Taxi Cab Adeventures

So I want to tell you about the many interesting conversations I have had with Taxi drivers.

Early on I was in the taxi and he asked where I am from. I told him I was American. He said something that sounded like oh I thought you were French and then listed off a couple other nationalities that I couldn't remember the English translation for. He tried to keep talking but I said I didn't understand.

The next crazy cab adventure I had which I had to tell everyone about. So I caught a Taxi near the school. He asked me if I was American. Then he asked me if I was a teacher. I said yes. He asked if I taught at Tian yi. I told him yes. Then he asked if I was an english teacher. I said I taught Calculus. He didn't know that word. I said the word for math, but I think I got the tone wrong. The next thing I know he asks me if I have a boyfriend. I say no. He asks why. I tell him it is because I am busy working. He tries to ask me how old I am and I didn't understand. He wrote down the year he was born and used his hand to show me that is when he started growing. So I wrote down when I was born. He was a couple years older than me. Then I think after that he asks me how much money I made. At least I think that is what he asked me. Later he takes a picture of me. Then he takes a picture of both of us. He says I look pretty and I nod my head. Then he shows me a picture of his son. I say oh how pretty. Then he is oh you understand what pretty means. It was crazy. This was all done in my little Chinese and hand gestures. I was pretty proud of my Chinese after this.

Another time the taxi driver asked me if I was American and said that Americans are very pretty. I think he said he can tell who is American because they are very pretty. Then he asked me what I did for work. Then he asked me what I taught. I told him math and he didn't understand. I said one and one is two. Then he understood. I guess I got the tone wrong for the word for math. After that I think he was trying to ask me what type of math I taught after that, but I couldn't really follow. He also mentioned something about Obama. A lot of taxi drivers mention his name after I say I am American. I don't know what they say around that though. I have also heard that they like america.

I just remembered another taxi ride where the guy said he really liked America. Then later he offered me a cigarette. I tried to refuse, but he didn't get it. So to be polite I smoked the cigarette. This trip was my first time to a certain restaurant. So I didn't know exactly know where it was. The taxi driver didn't exactly know where it was either. He stopped and asked a near by police officer. I knew enough Chinese he was making fun of me.

Another taxi ride I took with three other teachers the driver seemed to be shocked to get four white customers. He seemed just beside himself. I was deleting messages on my phone at the time. He was going on in Chinese. He kept asking where we were from. So finally I told him I was American. Then he was like what about them. I was like they are American too. Then he kept carrying on and I couldn't understand. He was so excited that he almost missed the turn back to where we lived. We had to give him directions.

Another note on taxi's is that I am constantly having people offering me rides. They see a white person and think I must need a taxi. Although often I am just crossing the street or I know where I am walking.

However this is a benefit when I am walking looking for a taxi. I like that sometimes they hail me down and not the other way around.

I have learned catching a taxi in downtown Wuxi after 5pm takes forever.

However if you are not traveling to far, like say a few blocks, then you can take a three wheel little car thing. I take it from the grocery store back to my apartment especially when I have lots of stuff. It always costs 5 yuan which is less than a dollar. It is a definite experience. I will post a picture when I get a chance.

So those are my Taxi cab adventures. All of these stories makes me proud of what little Chinese I have. I think it also impresses the taxi drivers sometimes because most foreigners don't know Chinese. I practice my Chinese the most with Taxi drivers because none of them can speak English. Well one taxi driver called it American speak. You see the Chinese use the words ying wen（偀文） for English. The ying（偀） is used to refer to Britain and the wen（文） means language. So the Chinese named English after the British. However this taxi driver said mei guo hua（美国話）. Mei guo（美国） means america and hua（話） means dialect.

Alright more Taxi adventures and Taxi pictures to come.