So, still no pictures. Need to figure that out.
The past few days have had their humor. Sometimes not always funny when it happened. For instance, last night after ordering a pizza, we waited an 1 1/2 hours (though we called a few times) before they told us they accidentally gave our pizza to someone else...if we wanted to wait another half hour, they would make us a new one and give us a whole 20% discount! (This was already 8:00PM, an hour past our kids bed time) Needless to say, we declined.
But today I had an experience that truly showed my lack of Chinese. I was at the hospital for some general check-ups (the international clinic is in the hospital). I thought, hey, the play next weekend needs some patient clothes for one of the costumes. From a past experience where a friend had to have an emergency appendectomy in the middle of the night, I knew you could purchase them at the hospital, at least during daytime hours (the middle of the night crisis get to wear their skivvies). So I started wandering around, trying to figure out where to buy them. Found the little convenience store, not in there, so asked the teller. She motioned me out the store and to the left. No sign of another store, so I asked someone else. After several people, I finally end up at a window, where they teller says, "Yes, here! 42 kuai!" (in Chinese of course) So I hand over my money and he hands me my change and a receipt...no clothes. Turns out you have to be a PATIENT to obtain clothes. But I've already given him my money, and I don't exactly know how to explain that I needed them as a costume and don't have a department to obtain them from...so I eventually go back up to the International Clinic to beg mercy.
Well, they laugh their heads off with me, but don't really know what to do about it. A friend walks up and we laugh about the story, and we ask if we can buy the clothes for him (as a patient) which he will then give to me. They're not sure if this will work. In fact, since they are simply an out patient clinic, I don't think they even know where to find them. So they call around to some nurses they know and find someone willing to trade my receipt for some clothes. They scribble down her department and name (in the equivalent to chinese cursive, nearly unreadable to a foreigner) and give me some broken instructions, half in chinese and half in English about where to go. So off I head across the hospital again, back down to the 2nd floor. Can't find this department. Start showing the slip of paper and asking around. Finally get instructed to use the other elevator (the one I had just used only goes to floor 4) to get to floor 5. Apparently you have to use one elevator to go down to level two, walk across the hospital, and use another to get to level 5. Of course they have half the elevators turned off, so in this elevator lobby there are about 40 people waiting to get on elevators. I talk Matthew into taking the stairs. Finally get to the 5th floor. We're apparently in the cardiatric unit, but there's two sections. Ask around the first, they don't know what I'm talking about, send me over to the second. These doors look scary, and the sign above says Intensive Cardiac Unit...um, am I allowed to just walk in here? So I wander in, Matthew in tow, wander down the hall, past the surgery rooms, ICU, ect. Finally find the nurse who was expecting me.
"What size?" She says. I tell her about my size. She hunts around forever...and comes up with an XXL. what? I know Chinese sizes run small and all...I try to get her to go smaller, but she is insistent that I need this large. I ask her if it's a women's XXL, nope, just a general one. They don't differentiate between sexes for these oh so attractive patient clothes. I ask her for a M size, she shakes her head and gives me a XL. "Pang!" she says, which means "fat!" Okay, this is the first time I've been called that in China...
After I left (XL in hand, I had given up by now) I finally realize I had been wearing my heavy winter coat, carrying two bags, two umbrellas, and a bunch of other stuff. I probably really did look "pang" to them.
Well, our poor Korean student will be wearing an XL set on stage next week. We'll have to make it work because I am NOT going through that again :-)
The past few days have had their humor. Sometimes not always funny when it happened. For instance, last night after ordering a pizza, we waited an 1 1/2 hours (though we called a few times) before they told us they accidentally gave our pizza to someone else...if we wanted to wait another half hour, they would make us a new one and give us a whole 20% discount! (This was already 8:00PM, an hour past our kids bed time) Needless to say, we declined.
But today I had an experience that truly showed my lack of Chinese. I was at the hospital for some general check-ups (the international clinic is in the hospital). I thought, hey, the play next weekend needs some patient clothes for one of the costumes. From a past experience where a friend had to have an emergency appendectomy in the middle of the night, I knew you could purchase them at the hospital, at least during daytime hours (the middle of the night crisis get to wear their skivvies). So I started wandering around, trying to figure out where to buy them. Found the little convenience store, not in there, so asked the teller. She motioned me out the store and to the left. No sign of another store, so I asked someone else. After several people, I finally end up at a window, where they teller says, "Yes, here! 42 kuai!" (in Chinese of course) So I hand over my money and he hands me my change and a receipt...no clothes. Turns out you have to be a PATIENT to obtain clothes. But I've already given him my money, and I don't exactly know how to explain that I needed them as a costume and don't have a department to obtain them from...so I eventually go back up to the International Clinic to beg mercy.
Well, they laugh their heads off with me, but don't really know what to do about it. A friend walks up and we laugh about the story, and we ask if we can buy the clothes for him (as a patient) which he will then give to me. They're not sure if this will work. In fact, since they are simply an out patient clinic, I don't think they even know where to find them. So they call around to some nurses they know and find someone willing to trade my receipt for some clothes. They scribble down her department and name (in the equivalent to chinese cursive, nearly unreadable to a foreigner) and give me some broken instructions, half in chinese and half in English about where to go. So off I head across the hospital again, back down to the 2nd floor. Can't find this department. Start showing the slip of paper and asking around. Finally get instructed to use the other elevator (the one I had just used only goes to floor 4) to get to floor 5. Apparently you have to use one elevator to go down to level two, walk across the hospital, and use another to get to level 5. Of course they have half the elevators turned off, so in this elevator lobby there are about 40 people waiting to get on elevators. I talk Matthew into taking the stairs. Finally get to the 5th floor. We're apparently in the cardiatric unit, but there's two sections. Ask around the first, they don't know what I'm talking about, send me over to the second. These doors look scary, and the sign above says Intensive Cardiac Unit...um, am I allowed to just walk in here? So I wander in, Matthew in tow, wander down the hall, past the surgery rooms, ICU, ect. Finally find the nurse who was expecting me.
"What size?" She says. I tell her about my size. She hunts around forever...and comes up with an XXL. what? I know Chinese sizes run small and all...I try to get her to go smaller, but she is insistent that I need this large. I ask her if it's a women's XXL, nope, just a general one. They don't differentiate between sexes for these oh so attractive patient clothes. I ask her for a M size, she shakes her head and gives me a XL. "Pang!" she says, which means "fat!" Okay, this is the first time I've been called that in China...
After I left (XL in hand, I had given up by now) I finally realize I had been wearing my heavy winter coat, carrying two bags, two umbrellas, and a bunch of other stuff. I probably really did look "pang" to them.
Well, our poor Korean student will be wearing an XL set on stage next week. We'll have to make it work because I am NOT going through that again :-)
1 comment:
Yep I laughed!!! What an adventure. It kinda reminds me of getting lost in a mall in Germany.
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