Taken Advantage of...

My blog has many hats, but the main one is to remember these events which happen while living here in China. This one, I think is funny and so weird. Let me tell you what just happened to Stan and I. I am going to try my hardest to express to you in the best way what just happened. We just got back from the weirdest experience here in China. We were getting hungry, as you do around dinner time. So we decided to go get our regular 5 kuai worth of fried dumplings and 5 kuai worth of fried rice and share it. That's our default if we aren't feeling like anything in particular. Well, it was sounding pretty good to me tonight and the price was as well! Sooooo cheap! So, as we were leaving the apartment we got to the front gate and a student ran up behind us and said, "Hello where are you going?" We told him we were going to go get some food. He introduced himself (I can't pronounce it) and said it was nice to meet us (before we told him our names, but that's not rare) and walked with us until it was time for us to turn to go get our food. While he walked with us, he said he sold flowers. His English was not very good and it was difficult to understand him, but I think that is what he was trying to say. He gave Stan his business card and told him to call him if he wanted to buy me flowers. He told Stan he would show him the flowers if he wanted him to. Stan politely declined and said he would call him if he wanted flowers.

We got to our turn off the road and told him it was time for us to go eat. He paused and said, "Come with me, I'll show you." We told him again we wanted to go eat and were not interested in looking at flowers. He said, "No I will show you. Come with me to eat." Oh! Ok, I understand...but we really wanted some dumplings and rice...well ok. Is what we were thinking. I thought it might be a good thing and we might make a friend. So he brings us to this really expensive restaurant just around the corner. We have never eaten there, but you can always tell when it is expensive. He told us he had eaten there earlier this afternoon. So he ordered for us. The first thing he ordered was 46 kuai...that's 41 more than the dumplings we were going to eat! So we said, "No! Too expensive!" So he ordered us some things that were less expensive. He ordered for us, but did not eat! Ok, I'm thinking this is so weird. He continues to explain his flower business. And shows us a "9.5 kuai" number on the card. But I did not understand what he meant. I asked if that meant the flowers were that much and he nodded his head. Then he asked if he could ask his girl friend to come join us. Well of course, we said. So, in comes his girlfriend and she introduces herself as Lily. He says Lily will one day be his wife and she laughs and rolls her eyes...yeah. So she sayd, "Guess how long we have known each other." We guessed 2 months. No. 2 weeks? No. 2 days? No, 3 days. And the boy thinks he's gonna marry the girl, who obviously does not agree! So throughout dinner, it would have been silent, had Stan and I not carried the conversation. He did ask us if he could come home with us to America when we go back. So, that was painfully awkward.

After dinner, he showed us the card that said "9.5 kuai" on it again and asked us if we wanted to see the flowers. Again, we politely declined and said it was time for us to go home. He took us up front to pay for dinner. It took a long time to get the check and they were talking in Chinese. So we could not understand them. Then we get the check, and it is suspiciously around 9.5 kuai more than it should be, by our calculations. Hmmmm, we pay anyway. And we say good bye to them. I looked back as we were leaving, and the boy was going back inside the restaurant...probably to collect his payment. We think maybe he had some sort of deal with the restaurant to get people to come in. I don't know. All we know is that we got taken by a Chinese guy!!! Won't happen again! It was definitely weird and awkward! LOL I wanted to remember that, and I hope you got a laugh! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think of me in China! I love you all!!