Monday, June 22, 2009

ready, set, draw!

You all know how much I LOVE the series Deadwood. I have blogged about it ad naseum..

When I was traveling from Utah, I happened to have bit of difficulty returning home, our pilot was sick or something and we had to wait for a pilot, which of course meant we sat on the tarmac forever, and then of course I missed my connecting flight.

However when I sat down, I noted the passenger next to me holding his passport, along with his ticket, and other forms of ID. Of course I looked, and I determined he was from China. I then assumed he spoke Mandarin, so I proceeded to tell him hello in his native tongue. (DH minored in Asian Studies, and took Mandarin, I know 4 words, after lestening to Mandarin for 2 years)

Anywho his English was much better than my Mandarin. I learned that he and 2 of his business associates were headed to Nebraska for some business dealings, they were looking to buy some air conditioning coils from a company here...

I also learned this man, had never been to the United States, this was his first visit. Which I thought was uber cool. But I thought again and felt bad. Nebraska is pretty boring. He had a list of things his wife wanted him to buy while he was here, and frankly he was headed to a town with a population of less than 20,000. There is no mall. I tried to explain to him that he was headed to a farming town.

Like I said his English was better than my Mandarin, however we had to communicate with one another by drawing photos. He wanted to know what sort of souvineer he should take home, what sorts of food to try.

Out of the few words I know in Mandarin; I know thank you, horse, Mother, and hello. So I had to try and draw pictures of pigs, so he would try bacon. I looked through magazines for pictures of fruit. I learned he did not care for fruit, or sweets.

all of a sudden I felt like Al Swearingen from Deadwood



I hope he and his associates had a good trip out WEST. I am also doubting if he found the Gucci sunglasses his wife wanted out there.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Thanks for cheering my day up even more with a Deadwood clip! I heart Wu *and* Al. Hangdai!

Marc Miyake said...

You've told me this story before, but I'm glad to see it on your site with new details ... and a Deadwood clip!

Is Nebraska boring? I doubt it. Not as long as you and your family are there!

BBB said...

@amritas: nebraska IS boring.


and for gucci sunglasses!
haha, i love the asians! there love for designer labels is worse than mine!

Harvey said...

I had a similar experience with the "friendly women" in Rio, because I didn't speak Portuguese.

Anyone who travels out of country should brush up on their Pictionary.