Thursday was to be a slow day for me but I’ve said that before on days that did not turn out that way. Fortunately, while the day ended up with something very new, it was still relatively slow and a welcomed one at that. After a morning of tidying up and laundry I soon got a call from Edwin Myers saying that one of the Chinese English teachers and a class assistant, Susan and Blanche, wanted to take the them and the entire Harding team out for lunch. I was glad to get out of the apartment. While I needed to tidy up a bit and do laundry, every time I do so I think, “This is not what I’m here to do.” So with glee I headed out with them and had a wonderful lunch and lots of fellowship. Susan and Blanche had been attending my Wednesday afternoon class for teachers and seemed to enjoy my teaching. They had a lot of nice things to tell the others about my classes. We strolled back to the campus and soon we were all off for that wonderful Chinese ritual that everybody clears the schedule for – a nap! As much as I love naps I’m usually not down for more than 30-40 minutes. Most of the people here take as much as two hours for this daily event. As the afternoon started getting late I received a call from Sarah to go to dinner with Xiao and her friends. Xiao is the young student that needed to talk to a friend that I had asked Sarah to intervene for me. She was now out with Sarah and some of her local, non-university-student friends, and they wanted me to join them for dinner. New friends? A New place for dinner? Oh yeah, I’m all over that! The reason they wanted me to join them was they were avid photographers and Sarah had told them about me. I was in for a new adventure that really had little to do with photography, but that was my ticket into their world. I agreed to meet Sarah and Xiao at the front gate at 6:00 p.m. They were going to come by and pick me up in their car and go to another part of town. At first I started giving them a description of me so that they would recognize me, and then I laughed and said, I’ll be the American standing out there with a high-end camera! And I don’t think it was the camera that gave me away! While I waited about a dozen people and couples or more just came up to me and asked if they could get their picture made with me! Naturally, I obliged. When a Mercedes SUV pulled up, I was surprised to say the least. Sarah was with them and there were two young Chinese men in the car. They had me sit in the front passenger seat and the driver spoke NO English. The other man with Sarah in the back seat was Mike. He had excellent English linguistic skills. We arrived at a Chinese restaurant that Mike claimed that all Americans in China liked better than the rest. He may have been exactly right because the food, while Chinese, was distinctly different. The soup was a shrimp (but like all shrimp in China they still had the tail and the head on them). It also had crab meat with rice and water chestnuts. It tasted like real soup with some substance to it. It was great. I could have eaten only that all night. The chicken strips were boneless and skewered, then grilled over an open flame near the table. They also served a variety of steamed veggies and the company was delightful. Waiting for us at the table when we arrived were the rest of Mike’s guests, Xiao, and Mike’s girlfriend, Betty. Then there was Joanna and her mother. Joanna was a beautiful and talkative little five-year-old girl. Joanna was a student of Mike’s English class. She spoke much better English than her mother who seemed to enjoy speaking as much as she could but delighted in the fact that Joanna could converse with me so well. I thought, “Wow, Mike must a really good teacher.” At one point at the table a Lady Gaga song came on the restaurant speaker system and Joanna sang all of the lyrics in English. Who Knew Lady Gaga would have any socially redeeming value? After we talked for a while we went for a walk and I found myself at Mike’s Café. Mike owned and operated an American styled coffee shop that sort of fashioned itself after the TV show Friends. He also taught English. He wanted his coffee shop to be a haven for Americans and others in China who wanted to speak English. Those two operations were his only job. In the café, he had a lot of photographs that he had taken around the world. Mike’s Café consisted of two floors. The downstairs area had a small public meeting area with couches and chairs and several smaller private meeting rooms. No dinner is served but lots of coffee and drinks from around the world (with a lot beer on the selection menu). The upstairs was even stranger. It was outside around the back in a dark, dank and dingy alleyway! When you ascended the stairs you found a classroom and a pool table room. I played a round of pool with Betty. She was pretty good and beat me with only one of my solid balls left on the table. She was having fun speaking English and playing this game with me. Finally Xiao is the one that said, “I need to go home,” (back to the campus). So Mike called his friend with the Mercedes and he drove us back. It was strange meeting in a strange place. Not dangerous, mind you, just very remotely tucked into an inner city section of a very large city. The evening and especially Mike’s Café was very strange. It was kind of eerie, and even though I never felt I was in danger, I did think that I would not want to come back to this place alone. I went home and packed a few things for my impending weekend trip.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSteve Shaner, also known as Xie Yeye, is a professional story teller that delights in traveling to meet new and old friends. He can be contacted at shaner.steve@gmail.com. Blog ContentsMay 12-14, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010 Sunday, May 16, 2010 Monday, May 17, 2010 Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Thursday, May 20, 2010 Friday, May 21, 2010 Saturday, May 22, 2010 Sunday, May 23, 2010 Monday, May 24, 2010 Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Thursday, May 27, 2010 Friday, May 28, 2010 Saturday, May 29, 2010 Sunday, May 30, 2010 Monday, May 31, 2010 Tuesday, June 1, 2010 Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Thursday, June 3, 2010 Friday, June 4, 2010 Saturday, June 5, 2010 Sunday, June 6, 2010 Monday, June 7, 2010 Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Thursday, June 10, 2010 Friday, June 11, 2010 Saturday, June 12, 2010 Sunday, June 13, 2010 Monday, June 14, 2010 Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Thursday, June 17, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 Saturday, June 19, 2010 Sunday, June 20, 2010 |