can't tell anyone's age so I'd say he's somewhere between the ages of 13 and 30.
Later in the evening, some of the teachers here decided to go grab a beer. But we didn't know where we could get one. And this idea was "poorly communicated" to the cab driver. At least when we got back to the flat we already had a cold Tsingtao and a shitty English movie about pirates waiting.
"I'm not so starved for English I need to watch this horrible pirate film." -me
"Just you wait..." -Morten
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
lol - you made me look up what "zai jian" meant. And uh oh....boys phone numbers????? What is dad going to say?!?!?!?!
At least they're speaking English where I am in the world. People say that they're proud of me? No, Lynn, I'm envious of you.
Post a Comment