Mandarin Lessons

My first week in Shenzhen. My first week in CHINA. Wow. I cannot stress how amazing this week has been. Today, though, was a special day, a unique day; I had my first real moment of frustration.

Pizza Hut in China!

I was leaving my first session of Mandarin class (I am taking the one month intensive course which I HIGHLY urge everyone to take, now) and was headed for lunch. Now, the past few days I was able to get by by simply pointing at pictures and laughing off my obvious Mandarin mistakes. I must emphasize how amazing, patient and charismatic the Shenzhen people are! Anyway, I was able to fulfill my hunger by pointing at pictures, BUT today I decided to go to one of the restaurants on the first floor of my Mandarin school building. I confidently go into a restaurant thinking “pictures and smiling”, but no. No pictures, a lot less smiling.

Chinese dessert

Everything was in Chinese characters. Even the prices! And the place was packed. I sat down, trying hard not to give up and a waitress came along handing me a piece of paper that looked like a menu that I had to hand over to the cooks at the bar. I immediately went blank and asked if she knew English. She nodded her head, smiled and LEFT. This was both the cutest, funniest thing that I could have witnessed and thee most frustrating and scary moment. NOW WHAT? So, I got up, followed her and asked if she had chicken dumplings (in Mandarin because I had just learned how to say dumplings earlier that morning), but apparently my accent sucked and she did not understand a word I was saying, and again, she left me standing in the middle of other hungry people walking to the bar to hand their menu to the cooks.

I did not give up, though. I walked up to another waiter, and he was able to point out at the Chinese symbols that meant dumplings. I was so happy!!! Unfortunately, they only had pork dumplings and to my luck I do not eat pork. So, all of that effort for zero food and a half-defeated me! Oh well. I kept walking along the first floor and found another lunch place that I was extremely excited about; it was a type of make-it-yourself soup. To my left of the shop there were some baskets with CHICKEN dumplings, meat skewers, veggies, noodles and some other delicious/extravagant looking Chinese food. I saw other customers grab a bucket and start picking and placing ingredients into it. So, I did the same. I eventually got my soup and it was delicious. It was a type of miso broth with all of my chosen ingredients. I swear to you, I loved this place so much it will definitely be one of my go-to places for lunch.

My miso broth noodle soup

 

So, in the end, it worked out perfectly. Good food and learned lessons. Thank you, Shenzhen and your people!

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