And everywhere that Mary went
The problem with blogging is that you have to be fast. If you don't blog an idea today, something more blogworthy will come along tomorrow and your idea won't get written. For example, I was planning to write about our apartment, to give you a first hand account of life in China with a bit of philosophical musing about roughing it. However, before I could write it, we went to dinner and, well, something happened. Or didn't happen, rather. Let me explain....Right now, for us, getting something to eat is a challenge. When we go into the store, we're confronted with all sorts of odd foodstuffs with Chinese writing on the package. There may be a pack of hotdogs sitting on the shelf, but we have yet to recognize it. The result is that we've been slow to stock our pantry and, for the time being, are compensating by dining out for at least one meal a day. (It's easier to eat unknown food if it's just plopped before you rather than having to purchase and cook it yourself. The latter gives you too much time for the imagination to work.) So this evening, we decided to go out for supper. Problem is, we don't know where the restaurants all are and we don't want to get into a rut so soon. Hence, we ended up taking a stroll down one of the local avenues, in search of an establishment that looked safe. (We did a "fast food" lunch the other day--a noodle stew cooked in the open air--and Yau Neih's digestive tract is still recovering.)
We wandered a number of blocks and saw a variety of shops which we may patronize some day. The only things we picked up, however, was a shadow. At one point I noticed that a guy sitting on the side of the road was following us. He was a thin fellow, dressed in a black T-shirt and khaki pants. He wasn't directly following our steps--sometimes he would pass us and walk ahead a bit. But he followed us for a number of blocks. At first I thought he was a potential pickpocket, and I moved my wallet to my front pocket. Then, imagination kicked in and I wondered if he might be looking to catch us in the proverbial dark alley or, worse yet, follow us home to see where we lived. I started trying to think of ways to shake him--from dining at a fancy hotel to grabbing a cab and speeding away. But as we walked along, I began to relax. If he was looking to follow us home, and even if we shook his tail, he would probably find our location eventually. It's a small city and we've been told that there's only about eight Anglos living here. It doesn't take much genius to figure out that the mei guo family is staying at the Teachers' College. And, bottom line, if the Good Lord wants to allow this guy to hurt us somehow, it's going to happen no matter what I do. So I kind of made my peace with it all. Instead of trying to play cool, I'd look at him and make eye contact. I told Yau Neih and the girls about him, so they could get a look at him. (If nothing else, so they could describe him for the police report.)
Anyway, nothing so dramatic happened. Despite our concern and fears, we still had the basic need to find a place to eat. A few blocks from home, we managed to find a place that looked acceptable. (It was expensive, but we felt our tummies would be safe.) We sat down near the doorway and I grabbed the chair looking out. Our friend walked past the restaurant, but didn't come in. I gave him a wave and he saluted me. We ordered (a blog post in itself) and waited for our food. After a while he walked past again, headed in the other direction, and saluted again. Meanwhile we waited and waited and eventually got our delicious dinner. When we finally exited the restaurant, he was nowhere to be seen.
The question remains, was he some malicious dude, or just a nut fascinated by the foreigners? For all I know, I may find out in the days to come. 'Til then, I guess the best thing is to tell the tale and not loose too much sleep over it.
posted by John @ 10:16 PM
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