I sweated profusely as I savored the noodles among strangers. My mom and her cousins had to settle somewhere else as there were no more seats available at the table. As soon as the man beside me finished his bowl of noodles, he got up and left his bowl at the table. Am I supposed to do the same? I wondered.
In that exact moment, an old man squeezed onto the bench next to me. He pushed the abandoned bowl of noodles toward the center of the table and began slurping his own bowl of noodles. I tried to eat as quick as I could but it was simply too hot – the weather and the food. I sat back to take a breath but apparently, that was signal for I’m finish because quicker than I could respond, the lady next to me pushed my bowl of noodles to the middle of the table and next thing I knew, the two strangers beside me were sliding toward me, forcing me from my seat at the bench.
I couldn’t believe what had happened to me. Who does that? Forcing someone out of their seat?
Seething, I took my exit to find the others. I was more done with China than I’ve ever been. I no longer want to say I was born in this country. No, not when I had to be associated with such rudeness. What has a country of more than 5,000 years of history turned into? I honestly don’t remember ever encountering such rudeness in my years in China.
We walked around the temple for a bit to see whatever there was left to see. Honestly, I couldn’t see much because of the crowds. Finally, we decided to leave to finally call a taxi to take us to the Big Pants aka air conditioning.
The mall was surprisingly quiet given that it was a Sunday. I wished I had taken a picture of the inside. It was probably the largest shopping complex I’ve been seen. Exhausted and having barely sat down all day, we located the map to try to find a place to sit and rest, except the map was near-impossible to work. I tried to search on my phone but the search engine gave me gibberish results. I believe it’s what happens when I’m using a search engine that is not accessible in China.
We walked floor by floor, stopping outside of each restaurant for my mom to scan the menu, before moving on to the next restaurant. At last, we entered a restaurant – a Hong Kong style cafe. I collapsed onto the booth’s cushioned bench, plugged my phone into the powerbank and fell asleep, until I was woken up soon after when my mom said, “dessert time.”
I was more exhausted than I’ve ever been as I immediately returned to napping upon finishing the dessert my mom ordered for me. If they leave, I trust they’d wake me. However, by the time I woke up, they were still here, talking about this and that. It turned out my mom was waiting for the sunset at around 6 PM.
At around 5:30, after another quick meal at the cafe, we set out for Jinji Lake. At first, I was excited to see the sunset. Maybe I’ll finally have a sunset photo with a cityscape backdrop. But then, I noticed the compass on my watch was pointing east. Sunset was the opposite direction. I pointed it out but no one believed me. “Listen to your mother,” Cousin M said, “she’s always right.”
“You are going to believe her over a compass?” I asked. I adjusted the settings on my watch to make sure the compass was working properly and indeed, it was pointing eastward. Behind me was west, where the sunset was. Still, everyone ignored my questions.
By the time we reached JinJi Lake, night had descended upon us and the building from across the lake had lit up with lights and messages. Well, at least I got to see this.
