Sam is a big help to me, and a good friend. Sam is a busy man, teaching his set of classes and taking care of administrative affairs, let alone taking care of the foreign teachers. To say nothing of the fact that his wife just had a baby and he needs to be there for her and to enjoy his child. And… far be it for me to stereotype, Sam is male and in this culture, men have mostly not been trained on certain essentials like shopping. So, even though he is more than willing to go the extra mile to make my transition into my new life as pain-free as possible, for some things he would rather I forge relationships with my students to help me with.
Thus I made the acquaintance of the Cookie Cutter Girls. They are a group of 6 young women, all students here, three of which are in one of my classes. They have decided to take me under their collective wing and show me around town, help me buy some essentials for my apartment and generally be my friend.
I call them Cookie Cutter Girls because they are all approximately the same size: height, girth and most likely weight. And, they are all absolutely adorable. They are between 18 and 20, and none has ever had a boyfriend. They are completely unfettered by life’s burdens: no love relationships, no jobs, no bills to pay. Their only obligation is to succeed in school and bring honor to their family. They do so with the casual ease only self-assured young women can muster.
I do not use the term ‘girls’ pejoratively. Their manner and disposition is indeed quite girlish. They love to play, and I do mean play: climbing trees, pushing and tickling each other, giggling while pointing at a good-looking boy. They also love to have their picture taken and will gather and pose as soon as the camera is out. Although quite intelligent, they lack a certain worldliness young women with more life experience might have. In the sense that they have, so far at least, been untouched by adult concerns, ‘girl’ seems appropriate.
They each have both a Chinese name and an English one, nevertheless, I have taken the liberty of giving them a name of my own. Allow me to introduce you to my girls:
Zhanni: Her English name is Jenny and she is the ringleader. She was the first to plan an outing and grab my hand while crossing the street (to ensure my safety, not hers – how cute is that?). She makes sure I am properly fed and hydrated by providing me with a constant array of snacks and drinks. She coordinated my birthday surprise (which you’ll read about in another post) and she picked out the gift. I call her my Little Chinese Mommy.
Wen Yu: English name – Lily. She was the first to offer me a gift for Teacher’s Day: a lovely heart-shaped box containing tea. She is the more serious of the group, and more down to earth… although she did insist on having her hair done for our first outing. We had to wait for her to emerge from the salon, but she was absolutely lovely so it was worth the wait. The name ‘Lily’ actually suits her rather well, gracious as she is, but in my mind she is Pinky because she so favors the color pink.
Xue You: English name – Cancy. She had to leave before the outing was over, but she made it a point ask permission by getting her friend on the phone to ask me if I would be offended if she left to celebrate a birthday with another group of friends. The next day she came by to give me a laminated picture of our outing. For this I dubbed her Sweetie Inc.
Fashion Plate: I am ashamed to say that I do not know her Chinese or her English name. But she chose to go on our outing wearing a dainty little blouse, leggings and heels. Oh, the walking we did! How did her feet not hurt?
Shyia: I also do not know her Chinese or her English name. She spoke the least of everyone and was quite shy, but was enthusiastically present in all of the pictures I took. Her nickname is based on her shyness. She stayed close to Dash most of the time.
Dash is one of my students. Her full nickname is 50-Meter Dash, but Dash is good enough. The most petite of the girls, she suffers from motion sickness and can hardly afford to throw up any food she ingests. It took all of her self-control to not throw up on the bus, and as soon as we got off the bus, she stumbled to the nearest place to sit down – a tree border, and rested her queasy stomach. It seems like, throughout the outing, she would rush on ahead about 50 meters, and then rest wherever there was a place to sit. Hence her nickname.
Because these young women are so kind they see to my welfare so enthusiastically, and they come by my apartment frequently, especially my Little Chinese Mommy and Dash. Sometimes they bear gifts and sometimes they just want to check up on me to make sure I’m OK. They will not accept any type of token gift from me or allow me to pay my way for anything.
I guess I will have to ambush them. When they come back from their National Holiday celebration next week, I will invite them out, and present them each with a small gift. There will be nothing they can do about it, but enjoy my sincere appreciation of their sheer girlishness and enjoy the outing. I’ll be sure to have my camera ready for their many poses.
No comments:
Post a Comment