So this one time I was sitting on a bench in Dashikou (downtown Zhenjiang) just minding my own business, enjoying the nice day. In comes this old man. And I mean GreyBaldingMissMostOfHisTeeth old. Grandpa Status for sure. Well, he has a huge grin on his face and so I smile back, I was just happy someone was being friendly. He starts talking to me in Chinese. I politely tell him I don't speak Chinese. Well he keeps talking to me, as if magically I will understand him. When he finally realizes that is a no-go, he then rips the paper out of my hand and starts writing on it, in traditional Chinese characters. I have no idea in what situation that would be an improvement... But anyways.. He kept writing, then ran out of room on my paper. So then he rips out a carton of cigarettes. I tense up. I don't care who you are, I will not let you sit on my
bench (I was there first!) and smoke right next to me. Well, I got all worked up for nothing. He proceeded to continue writing his novel on the inside of the carton. After a lot of shrugging and awkward shaking of heads, He finally gave up and held my hand with both of his. I was like "eh, whatever" about the hand holding. People like to hold your hand here, its sort of that unspoken communication. They put all this emotion into it. Well then it started to get weird... He started grabbing my little love handles. Then he smiled and laughed, and kept doing it! I mean I know I am bigger then the peeps over here, but I am not fat! And then his hand migrated farther down, to my hip/cheek area. One grab down there and I was up and waving goodbye to him. So yeah... that one time I was felt up by an old man in China.
New story:
I was heading home from Dashikou, and looking for the bus stop. It was a new one for me, but I knew it had my bus number. The stop looked rather quiet, as in there was no one else there. But hey, that does occasionally happen. I wait for maybe 15 minutes, and then I see the glorious D2 bus heading my way. I step off the curb to signal the driver that I want to get on and... he nods down the street. I look down the street and realize that the real bus stop is down the street a bit. Can I make it in time? Well I swallow my pride and sprint down the street, praying the driver will wait for me. Lucky for me, the driver had a soul. The foreigner running along the bus as it pulls away? You gotta admit people would have thought it was funny. Anyways, long story short- I learned the hard way where the D2 bus stop is in Dashikou.
Later that night I was wandering after I finished my dinner and heard some loud music. I hunted it down and came across a large crowd of people. This is very common in China, groups of people who just dance to music from a portable speaker. It was so cute, there were old men dressed up in their good shoes, and a vest over their button up. There are way more women then men, so girls dance with girls, just having fun. Many of them are dressed up fancy, with heels and decked out with big poufy hair and makeup. A few smiled and waved and tried to talk to me, but the conversation sort of died when I couldn't respond. The dance looked slightly complicated, and I was weighed down by groceries so I just creepishly watched for a bit then rode on home. But it was a beautiful sight, and I hope America picks up this tradition.
My students are so wonderful! I received some bad news about 10 minutes before I was supposed to teach. It was previously planned for them to watch Monsters Inc, which I was happy about as I was still processing the news. During the movie, one of the boys noticed that I was upset and asked what was wrong. I told him, and then he gave me a hug and the look on his face was precious. He felt so bad for me, and he doesn't even know me that well! Another student asked me when my birthday was, and then told me she wanted to buy me something for my birthday! She picked out a little hair clippy thing, its pretty awesome.
Last week I stepped in poo. No, not cat poo like happens occasionally in America. Human poo. That is definitely a first that I was not expecting over here in good ol' China. I was running to my ebike, in a semi-hurry. I thought it was a leaf on the sidewalk, so I didn't think it would be a big to slightly graze my foot on it as I kept running. Nope, it ended up being squishy human poo that I slid on and literally almost did the splits (so not exaggerating here people). There was a little ledge that I caught my balance on. Then I found some real life actual leaves to wipe the nastiness off my Toms (luckily I didn't get any on the canvas, that would have been a night mare to clean.) I go past this area everyday to get to my bus stop, and reminded of my little moment of grossness.
MOMENTS OF AWESOMENESS:
- Walking out of my apt and smelling smoke. Not that nasty cigarette smoke, but the glorious smell of wood burning. Reminded me of home!
-Pulling my hair into a ponytail!!
- Random fireworks EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I hear or see some almost everyday. Its pretty rad
-Flowers are in bloom, and it is beautiful! Feels like spring. I have no idea how they survive in all this smog, but they sure try hard.
- Extra large ice cream cone. You can buy happiness.
- milk and cheerios with cut up bananas. living the dream
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