Eating and talking are two of my very favorite activities. In China, I'm having to learn to embrace dependency even in these two areas!
The last two nights Christina and I have had dinner at one of the student cafeterias. The first night we went with the other team and a student from the university here who had also taken us shopping. We all ordered her favorite dish at this little place-beef curry over rice. It comes in a metal bowl set in a wooden box and was delicious! So last night Christina and I were hungry and set out for food. We decided to go back to the same place but try something different.
I need to learn to read Chinese fast. They hand you a menu you can point at, but no pictures, just a long list of Chinese characters. As we began to attempt to communicate with the girl behind the counter who spoke a tad of English, another girl waiting in line suddenly came to our rescue and helped us order! As we waited for our food (they cook it fresh right there) we chatted with the girl and her friend, ending up eating with them. A first step in a friendship, forged by my inability to communicate, my need to eat, and my new friend's willingness to step up and help us out! (She could have just watched us struggle).
So today, I give thanks for dependency, that I must depend on others around me even for the basics of life, because perhaps that very dependency will result in the friendships that I came to China to form.
