The chubby kid in sweatpants...

This is hardly worth reading – but it’s fun for me to recall the memories…

So this past weekend I went to the city to celebrate Easter. It was a great time of making and decorating Easter cookies (crosses and circles – a.k.a. tombstones), spending time with people, playing Scrabble and Phase 10, etc. All together it was fun and refreshing.

Yesterday (Sunday) at about 4 pm it was time to head to the bus station to catch a ride back to the town I live in. I purchased my 17 Yuan ticket and found out that I was going to have to wait at the bus station for a while since the bus that was going to take me back to town hadn’t even arrived at the station yet. I sorta hung around for about a minute and then a guy at one of the bus station’s fruit/drink stands saw me and invited me to sit on an extra little stool at his shop. The guy was taking care of what seemed to be a very young baby and I was excited to hold it (the ‘it’ was wearing pink and blue so I am unsure of it’s gender) for a while.

Not soon after a boy (he must have been about 9 years old - he was wearing sweatpants and was chubby-for-Chinese-standards) came to talk to me. I knew what he was saying at first and told him I was from Canada, that I lived in Pt., and that I taught English at the high school in Pt. Then he kept talking and soon I was lost – I had NO idea what he was saying…so I told him “Dui bu qi, wo bu dong” (I’m sorry, I don’t understand). So, he got closer to my face, talked louder…and expected me to understand then. Again I told him that I didn’t understand what he was saying and then he got frustrated…he threw his arms up in the air, made a scene to my dismay, and shouted “Ni bu dong, ni bu dong, ni bu dong!” (“You don’t understand, you don’t understand, you don’t understand!”). Haha, I was embarrassed…people stare at me when no one is shouting at me – more people stared when this ‘rotten little kid’ just wouldn’t leave me alone (imagine 30-40 people…all waiting for their own bus to take them to where ever they are wanting to go to). Here I was trying to understand what he was saying but the louder he talked, the higher he threw his arms up the in the air, the more people stopped to look, the more embarrassed I got…the less I understood. I wanted to strangle the kid and tell him to get lost but I was polite. He just seemed so rude and arrogant (haha, even though I must have been almost triple his age I felt like a little girl being scolded) and wouldn’t stop talking. Anyway, he just shook his head and walked off after a while.

I was happy when the bus to take me back to my town arrived at the bus station. I grabbed my ticket, looked at the seat number: #22, said goodbye to the man and baby at the fruit/drink stand, and started making my way over to the bus. While other people were pushing each other onto the but I put the blender I had purchased in the storage area of the bus and then (one of the last) headed to the door of the bus, walked up the 3 steps, and made my way to the back of the bus…#22 it was right? Well, I got to seat #22 and gasped, “It can’t be!...please no!” – little Mr. ‘chubby-for-Chinese-standards in sweatpants’ was occupying seat #21. I felt like Mr. Bean as I pulled out my ticket again to make sure this was no mistake. Nope, the #22 on my ticket and the #22 above the seat looked exactly the same so I guess I was ‘stuck’ sitting with this kid for another 2 hours. I cringed (wow…I am giving you a glimpse of the dark, dark side of my character) and the boy’s face didn’t look too happy either. Anyway, I slumped down into my seat (I was thankful for a bus where the seats could tip back), crossed my arms and tried to pretend to sleep. Each time I opened one of my eyes the kid was staring at me…and by this point the bus hadn’t even started moving yet. Anyway, I was overjoyed that the boy kept quiet and soon the bus was on its way. I decided to sit up, cross my feet, and uncross my arms. The boy was still starting at me and decided to sit up as well, cross his feet as well, and uncross his arms. I looked at the roof of the bus and little Mr. also decided to look at the roof – he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying copying me. ~sigh~ He could tell I was somewhat miffed and it made him happy to see he had the upperhand. Oh well. Then about ½ an hour into the bus ride I was lulled to sleep by the rocking of the bus and not soon after I woke up because something was pushing down on my left arm. I looked over and saw the ‘all-of-the-sudden-not-so-intimidating’ boy sleeping against my arm...drooling and all. Well, that was kinda cute. All of the sudden I didn’t know why I had felt so hostile towards him just a bit earlier. Well…about 20 minutes later he woke up and seemed embarrassed. He looked at me once and then decided to hide behind the sheer bus-window curtain (still eyeing me every now and then). When we entered Pt. he nicely said “you’re back in Pt. now” and he patiently waited for the bus to stop and for people to get off. Then, when I stood up to get off the bus he practically pushed me back into my seat, wiggled his way past me into the isle, and left the bus.

Ok, that was a little long-winded but I thought it was kinda funny.