Another Thanksgiving has gone and past. In fact I forgot until the very day of. I must apologize for not posting in sometime. Stupid story. I landed a job, got busy, flew to a different city, forgot my power adapter for the laptop, didn’t have internet, been busy with job, etc. So finally I’ve gotten a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts. Thanksgiving the past couple years has been different than most. The last two in Colorado my roommates and I made a massive spread, invited a bunch of good friends over and partied like it was 1999. I try to watch the Lions play the Bears whenever I can. A past time that I share with my father. This year is a bit different. Heck, I didn’t even realize that it was Thanksgiving. So more or less it’s just another day for me. I ate some Chinese food, walked around, drank some beer and got lost in fog. The latter wasn’t really a day-to-day chore however I mention it because it was awesome. Please take a gander at the photographs below.
I can remember going to my Grandmothers house and eating until I couldn’t anymore. I defiantly miss that. Even so, I can still be Thankful for a few things. Good friends, a job, a life, and so on. So with that being said, what I have been up to.
Well, I have a job, yes, I am a freelance creative artist. I sat that because it sounds good. Most I am a freelance photographer and designer. I am currently working on a project. I am totally stoked to have a job and be working on something. Especially being creative.
I mentioned something about a girl last post. I shall now elaborate a bit on that subject. I am not madly in love or anything, however this is the story, it’s kind of interesting as to how some may meet the opposite sex in China. There is a store near my house that I used to go to everyday. I still do however it’s for different reasons now. Before it was the fact that it was the closest to my ultimate destination. Now it’s mainly because I am “crushing” on a girl that works there. I always bought a Coke and a iced red tea. Maybe I would throw in a popsicle. Lately they have been out, so disappointing. When I would go to this store the employees would follow me around willing to answer any and all questions that I never asked. One could compare them to hawks. Well if you haven’t noticed I am a white guy in a country full of Chinese people. Most of these girls are from different area of China. The city that I live in is very similar to Vail in respect that there are not many people here are born and raised. The most development has occurred in the last 5 years. So there girls are not used to seeing a foreigner. They would giggle and laugh. Mostly at my funny faces I would make.
Tangent. Most young girls you see working in shops all look sad and about to huck themselves off a 10 story building. Why, think about it, you have no skills, didn’t go to college, are going to work a dead-end job forever, have more pressure than men to marry, have kids, have a life, some girls just give up. Hell I don’t know if this is true, it makes sense to me. In any case they look sad all the time.
There was one girl in particular who did not look sad; in fact she was cheerful and always smiled. Anyhow, I got the guts one day to give her my number. Now I am a shy guy, which is not good in China. The girls here want a man in control, and from what I am told you have to boss them around. Don’t worry it’s totally common. Besides Chinese guys will do more than I ever will. I don’t like to boss, demand, or tell someone what to do. It’s hard for me unless, well, I don’t know.
I walked into the store with my game plan. I grabbed a Pepsi just to mix it up and maybe throw her off guard. I reached the counter, oh, did I mention that I had a hell of a hangover. Yeah, I wasn’t feeling hot at all. So I swaggered up to the counter and put my Pepsi onto the metal table scanner thing that was made of stainless steel. She smiled and rang it up while I went over the Chinese in my head. I asked for a receipt, wrote my number on it, and my name, gave it to her and told her to give me a call. I then said bye bye, I know cheesy but it’s what you say, and strolled out like nobodies business. 3 meters out the door I realized that I had only given her the first 7 digits of my number. In the PRC there are 10 or 11, heck I don’t remember. So yeah, that went great.
The next day I went back in and she proceeded to say a bunch of words I didn’t know, something to the effect that you gave me the wrong number here is mine. So she gave me her number and we have been texting since then. I talked to my Father the other day and the first thing he says to me is, “so about this girl.” Good to talk to you too Dad. “So she speaks English then.” Nope, not at all. Not really. Nope. Which is way weird for me. In speaking with this girl I have learned quite a bit. In fact I can read basic things. So funky. I am reading Chinese. But hey, what’s one to do. So her and I chat a lot, but haven’t really gotten the chance to hangout. She doesn’t get a day off and works 10-11 hours per day. Sounds like total fun. Sucks. But yeah, good stuff. I’ve gotten super fast at looking things up in a dictionary and whatnot. This is bad, because when I go to the store she starts talking superduper fast, thinking I can read Chinese and all that jazz. Oh man, it’s frustrating to say the least. Trying to communicate in a different language. Understand what’s going on, translate, understand the culture, what she means, when she is joking. But you know, it’s fun too. Of course everyone at work knows what’s going on and as soon as I roll in the comes hopping out to see me. One day I had 7 girls all speaking to me at the same time. I might of said that before. That’s mind blowing. Nice to meet you, where you from, a thousand other questions I didn’t know what the heck they were talking about. I had to bail.. ahh….
That’s really all that has been happening. So, I should return to the house and be on a somewhat normal schedule soon. Until then to ta loo..
Attack of the Thanksgiving fog.
On and off switch Chinese style.
Pretty much the best wings ever. Look at all that goodness just waiting to be bbq’d up.
Here are the rest of the photos thus far on my little working vacation.Yes that is a jar of Vaseline. Don’t ask me I don’t have any knowledge pertaining to that.
