Mei guo ren

That's how you say "American" in Chinese. I'm finding that saying "hello" and "thank you" in Chinese just reinforces the impression that I AM Chinese, which is to my complete disadvantage...because then they continue to speak to me in Chinese and, when I can't understand them, they apparently think i'm a "mountain person".



Last night, Josh and I went to the gym in the hotel. After working out, I decided to go to the steam room. I ran into an attendant in the locker room whom I greeted in Chinese. She helped me set up the steam room, and then we had a weird exchange about me needing a locker - but then I was off to relax in the steam. Steaming is kind of boring, so after a few minutes I headed back to my locker. On the way I passed the oxygen room, which sounded intriguing, so I tried to get in. I was pushing all of these buttons to open the door which eventually called the attendant again. She politely opened the door, escorted me to a reclined chair, put an oxygen mask on my face, turned "I believe I can fly..." on the stereo, dimmed the lights and left. I hadn't intended on having an...oxygen treatment?...I just wanted to check out the room, but I sat and relaxed for about 10 minutes, and then decided to go. The attendant was right outside the room folding towels when I opened the door. She smiled and started speaking to me in Chinese while escorting me back to my chair in the room. She had me sit down and put a towel over me seeming to tell me that my treatment wasn't over. I sat there for 10 more minutes thinking i was supposed to wait for her to come tell me when to leave. She finally came in with a notebook, and on one of the pages she had written something in Chinese using English letters. I had no idea what it said, but I looked at it for a minute, then shook my head signaling that I didn't know what she was trying to tell me. She laughed, then kind of hunched over like she was unsure how to tell me whatever she was trying to tell me, and then she left. I decided to leave.



Josh was waiting for me in the lobby. He said he was waiting for me for a while, and was listening to staff talk about the girl in the locker room that they couldn't understand. "Is she a mountain person?!" I think they finally figured out I was an American, but the little bit of Chinese I was using must've confused them.



Josh said that Chinese people will sometimes write down Chinese if they can't understand each other's dialects, because the written language is always the same.


Being from Colorado, I actually am kind of a mountain person... ;)
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