Yesterday, I lost my cell phone. I had gotten up early to take a taxi over to work at the private school where I work. My driver was more talkative than most drivers.
He asked me what my job was. He asked if I was french, and I said no, I am American. LIke most Chinese people I have met, he did a thumbs up and said that America is very good.
He said something about Obama, to which I said Obama is bad. I said Obama is a bad man. He smiled and made some sort of statement which he illustrated by taking a taxi receipt and holding it up against the rearview mirror of the taxi. I have absolutely no idea what his point was, but it was funny and he was friendly despite making me flummoxed.
He also said I had nice eyes, which would normally be creepy if a taxi driver told me that.
Anyway, I got out of the taxi at work. I was five minutes early and said I was going to Starbucks to get a much needed caffeine fix.
I then realized my phone had been left in the Taxi.
I frantically asked a fellow teacher to try calling my cell phone. There was no answer so I headed to Starbucks to make my craptastic day a little less craptastic by filling it with cafe latte.
Fortunately, when I got back with my cafe latte, the taxi driver had called back the teacher with my cell phone. He said he was going to bring it to the school.
I am now convinced that cafe latte is much like bacon. Just like bacon can make it better, so can cafe latte.
I was very relieved and gave a teacher 100 RMB to pay the driver for his trouble. I was not able to meet him because I had a student.
This is the second miraculous recovery of an errant cell phone that I have had in my life. It does not, however, top the recovery of a cell phone I lost in the middle of Tokyo in 2008.
I was in Tokyo in 2008 to see the Red Sox play the Oakland A's and some Japanese teams. On my first day, I was wandering around the center of Tokyo in a beffudlled, jetlagged daze.
I dropped my cell phone somewhere in downtown Tokyo.
Later the NEXT day, I asked a policeman in a SUBWAY station for help. He spoke NO ENGLISH. He had me fill out a short form, in english. I imagined I would have some explaining to do to the cell phone rental company at the airport when I departed.
However, the next day (two days after losing my phone) I received a TELEGRAM at my hotel. The police had found the phone and had HAND DELIVERED it back to the rental company at the airport.
This leads me to the belief that Tokyo policemen are superheroes capable of feats that rival those of the greatest psychic sleuths. They certainly would give encyclopedia brown a run for his money!
Anyway, my trusty Wuhan taxi driver performed up to task, and I got my cell phone back. The relief I felt was palpable.
I have been working at teaching. I slept about 11 hours the other day, because I get tired. I needed a rest you see.
Today, I had a delicious Sichuan dish, prepared in a less spicy style here in Wuhan. I had some rice and some "Shui Jio Rou Pian" which translates as "water boil meat pieces". It is very spicy and delicious. Pictures are below.
I am constantly handed small treats by other teachers. The other day I tried to catch up on the game of small treat giving by distributing some "soda crackers" in small wrappers to everyone. Today, I was presented with 6 Django Waffles, a dove candy bar and a Ferro Roche. I am not sure if this means I am now a player in the office distribution of sweets, or if it is a challenge to distribute more than soda crackers.
"boiled water meat pieces" is a soup that is so spicy in Sichuan that people not from Sichuan cannot eat it. In Wuhan it ranks as one of the more spicy things I have eaten.
Django Waffles and Dove Bars.
He asked me what my job was. He asked if I was french, and I said no, I am American. LIke most Chinese people I have met, he did a thumbs up and said that America is very good.
He said something about Obama, to which I said Obama is bad. I said Obama is a bad man. He smiled and made some sort of statement which he illustrated by taking a taxi receipt and holding it up against the rearview mirror of the taxi. I have absolutely no idea what his point was, but it was funny and he was friendly despite making me flummoxed.
He also said I had nice eyes, which would normally be creepy if a taxi driver told me that.
Anyway, I got out of the taxi at work. I was five minutes early and said I was going to Starbucks to get a much needed caffeine fix.
I then realized my phone had been left in the Taxi.
I frantically asked a fellow teacher to try calling my cell phone. There was no answer so I headed to Starbucks to make my craptastic day a little less craptastic by filling it with cafe latte.
Fortunately, when I got back with my cafe latte, the taxi driver had called back the teacher with my cell phone. He said he was going to bring it to the school.
I am now convinced that cafe latte is much like bacon. Just like bacon can make it better, so can cafe latte.
I was very relieved and gave a teacher 100 RMB to pay the driver for his trouble. I was not able to meet him because I had a student.
This is the second miraculous recovery of an errant cell phone that I have had in my life. It does not, however, top the recovery of a cell phone I lost in the middle of Tokyo in 2008.
I was in Tokyo in 2008 to see the Red Sox play the Oakland A's and some Japanese teams. On my first day, I was wandering around the center of Tokyo in a beffudlled, jetlagged daze.
I dropped my cell phone somewhere in downtown Tokyo.
Later the NEXT day, I asked a policeman in a SUBWAY station for help. He spoke NO ENGLISH. He had me fill out a short form, in english. I imagined I would have some explaining to do to the cell phone rental company at the airport when I departed.
However, the next day (two days after losing my phone) I received a TELEGRAM at my hotel. The police had found the phone and had HAND DELIVERED it back to the rental company at the airport.
This leads me to the belief that Tokyo policemen are superheroes capable of feats that rival those of the greatest psychic sleuths. They certainly would give encyclopedia brown a run for his money!
Anyway, my trusty Wuhan taxi driver performed up to task, and I got my cell phone back. The relief I felt was palpable.
I have been working at teaching. I slept about 11 hours the other day, because I get tired. I needed a rest you see.
Today, I had a delicious Sichuan dish, prepared in a less spicy style here in Wuhan. I had some rice and some "Shui Jio Rou Pian" which translates as "water boil meat pieces". It is very spicy and delicious. Pictures are below.
I am constantly handed small treats by other teachers. The other day I tried to catch up on the game of small treat giving by distributing some "soda crackers" in small wrappers to everyone. Today, I was presented with 6 Django Waffles, a dove candy bar and a Ferro Roche. I am not sure if this means I am now a player in the office distribution of sweets, or if it is a challenge to distribute more than soda crackers.
"boiled water meat pieces" is a soup that is so spicy in Sichuan that people not from Sichuan cannot eat it. In Wuhan it ranks as one of the more spicy things I have eaten.
Django Waffles and Dove Bars.
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