Hope You Have the Time of Your Life

Traveling abroad was by far the highlight of my college career. I spent a good chunk of time in China, including a 3 month stint living alone and working in Shanghai, China. Here's an excerpt from my journal that I wrote at the time. China was a funny, exciting, challenging, phenomenal place!

One interesting story:

So today, after scoping out two apartments, one of which I've since accepted, I hailed a taxi to take me back to Mike's place. Of course I had no success finding a taxi on the main road, so I had to walk down an abandoned residential street to find one. I get in, and ask "Ni zhidao Hongchao Shanghai Cheng ma?," my destination. The driver responds "Yes. You speak Chinese very well!" (of course he does this in Chinese). So, I get in and after he starts driving, I take notice of the driver's ID picture that is displayed on the dashboard. To my dismay, the picture and the driver sitting next to me look NOTHING alike...very sketchy. Almost immediately the driver says "You are young, maybe 20 years old." I respond by asking "what makes you think that?" His answer, "the skin on your hands is very smooth and taught."!!!! I begin to silently panic. My driver is getting creepier and creepier.

The next thing I notice is that this particular taxi driver is VERY ANIMATED, as in he uses his hands A LOT when speaking. Okay, there's no way to adequately describe his gesticulations or speech, but, basically, the guy was the most FLAMING MAINLAND homosexual I had yet come across in China, haha (Those who know me know that I have nothing against homosexuals).

He and I begin talking about a lot of stuff including why I'm in China, how long, where i've been, the "Japanese devils," friends, salaries, etc. All of a sudden he passes me a white glove and tells me to wipe off the side view mirror. I do so, but as I hand him back the glove, I can't help but think he wanted my fingerprints on it so he could later frame me for the murder of the cab's true driver (need I remind you of the dashboard ID picture!!) No matter, I dismiss the thought....

We continue talking, and I laugh out loud about something. As I do so, I look over at him and he smiles giddily saying "I like you." Once again I am creeped out, because Chinese taxi drivers never behave in this manner...ever! He then proceeds to ask me where I am coming from, and rather than giving him the location of the apartment I'd just agreed to rent, I mention a different one (just didn't want to have worry about walking outside my future apartment one morning and seeing him waiting there for me, haha). So yada yada yada, we talk for a long time, and he ultimately requests that I join him for dinner one night at his rich friend's restaurant. He pulls out the business card for this restaurant, writes down his name and cell number, and gives it to me. WHAT! Mind you he still hadn't explained the picture or what became of the real taxi driver...

*later found out that my driver was covering for the actual cab owner who had called in sick.

Ultimately, I ended up paying 35 kuai for a trip that should have only been 15. The driver got so caught up talking to me and asking me weird questions that he drove at about 10 mph the entire time and missed all the right turns. I really liked the guy, but I was a little pissed about the cost. On the bright side, I got a lot of speaking practice.

Okay, enough and goodnight

I Hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. Isn't nostalgia the best?

Be well