We went out Friday night with JP’s friends once again. The boys were able to play with a couple other boys at the Mahjongg table, then show off their DS’s.
Neither the boys nor I ate much due to an odd assortment of foods on the tables. The two best dishes were too spicy for the boys, so they ended up eating duck and some mantou (steamed buns).
The lady that impressed me last time by playing with the boys, impressed me again tonight by telling her husband to get out of the room when he lit up a cigarette: “Don’t smoke that in here. There are children here.”
She then told us that even their 2-year old daughter fusses at Baba whenever he lights up. “Mommy’s gonna get you for smoking in here!”
I’ve known other people in China that don’t like smoking, but she’s the first I’ve seen that has said something about it to a smoker.
As we were headed to the restaurant, we waited 30 minutes to catch a taxi. A few stopped for us, but because it was “switch-time” (when Driver 1 has to go pick up Driver 2, then Driver 2 takes Driver 1 home) and none of them were headed in our direction, they all said, “No.”
By the time we got to the restaurant, it had started to rain, and I figured there would be no taxis available to take us home when we left. Fortunately, a couple of JP’s friends have cars, so we were driven home in a very nice Buick.
It’s fun watching drivers of nice cars in CZ. They drive incredibly slow and carefully, especially compared to the other lunatic drivers on the road, such as taxi drivers and truck drivers. The guy that drove us home is a policeman, and he was complaining about the chaos on CZ roads, and admiring the sanity of American roads.
Apparently, he’s never been to Jacksonville.