The most fun I have in China is when I entrust myself to my Chinese friends. I ended up drunk in Shanghaiguan having a heart to heart with a Chinese girl over duck heads one night and celebrating a man's daughter's 100th day of life in his bar the next. One day I walked around for an hour trying to get in touch with a guy I'd met on a bus who wanted to take me out to dinner but was to Chinese to admit he had no clue where I lived (oh yeah, he didn't speak any English) and another I was brought to an all Chinese variety show where I was asked by one of the women there if I wanted to get on strange (I said no). You know the interesting thing? All of this happened in the last week.
If there's any advice I can give you it's that when you're in China just let the Chinese usher you around like a child, it's kind of fun. I mean, I'm a traditionally overly independent American like the rest of us. But sometimes it's fun to let the Chinese girl you just met that day grab on to your arm and ask overly personal questions as they tell you should eat stomach and promptly take you out to dinner. You can't get offended by it or even annoyed. Chinese people are completely harmless and honestly kind of adorable when you get used to the crazy shit they do. Sure I swear under my breath at the old men who stare at me non-stop during an hour bus ride, it's still creepy! And I get annoyed at the 10th text in one day from a Chinese person I gave my phone number to out of nothing more than reluctance but that doesn't mean I can't love the Chinese people too.
Chinese people have a lot of ideas about what's best for a person especially what's best for their health. In fact a lot of the things they think sound absolutely crazy! But you still have to smile and nod along when you're co-worker who gave you food poisoning tells you that you MUST eat such and such because it's so good for you or you're told to wear more layers when it's 70 degrees out and you're already sweating. Or when an old lady tells you you won't be able to have children because you're sweating from physical exertion (well that was a male friend of mine, but it's still funny!)
No, I don't want to take advice from people who have their kids wear pants with slits up the ass in the middle of winter (when it's below freezing!) or from people who find it necessary to wear long-underwear when it's in the 50s (what are you going to wear when it gets colder?!) But at the same time, even if it's not helpful this stuff leads to good stories and every once and a while you find out you like something. I mean, who knew duck head was delicious?! Ma
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