There are a few things to which you become accustomed during your first few weeks in China (please excuse my broad generalizations based on my extremely objective personal experiences). Number one: if the buildings two blocks away do not look fuzzy, then it is a relatively good day. If the building across the street is hazy, that's a bad day. Secondly: walking down the street is like playing chicken. Not just with traffic, mind you, but others pedestrians. No one sticks any particular side, people dart about, and sidewalks are de facto parking lots. Third: you will not see the stars again until you leave (I'll admit I'm not used to that yet -- I may never be). But on to today's first topic: if you aren't fluent in Chinese, you must get used to being basically illiterate. There is a little thrill at finding a sign you can mostly or completely read. Most signs, advertisements, and bus route signs might as well be in Korean, for all I can decipher them. This bugged me at first -- we come from a very literate society. I'm not sure I could get around home without reading signs. I never realized how helpful the pictures on food packaging are. After all, how would I have any idea what 'Welsh Pepper Taste' crackers were without little pictures of red hot chili peppers? (Actually, I don't know what they taste like... but with that graphic, I'm not going to try.) Now, I blithely travel about my neighborhood, unable to read anything, but mostly getting done what I need to do.
Speaking of routine errands, it's amazing what you can get done with limited language skills. On the other hand, getting things done and getting things done the way you expected are totally different things. Today, for example, I went to the bank to exchange some more money, and bought some dumplings for dinner.
I had changed money on my second day in China, when I had no functional language skills for that action. It took several hours (two of the people I went with had traveler's checks of a type the bank had never seen). None of the bank employees spoke English, and the same form would be passed back and forth repeatedly as more blanks would have to be filled it -- which is what they probably told us, but none of us understood the first time. Today, I actually managed to get my proper bank ticket (it's a little kiosk -- you have to punch in what you want to do, and it gives you a number like at the supermarket deli) and could say my intention (wo yao duihuan waibi). In a fun twist, the bank teller I got today could speak a little English (passport, hundred) even though I could have (probably) managed English-free. Ah, well. It went quickly and trouble-tree today, and I count that as a total success.
Then I bought some dumplings. There is a little vendor after the check-out at the supermarket, and they sell several varieties. I could read that they were pork dumplings, all with different secondary ingredients, but I couldn't read most of those. So, I asked, as I know the sound of more foodstuffs than the characters. Still not much help, but I eliminated several varieties based on their names containing the words "sour" "tofu" or "spicy." I chose at random from the rest, and got a "large" plate (apparently the default, and she'd already starting filling the tray before I could formulate a response, so I ended up with 27 dumplings). Then, and here's where my success becomes a qualified success, apparently you can have them cooked or buy them raw. I apparently missed being asked if I wanted them cooked, so I got them raw. Ah, well, no harm no foul; there's a hot plate and a pot in the dorm kitchen, I can do the boiling myself. All together, my 27 dumplings cost 11 kuai, and shall feed me tonight, tomorrow night, and possibly for breakfast, too. Oh, and in case you're curious, they are pork-and-onion flavor, which is delicious. (And now, to outrage my favorite almost-veterinarian: yeah, I'm pretty sure this pork hadn't seen refrigerator in six hours, if ever. But I was impressed with the food-prep safety -- the lady used tongs to handle the grubby money and never her hands, and the whole stall was very clean-looking. Then I boiled the life out of the dumplings (literally: I misread the hotplate at first and cranked it up to 270*C. I have never seen water boil so fast.) So if I get food poisoning or whatnot, it is purely chance and not because I'm a crazy risk-taker.)
On that note, I am going to go look at the stars on Google Earth. How I miss them.
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