Teacher, you must be hungry!

Two chicken sandwiches in one day ... in China! What! I don't believe it!

Today I stayed working late at the office. I was preparing lessons plans for next week's classes. At 7:00 pm I realized I'd forgotten to stop for supper. (Generally the students all eat supper 5:00-5:30 pm, after then they are back in their classrooms to study until about 10:00 pm). Walking back to our dormitory I debated with myself if I should take the time to make supper (I had some tortillas I could fry to make burritos, but the process would have taken at least 40 minutes to make one burrito) or if I would get something dou bao (to go) from the cafeteria. It is rare to see someone eating alone here.

I settled on this little chicken sandwich shop that had pictures of chicken sandwiches and smile potatoes.

Do you remember these? 

I've seen these more than once at western style restaurants. Frankly they make me feel like a child, but sometimes giving your food ketchup beards or ketchup mohawks is fun!

How to order food in China when you have an extremely limited Chinese vocabulary: 

1.  "Ni hao! Wo yao (I want) <insert stretching to point to a picture of a dish that is on the wall>" The ordering process is successful when they ask you to give them money or they say the dish and you answer with nodding and a, "Dui, dui (yes, yes)". 
2. The process becomes confusing when they start asking questions. Generally, these questions are asking something simple. They're not asking you to explain deep, theoretical concepts. They're asking you: "ketchup or no ketchup?"and "pepsi or hot milk?" or maybe "what is your job?" If you can understand a word in the question, go ahead and attempt a response. However, when the words in the questions surpass your Chinese vocabulary (they often will), proceed to Step 3.
3. Respond by standing dumbfounded, with a slightly panicked, extremely apologetic, shoulders shrugged, troubled look as you say, "wo ting bu dong, doy bu qi."
4. This will result in the questioner giving you an apologetic smile. Or, it may result in them being visibly annoyed and under their breath, but still definitely audible, sighing and complaining about how the foreigner doesn't speak Chinese. 

Tonight, ordering my chicken sandwich the cook chose the later. I always feel bad when I can't communicate. I feel guilty that I don't speak Chinese. I was so grateful for the random Chinese girl who was willing to share her English and Chinese skills to help me answer the man's question ("No, I don't want black or white hot milk." - was the answer to the question). After establishing that we were both eating alone tonight, we decided we'd eat alone together. I had a fun time getting to know Karen!

But, Lora, you said you had chicken sandwiches twice! Why yes I did! 

A student had missed my invite to supper earlier. After asking if I was in my room and establishing that I was not sleeping, he called to tell me he had purchased drinks for his other foreign teacher and me. He wanted us to come pick them up. Only he'd bought more than just drinks. He bought us each complete meals (chicken sandwiches, popcorn chicken and hot milk). We told him, "Tracey, you didn't have to do this." His response, "I know you work very hard. I thought maybe you are hungry."

Thank you Tracey! How thoughtful!