“Which one are you ?”, Kelly asked me.
“Monkey”, i replied after a brief pause during which i pretended to consult the small Chinese Zodiac Signs chart. i did not want to appear too eager.
“Hmm, monkey.. monkey..”, she said as she browsed through the three different kinds of necklaces looking for one with a monkey on it. she found it presently but it wasn’t the design she liked. there were three types, rectangular, heart-shaped, and acorn-shaped. the first one being masculine while the last two “for girls”.
She asked the Chinese lady behind the stall if she had any rectangular Monkey necklaces. The conversation switched to Chinese, Mandarin or Cantonese i do not know, and both of them started lifting the cases looking for what she wanted.
I looked around, cursed the heat again, and fiddled with some of the pretty handstraps that were also on display. I thought about sneaking away and getting the bracelet she was looking at only a few minutes earlier but decided not to. She had said something about it not being worth the price it was being sold at. Women always seem to know where to get the same stuff cheaper.
Besides, she had already refused to let me get anything, not even the $2 hand-painted picture. I guess it was the principle of the thing, “This is a Chinese Festival so i should give you something.. give you some Chinese Culture.”
Few minutes later the duo decided that they were not going to find what they were looking for.
“There are no Monkey ones left in this shape. How about these two ? Which one do you like ? The heart-shaped is too girlish but the other one is alright.”
I, naturally, opted for the acorn-shaped one. But then she picked up the Dragon necklace, rectangular-shaped.
“How about this one ? It’s a Dragon yeah but Dragon should be fine for anyone.”
“Oh, you’re right. Besides, Dragons are cool.” // geez.. * smacks head *
So now we had three necklaces, two Monkey ones and one Dragon, and i had to choose one. I decided to go with the Dragon.
She picked up the small box, opened it up, and took a closer look at the thing. The Chinese characters to the right of the Dragon had faded out. She picked up another similar necklace but it had some sort of a blemish on it.
Another Chinese conversation during which the shopkeepers tried to convince her that the necklace is not damaged and the blemish is negligible. But damaged goods are damaged goods. And so i got this one :
domo arigato gozaimasu
In other news, it takes 2 hours to bike from my house to dooh’s house, 1 hour and a half to bike to downtown ottawa, 30 minutes to bike to Merivale/Baseline, and 20 minutes to bike down to kelly’s house. double-sawari on my bike is not hard at all.
Everything is set for Toronto RoadTrip #2. We depart on the 28th.
Fundraiser for victims of war [ “which war was it ?” ] had eXcellent samosas. Also, apparently the simpler the noodles the better they taste. I *think* i’m getting better at using chopsticks.. i should buy a pair and practice. I had a new window installed Saturday morning.
shackBooks, emotenation, authentication, and some sort of a message board are on hold for the time being >:(
But now i will start reading the assigned texts.. and do some more reading.. and a bit more reading.. and did i mention i have some reading to do ?
