October 15 - A Chicken Leg From Strangers

First, before I forget again, I'm going to insert a photo of my massause.   I forgot to add it to yesterday's posting.

As I walked back to the hostel, I diverted my path to take in the 4th Annual Folk Art Festival that was being held not far from my hostel.  It was very similar to our similar festivals, with lots of booths of crafts.

Shortly, I decided I needed to get something to eat -- always a huge challenge unless I was willing to change my attitude and eat at American chains -- because there are plenty of them everywhere in the cites: Subway, Dairy Queen, McD, KFC, etc.  But part of my fun here is pushing my comfort zone -- particularly in trying to get something ordered even if it something that is not unusual.

After passing by many restaurants -- including some that would have made ordering easy (photos), I happened to pass a series of food stalls that Hongwei had pointed out to me during our walk.  I remember him saying something about there being lots of popular food at these booths (confirmed by how crowded it was) -- and it reminded me of a line of food carts on each side flanking small tables.  Noisy and plenty smelly as the first booth featured the ever common "stinky" tofu that is popular China.

I walked the entire length, both sides and finally decided that I wasn't hungry enough to be very adventurous -- settling on a simple bowl of rice.

I found an empty seat with 3 others (2 guys and 1 girl) who were obviously together.

I smiled, pointing -- and they smiled, pointing.  It was clear that I could sit there.  I started to eat my rice (cold and not at all tasty) and ventured the common "do you speak English?"  They all laughed and said no -- but then the older guy said "Where you from?"  Momentarily I thought he might speak a little English, but when I replied "America" -- he gave a blank look and after I tried a couple more times, I realized I wasn't getting through.  I then attempted "Meiguoren" which I can now write because I've looked it up...but at the time it came out of my mouth something like "why reeg run."  They laughed but the girl figured it out and repeated it for all and all heads nodded and smiled.  As I have described before, after a few words -- any words -- a comfort sets in that allows those I meet to try more English.

They were eating a whole cooked chicken -- like the ones available in all the USA grocery stores -- but interestingly it was served with light weight plastic gloves -- so it could be eaten right there without getting messy (you can see the gloves in the photo).

Well, the girl grabbed off a leg and offered to me.  I accepted and devoured it -- it was excellent.

A few more words and the common question "How old you?"   In the moment I forgot something I learned on a prior trip, that Chinese count to 10 with just one hand.  So after I counted my fingers to six and then to 2, the older guy took great pleasure in making sure I knew that 62 should be signed with just a six (holding your hand as we might if we were trying to indicate "hang loose") and 2.   We then said goodbyes and they disappearred into the crowd.

Another fun moment of the trip -- and the chicken was excellent, making my rice taste even worse!