This Woman
THIS WOMAN couldn't wait the three seconds for us to walk out of earshot before she bragged about how much she charged us for a coconut!
It was our first coconut, so we didn't know what price to expect. We handed over the 5 RMB (more than 50 cents) and turned to stroll away sipping sweet coconut milk. Just as we turned our backs I heard her exclaim, "Five RMB!!!" (in the same tone one uses to exclaim, "Suckerzz!!") to the pineapple guy. At that moment I turned and saw her face---she looked pretty satisfied with herself.
I heard a loud "tsk!" come out of my mouth. She looked over at me and instantly morphed into a 9-year-old girl about to get into trouble. I didn't say anything more, I just raised my finger--mouth still hanging open-- and pointed at her before I turned to walk away. Of course a minute later, a winning comeback came to me!
Boy am I ready for the next time!
It was our first coconut, so we didn't know what price to expect. We handed over the 5 RMB (more than 50 cents) and turned to stroll away sipping sweet coconut milk. Just as we turned our backs I heard her exclaim, "Five RMB!!!" (in the same tone one uses to exclaim, "Suckerzz!!") to the pineapple guy. At that moment I turned and saw her face---she looked pretty satisfied with herself.
I heard a loud "tsk!" come out of my mouth. She looked over at me and instantly morphed into a 9-year-old girl about to get into trouble. I didn't say anything more, I just raised my finger--mouth still hanging open-- and pointed at her before I turned to walk away. Of course a minute later, a winning comeback came to me!
Boy am I ready for the next time!
posted by B | 2:18 AM
1 Comments:
I would think of it not so much as her bragging, but rather her being extremely pleased that she made, with one set of customers, what it would likely otherwise have taken her a good four or five hours (at least) to make. Alternatively, you could think of it in terms of the number of street lunches she will, in turn, be able to buy for herself (her kids?) for the next week or so. Don't forget that, howevermuch it seems as though it isn't on a day-to-day basis, you're in a communist country. It might not be so much that she was charging 5 RMB for the coconuts because she thought she could get it from Waiguoren, but that you paid 5 RMB for coconuts because you could afford to. You know your budget while you're there. Did a fiver for a coconut seem too high? If so, don't pay it. If it didn't until you overheard the lady's reaction, then it probably wasn't too high. After all, not a whole lot of Westerners get the opportunity to drink coconut milk straight from the coconut while they walk down the street in an Asian city as complex as Jinan, and there are fewer of us still who get the opportunity to write about it on a blog for the equivalent of about seventy cents, US.
As I recall, about three years ago the going rate for a glass of Pepsi at the TGI Friday's in Beijing was 12 RMB, of which I'd bet about 1 mao goes to the waiter that served it to you. Who's more deserving of the "tsk:" street-vendor lady and her coconut drink, or Fridays?
Of course, if she made her remark in a condescending sorta way, I find that returning the next day and dropping 20 RMB or so into the can of the one-legged guy playing the erhu next to her cart, then throwing her a wink does the trick.
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