I learned a very important lesson today. No matter how small the errand is, I should never leave home without a book mark. For those of you who don’t know, my mom taught me how to make book marks by hand out of little glass beads. So when I decided to go to China, I set about making as many of them as I could to give to people as presents. My American friends helped me by eating altoids. Since the beads are glass, they are breakable, so I wanted to put them into altoid tins to protect them. Then my I commissioned my good friend Anja to paint the tins so that they would be pretty. I have about 20 of them, and I brought the beads to make more.
Today I decided I needed to go to the Merry Mart. The Merry Mart is the largest store near campus. Its very close, across the street from the northern gate of campus. There is even a bridge so pedestrians can cross the busy street without worrying about traffic. Trust me, that’s something to be worried about in Beijing. So I had a list, in my head of everything I needed, shampoo, conditioner, a blanket (so that when nights start getting cold I’ll still be able to sleep), an umbrella, yogurt, juice, instant noodles, jello, a pair of scissors and a pair of slippers. The shoes are to wear in my room. I am slowly understanding why people here think the ground is dirty. That’s cause the ground is dirty. I’ve noticed I track in a fair amount of dirt when I walk into my dorm room. I’m not the only one with this problem, one of the ICB professors, named Enoch, leaves his shoes out in the hallway so that he doesn’t track dirt into the room. I had started taking my shoes off, but then if there is any dirt in my room, it gets in my bed when I go to bed. So….I decided to buy some slip on shoes so that when I am in my room I can not only keep my feet clean, but keep the floor clean. These shoes aren’t leaving the room.
I have been to the Merry Mart a few times now, but this was my first time alone. I sorta learned the layout of the place, and I brought along my visual dictionary, cause I wasn’t certain I would be able to figure out the shampoo and conditioner (I never found the conditioner, but I got the shampoo which is more important to me), without it. I also emptied out my back pack so that I could put most the groceries in it for the walk back, and headed out.
When I was looking for the blanket, I must have looked very lost. I was in the correct section, scanning the shelves seeing if I could find them, and a sales lady came up and asked (in Chinese) if she could help me find what I was looking for. So…I have 3 cats, and one of them is named Tanzerin, which is German and means dancer (this is relevant to the story I promise). So Tanzerin sounds like 毯子人 (tanziren), and the first two characters tanzi mean blanket. I would never have remembered that word (cause it was in the supplemental vocabulary), except it reminded me of my kitty. So I told her what I was looking for, and although I used the wrong tone (she corrected me), she understood. She asked me what size I was looking for, and what color. She showed me where they were, and climbed up the most unstable looking ladder I have ever seen (I told her 小心/Be careful!), to find a purple blanket for me. I went to hold the ladder for her, and she thought I was going to try to climb it, and told me that she would climb it. It was held together with wire. I really appreciated her help, and it was really cool cause I understood everything that she said, and I’m pretty sure she understood everything I said. Happy day.
So the rest of shopping was pretty uneventful, I got just about everything I was looking for and I go through check out. So the cashier asked me if I had a card. I thought he was asking me if I was paying with a credit card, so I responded no. And that’s when I was adopted by a Chinese grandma. As I’m packing my backpack up with the stuff that the cashier had already scanned, this cute old lady comes up to me and hands me a card with Merry Mart written on it in Chinese. So I handed it to the cashier. I’m not sure exactly what it did. I looked at the receipt and I don’t see anything pertaining to a card on it. The cashier scanned it and handed it back to the old lady. Maybe it made my bill cheaper, maybe it just gave her credit for my purchases (cause I paid in cash, it wasn’t a credit card). When I asked the guy for a bag (cause my backpack was full) the lady repeated me, louder and with the correct tones, and made sure I got my bag. Then she escorted me out of the store (picking up two merry mart ads, one for herself one for me), and pushed my cart for me. She argued with two of the Merry Mart clerks when we got to the parking lot, because she wanted me to be able to take the cart out of the lot. She kept saying my bags were too heavy. I kept trying to explain that there was no need for her to worry, that although I didn’t have a car, I lived close, on the campus across the street. She showed me where the bus station was, and I finally got through to her that I could walk back without any problems. She pulled down the sleeves on my hoodie because it was cold outside, and I thanked her for her help.
This is where I get to the sad part of the story. When I was leaving my room this morning, I had considered grabbing a couple of the tins on my way out. But I assumed that it would just be a quick stop to the store, and I would not get lost, nor need any help, so I didn’t grab any. The situation I encountered I had never considered. Imagine at King Soopers, a little old lady helping a young Chinese girl go through the check out line. I am pretty sure that wouldn’t happen. Most people wouldn’t help a random foreigner out like that. Also it felt very weird that this old woman was pushing my cart around for me. I had the fight the part of my brain that was screaming hey you’re the young kid, help the lady out. So now I know, no matter how small the errand is, I am always going to have a bookmark on me.
Post from CU Denver student Kelsey Evans
Source: Pink Hair in Beijing
No comments:
Post a Comment