Silly moments to share?

[Catherineli]

Hi you guys, we all went through some culture shock. Some of the silly moments are never-to--be-forgotten. Would you like to share some of yours? Laughter is the best medicine! Here is mine. I hope you like it and I also hope you point out some language mistakes for me while reading my Chinese accent. Have a good weekend!

 

First Visit to Wal-Mart

 

Wal-Mart is a chain store well known to everyone. I am a regular customer to Wal-Mart in China. So the next day after I arrived at OK, I visited the famous Wal-Mart. This patronizing did impress me differently either on the local weather or Wal-Mart.

Walking outside, I felt very warm and simultaneously I saw many women dressing themselves in short sleeves or skirt with their white legs stretching out as if they were enjoying summer “cool”. This was showing me the local weather. It was much warmer than my hometown Changchun at this season. There was no need for a winter coat, not even a light coat. I realized that I was finally relieved /released from the frozen weather of northeast of China. I did not have to worry about my face being frostbitten anymore!

Now a word “large” comes to my mind that I like to use to describe the American Wal-Mart. As soon as I entered Wal-Mart, I needed to answer the nature’s call. The restroom was not dirty, but it was not clean either. It provided different pieces of papers for different uses. There was a oval-shaped paper, cut, ready in a stainless built-in box. Obviously the bowl- shaped paper was supposed for me to put on the bowl to sit down. Okie dokie, I did. But when sitting down, I suddenly found myself so short and so small. My feet can’t reach the floor!! The toilet bowl was also too big for me. I never realized I had been this petite. But I was so glad that I did not fall into the toilet. Later I found out that there were different sizes of bathroom toilets. I picked a bigger one. After the bathroom adventure, I bought some underwear for myself that was turned out to be too large too.

The next job was to visit the vegetable market. There were many kinds of vegetables that I could not name. I felt myself entering into a “color world”, the different colored vegetables: green beans, red tomatoes, crimson turnips, purple eggplant, and white cabbage! The first sight of these exotic vegetables made me like a countryside woman coming into another countryside. At the Wal-Mart I picked a bag of baby carrot. It had been my first time to see such small carrots. Pretty soon, some white round large products attracted my attention. They were smooth and shining. Automatically I thought that must be some kind of melon. “Large” was America in me. The bathroom bowl was large. The people were large, so the melon must have been large too. Guess what? That round large thing was frozen TURKEY!! This was the Thanksgiving season with turkey on market.

The prices of food products were not higher or even cheaper than the counterparts in China, I felt.

The customers looked foreign to me. Some of them, men or women were very tall with big nose and different length of curling or straight non-black hair. Some of them were not so tall with different body weight. One thing was certain that all of them were very polite and friendly to strangers though they looked different from me. Some of the customers exchanged small greetings to me by saying “hello”, or by a little gesture or smiling. Everyone made special efforts to make room for other people pass if in the way. When I was trying to buy myself a pair of pantyhose with no idea of my size, a woman cashier called a shop girl right away to come to help me. She talked to me very patiently in clear English. I liked her at once. None of the shop girls wore uniforms, which made them as common as me, approachable. Again I am grateful that I speak English, which made the communication no problem.

 

 

 

[Catherineli]

My Silly moments (2)

On August 2, 2013 I was at Denver Airport waiting to transfer to Boise City. As I had a layover of one hour, I was looking here and there taking advantage of the time to do some window shopping. Then my eyes turned to an open room where some people were sitting on benches drinking something. “Is that room a drinking bar?” I had never seen a bar in U.S. At the same time, a long beard man who was sitting at the entrance caught my attention. “His beard is so cute! If only I could have a picture with him!” I thought aloud. Standing quietly by him without saying anything, I looked very much silly, I guess. Having a look at me, a waitress smiled at the long beard man telling him that I needed to take a picture with him. Without hesitation, the man turned his body toward me.

“Hello, can I take a picture with you? I like your long beard,” I was trying to have an excuse with him.

“Sure, please,” he was amiable.

“Oh, thank you. I’m from China. Everything is new and fresh to me here.” I talked slowly trying to be understood.

“China! How nice! I’m going to China to play.”

“Play? What do you do please?” I asked but with no interest in his job.

“I’m a musician,” the long beard man answered me this way.

“Musician! I have a friend who is also a musician. His name is John Paul Riger. Have you heard of him?”

“Yes, he is a good musician,” he seemed to like the musician John Riger.

“Yea, he is. Does he know you?” I was implying or assuming they might have been good friends. I was also a little excited mentioning another musician of whom we both knew.

Looking a little different, the long beard man seemed very serious with me replying,

“I think so.”

After our picture was taken, “I shouldn’t spend too much time with a stranger or any man.” I told myself with a self protecting sense. Within a minute, I ran away from him.

 

Later I shared my picture with the long beard man to some friends. Guess what? I was told the man was Billy Gibbons, the internationally famous guitarist and lead singer from the band “ZZ Top”!

 

 

[mikeymark]

I love reading about your experiences here in America. My wife also enjoyed reading your story and she can relate to your Changchun cold. She is also from Changchun and lived near FAW.

[Catherineli]

That sounds sooooooo good!! Please say hi to your wife. She is my sister!!! I'm still at Changchun now waiting to retire next year so I'll move to USA for good. I have permanent green card. have a good weekend!

[warpedbored]

Yes I like these stories. Please tell us more.

[Steve in USA]

Very funny Catherineli.

 

More please.

[Mick]

Love your stories. How great it must have been to meet Billy Gibbons. Reminds me of a story Phil Robertson tells in his book "Happy Happy Happy." Phil Robertson is the head of the family that stars on the popular A&E TV series Duck Dynasty. Phil also has a long beard and one day he was in a Wal-Mart and folks recognized him and were asking him for his autograph. He obliged and was signing things when two African-American girls approached him for an autograph.

 

"I didn't know you soul sisters were into duck hunting," said Robertson.

 

"I don't know nothin' about no ducks," said one of the girls. "You're in ZZ Top ain't ya?"

[Thomas Promise]

Here in the USA Cathernli Walmart takes a lot of hard hit bad jokes. In China Walmart is held as a middle to upper middle class store. But not here.

[Catherineli]

Yes Mr. Thomas Promise, I've heard of something about Wal-Mart in USA, monoplizing the market among them. So sad.

Hey, I'm glad, you guys Mick, Steve, Mike and Warpedbored like me stories and please allow me to use your first name. I'm still hoping some of you point out some langauge mistakes for me that I make when posting or relating my experiences.

 

 

Here is the third story of mine : Horses don't understand my English in accent

It was one sunny afternoon in July 2013. Mr. Ray kindly allowed Grace and me to practice riding his horses. Danny, a white horse was for me on that day. As an indoor city woman, I had never had chances to be close to a horse physically. Now standing by Danny, I felt him so high and intimidating. Danny looked at me with his large round eyes and shook his head with his long mane as if saying, “You dare to touch me, small woman!” Grace, a seven-year-old girl couldn’t wait any longer. She quickly climbed onto her horse. After hesitating for a few minutes, I knew there was a swell of surge rising in me pushing me to mount Danny because my adventurous spirit never allowed me to retreat. First I put my left foot on the dangling stirrup but I found my leg too short for the height until I gave several tries. Finally after I lifted my left leg to the step, I still couldn’t swing my right leg up to Danny’s back. It seemed that my right leg was very heavy. “One! Two! Three!----” heck, I failed again and again. For a few minutes, I only left my one leg higher in the stirrrup and the right leg was standing by its own on the ground. After I finally settled myself sitting in the saddle, I’d not expected that I was more embarrassed. In one hand I gripped the reins, in the other hand I grasped the horn but I couldn’t have the reins control the horse’s walking direction even if I did change the pressure of the bridle that was in his mouth. As a result, I found his gait going faster and faster until I screamed, “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!!!" God knows why Danny did not understand my accentuated English? Who knows if Danny was doing racial discrimination against me? I was yelling and and shrieking with more and more confusing “Whoas.” Mr. Ray was doing something else by now. Finally it was the seven year old girl Grace who came to my rescue. She pulled up the reins for me! How embarrassed I was!

Edited May 24, 2014 by Catherineli (see edit history)

[Catherineli]

By the way, I never ask people's age but today I'm really curious with Thomaspromise, are you really 101 years old or you're kidding? My dream is to live healthily until 105 years old someday.

[Thomas Promise]

By the way, I never ask people's age but today I'm really curious with Thomaspromise, are you really 101 years old or you're kidding? My dream is to live healthily until 105 years old someday.

I have prayed for a long life. One who is afraid of old age is foolish then.

Ps. Never worry about old age it does not last that long.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Thomas Promise (see edit history)

[warpedbored]

You may call me "Carl" Catherine. Your story reminds me of a trip I made to Hawaii. I was at a beach that had a high rock coming up out of the water. It was a popular place for local children to dive off of into the water. It looked like fun so I climbed up to dive off. Once I was up there I realized it was further down than I expected. I was just about to turn around and climb back down when this little girl maybe 8 years old walked past me and dove in. Now me a grown man was embarrassed to be afraid to do something a little girl could do. Reluctantly I walked over to the edge, closed my eyes and jumped in.

 

Since you asked us to correct your English there is a grammar error in your previous post, you said,

 

 

Mr. Ray kindly allowed Grace and me

 

Correct grammar would be, "Grace and I"

[Randy W]

You may call me "Carl" Catherine. Your story reminds me of a trip I made to Hawaii. I was at a beach that had a high rock coming up out of the water. It was a popular place for local children to dive off of into the water. It looked like fun so I climbed up to dive off. Once I was up there I realized it was further down than I expected. I was just about to turn around and climb back down when this little girl maybe 8 years old walked past me and dove in. Now me a grown man was embarrassed to be afraid to do something a little girl could do. Reluctantly I walked over to the edge, closed my eyes and jumped in.

 

Since you asked us to correct your English there is a grammar error in your previous post, you said,

 

 

Mr. Ray kindly allowed Grace and me

 

Correct grammar would be, "Grace and I"

 

 

Un, no! "Mr. Ray allowed Grace and me" is correct.

 

You wouldn't say "Mr. Ray allowed I", but you would say "Mr. Ray allowed me". It's one of those cases (in English) where two different words mean exactly the same thing, but are used in different contexts.

 

"Grace and me" is the direct object - pronouns (e.g., I, we, she, he) change to the objective form (me, us, her, him). "I" changes to "me".

Edited May 24, 2014 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Catherineli]

Thank you Carl, for your sharing but I must apologize to Thomas Promise and I didn't mean to ask you your age in such a public place. I thought I clicked on the "cancel" below after I texted it, and I thought I deleted this stupid question to Handsome Young Thomas. Please forgive me Mr Thomas!! I wish you a forever happy weekend!

[Catherineli]

There was a wide spreading news in 2011 that an American guy who was around 100 years old got visa in Guangzhou to immigrate his Chinese bride after he was denied twice only because of his age. I wonder who knows how he is doing now?

today I'm happy that I learned "Duck Dynasty" from Mick and Carl's diving story encourages m too. I need knowledge about American life.