Post by con's fly is open on Jun 28, 2005 20:24:53 GMT 7
Another Slice of China
I got paid today, so I popped out to go buy some more T-shirts, stationary and crack. On my way I walked by my barber shop- well, hair salon, but I'm bald and keep a crew cut, so really any schmuck with a pair of clippers could do it in 4 minutes. Of course, this being China, they all do it with scissors and a comb, which drags it out to half an hour.
That's probably why I go to this woman, location aside: she has the most adorable child I have ever met. No, really: Mandi and a few of the Chinese teachers pop by just to chat with the little cutie. I'll have to photobucket up a portrait for y'all when my camera arrives. So during the ridiculously long process of trimming my hair I stay sane by talking to Lisa; she swaps me Chinese lessons for English lessons, then tops it off by playing a few ditties on her violin. Igor Stravinsky she's not, but give her time- she's 6 (or 4, who can tell?).
And the haircut is free. A 7 kwai value- suck on THAT, big city laowai!
So I walked past to mime my fingers as scissors cutting what little hair I have and intone "ming tian" as best I can. The woman came out, said "Will! Mandi!" (Will's one of my students) and dragged me off, leaving her salon behind.
I ended up on the second floor of a nearby restaurant, where I ran into Will, Jerry and their mothers (the cast of that dreadful karaoke night, on another thread here).Ally, too sorry, Lisa. Allie is her Chinese name (don't ask me the pinying spelling- I can't even spell "Pinying"), which doubles as a lovely and unique english name, but she recently picked Lisa. 
Among English names, Lisa's a Dave name, not as overused as Susan or Mary, but bad enough. So the first thing I did was try to talk her into a new one. I showed and intoned every variation: Alice, Alicia, Alicin, Allanna, Lana, Lara, Lisa. Alicin almost got her, but she wasn't budging off of Lisa. Mandi showed up- I was at a gal's outing.
The mothers promptly ordered jiaozi and beer. The former because they know I love them (actually I only order them because its the only dish I can say in Chinese); the latter because men like beer. Okay, they're right on that point, but noon, 'twas.
Well, TIFC. We all chatted away in pidgeon English, pidgeon Chinese and pantomime. Boy, the younger that kids are, the better parrots they are. Lisa's pronunciation is really choice. We swapped the words for Bowl and Soup, which I've already forgotten, all while the gals took turns ganbei-ing me.
Which brings us to the point of this tale: there I was, in a restaurant at lunchtime, with two of my young students running around, chatting with their parents, giving English lessons to a young tyke...
...while getting bombed.
I got paid today, so I popped out to go buy some more T-shirts, stationary and crack. On my way I walked by my barber shop- well, hair salon, but I'm bald and keep a crew cut, so really any schmuck with a pair of clippers could do it in 4 minutes. Of course, this being China, they all do it with scissors and a comb, which drags it out to half an hour.
That's probably why I go to this woman, location aside: she has the most adorable child I have ever met. No, really: Mandi and a few of the Chinese teachers pop by just to chat with the little cutie. I'll have to photobucket up a portrait for y'all when my camera arrives. So during the ridiculously long process of trimming my hair I stay sane by talking to Lisa; she swaps me Chinese lessons for English lessons, then tops it off by playing a few ditties on her violin. Igor Stravinsky she's not, but give her time- she's 6 (or 4, who can tell?).
And the haircut is free. A 7 kwai value- suck on THAT, big city laowai!
So I walked past to mime my fingers as scissors cutting what little hair I have and intone "ming tian" as best I can. The woman came out, said "Will! Mandi!" (Will's one of my students) and dragged me off, leaving her salon behind.
I ended up on the second floor of a nearby restaurant, where I ran into Will, Jerry and their mothers (the cast of that dreadful karaoke night, on another thread here).
Among English names, Lisa's a Dave name, not as overused as Susan or Mary, but bad enough. So the first thing I did was try to talk her into a new one. I showed and intoned every variation: Alice, Alicia, Alicin, Allanna, Lana, Lara, Lisa. Alicin almost got her, but she wasn't budging off of Lisa. Mandi showed up- I was at a gal's outing.The mothers promptly ordered jiaozi and beer. The former because they know I love them (actually I only order them because its the only dish I can say in Chinese); the latter because men like beer. Okay, they're right on that point, but noon, 'twas.
Well, TIFC. We all chatted away in pidgeon English, pidgeon Chinese and pantomime. Boy, the younger that kids are, the better parrots they are. Lisa's pronunciation is really choice. We swapped the words for Bowl and Soup, which I've already forgotten, all while the gals took turns ganbei-ing me.
Which brings us to the point of this tale: there I was, in a restaurant at lunchtime, with two of my young students running around, chatting with their parents, giving English lessons to a young tyke...
...while getting bombed.
Won't be long now. Hope you got enough change on the overdraft to shout a round. If not put it on George's tab. Very generous fellow and probably too 