Luck!

My Middle School English class begins with The Pearl. For those of you who haven't read The Pearl, it is the story written by John Steinbeck about a poor indigenous Mexican pearl diver who finds the greatest pearl the world has ever known. But his joy quickly fades as his lucky break soon turns against him and he finds himself hunted and life shattered. It is less than 100 pages and I highly recommend it as a case study in lingering effects of colonialism and a riveting story.

My first assignment related to the book was for students to write for 5 minutes about something lucky that has happened to them or something lucky that could happen. I participated as well and wrote about my experience 2 days ago. Here it is:

"You must get the photos by tomorrow!" I'm getting used to this. Everything is urgent here. But don't expect an early notification. Just know that it had better be done by tomorrow.

So it is after work, we had a meeting and it is around 6 PM. The bus drops me off at a mall that is pedestrian by Chinese standards but dwarfs the puny likes of a Pioneer Courthouse Square. I have two things on my mind: I must buy passport photos and floss. Floss is near impossible to find in China. Large supermarkets have an entire isle of toothpaste selection but, bafflingly, floss is no where to be found and I've had a piece of meat between my back teeth for 3 days now. If you come to China bring floss!

It is not easy to find a photo booth when you don't speak the native language. Shanghai is very international, still, English often fails me hear and leaves me wishing I would have studied a little before moving here. So to make a long adventure short I finally gather that there used to a photo booth in the subway station under the mall. Unfortunately they removed it for the Olympics. Hmmmm... Apparently there is some latent danger in Photo booths that I don't understand. It is now 8:30. Yes, it took me two hours of trekking around the 9 floors of this mall and the subway station underneath to finally uncover that photo booths are contrary to the spirit of the Olympics. The good news, I see on the elevator that there is a dental clinic on level 6! I drop by and immediately go the restroom and remove the offending bit of food from between my molars.

Then I ponder a bit. Are the photos really that important? I'll call the Fanny, the young woman in charge of my visa and see how urgent this is. Her response, "You need photos NOW!" Well, that clears that up. She's going to call me back. When she does, it is to tell me that Tina, her colleague is coming by to pick me up. At 8:30 on a tuesday? I'm imagining and American leaving the house to help a Chinese person from their work get photos at 8:30 and laughing to myself. Sure enough, Tina and her boyfriend come pick me up, pulling over to block the busiest bike line at the busiest intersection I've ever seen.

By now the photo shops have closed but Tina and her boyfriend are both furiously dialing their phones. Somehow they get a closed Kodak shop to reopen. We park on the sidewalk, blocking all pedestrians (this is legal I'm told.) I get my photo taken and it is decided: we are all going out to dinner together, we are going to eat hot pot, where each person gets their own bowl of boiling broth into which they can drop whatever food they wish. We meet three friends of Tina's and the food starts arriving, normal at first, chunks of beef, vegetables and it is all quite yummy. Then come spoons that are covered with some sort of seafood pate. Well alright, I'm in a strange land, pass the pate. Plus my companions keep assuring me, "very delicious." They assure me yet again when the bowl of bone marrow arrives and they drop it in my soup. And again as the drop live shrimp from a bowl in the middle of our table into my soup. Quite surprisingly it is all "very delicious," it helps that we were in a very fancy restaurant. Besides the thought of flossing afterward is already bringing me joy. We finish off dinner with the always entertaining game of teach me how to swear in your language. Sonofbitch is always funny!

As we get up to leave and I ask about the bill. Somehow through the miracle of not knowing the language my new friends have managed to pay without me witnessing a bill or cash or a credit card of some nature. I'm very confused but I try to pay the bill and they all insist that I'm their guest. I'm blown away again. I think again of someone in America being asked to take someone from their work out to get photos long after office hours ended and instead of being angry taking that person out to dinner and paying the bill! It is hard to imagine.

When I get home I reflect upon my Tuesday night and I feel pretty darn lucky. I cap it off with a nice long tooth brushing and a thorough floss!