When I boarded the 35 bus, it was extremely crowded. Forget about finding a seat, you were lucky to find a handrail to grab. I found myself next to a group of young people, about 3 girls and 3 guys, and their behavior was a bit unruly. In fact, they seemed to be arguing, and getting physical, pushing and shoving and doing other things that didn't look so nice. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could, but then one of the guys started to get the upper hand, and he seemed to be enjoying the pain he was causing.
Now, I was raised to be a gentleman, and a gentleman comes to the aid of a lady in distress. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I was pretty sure it wasn't appropriate. I didn't know what else to do, so I hit the guy with my open hand, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to get his attention.
"Knock it off," I said. The guy seemed to be ready to go after me instead, but he was restrained, either by his friend, or by the trouble he would get into if he hurt a foreigner, I'm still not sure. "Calm down," I said, with appropriate hand motions. That seemed to be understood better.
"Just a joke," he said. "Only joking." Now, I know Koreans will hit and shove and get pretty rough, all in good fun. I wasn't sure about Chinese. But, the young lady didn't seem to think it was very funny.
Then, another young man and woman in the group started to get physical. "Hey, get a room," I scolded. Then, I realized that the young lady was not a willing participant in the interaction. When she was released, she was very upset, and started yelling at the first guy, and then she took out a phone, and a bus card, and shoved them angrily at the first guy. I interpreted it as some kind of breakup. Here, take your phone and bus card back.
Two of the young ladies were carrying flowers, dyed carnations individually wrapped, about half a dozen each. After a little while, the second lady (the one who had handed back the phone and bus card) took one of her flowers and handed it to me. I wasn't quite sure how to respond, so I just said "Xie xie," which means "Thank you" in Mandarin.
A Chinese brother from the fellowship had apparently boarded the bus after me. He made his way to where I was, carrying his Bible, in time to greet me before witnessing the gift of the flower. He offered to be my interpreter if I wanted to say something to the girl. Since I wasn't interested in starting a relationship under such circumstances, I declined.
After I got off at my stop, I reflected on how odd that was. The young lady simply handed me a flower, without a word. (Of course, she might not have been able to speak much English, although most of the younger generation at least speaks some.) I should have asked the brother to ask the young lady why she gave me the flower, what (if anything) it meant. But, I didn't think of it in time. So, I'm left with this flower,
and without an adequate explanation of why I have it. I will leave it on the table for my friend tomorrow, and tell her the story over supper. Maybe she'll find it amusing, and maybe she'll have an explanation for me. Maybe it'll just be something to talk about.
Knitting
I'm done binding off the brown cardigan, and it looks good. I'll get some pictures later, when I have time and good lighting. I'm not going to model it, I'd ruin it with my sweat. (It's that hot and humid out.) My Chinese friend will be traveling this weekend, some kind of company-arranged leisure trip, so I'll wait on the button shopping until later when she can come. Haven't started the face ribbing for the helmetliner yet. And, I'm waiting on needles in a care package before I start my next project. I also want to take a Chinese friend when I go to buy yarn, to make sure I get 100% wool. It will be a felted project.
Prayer Requests
I'm very happy to be making friends outside of work. One friend in particular, a Chinese girl I'll call A., seems happy to spend time with me, and the feeling is mutual. Please pray for this relationship.
That's all for now. I've got to go supervise an exam. Thanks for reading, and thanks for praying. God bless.
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