Something Beautiful

Today, I had something really awesome happen to me. I was packing up my tripod in a little gazebo/pagoda thing inside Yuyuan Gongyuan (a park), and from below, a little boy put his hands on the railing and we had the following conversation.

Boy: Hei, ni gan ma? (Hey, what are you doing?)
Me: Zhaopian a. Ni ne? Ni gan ma? (Taking picture. And you? What
are you doing?)
Boy: Chi dongxi ::smile:: (Eating stuff)
Me: A, zhen de? Shen me dongxi a? (Oh yeah? What are you eating?)
Boy: Qiaokeli ::bigger smile:: (Chocolate)
Me: Ai, ni xihuan qiaokeli ma? (Oh, do you like chocolate?)
Boy: Hen xihuan a! (I like it alot!)

Then his mother called him back over. He turned, waved, and smiled at me. This was a wonderful experience for me. This kid came and looked at me for about 10 seconds, and just spoke Chinese to me. He didn't hesitate like I couldn't do it. If kids don't understand your Chinese, you know it immediately, and we had no problems communicating. I talked to this kid like I'd talk to one in English.

It's not really a big thing that happened, but it made me feel really good. I totally wanted to hug that kid.

Meanwhile, because I'm tired at the ends of my days, I'm posting my photos on flickr and not taking the time to html code them into my blog. I apologize for my laziness, and there's a good chance that I will come and edit these posts at some point to make the whole thing more cohesive with the photos. Until then, however, keep up with things visually...

...by clicking on this link.