My eyes deceive me, 2 foreigners in my town

On Dec 29th, after work, Mr Lee was taking Ling and I to dinner again.  This time Doe and Mrs Song were coming as well.  We took the suv which usually means we are going some place a little more off road.

We pile in and as usual I don’t know where we are going or which number 1 we are eating with.  On route to the restaurant we turn left go a little up the street and I see two people riding bikes complete with saddlebags and official bike pants.  We pass them up and I take a second look.

HOLY COW it’s 2 white people.  Of course I’m shifting in my seat getting all excited like a little kid (which they like about me) and I’m like HEY it’s two laowhy’s and before I could say can we stop, enough Mandarin was being bounced around that they knew I want to say hello.

In fact, before I could ask if they could come to dinner Mr Lee said I should ask.  Perfect! Problem was we passed them up and they just turned LEFT.. After them… Don’t let them get away. I’ll run if I need to.

Anyway, there hotel was just up the street and on the opposite side so no problem catching up.   My guess is that if I ran to them I’d probably freak um out right?  A buzz is in the suv for sure.

I am able to stop them, not hard they were strolling around.  After a brief intro by me.. hey i’m a doctor and the CEO is in the car, want to come have a traditional chinese dinner?   They drop off their bikes, pile in the suv and off we go.

We went to a new place and cows were in our way. We only had to bump one of them..just kidding.  I think Ling was very proud of me because I was doing the quick run down of dinner culture… I think I tried to assess what they knew as to not insult them to much.  Dinner table did not have the lazy susan top but oh well.

Drank some pu’er tea, could’ve been brewed with hotter water but descent none the less.  To my surprise there were no number one’s… he just wanted to eat with us…he has a toothache and he couldn’t even eat much. Poor guy.  It was cool for me, he let me pick the drink and ordered a bunch of beef dishes because you know us foreigners like the cow meat.  I brought a bottle back and he gives it a look, shakes his head and scuffs at the cheapness.

Bring a different bottle please.  A couple of light toasts, some random people stopping by to say nihao, and lighting  a cig for him and dinner was complete.   The pop and circumstance was not there tonight at all.

After the night was over, Ling said she thinks he treats me as a semi-son.  Wants to make sure I’m happy and always wants to make sure I’m safe (which is an unofficial but expected job of hers) and orders things he thinks I will find delicious.

I’m sure its a mix of making me happy, make him look good , and overall does care about my well being..and protect the investment.  I hear there is even a written plan in place in case I do get injured.

But also, she commented that he likes how I treat all the #1’s that come to the office.. whether from a different city hospital, a local biz person etc and of course talk up my boss in front of them as well.  I’ve been taught well about dinner culture and I try to adhere to it: that also makes him and myself look good.  Honestly, I like him. He treats me very well, VIP style, it seems like he does more for me than he really has to, speaks highly of me to others, and i think genuinely likes my personality and childlike love and excitement for my job and people.

Some of the patients get a kick out of me singing along and gyrating to my music and attempting to speak their language. Got to meet his daughter the other day over dinner too. She can speak english quite well and is going to up state new york for college.  She seems outgoing, dedicated to her studies, and mature for her young age And is aware of some pitfalls to avoid so that she fulfills her dreams.

  ((( http://www.z2strony.pl/chiny-nigdy-nie-wiesz/ )))))   (their version of the encounter)

Back to the story ( i warned you i go on tangents).  Dinner was delightfully low key and i think we all enjoyed listening and asking questions to the 2 Polish cyclists.  They have been traveling for 3 years.

Just made it to China a week ago after touring southeast asia by bike..YES you heard right, they will be cycling from town to town for another year through China, fly to another country and then make the trek back to poland.  They weren’t even the weird hippie types either.

He still has a real engineer job he does via wifi and she had a good job with a good company prior to this life changing adventure.  Wow, consider that stereotype shattered.

I was quite pleased that they still wanted to hang out so they accompanied  Ling and I to the only real coffee shop in town (only found it a week ago).   Bailey’s in coffee, Kalua in coffee, hot cocoa, and two desserts..one was coconut flavored.  Anyway, a few hours later it was late and we parted ways.

In my opinion, great conversation about our work, schooling, cultural stuff, more cultural things, travel, living life with a translator,  the how/what/why for each of us being in this town etc etc   Ling said she could understand all the conversation and to be honest they did not have a bad accent at all.  Just enough accent to make it fun to hear them talk but still super easy to understand.

I think she did well with telling her stories and even though a couple times I had to do the interpreting for a change, 95% was understandable… heck i know i can talk fast so I was hoping they were good with my speech as well.

Quite the excitement to interact with another westerner and have new fresh stories to hear/tell and be able to share some of my oldy but goodies.  They have each other but my guess is that after a while it’s nice to mingle with other people of the same tongue.

Best of luck to them, safety and great times. We all agreed, the chinese are very warm and friendly people.

((( i saw these 3 monkeys in a cage next to the house warming party i mentioned on facebook.. rumor is they might be dinner one day.   Other pic is the classic cross arms and take a shot  I like you/respect/buddy type toast. that guy is the father of the new home owner )))