Sour Breasts

Monday December 15, 2008

Sour Breasts

Today I headed out to Carrefour the large grocery store about 40 minute drive through the city. The store is located in Shanghai and is probably only 15 mile away but the traffic is terrible hence the 40 minute drive.

My driver Jason (aka Mr. Gu) is learning English and he and I have agreed to teach each other. His English surpasses my nonexistent Chinese but we are both game and having a good attitude about the whole communication thing. Mr. Gu dropped me off for shopping and we agreed that he would pick me up in 2 hours. Two hours was not nearly enough – it’s so confusing this shopping business. Different floors for different items pay as you leave each floor. And who can find anything, forget that it is in Chinese. I managed to get 70% of the items on my list and all in all it was a good experience although I was very tired at the end. Mr. Gu happily put my bags in the car and noticed my purchases. He was trying to make conversation by saying: oh you bought eggs, and sour. Sour? Soup? I replied No no?

Mr. Gu has a wonderful little phone which has a dictionary translator function. He can type in a word in Chinese and it will show him the English or visa versa. So he typed in his Chinese words and showed me the screen – sour breasts, you bought sour breasts. So I said breasts ? and pointed to my chest. He said oh no sorry sorry. I thought about this sour breasts word and said Yogurt? Bingo! Sour Breasts in Chinese = Yogurt in English! And yes there was yogurt in my bag, I could not stop laughing!

I am going to have a very good time here in Shanghai!