Mandarin Fails

With all these Mandarin lessons, I've been trying to go out on my own a little more, interact with the Chinese, and be a contributing member of society, aka shopping! I have failed every single time.

Shelly and I were browsing a store about a block away, but I wanted to wait to make a decision. When I went back later and described what I wanted to order, and when I would be back to pick it up, he go the totally wrong impressions. I ended up calling someone to translate, and then he called someone to translate, it was just a mess, and I ended up coming back with Shelly the next day to make the purchase.

Shelly actually seems to save the day a lot. I was heading to RT Mart (grocery store) to pick up a couple of things, and I asked her if they had eggs there. The Chinese are a little iffy on dairy so it was a legit question. She then offered to accompany me. It turns out, eggs are sold like fruit, but they have an employee bag how many you want, and put them on the scale for you before check out. Then, I actually needed an RT Mart card to purchase them. Shelly didn't know she was going shopping with me, so she didn't have her card on her, and she ended up asking the guy at the next register if we could borrow his.
Thank goodness for Shelly and the random stranger buying groceries next to us, or I would never have been able to make brownies!

Also, it's almost time to leave so I went to the bank to withdraw money in USD to bring with me. It's cheaper than transferring :) Before I went, I thought I was clever, I had Lisa write down in Chinese characters a message that said I had come to withdraw from my account and the amount I wanted in USD. Lisa then asked me, "you have everything, right?" Then I learned, in order to make a withdrawal, I have to have my passport, my foreign Chinese resident document, my pay slip and my tax slip. Woah. And it turns out, the bank requires not just one pay slip, but all my pay slips for the money I wanted to take out. I have to prove that I deposited that money, and that I was paid legally. It's not enough that the money is in MY account, I have to prove that I earned it. NER.

Well I have one more glorious day of school, and then I'm home free! So I'm signing off for now. More blogging to come January 7th.