I had a very successful day operating in the Chinese culture/language last week that I think I should share, if nothing else but encouragement to myself!
Kristina and I decided to go out for breakfast and run a bunch of necessary errands as we had the morning off (the students were taking final exams). We happened to catch a taxi at our school gates, which is very rare. We live essentially at a dead end – there is a road but you don’t travel down it unless you have a purpose! It took a bit of Chinese to get to the McDonald’s – he said he knew where he was going, but halfway there he starts asking us where it is! Thankfully, we kind of knew where we were going and used our limited Chinese and a lot of laughing to get there. We have a fantastic breakfast, complete with coffee, Mariah Carey and much “sign language” when a cup broke. :) Afterwards, we went to the pharmacy to get some hydrogen peroxide – but this pharmacy did not have it, but pointed us to another one. China is incredibly similar to America in that all the elderly people are out on weekday mornings, ready to dispense advice and talk and make sure you know what you are doing/buying/etc. We went to another shop, learned the words for shampoo and conditioner, and then, the scary one… we went to the bank. We had to deposit money into our travel agent’s account for our plane tickets for vacation. All we had was a slip of paper with his name and number and a large stack of our teammate’s cash. After waiting for them to call our number (practicing our Chinese in the lobby… “Tuesday! Tuesday!”…. they must have loved that!) we were so incredibly blessed – our teller spoke English! There was no hassle, no fuss… it was amazing. We were blown away and praised Him for orchestrating that for us! Next, a quick trip to the supermarket, the bubble tea stand (for Kristina… I think that stuff is just too bizarre!) and a short pu-pu cha ride, we were home. In 3 hours. Record breaking. All communication was in Chinese except the bank (well, and talking with Kristina & the music at McDonald's!). Plus, we weren’t stressed beyond recognition, we were actually relaxed! AND PRODUCTIVE! It was fantastic.
Oh course, that afternoon I got some sort of stomach-ick and was out of commission for 6 hours. Oh China.
In other news…. The semester is OVER! Vacation has begun! We celebrated by having dinner with a friend from our Foreign Fellowship and watching “7 Brides for 7 Brothers”. I adore that movie!
More about vacation as it happens… get excited…!
