After leaving the garden we went to an underground shopping area near a subway station. This is where things start to go bad. By now the sting of paying too much for a taxi is starting to take its toll and my mood turns foul. I start to lose interest in my surroundings and I brood on what transpired the night before. H.L. takes note of my mood and tries her best to cheer me up. As we are walking around the shopping area an idea comes into my head. "Boy I sure would like to see Ally again", I think to myself. Maybe I can convince H.L. to give her a call and the three of us can hang out later tonight, that would cheer me up. H.L. wouldn't mind, right? Wrong. At first she seems fine with the idea and we start looking for a pay phone, after talking to Ally for 5 minutes she turns to me and tells me Ally will meet me at 7pm at the Aquarium. "Well, what about you?" I ask.
"I won't be going", she says.
"Why not, Ally barely speaks English I thought the three of us could hang out again like last night".
Now, let me explain that I didn't have the best intentions when it came to Ally BUT, they weren't as bad as you think either. I just wanted to get to know her better. After all I might be moving to China in a few months and it would be great to have a friend when I got there. H.L. wasn't buying it.
"I don't want to go, you two go by yourselves, she'll meet you at 7pm."
"OK, but it's only 1pm, what am I supposed to do until then?"
"Just wait for her by yourself."
(*gulp* I'm in deep now).
"Well, 7pm is too late, can she meet US earlier?"
"No, she works today, she can meet YOU at 7pm."
"Well I don't want to sit there waiting for her for 6 hours by myself, tell her it's too late".
"But I want to go shopping by myself, go and wait for her".
(*sigh* You won ok? Just let it go).
"Ok, I'm not going to wait for her for 6 hours, let's go do some more shopping get some food and talk for a bit ok?"
"Ok, I have another friend CiCi that we can meet, she is one of my best friends. I'll call her".
"Ok, cool".
And that was that. We did some shopping, walked around, and took some photos. (Story continues below).
Why are any and less capitalized? China has the same problems with English that Korea does. I think it's cute, H.L. thought it was embarrassing. She tried to cover my camera but I managed to get the shot anyway.
We did a little grocery shopping comparing prices for items in China, with Korea and America. China always won the price war. I bought some iced coffee which turned out to be a mistake. I ended up spilling it on my white shirt. I went to the bathroom to try to clean it off but it was still noticeable. So much for impressing H.L.'s friend CiCi. This turned my mood even darker, by now I was barely speaking to H.L.
We met CiCi a few hours later and she turned out to be very good at English and incredibly sweet. It was however, too late to change my mood, my mind was made up at this point I really hated this trip. I tried my best to converse with CiCi but it seemed H.L. was doing her best to keep the conversation in Chinese and keep me out of it. I finally managed to get in the conversation but I was unable to avoid the 3-T's trap. As a visitor in China it's wise to avoid the topic of the 3-T's, Taiwan, Tibet, and Tiananmen. After just a few minutes I was in way over my head with both of them teaming up on me (do NOT talk politics in China). I did the only thing I could. I gave up the argument and the conversation stopped. By now H.L. was absolutely furious with me and refused to change the conversation back to English. I was also pretty mad. I asked them if they were going to pay for themselves as I sure as hell wasn't going to be anyone's sugar daddy. They agreed to go Dutch but H.L. was absolutely livid. I sat quietly and ate my food. I won't be asking to see CiCi again thats for sure.
After eating they did some more shopping and then we headed to The Bund for some pictures. As we were walking CiCi turned to me and asked me if I would wait here while they go and get some drinks. I figured they just didn't want to be anywhere near me and prepared myself for being abandoned. I had the address to my hotel so I wasn't too worried, just really upset. After what seemed like an eternity they came back and offered me some coffee. They apologized for the argument earlier and told me they were my friends and the coffee is a gift (a small gift of coffee from someone in a 3rd world country means more than a brand new car). Somehow I managed to spill the coffee for the 2nd time that day. I felt terrible and offered to pay them back but they refused. We walked around and took some pictures.
After spilling the coffee the flood gates opened and I started talking about my bad day. They listened patiently and offered advice and encouragement. I started to feel much better. A little bit later we decided to call it a night and left The Bund. I bid farewell to CiCi, apologizing for my behavior and wishing her a good night. H.L. and I took the subway home barely speaking to each other.
End part 5.
