Saturday Night

Well, evening... one of my Saturday classes was cancelled so that means I only work 4 hours. Those 4 hours are 10-12 and 3:30-5:30, grr. But I exercised during the break and then went to a movie with a sister from my congregation. We saw "Mamma Mia." It was pretty cute.

The funny thing is this sister speaks no English, and she is so sweet and one of those people who is so good at talking to anyone and engaging them in conversation, but I never have any clue what she's saying. Most people I understand about 80% and bluff my way through the rest, and if I'm missing a big part they figure out some way to explain it to me. Or I can catch enough to nod or shake my head at appropriate times. Not with her. It's like, I recognize the language you're speaking as Chinese but I still can't understand it. She never loses patience though.

Afterward we went for a snack- she suggested tea but I can't drink tea at night or I can't sleep so we went for this unique treat- shaved ice, condensed milk and some sort of topping. I'd gotten it in Taichung at a place that made it with fresh fruit and it was really good. But they also make it with beans- red beans or black beans or something like that. It was a crazy long discussion to get me to order- I said any kind of fruit is OK, if they have mango or watermelon or passionfruit that's the best- but apparently they didn't- so finally I pointed to something at random on the menu and said, oh this! I love this! It turned out to be the ice and condensed milk with some kind of beans that were green (not green beans) and tofu. Yes, love that! It was fun though.

The hilarious thing: we met at the movie theater and I was early so I sat down on this couch. A minute later two Chinese girls sat down next to me and I overheard this conversation (in Chinese):

Look at that foriegner! She's so beautiful.
It's true. Why are all foreigners good-looking?
Well, their noses are big and their eyes are big.
It's true, and her nose is really big.
And her skin is so white.
(Then I couldn't really understand the rest.)

It's such an awkward thing when people talk about you. At what point do you say, "I can understand Chinese"? Then my friend came and of course we spoke Chinese but I don't think it fazed them.