Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Another way to Google / To China
So what else can one do with Google at 1:30 am in the morning when travel plans don't seem to be going anywhere and suddenly the most gigantic cockroach show up at your ceiling?I realized that Google could in some ways provide some kind of emotional support. Not a whole lot, but at least it helped me procrastinate somewhat before resorting to the final end - to kill it.
Sigh ... I never know how my mom does it. With one simple snap, she could terminate the lives of most cockroach visitors at home. And living in TW, we tend to have a lot.
On a slightly different note ...
I'm getting ready to go to China for a 12-day trip. I almost forgot how bureaucratic China could be at times till I called the hostel that I planned on staying in. When I inquired about the possibility of having them reserve train tickets for me, this is the answer that I got:
"We could only reserve it if you pay by cash and pay right away. We can't hold them for you without you paying first."
Then a simple click, the lady hung out.
Fine, I'll try again, this time, in English.
"Yes, we can reserve train tickets for you. What day do you want and which time? ... Ok ok, we'll let you know the details when you come."
Then another click, she hung up on me again!
At least there was a slight little advance of answer huh?
Then this morning, I got an email reply from the hostel. I didn't even expect them to reply, but the same lady (I believe) wrote:
"We could reserve tickets for you, no problem. You can tell us what train you want and we can receive and hold them for you ..."
Hmm ...
I guess there are always advantages of being a foreigner or "pretending" to be a foreigner who can't speak Chinese in China. I'm not sure if I should be more happy about the fact that I speak a language that would somehow fool people successfully online to get what I want, or should I feel pathetic about the fact that there's such a "favorable discrimination" in China?
In any case, I'm excited about returning to the country that I lived for 2 years. It's probably going to be unrecognizable, but I'm sure the food would taste insanely good.
Yum.
梅ちゃん at 3:58:00 PM
1 Comments
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at 8/9/06, 4:19 PM
said... hey may, it was soooo good to see you...just like old times. :) i wish we had more time to catch up this time, just the two of us! i hope you had a good trip back...missing you already!