Christmas-ish

12.26.2009

A Christmas for the books, indeed.

Gareth had to make a last minute trip home, so my plans were up in the air. Luckily the lovely Jenea was coming into town, and her boyfriend was also back in Europe for the holidays. We ended up spending Christmas Eve at Adam & Megan's, along with another couple who works for Wall Street. We ate a few goodies and talked about all things China, all things teaching English, traveling, current affairs... etc. It was good conversation, good wine, and good times.

We let our good times go on a little too long, though-- Jenea and I were headed home around 4 am. Then, deciding we were hungry (for breakfast?) we [*cough* Jenea] decided to order Mickey D's for delivery. [Yes, China has 24-hour McDelivery, complete with an English hotline.] This is where the night took a turn for the worse....

The delivery showed up, but was completely wrong. So two tipsy girls that speak little Chinese when sober were trying to explain to a McD's delivery man who spoke no English that the order was wrong and we didn't want to pay.

I was pointing at the receipt, which was all in Chinese, saying:

"Zhe shi Kole ma?" (This is Cola?)

"Zhe shi tudou ma?" (This is potato?) [closest I could get to french fries]

"Zhe shi ji ma?" (This is chicken?) [McNuggets]

"Zhe shi shenma?" (What's this?)

To the first 3 questions, he confirmed. To the last question he said something I didn't understand, but then it hit me.

"Zhe shi ni ma?" (This is you?) [closest I could get to 'delivery charge']

At that last question we both laughed, but it quickly stopped being funny after that. After about 4 phone calls back to Mickey D's between us and him, we finally settled on paying a lower price for the wrong order. The last thing we wanted was for this poor guy to have to get in trouble (it clearly wasn't his fault) but we also didn't feel we should pay some giant stupid corporation for something that was clearly wrong.

So, at 6 am on Christmas morning, when children should be racing to the Christmas tree to see what Santa brought, I was banging my head on the kitchen counter saying, "I don't caaaaaaaaaaaare! I just want to go to bed!"--in both Chinese and English-- with a confused McDelivery man in the living room and a livid Jenea on the phone.

Definitely a Christmas morning I will never forget.