October 13, 2010
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I’m a confused mess. I walk into to a place to order food, I pay at the counter, then they bring the food to me. There are no trash cans, then they come by and pick up my plates. They ask me if I need ketchup. They ask me if I want more breadsticks.
There are hamburger places that do this, former yogurt store turned Asian dessert cafes, italian places… These restaurants look very fast foody. They make you pay first, but offer you service, like a waitress at a Vegas buffet.
Do you encounter this in other states or is this only a California thing? Am I supposed to tip?
I’m really overwhelmed with my Shanghai photos. I’m almost done transferring the 1500 photos off of my camera. There are a lot, but I can’t say a lot are good. Half are of the World Expo. I don’t even know where I should start when organizing my thoughts into blog form.
Including the connectors, I had four flights to and from China. On my first three flights, I sat next to old men. BUST. The last 13 hour flight and I sat next to a girl, but she looked really young. I didn’t talk to her the whole flight. The flight left Incheon, the girl busted out a 10 inch fold out mirror from her purse to just admire her hair. 10 inches! I thought, “High maintenance Korean FOB! Ha ha ha…”
After watching movies, eating, sleeping, we finally talked the final hour of the flight. Ends up she’s Japanese from Osaka, coming to study English in the US for a year. And she knows NO ONE. As with many people from overseas, her English speaking skills were not the greatest (good for a FOB), but her reading comprehension was much higher. I found out she was going to be in Irvine, which is near me, so I offered up a list of some Japanese restaurants and stores and gave her my email address in case she had any questions about California or ever craved Japanese food.
She emailed, so this past weekend I took her to the Japanese market, let her hunt down some Japanese/English study books, and to run some other errands and to show her the stores and restaurants around her neighborhood. She’s super cute, very sweet, but before you think anything, she’s way too young… she’s 21!
When I was on the plane, all I could think was how crazy that was, to move to a country where you don’t know anyone, and you’re going to rent and live in a house with a white family and kids with no car in Orange County. She’s quite an adventurer. The bus system sucks so bad here that it takes an hour to go 10 miles, but she’s taken it to the major malls already. Anyhow, I just didn’t want her to feel totally lost in SoCal. Yay, now I have a friend in Osaka! I think it’s the greatest thing, making friends from around the world.
I don’t know what kind of water I’ve been drinking, but the past month I’ve twice spent the day with different 21 year old girls. Both were beautiful and sweet. You’ll have to wait for the Shanghai posts to see the second one. It’s not by intention or with any ulterior motive, sometimes my life is just random like that.
Where’s the most random place that you’ve met and made new friends with?
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Comments (2)
Yeah I don’t get the whole order your food at a counter thing and then they have someone clean your table…just make it one way or the other. I usually just end up giving my change into the tip jar in these cases.
As for the most random place I’ve met and made friends…that would be xanga, haha!
Can’t wait to see the Shanghai pics.
hey, is she a student at uci extension? there’s a conversation club on campus for japanese students run by a friend of mine… let me know if she might be interested!