Like A Child

In many ways our life in China has made me feel like a child again. Arriving in the airport, we were met by the recruiter and our real estate agent who immediately realized that we could no longer be trusted to carry any bags or enter a car without being told where to sit. Navigating the street, a firm hand was placed on our elbows. Nothing was going to happen to their charges!

Then there is the language. We do not understand what the storekeepers or the taxi drivers are saying. If shopping, I am now reduced to pointing my fingers until I get what I want. When it is time to pay, I look at the cash register, but if there is no display I trustfully put money in my hand, and they take what they want. And like a child I trust that this is OK, everyone seem very honest. Once in a small restaurant I ordered a dish which was not available, and therefore had to re-order. The bill is written when you order, and unbeknownst to me, the meal I received cost slightly less. Two seconds later the waitress came running with 4 RMB (About 60 cent) and apologized for having overcharged me.

As for the taxis, since I can not explain where I would like to go, what can I do? Use a taxi-book, which is cards with directions in English and Mandarin. So I flag down a taxi, hand him my note and wait for a nod to tell me I can enter the taxi , yes he can take me.

But what if we do not have a card? This presents a problem, but there is always someone looking over us,only a phone call away . As soon as a cab stops, we call someone who speaks Mandarin and they become our voices as we hand the phone over to the driver, wait for his nod before climbing in, yes he will take us.

We love picture books, or rather picture menus. Eating out is not a luxury in Beijing, it is what people do. The more Western the restaurant, the more Western the price and the other way around. The price index goes down as the "local" index goes up. And the more local,the less chance of any English either spoken or on the menus. But then there are picture menus;big, glossy pictures; we point,we look,we show the waiter. And what appears is really tasty!! As we have started to learn characters, we now know that the lamb letter has horns- we can avoid pork!!

Surrounded by syllables and tones totally new to our brain, we slowly start imitating what seems most basic and important: Go right-youbian, go left-zuobian, go straight- zhi zou. As we start to know our neighborhood, these words haltingly escape from our lips. Perhaps the tone is not quite correct, but our joy is great when the driver indicates he understands what we are actually trying to say.

When Philip gets home from work, he becomes my playmate as we play computer games. Only the game is real- we are trying to pay our bills on-line(new to us) Whose account number are we supposed to put in, ours or theirs? Why did the screen go blank?? Do you think it is going through?? Bingo !

I am a little jealous of Philip as he has already started school (Mandarin). But next week I hope to start school as well. And then, we are getting bikes- can't wait to race around the neighborhood!!
Astri