Will Work For Food

Since my last post, I have met with my language partner, a diminutive Chinese girl who studies English here at the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU). Serena, she calls herself, picking an American name the same way American girls enjoy selecting Chinese characters to imprint on their bums and bellies. Serena is very sweet and very cute and extremely interested in the United States "culture." (I put culture in quotations because any American who has bothered to leave behind the McDonald's buffet or turned their backs on the night light that is the 24 hour Wal-Mart sign, would know that true culture does not begin to come to light until you hop a border fence or swim to the nearest continent.)

Anyway, Serena has become my confidante, my partner in language limbo. Her English is marginally better than my Chinese so a conversation between us sounds like a Laurel and Hardy routine. Last Thursday, we went on a journey to the grocery store in an area of the city called Wu Dao Kou (woo dow ko, meaning the area of five roads). Wu Dao Kou is a college student hub, as it is the commercial center for about 8 different colleges all here in the same neighborhood of Beijing.

The grocery store is like nothing ever witnessed in America. Look out Wal Mart, you may finally have some competition. This place is the OZ city of Asian food. And like everything else in China, it is big, very, very big. So, Serena and I decide to navigate through the hundreds of aisles of Asian food stuffs, American products with Chinese labels, and hot deli food. The deli is like a scene out of a Star Wars movie for me because I was seeing animals being sold for food that I was not convinced were suitable for human consumption, animal parts I could not identify with even a good anatomy textbook and of course, many, many heads still attached. They lay their staring at you through the hotbox window.

One thing I've noticed about the Chinese is that they will go to agonizingly burdensome lengths to help a friend or a guest and they have this inherent cultural norm to do things together. Serena worked her brain to the nub trying to understand me and explain what things were as I passed through the store like a kid picking out his birthday gift pointing at every new thing and saying, "Zhe shi shenme? (jeh sheh shenmeh, meaning, what is this?)"

We carried only a small basket around with us as I was so overwhelmed I didn't know what to buy (I mostly stuck with fruit since it is one of the few things I could identify) but Serena insisted on helping me carry it. This means, as in Chinese custom, each person holds one side of the basket at the same time and walk down the aisle together. The intention here is to be as helpful to your friend as possible so they do not have to bear the whole load. However, it is not the most efficient way to get around a crowded grocery store. Still, when in Beijing.... so I respectfully held my side of the basket, often getting dragged around rambunctious children, exasperated mothers and grumpy old ladies and bumping into all of them along the way.

Once we paid, we did the same with the plastic grocery bag, unsteadily walking the ten minutes back to the university as it swung awkwardly between us. We struggled with this bag, that I honestly could have carried easily by myself..... oh hell let's be honest, I could have carried Serena and the bag by myself.... as we dodged oncoming traffic from six lanes going in both directions. Serena seemed very calm through this whole journey but often times I actually held onto that bag for dear life.

By the time we made it back to the dorm, I was exhausted. A ten minute walk to a grocery store to buy an apple, a nectarine and two bottles of water made me feel like I had wandered the desert and then parted the Red Sea. Still, we had a good time and we both got to practice our language skills. And what's more, I learned the Chinese word for toilet paper.